In this informal product review, the creator unboxes the Elgato Game Capture device and compares it to the PlayStation 4's built‑in recording. He highlights the physical advantage of a single‑cable setup versus his older HD PVR's tangled cords. The video walks through the HDMI‑in/HDMI‑out connection to a PC, the need to install Elgato software, and a frustrating driver issue that required about 30‑60 minutes of troubleshooting with YouTube tutorials. A crucial step—disabling HDCP in the PS4 system settings—is not mentioned on the Elgato packaging, which the reviewer points out as an oversight. Because the video itself is rendered in 720p (due to an iPhone clip used at the start), the Elgato’s advertised 1080p capability cannot be fully demonstrated, and the PS4 footage would show black bars if rendered at 1080p. Despite these limitations, the reviewer finds the device easy to use, appreciates features like ghost recording, and considers the $180 price worthwhile for the next 7‑8 years of PS4 streaming on YouTube. He concludes with a positive recommendation.
Chapters
What's up guys, I got an Elgato and in this video we're gonna be comparing this thing. Oh wow, this looks sweet. I actually haven't opened it yet. Uh, we're gonna be comparing this Elgato to the built-in recording on the PS4. We're gonna test the quality, everything on YouTube. Supposedly this records in 1080p, the PS4 built-in one only records in 720p. And also, that's my old HD PVR that I used for my 360. Look at all the cords and stuff on that. I can't wait to get rid of all that because this has just one cord. Look at all those cords, like, it's a mess. So I can't wait to get rid of that. Just a quick update, I plugged in my Elgato. Pretty simple, you just put HDMI out, HDMI in, and then a cord going to your computer. So I just cut the audio. This is actually an update from a couple hours later. When I plugged in my Elgato to my computer, I had all the software downloaded, I had everything. The Elgato, like, drivers were having problems, and that took a while to fix. That was a little annoying. I got it fixed, you know, using tutorials on YouTube. I just want to say that's the downside, um, is that took me like 30 minutes to an hour. And if you were on my Twitter, I was really pissed because I don't know, I was just like so excited and it wasn't working. Before I go any further, I need to tell you, if you buy an Elgato, this is not something they say on the packaging, which I don't quite understand. You need to disable HDCP or something. You go into your settings on your PlayStation 4 and then go to System Settings, and then go down until you see HCP something, and uncheck it, because as long as that's checked, your Elgato will not work. And for some reason they don't include that in the Elgato packaging, I don't know. But anyways, I'm gonna cut to Elgato gameplay and have it on the full screen, and then I'll show you the built-in PS4 gameplay on full screen. Now here's the problem with what I'm doing right now. This video's gonna be rendered in 720p because of the iPhone clip I had at the beginning, so this video has to be in 720p. So the Elgato's not gonna shine at its fullest potential because if I wanted to be in the Elgato's quality, I'd render it in 1080p. And if I rendered my PS4 gameplay in 1080p, there'd be black bars. But I can— that, like, you see what I'm saying? So this video isn't an actual, you know, legitimate representation because it's rendered in 720p, not 1080p. Just thought I'd put that out there. But all in all, the Elgato's pretty cool, pretty easy to set up besides the drivers problems. Not that bad, and I like the software, I like everything, pretty easy to use, and it has that ghost recording thing so in case I forget to hit, uh, record. So definitely worth the money for me because I'm gonna be using my PS4 for like the next 7 to 8 years. So even though it was like $180 because I didn't buy it used, I mean, that's nothing for like the amount of time I'm gonna be using it and the amount I'll get out of it through YouTube. So I think it's a great product, I like it now that I've used it for a couple hours. Pretty cool, and that's my opinion on it.
