HDMI Video Capture Card Review [BlueAVS]

Capture Cards

Jan 14

This article contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

- What is the HDMI Video Capture Card?
- What’s in the Box
- Specifications
- Price
- Image and Audio Quality
- Limitations
- Verdict

What is the HDMI Video Capture Card?

The BlueAVS capture card is one of the many mysterious HDMI video capture devices that started appearing on Amazon in mid 2020. It functions similarly to an Elgato Cam Link. It accepts an HDMI input and outputs the video and audio directly to a computer’s USB port. This allows it to be used for recording gameplay or turning a DLSR or camcorder into a webcam.

Neither the box, instruction manual, nor the card itself has any actual branding on it besides the HDMI logo. It is unclear who actually manufactures these, but the specific one I orded has a BlueAVS barcode sticker on the back. There are many variations of this device, but this review will focus on the one I linked above.

What’s in the box

hdmi video capture card on brown desk.JPG

The BlueAVS HDMI Video Capture Card comes with:

- a capture card
- an extension cable (8 inches)
- a user manual

You can usually spend a few more bucks to get a much longer extension cable which makes it more convenient to use. The manual has instructions for how to set it up in OBS Studio. Just add it as a Video Capture Device. You can connect a camera to this for use in Zoom. I have my own quick guide on how to set that up.

Specifications

- Max input 4K 30 FPS. (I confirmed 1080p 60 FPS input works)
- Output 1080p 30 FPS.
- USB 2.0 connection. Works in 3.0 ports.
- Supports 8 bit/10 bit/12 bit color range (listed, but this wasn’t true in my case. I’ll talk about this in the HDR section)
- No passthrough functionality. You cannot send footage from your video source lag-free to a different monitor.

Price

I bought the BlueAVS HDMI Video Capture (Amazon) for $19, no joke. I’ve seen it for even cheaper too. Compare that to the Elgato Cam Link that was over $100 on launch. And yet, they do the same thing! Here is the Amazon link to Elgato’s current offering, the Cam Link 4K.

Image and audio quality

Here is some sample footage of how this device performs.

Footage from this device looks similar to the Elgato HD60S which I used to compare directly with this device. However, The HDMI Video Capture appears more compressed and warmer in color. This is hard to see in games, but if the device you’re using already has a lot of grain, this will amplify that.

Canon VIXIA HF R800 BlueAVS HDMI Capture

Limitations

Even though the visuals and audio are impressive for the cost, this device does have a few limitations to consider before picking it up which are:

- frame rate
- latency
- high Dynamic Range (HDR)
- heat

Frame rate

The HDMI Video Capture that I got only outputs 1080p 30 FPS and this could not be changed. Many content creators and people that regularly video conference don’t ever go over 30 FPS. For gamers like myself, I try to record at the highest frame rate whenever possible. This isn’t really detrimental to Zoom use, but watching back 60 FPS gameplay in 30 FPS footage is quite jarring.

Latency

I showed a lot of gameplay because this device is marketed towards games as well as camera users. Unfortunately, this device is NOT good for playing games on. There feels like roughly 100 ms of delay between the time you should be seeing something in game and the time you actually see it in the preview window of your streaming or recording software. This is because the device has to compress and send the footage to your PC in real time through USB connection. It takes a few frames to do that.

Most devices circumvent this issue by adding passthrough functionality. This allows you to play your games lag free by attaching a second HDMI cable to an HDMI out port on the card. This card has no such function, making it a poor choice for gaming on. The footage looks good, but the experience of playing games on it is awful. For very slow paced games like Pokémon, it’s admittedly much harder to notice.

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

Although there is listed support for 8, 10, and 12 bit signals, this device simply did not work with HDR for me. My PS4 Pro and Horizon Zero Dawn both informed me that this “monitor” did not support HDR or the RGB color space.

Heat

This card gets hot. It never occured to me that this could be a problem, but I’ve read a couple isolated instances of individuals having their card stop working. Since it’s a cheap off-brand product you won’t really be able to contact customer support. This is rare and it didn’t affect my device, but the Elgato Cam Link might give you more peace of mind.

Verdict

I recommend the BlueAVS HDMI Capture if:

- you are using it to turn your DSLR or camcorder into a webcam for simple tasks like Zoom.

I do NOT recommend the BlueAVS HDMI Video Capture if:

- you are using it for gaming at all or need 60 FPS or HDR support.

There are many other variants of this card on Amazon, some with passthrough functionality and some with higher frame rate capture capabilities. I’ll be testing and reviewing more of those in the future. If you’re still unsure of what kind of capture card to get, I have a deep dive capture card buyers guide right here.

BlueAVS HDMI Video Capture Card: https://amzn.to/3pJL4WW
Elgato Cam Link 4K: https://amzn.to/393Tkug

BadIntent

I’m a longtime tournament competitor. I’ve won multiple regional championships for games such as Pokémon and Samurai Shodown. I buy and review all the products displayed on this site. No brand deals. No shilling.