Magewell XI100D USB3 Dongle HDMI Video Capture Device 

I'm hoping you mean 3 megabits/sec and not kilobits/sec or else the stream really will be dire!!! If you can measure upload rates of ~3Mb/s then you can probably stream at about half that, and at 1.5Mb/s you're in the sort of territory where the video content will very much determine the quality. If it's a well-lit talking head against a static background it can look very good. If it's fast-moving action sports or a music video then the results may be decidedly less so. It's all about how easy it is for the video to be compressed, and lots of things make a difference - movement and detail being two big ones, with an increase in either requiring more bandwidth for a given perceived quality level. A sharply focused subject against a blurred background will work better than a shot where everything's in focus with more detail being included in the background areas. Electronic noise (from the camera sensor) is another contributory factor (to be avoided), as the compression process doesn't really know what parts of the moving image are noise and what parts are the "wanted detail". Hence my mention of a "well-lit" talking head, to avoid electronic gain being used in the camera which also lifts the noise level..

Thanks! Great info. Yes, I meant megabits/sec. It will be a static shot with static background, and me as the only moving subject. I hadn't thought of the extra data generated from noise. I will improve my lighting setup. I won't be able to put enough room between me and my background, so won't be able to blur it (much). But have a fast lens and will shoot wide open.

+nospam276 I don't have any Macs nor do I know what audio source that other reviewer might have been using, but here's what I do know: * The Magewell dongles contain no audio compression hardware, nor do they have a software driver which could compress the audio. * If you feed in 2-channel 48KHz uncompressed audio, as you might get from a professional camcorder, what you will get from the audio device in Windows is 2-channel uncompressed audio, with no change or degradation. Anything that happens after that is down to the software which connects to that audio device (which might indeed mangle the audio in some way, but it's not being done by the dongle). I speak as an audio engineer with a 20yr+ career in broadcast TV.

+dv2broadcast Much appreciated. I've read every word I could find on the web in regards to the Magewell and the audio quality, and found several that knocked it. Obviously, lots of factors go into any person's experience, so based on what you've said, and your cited career experience, I'll put my eggs in your basket and give it a go and purchase. The no driver issue is a no-brainer, and if I can get untouched audio through the device, I'll be a happy camper. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

+nospam276 Ok, I think I figured this out. The XA-30 can do Linear PCM 2 channel with 1080p. From the manual, " for AVCHD movies, when the recording mode is set to 28 Mbps LPCM (59.94P) or 24 Mbps LPCM, you can enjoy two-channel linear PCM audio recording with a sampling frequency of 48 kHz.". So, it sounds like it will do the audio I need as long as I am recording high quality video, which is exactly what I need. Hope I finally got this. To bad I can't take a class from you!

+nospam276 There's one crucial word in what you've written above about different audio modes for your XA-30 camera, and that's RECORDING. What the camera records internally to a file, be it compressed or linear PCM, is NOT necessarily the same as the output over HMDI/SDI - and that goes for video as well as audio. For example, some cameras record 1080p while the HDMI output is 1080i. If your camera is not outputting LPCM (uncompressed) audio in ALL its recording modes, I'll be very surprised.

Marco, The Magewell device does offer resolutions besides 1080p, so the problem appears to be with Resolume not requesting additional resolutions. I don't use Resolume, so I don't know what tools would change its behaviour in this respect. Your best bet is probably to lobby the makers of Resolume to add a better Capture Device Settings option, like you get in Flash Media Encoder, VidBlaster & vMix. Martin

The first question would be whether you are hearing audio from the camera over HDMI when connected to other devices, like a TV/monitor? The next question would be in what form the audio is encoded in the HDMI signal, as the dongle can only decode uncompressed stereo audio, and there are other possible formats. Finally, what are the settings in whatever software you're using for recording - are you selecting the audio input from the HDMI dongle, with a suitable volume level. If you're using Windows, you should be able to see the HDMI audio as one of your Sound Recording Devices, in the control panel which includes level meters for each source, so that you can confirm whether any audio is coming in over the HDMI connection.

Short answer - Yes to both questions. Longer answer - obviously, like any device powered via the USB port, it will draw power from the battery and shorten the running time, in a similar way to having a small USB-powered hard disk attached.

Yes, the Magewell dongles handle interlaced as well as progressive video signals, and you can choose whether the dongle will de-interlace in hardware via the Dongle Helper utility (by default the De-interlace option is ON). I use an Atem TVS as part of my testing setup so have first-hand experience of it.

Thanks ! so let's go to order :) Tks a lot. Chris.

Well, receive it today and test is ok with Atem Television Studio like an input to Vmix. Plug and play, it is ok :) incredible. Will test for long use for next streaming. So Thanks again...

PCs will recognise and allow the use of 2 or more Magewell dongles (eg. by vMix). As for whether the USB3 bus will be overloaded, it depends on various things, including: A) How many USB3 Host Controllers are used, and how much data each can handle (which can depend on the design of the motherboard & USB3 chipset). B) How much data (video & audio) you're trying to send from the dongle(s) over the bus, and that's proportional to the pixel resolution and frame rate. So, for example, you might only be able to handle one stream of 1920x1080 at 50p, but two streams at 25p. If you're using a laptop you may not get as good performance from the USB3 host as on a desktop, as many laptops involve a compromise between performance and battery life/weight. If you're prepared to drop either the framerate or resolution being sent from the dongles over the USB3 bus, you should be able to find a point where you can handle the required number of streams, but this value will be PC-dependent so I can't make a generic prediction.

+Aurel Gergey - What I mean by "setting the device output to 640" is setting the capture resolution in whatever software is accessing the output from the dongle. The dongle driver - that's the default driver supplied in the operating system, not something created by Magewell - responds to requests from the application which connects to it. For example, if you use Magewell's Capture Express and set your recording resolution to 640 x 480, that is what the dongle will supply, with the dongle hardware doing the scaling down (eg. from HD). If the application requests 1280x720 then the dongle sends 1280x720. Same with setting the frame rate. The one problem for users is that not all applications allow the user to set the requested resolution, so the choice is made by the application rather than the user, but thankfully there are plenty that do let you set the resolution and frame rate. > Can I just use it as it is - or will it be jerky and I have to set something? If your software application won't let you set the resolution, and tries to obtain full HD over USB2 then, yes, it will be at a lower frame rate (and therefore jerky if there's lots of movement - but OK for static shots).

+dv2broadcast : Got it, thanks! ...I tried SparkoCam before, it's an easy and intuitive solution, unfortunately the movements are slightly jerky, even when I set my cam to 720-30...

+Aurel Gergey What you set your camera to isn't really relevant - it's the settings in the software at the computer end that will determine whether you get full frame rate over USB2. The bottom line is that USB2 won't handle uncompressed HD, including 720p30, so you don't have USB 3 with it's higher bandwidth then you need to compromise the resolution that you record. Magewell's Capture Express is a free download if you want to try it, and it lets you change the recording/capture settings.

+dv2broadcast Thanks, got the software, will try it later on.

You can use it with programs that interact with video capture devices via the DirectShow standard. Unfortunately Premiere Pro doesn't support DirectShow, but requires capture plug-ins that are specific to Premiere. As a rule of thumb, if a program can capture video directly from a webcam, then it probably supports DirectShow. AFAIK Premiere Elements supports webcams and this method of video capture, despite Premiere Pro not doing.

If you can convert your camera output to HDMI then you can use this device to capture it, but if it's an SD camera then the quality is always going to be SD even if you scale the pixel size up to HD.

In what way - do you mean to capture the output from a PS3? I don't have access to a PS3 in order to test it, but if someone would like to bring one I'd be happy to do a test.

+Kathleen McNamara-Hsu If Webex can work directly with a webcam for video input, then you can substitute the Magewell USB3 dongle and connect to it from a "normal" video camera or camcorder with an HDMI output (or SDI, depending on which model of dongle you use). As far as application software is concerned, it will see the dongle as another webcam-type device.

+Thank you for the advice.I will give it a try. I really appreciate your video - very comprehensive.

Have you seen the product info on the Magewell website, including the user guide? www.magewell.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/USBCaptureHDMI-User-Guide-en-2.0.pdf

No, it can't directly record to a storage device.

+Seza Nevzat That's not the dongle flipping the image, it's Hangouts! Google think that people would prefer to see the preview of themselves as if they were looking in a mirror, but the image that is transmitted to the other Hangouts participants is the correct way round.

+Jeff Clendenning I don't have that camera so I don't know how it will behave in these circumstances, but the Magewell HDMI dongle should accept all those resolutions - I'm guessing you would prefer 1080 HD? If I had such a camera and was experiencing the same thing I would try connecting it through an active HDMI Splitter box, with one output going to a TV and the other to the dongle. Most TVs will report what signal resolution/frame-rate they're receiving. Alternatively, feeding the signal via a monitor with a pass-through would let you check that the camera is sending a video signal (and maybe what it is). Otherwise, with only two devices not communicating, it's hard to know which one causing the issue - rather like having two walkie-talkie radios that don't communicate, it may only be possible to determine which one is good when you try them with a third radio.

Thank you. I had it hooked up to my television and everything worked fine. I used the device with a gopro and it worked good on my mac but not my pc. I am having so many problems with this device. When it works it is great. I am just not sure what the issue is.

+Jeff Clendenning >>I had it hooked up to my television and everything worked fine.

Awesome! Thank you. I did figure out how to get a signal from the camera. I needed to use a high-speed HDMI cable. It works well but down-scales the image quite heavily. It also requires a powered high-speed usb 3.0 female on the computer itself. I know this because it worked on my macbook pro which has high-speed usb 3.0 ports. My pc has usb 3.0 ports but they have not been hooked up properly. I ordered a 3.0 pci-e card and everything works well enough. Now to find out why the signal is nerfed. Hopefully this software will help.

> It also requires a POWERED high-speed usb 3.0 female on the computer itself. Yes, it has to get power from somewhere, given that it has no internal battery or external PSU. > It works well but down-scales the image quite heavily. The secret is using software in which you can set the capture resolution. The dongle is only doing what is asked of it by the software that uses of it. If it's scaling-down the image it's because the host software has asked for a reduced-size image.

Yes

+Naeem Ur Rehman It's probably a "look-alike" product - not an OEM Magewell product (ie. one that's made by Magewell, but without their name printed on the case). See www.magewell.com/3398.html

No, it supports HDCP to block unlicensed recordings.

You can use a Magewell USB Capture device to record both the video and embedded audio in the HDMI or SDI input signal (depending on which model you use). They appear (under Windows) both as a (video) imaging device and an audio input device.

Yes - no drivers required.

How much does it cost? Can I get it shipped to India?

Samuel Thomas Please direct sales queries via the zenvideo website.

+dv2broadcast I have a question. I have an elgato hd60 capture card but as I found out not to long ago when streaming with it live the output only does 1080p 30fps. what I would like to do is stream 1080p 60fps. So my question is does the Magewell XI100dusb hdmi work well with my capture card? if so will it produce 1080p 60fps stream and how will I hook it up?

+soulcrazyj1 If you were going to use the Magewell USB3 dongle (which is a capture device) you not would use it WITH your Elgato, but instead of it. The Magewell will output 1080p60, as long as it gets a 60fps input AND the host application is capable of requesting 60fps (otherwise the Magewell device will scale the resolution and frame rate to match the request from the host app).

I see no reason why not, since it works with anything running Windows that has a full-size USB3 port. What software would you use - something like VLC?