Review on AVerMedia Live Gamer ULTRA GC553: 4Kp60 HDR Pass-Through Capture Card with Ultra-Low Latency for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X Recording and Streaming. by Robert Ryokan

I bought this to: (1) Take advantage of 4K HDR passthrough (2) Record in 4K if desired. Monitor. I am using a Samsing 40" 4K LED HDR TV (UN40NU7100FXZA) with my XBOX ONE X. XBOX detects HDR capability through the TV. After a few small adjustments, the picture quality is very good, definitely the main difference between HDR and normal HDR. The setup is quite simple, HDMI (2.0) input from XBOX, HDMI (2.0) output to TV and USB 3.1 to PC/ Updating the Laptop firmware is downloaded and run through the connected PC. There is no separate offline or micro SD mode. Cons: Doesn't record in HDR mode, although RECentral supports this feature. I don't know if it's software, hardware or connection related. Attempts to shoot with HDR Active stalled after a few minutes, regardless of the resolution. Turn off HDR (press the button in RECentral) and the recording is fine. My laptop has a Thunderbolt 3.1 port as well as 3 3.0 USB-A ports. The analyzer said my configuration would work. What was provided was a short USB C to USB A cable. Two problems with that (1) the cable was too short for my desired setup, and (2) I would need to connect to USB 3.0, not 3.1. At first I thought this was why my recording was hanging, but then I realized that wasn't necessarily the case. I can understand the USB-A connector as many PCs don't have a separate "C" connector for 3.1, but I don't have a short length, especially since its GC5513 predecessor has a longer cable. I've invested in a 6ft USB C to USB C Thunderbolt cable (not cheap) (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074DSYD7S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), which worked excellently (at excessive throughput). ) for more flexibility. in place of the laptop. This still didn't fix the HDR freezing issue. Conclusion: I like the end-to-end image enhancement, but I feel the device and software need more work - note that the RECentral software is the latest "beta". Oh my god, please provide a longer cable to connect to PC and make 2 cables - USB C to USB A and USB C to USB C! In view of the disadvantages, I am nevertheless confident in the purchase. I've made a few connection and calibration tweaks to set up and transfer what I want, and the price is actually pretty good, especially since the price just dropped $50. There are very few alternatives for 4K recording, they seem to be significantly more expensive. Update: For some reason the audio lags behind the video by about 2 seconds. Makes the entry unusable. I'll look into this issue soon to try and keep them in sync. If this is not successful, this rating is reduced to one star and the device becomes an expensive paperweight. Another update (10/18/2019): I've put this off for a while but got back to it after updating the firmware and downloading the latest version of ReCentral4. . The sound delay has decreased from 2 to 1 second, but it stays! I was about to give up again but decided to give OBS Studio a try, which was actually mentioned in a poorly worded FAQ on the Avermedia site. I'm glad I did. When I just use the default settings in OBS the audio was in sync with the video and I'm currently using that capture device again. Surprisingly, however, the proprietary software doesn't quite work and doesn't have the ability to customize audio to sync with video. In fact, the only way is to increase the delay! New conclusion: I can now recommend this in combination with the OBS Studio software, but definitely update the firmware.