Capture Card is a necessity today. Building a streaming setup excluding this piece of hardware will put a lot of pressure on your Gaming PC to record HD gaming videos. Capture card eliminates unnecessary load and stores quality video with max possible FPS. This helps you to share the best ones with the audience on platforms like Twitch or YouTube. The challenge is to find a decent capture card with all the required features. I picked a few points that can act as a filter for choosing the best card.
- Portable – Easy to Move or Shift.
- Easy Setup – On the go connectivity, hassle-free Console to PC setup.
- Streaming Friendly – 100% compatible with popular streaming tools.
- HD or 4K Recording – Supports 4K if possible or minimum HD 1080p recording @ 60fps.
- Budget-friendly – Yes or No, capture cards are not cheap.
The above filters are enough to pick a decent card, but to save your time and effort we have one with us. Thanks to Avermedia for providing Live Gamer Mini, a portable capture card which to an extent has almost everything except a few limitations.
In this Avermedia Live Gamer Mini Review we will try to figure how well it can support an entire streaming setup. How well it can recording streaming videos, maintains the video quality, and whether it is complicated to use or not. Later we will talk about the price, is it budget-friendly or just flashy expensive hardware.
Don’t Go with the Size:
Avermedia Live Gamer Mini cute little capture card with three simple connectivity ports. A little bigger than a palm, it does not require any special space to fit with your build. At the backside, there are three connectivity ports. They are:
- HDMI Out – Connect Gaming Monitor here.
- HDMI In – Connect PS4/PS5/Xbox Console here.
- USB 2.0 – Connect PC or Laptop here.
Live Gamer Mini focuses on hassle-free setup. No special driver installation is required. Connect the capture card with a USB cable to your PC or Laptop. Windows 10 will auto-install the drivers and setup the recording source on Streamlabs OBS. That’s it, Avermedia Live Gamer Mini is all set to capture HD quality videos.
Based on its specification Live Gamer Mini can record a video up to 1080p@60fps. A lot relies on the system config used for capturing video. I tested this on a Core i7 powered gaming PC where the output was 1080p captured from PS4. But when I connected Live Gamer Mini to an HP laptop, a Core i3 powered system with Intel UHD graphics the recording quality is poor. Remember whatever capture card you are buying, the system used for capturing video must be high end. Or else the video quality will not be good.
- Max Pass-Through Resolution :1080p60
- Max Record Resolutions:1080p60
- Built-in H.264 hardware encoder
Video Capture Benchmark
Live Gamer Mini promises zero latency via HDMI source for Full HD gameplay recording. It connects with MicroUSB port to a USB2.0 cable to the system. Video Capture Quality from PS4 is outstanding. There are not artifacts, poor resolution issues seen on videos. I also tested Live Gamer Mini on PC to PC setup. Connected a laptop to a Core i7 powered gaming pc using the capture card, but was not happy with the output quality. This is because of hardware power, on one side I have a high-end gaming system, while on the other a medium-range Laptop act as the storage source. On this setup, video quality is not as great as expected, which is due to the limited GPU power.
For consoles, the scenario is entirely different. Live Gamer Mini is ideal for capturing Full HD video from gaming consoles. It does not compromise the quality of the video. One upgrade that would power up the card to do more is USB 3.0 support.
Tools Compatibility
Live Gamer Mini is compatible with all popular streaming tools like Streamlabs OBS. You can also use the proprietary tool Avermedia SteamEngine for recording which does not overload you with excessive settings. RECentral is streaming software Avermedia which features lots of functions to make stream easy. However, I recommend sticking with Streamlabs OBS as it is pretty straightforward for streaming.
Live Gamer Mini is extremely simple to use a capture card. I recommend it for Console-PC setup. It’s portable, easy to set up, and does not come with complicated settings or connectivity options. The important thing to consider before buying Live Gamer Mini is to check your system requirement. To drive the best out of it you need a minimum Core i5 powered system.
Operating System: Windows 10 (Support UVC Protocol)
Desktop:
- Intel i5-3330 or comparable (i7 recommended)
- AMD A10-7890K (Quad-core) or above
- NVIDIA GTX 650 / AMD Radeon R7 250X or above are recommended
- 4GB RAM
Laptop:
- Intel Core i7-4810MQ
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
- 4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
Verdict:
Avermedia Live Gamer Mini falls in the price range of $80 – $89.99 globally (12000INR). Avermedia also has a range of various other capture cards with many advanced features. For example, AVerMedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus, costlier than Mini, can fulfill your 4K needs. But only for viewing purposes, the recording remains static at Full HD. Liver Gamer Mini sits well between mid-range capture cards with a price tag good enough to acquire zero latency 1080p video capture from consoles. The best part of Live Gamer Mini is its portable size, its easy setup, and no special installation software. It is right to say Live Gamer Mini is a plug and play capture card. You don’t have to hassle with the settings of your streaming software to setup Mini as the source of the recording.
Overall Live Gamer Mini is an extremely useful and portable capture card for a console-pc setup.
