Magewell Capture Cards

What is a Capture Card?

A capture card converst your HDMI or SDI video to a usable digital format and moves it to a usable USB input. You cannot plug a broadcasting camera into your computer via HDMI alone. If you’re using a camera that can double as a webcam like a Mevo or a GoPro you may be able to go straight into USB.

We recommend Magewell brand capture cards as being the most reliable and well performing on the market. We generally test using Magewell cards since they work for both Windows and Mac computers.

Setup

Connect HDMI cable from camera to Magewell
Connect USB cable from Magewell into computer using a USB port. If possible, use USB 3.0 (marked by blue outline or the letters SS).
At this point, the power and activity lights should both come on showing the device is active.
Open Encoding Software (PrestoStream Studio)
Add in camera shot(will be listed as XI100DUSB HDMI) - NOTE The audio shot will be a separate shot, if the client wants camera audio you will need to add this separately.
If they are streaming in HD, capture device size should be set to 1280x720. If they are streaming in SD, set to 720x480. Also set device de-interlacing to blend.
Set canvas size in the output menu to match the capture device.

Common Issues

Jagged lines on broadcast (Interlacing)
Color Bar Test Screen shows instead of video
USB Bandwidth has been exceeded

Common Fixes

Jagged lines on broadcast- If someone is using a Magewell and the lines on the gym/field seem jagged or blurry, the most common fix for that will be to deinterlace the video. To do this, in the source settings, set "Device Deinterlace" from none to blend. If you are on a newer version of Wirecast, you will select the dynamic editor on the left side of the program. It is possible that Wirecast will need to be restarted after changing this setting.

Color Bar Test Screen shows instead of video- Your computer can read from the Magewell, but the camera video is not coming through. Disconnect your camera from the Magewell. Restart the camera if it persists. This is usually a bad HDMI connection into the Magewell.

USB Bandwidth has been exceeded- This message in some encoders means that your computer is using too much USB data per second. If you have two USB devices on one side of your computer try moving one to the opposite side. Each side usually has a set amount of data that can flow through it at a time.

No Video- If the lights are illuminated on the Magewell unit, and video is now showing in Wirecast, you can use the Magewell USB Capture Utility (downloaded from http://www.magewell.com/downloads ) to see if video is getting to the computer. You might need to try the unit and camera on another computer to confirm if there is an issue with the device itself.

Tools

Magewell USB Capture Utility

This tool will allow you to identify if there is video coming into the laptop from the camera. This is similar to Desktop Video for Blackmagic Devices. You can also see what type of video signal is being brought in from the camera.

How to download:

Go to http://www.magewell.com/downloads
Select either the USB Capture or USB Capture Plus
Select the Tools tab
Select the appropriate Operating System on the left side
Click the BLUE download button

Please note: If using on Mac, once the download has completed, you may get a message that "The identity of the developer cannot be identified". This will require you to go to System Preferences, Security and Privacy, and you will need to select the button that says "open anyway". This may require admin credentials.