The Elgato Neo Family of Capture Cards: A Comprehensive Review
As a console streamer, I'm always on the lookout for the best capture card to ensure that my streams are of the highest quality. The Elgato Neo family of capture cards has been making waves in the industry with their affordable prices and impressive features. In this article, we'll delve into the details of each model, their performance, and whether they're worth the investment.
Streaming at 4K or 1440p is a dream for many streamers, but it's not always feasible to game at these resolutions while streaming. Luckily, the Elgato Neo supports both nv12 for 420 color and YUY2 for 422 color, which means you can upscale your capture to 1440p or 4K in OBS if you want to take advantage of higher quality streams or videos on YouTube. However, I would have liked to see 444 RGB support here for even better scaling quality, even at lower resolutions.
One of the key features of the Elgato Neo is its input latency to the OBS preview, which comes in at around 68.5 milliseconds. While this may not be the fastest, it's still within a reasonable range and shouldn't cause any issues with audio sync or image quality. The preview latency is nothing amazing, but it's fast enough that it won't cause a problem.
The Elgato Neo features uncompressed 1080p output, which means that it looks great and will hold up well even when scaled to higher resolutions. In this review, I was impressed by how well the card scaled my 4K capture and still held up quite nicely. It's about as good as it gets for a format like this.
The Elgato Neo works well with various game captures, including the Retrotink 4K for Retro Game captures. It even passed through the 1920x1440p scaled mode, which was a welcome surprise. However, I did experience some issues with aspect ratio correction filters in OBS, as is often the case with USB cards.
I also tested the Elgato Neo with the PS5, and while HDR to SDR tone mapping came out a little dark, it worked fine overall. The card performed well with the Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch, but I did experience some screen tearing on the PC, which is just how it goes at high refresh rates.
Unfortunately, my experience with the Steam Deck was less than ideal. Using the official launch dock with my base Steam Deck resulted in rolling video like an old TV that didn't have a sync signal. The 1080p60 pass-through and 1280x800 pass-through looked glitchy, while the 4K60 pass-through worked fine on my TV. However, I couldn't get it to work at all physically.
Despite these issues, the Elgato Neo is a tiny and unassuming card that's perfect for those who want a white-themed setup or don't want anything too gamery on their desk. You can use Elgato's 4K capture utility app or OBS Studio to capture on PC, iPad OS with newer iPads, or Mac.
In the past, there have been some budget-friendly capture cards that have set the bar for price and performance, like the EVGA xr1, which hovered around $80 US for 4K pass-through. However, it seems that the market is now expecting a budget card to be sub-$100. The Elgato Neo family of products feels like they're meeting this expectation.
In conclusion, the Elgato Neo capture card is a solid choice for those looking for a affordable and feature-packed solution for their streaming needs. While there may be some minor issues with certain games or platforms, it's clear that the Elgato team has put a lot of effort into creating a card that can handle high-quality captures at various resolutions.
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If you're interested in purchasing one of these capture cards, be sure to check out my full breakdown of the Elgato Neo family of products here. And don't forget to watch my capture card reviews playlist to make sure that you're buying the best choice for your streaming needs.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enElgato released a new budget or at least not hardcore gamer RGB streamer life focused family of products this spring called Neo I unboxed and checked out all but the webcam and the capture card already in this video somewhere here today we're putting the game capture Neo to the test it sits in an awkward spot and I'm not sure how I feel about it this is a very basic capture card it's kind of a soft reset of sorts for the entry-level game capture from agato specs wise game capture Neo can pass through 4K 60 1080P and 60 or 120 htz 1440 p60 all in SDR or HDR but nothing better than that no HDMI 2.1 4K 120 pass through not even 1440p 120 HZ or 144 HZ pass through just basic 4K pass through with 1080p 120 happening to work too there's also no vrr or variable refresh rate supported on the pass through despite a bunch of older capture cards getting updated to support it for capture everything is scaled to 1080p60 or lower which is fine this is the capture card for the console streamer might want to game in 4k or 1440p but just stream in standard 1080 thankfully 1080p is supported in both nv12 for 420 color and yuy2 for 422 color which means you with the yuy2 you could actually do a solid job of upscaling your capture to 1440p or 4K in OBS if you wanted to take advantage of higher quality streams or videos on YouTube though I would have liked to see 444 RGB support here for even better scaling quality even if it's at just at lower resolutions but it's not present input latency to the obs preview is around 68.5 milliseconds which is pretty standard again I need to clarify this the pass through to your TV is lag free no input lag there the preview latency is nothing amazing I wouldn't recommend playing from the OBS preview but it's fast enough that it won't cause a problem with audio sync or anything image quality Wise It's uncompressed 1080p so it looks great and in this video it scaled the 4K daring capture and it still holds up quite nice it's about as good as it gets for the format no complaints testing Oddball captures with the game capture Neo it worked fine with the retrotink 4K for Retro Game captures just scaled back to 1080 and it worked fine with both the retrotink 5x and the Retro gy for PS2 for both 480p input and it even passed through and captured the 1920 x 1440p scaled mode which is scaled back to 1080P and will require an aspect ratio correction filter in OBS as usual I did not expect that to work as it often doesn't on USB cards so I was very stoked to see it working here without any hiccups this card worked fine for the PS5 though HDR to SDR tone mapping came out a little dark but that might be due to how I calibrate HDR for my system and TV worked fine for the Xbox series X and the Nintendo switch PC was not a good time it worked but again only basic 4K 60 1440p 60 or 1080p 1220 is supported but with no variable refresh rate support screen tearing runs wild that's just how it goes I also had an issue where the first time I switched from desktop to my full screen game I got this crazy glitch at the top of the screen it went away after I unplugged and replugged the card so I let it slide as likely a fluke but it was weird however this continued as I was quite disappointed with the steam deck compatibility using the official launch dock with my base steam deck I had all sorts of issues at 4K 60 the default output it resulted in Rolling video like an old TV that didn't have a sync signal 1080p60 had like crazy interlacing glitch artifacts and then the base 1280x800 mode was not supported at all weirder the 4K 60 pass through and the 1280x800 pass through looked fine on my TV but the 1080p 60 pass through looked just as glitchy as the capture while I love me some analog inspired glitch effects as you all know that's a big yikes I could not get it to work at all physically the game capture Neo is super tiny and unassuming perfect for those who just want a white themed setup or just don't want anything super gamery on their desk though admittedly my capture cards are never just sitting on my desk like in Elgato setup shots so I never really care what they look like you can use elgato's 4K capture utility app or OBS Studio or most other capture programs to capture on PC the Elgato capture app to capture on iPad OS with this capture card with newer iPads with the update I covered that in one of these videos or OBS quick time and so on to capture on Mac which is pretty cool for $120 I kind of wish we got a little more a few years ago the EVGA xr1 set kind of the bar for Budget capture cards often hovering around $80 us for 4K pass through 1080p60 capture card and while it has since gone up in price for some reason based on your comments it feels like the market is kind of expecting a budget card to be sub $100 these days it's a hard battle product affiliate links will be in the description below as always if you want to pick that up but before you shop you should watch my full breakdown of the agato Neo family of products here is and check out my capture card reviews playlist to make sure that you're buying the best choice for you stream our freeze stream and video Safe music at backing track. and remember to Be Kind RewindElgato released a new budget or at least not hardcore gamer RGB streamer life focused family of products this spring called Neo I unboxed and checked out all but the webcam and the capture card already in this video somewhere here today we're putting the game capture Neo to the test it sits in an awkward spot and I'm not sure how I feel about it this is a very basic capture card it's kind of a soft reset of sorts for the entry-level game capture from agato specs wise game capture Neo can pass through 4K 60 1080P and 60 or 120 htz 1440 p60 all in SDR or HDR but nothing better than that no HDMI 2.1 4K 120 pass through not even 1440p 120 HZ or 144 HZ pass through just basic 4K pass through with 1080p 120 happening to work too there's also no vrr or variable refresh rate supported on the pass through despite a bunch of older capture cards getting updated to support it for capture everything is scaled to 1080p60 or lower which is fine this is the capture card for the console streamer might want to game in 4k or 1440p but just stream in standard 1080 thankfully 1080p is supported in both nv12 for 420 color and yuy2 for 422 color which means you with the yuy2 you could actually do a solid job of upscaling your capture to 1440p or 4K in OBS if you wanted to take advantage of higher quality streams or videos on YouTube though I would have liked to see 444 RGB support here for even better scaling quality even if it's at just at lower resolutions but it's not present input latency to the obs preview is around 68.5 milliseconds which is pretty standard again I need to clarify this the pass through to your TV is lag free no input lag there the preview latency is nothing amazing I wouldn't recommend playing from the OBS preview but it's fast enough that it won't cause a problem with audio sync or anything image quality Wise It's uncompressed 1080p so it looks great and in this video it scaled the 4K daring capture and it still holds up quite nice it's about as good as it gets for the format no complaints testing Oddball captures with the game capture Neo it worked fine with the retrotink 4K for Retro Game captures just scaled back to 1080 and it worked fine with both the retrotink 5x and the Retro gy for PS2 for both 480p input and it even passed through and captured the 1920 x 1440p scaled mode which is scaled back to 1080P and will require an aspect ratio correction filter in OBS as usual I did not expect that to work as it often doesn't on USB cards so I was very stoked to see it working here without any hiccups this card worked fine for the PS5 though HDR to SDR tone mapping came out a little dark but that might be due to how I calibrate HDR for my system and TV worked fine for the Xbox series X and the Nintendo switch PC was not a good time it worked but again only basic 4K 60 1440p 60 or 1080p 1220 is supported but with no variable refresh rate support screen tearing runs wild that's just how it goes I also had an issue where the first time I switched from desktop to my full screen game I got this crazy glitch at the top of the screen it went away after I unplugged and replugged the card so I let it slide as likely a fluke but it was weird however this continued as I was quite disappointed with the steam deck compatibility using the official launch dock with my base steam deck I had all sorts of issues at 4K 60 the default output it resulted in Rolling video like an old TV that didn't have a sync signal 1080p60 had like crazy interlacing glitch artifacts and then the base 1280x800 mode was not supported at all weirder the 4K 60 pass through and the 1280x800 pass through looked fine on my TV but the 1080p 60 pass through looked just as glitchy as the capture while I love me some analog inspired glitch effects as you all know that's a big yikes I could not get it to work at all physically the game capture Neo is super tiny and unassuming perfect for those who just want a white themed setup or just don't want anything super gamery on their desk though admittedly my capture cards are never just sitting on my desk like in Elgato setup shots so I never really care what they look like you can use elgato's 4K capture utility app or OBS Studio or most other capture programs to capture on PC the Elgato capture app to capture on iPad OS with this capture card with newer iPads with the update I covered that in one of these videos or OBS quick time and so on to capture on Mac which is pretty cool for $120 I kind of wish we got a little more a few years ago the EVGA xr1 set kind of the bar for Budget capture cards often hovering around $80 us for 4K pass through 1080p60 capture card and while it has since gone up in price for some reason based on your comments it feels like the market is kind of expecting a budget card to be sub $100 these days it's a hard battle product affiliate links will be in the description below as always if you want to pick that up but before you shop you should watch my full breakdown of the agato Neo family of products here is and check out my capture card reviews playlist to make sure that you're buying the best choice for you stream our freeze stream and video Safe music at backing track. and remember to Be Kind Rewind\n"
