A few months ago we showed you a very inexpensive HDMI capturer that did its job quite well. It was not the best capturer with which to obtain maximum performance, but to get the video and audio signal from any device it came from pearls. But is there anything better at the same price? That’s where the ShadowCast comes in.
A successful project
After getting more than 1,600,000 euros on Kickstarter (and completing other projects in previous years with a record on the platform), its creators decided to open another financing campaign through Indiegogo and, surprisingly, they have once again surpassed themselves. They currently have a collection of more than 1,800,000 euros, and the bakers multiply for every second that passes. But what is special about this HDMI grabber ?
Connect your PS5 via USB
The idea of this device is that you can convert any type of HDMI output into a USB-C output that you can connect directly to your computer, be it a laptop or a desktop computer. Thus, you can take the image of your Nintendo Switch directly to your PC as the cat capturer would , with the peculiarity that this model is so small that it occupies the size of a pendrive.
Its practical size makes it an accessory to take into account when playing anywhere, since with the screen of your laptop you could quickly set up a game session next to your console, without the need to use an additional screen .
And the best thing is without a doubt its price, since you can buy it with a spectacular price of 39 dollars. But why does this ShadowCast cost $ 39 and elgato’s solution four times as much?
More performance than quality
Obviously with the ShadowCast we are not going to obtain the image quality that products such as the Cam Link elgato or the Game Capture HD60 elgato offer us. The performance of these devices reaches 4K resolutions and up to 60 frames per second rates with superb image quality, but the folks at ShadowCast have gotten down to business.
The idea of your device is that you can enjoy the game on your computer without complications, and that the latency that exists in the connection is practically negligible. This is demonstrated in several videos where we can see that the difference between the original signal of the console and the one we obtain with the capturer is barely 4 milliseconds .
This latency is great considering the price of the product, so playing on your laptop screen will feel really good compared to the experience of doing it on a TV. However, to achieve this performance you will have to leave some things on the way, and that is where resolution comes into play. According to the first users who have been able to test the product, the image obtained through the official application stayed at 720 / 30p , a resolution that could be poor for many players, and that suffers especially in the rate of images per second.
With new generation consoles such as PS5 or Xbox Series X, playing at 30 frames per second could feel like a very important step backwards, so you should take that into account when purchasing the product.
An accessory to consider
For the rest, being able to buy it for about 33 euros to change, this device could become a very useful accessory that would not be bad to always have it at hand, since on more than one occasion it could save us. Imagine being able to connect a Raspberry Pi or any device with an HDMI output directly to your computer without having to do anything else.