I was at my local Walmart the other day, and I always find myself drawn to that little section on the back wall of the electronics section that has composite cables, universal TV remotes, signal splitters, and sometimes even upscalers. I was browsing that section when I noticed a $21 Monster video capture card on the shelf, so I decided to buy it. I'm a big fan of showcasing budget options for anyone looking to get into making videos for YouTube. A lot of tech channels, in particular, are way out of touch when it comes to the budget market. This is especially true of most of the big PC gaming tech channels, but that's a different subject for another time.
Now, the official name for this capture card is the Monster 4K Black Audio Video USB 3.0 HDMI Capture Card, which is deceptive. It has 4K pass-through but only records at 1080p 60fps. So, you can pass a 4K signal through the capture card to your TV, but it only records at 1080p. I read the packaging and understood what it was saying, but it might mislead some people into thinking they are getting a 4K capture card for $21 instead of a 1080p capture card. So, that's kind of scammy, even if $21 is still dirt cheap for a 1080p60 capture card.
Another sort of deceptive part about this product is that it is a blatant reskin of a generic capture card that is already available on Amazon. However, the Amazon version and the Monster version are around the same price, so there's not a big markup difference. The Monster capture card also comes with some nice packaging and a thick but short USB 3.0 to USB 3.0 cable. The USB cable is only around 2 feet long, which might not work well depending on your setup.
This capture card is plug-and-play with OBS. You plug it into a USB 3.0 slot, and OBS should recognize it and let you set it up to capture video and sound from it. It's pretty simple to set up. I set my OBS settings to record at 1080p 60fps, and it works great. The 4K passthrough, which I've been using with my PS4 Pro and on my current PC, works great.
I made a community post about this card when I bought it, and since then, I have put it through various testing. At first, I was curious as to whether or not the card would recognize and record 480p or 720p signals. It does. I pulled out my Retrotink 2X Pro, which can have issues with some capture cards, and it worked great. The only bad part for aspect ratio purists is that it seems to stretch the Retrotink's image into widescreen, but the aspect ratio can be fixed in your editing software.
For 720p, I pulled out my Hyperkin Retron 5 and my Hyperkin cable for the N64, and it captured both the Retron 5 and Hyperkin 3-in-one cable without any issues. Then, I was curious to see what would happen if I hooked up my gaming laptop to it to capture footage from a game that was running at 120 frames per second. I did notice some screen tearing, but the footage still looks pretty good. If you're looking to capture PC benchmarks, this can work, but there will be some tearing in the footage at times. If you're looking to review or do a let's play, you can always limit the framerate down to 60 frames per second if you're capturing footage for non-benchmark videos. I'm sure there are some OBS settings that can help with the tearing issue as well.
For the final end-boss of video capturing, there is the PS3's HDCP lock, which stops all other capture cards in their tracks. I normally use a signal splitter with my HD60s, which allows me to capture PS3 footage through the HDMI cable. However, for the Monster capture card, you can pass the PS3 through the card, and it doesn't care about HDCP. This is the title screen for the special features disc of Revenge of the Sith, which, by the way, did you know you can put the special features disc into an original Xbox and play a demo of Battlefront 2? I forgot about that. The rest of the PS3 capture came out fine as well.
So far, the only downside I have found with this capture card is that, in using the slightly slower USB 3.0 to USB 3.0 cable—unlike the HD60S and XR1 Lite, which use a Type C to USB 3.0 cable—you can't play the game through your OBS screen. Sometimes, people don't have a TV to hook it up to or an extra monitor, and with the speed of the more expensive options like the Elgato, you can pretty much play the games right off your OBS screen if you have no other options. Another downside for some is that it also doesn't capture HDR, but neither do my other 1080p capture cards.
I can't comment on long-term reliability as of yet; if any issues come up, I will let you know. However, small issues aside, this Monster USB 3.0 capture card might just be the Budget King of 1080p capture cards. I will show some gameplay samples after I am done talking to demonstrate the quality so you can judge for yourself. If you're on a budget and are looking to start a YouTube channel where you need to capture console footage in particular, don't overlook this $21 capture card. Larger channels will always tell you Elgato, Avermedia, or EVGA, but don't overlook this budget card. So far, I'm very impressed with it. I'm going to use it as my daily driver for the next while just to see if any long-term reliability issues arise. For 1080p quality, it's really impressive. Starting a channel doesn't always have to be expensive.
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