Review: Roxio Game Capture

Its been a while since I heard from Roxio but in the past I’ve quite enjoyed their products. They used to be quick out of the starting gates with new and innovative products. I had one of their mp3 players before the now ubiquitous iPod was even available. So when I heard about their upcoming Game Capture product I was understandably intrigued.

This little toy is most comparable to an external TV tuner. It plugs in to your setup to allow you to capture video (and of course audio) of your video game sessions.  Setting it up is simple enough. You simply plug your console in to the little box, then plug that box in to both your TV and a PC. Connections are via component video, composite audio, and USB to your PC. While HDMI would be ideal, this is still quite simple regardless. Theres not much you can do wrong here, even though the setup diagram makes it look more complicated than it actually is.

Once its all setup you can keep playing on your console as normal but now you can also simultaneously use your PC to capture your game-play footage. Its pretty fun to be able to record and share these videos with the world. Bloopers, Machinima, and showboating are all made so much easier once you can easily take video recordings. You will wonder how you’ve gone so long without it.

The captured videos are only in SD which is a definite drawback in the modern age of HD gaming being effectively the standard. They’re still good enough to upload to friends, and you can still play in HD but its just shame there is no HD option. The price-point of the device being under $100 makes it more understandable but the line now screams for a ‘premium’ variant, with HDMI connectivity, and full HD recording.

After your videos are captured you can edit and compile the footage in the included software, which is nice and convenient, so you don’t have to load up multiple programs to go from recording, to editing, to publishing. The whole process is made so simple and user friendly its very refreshing. Easy game recordings are now possible for the masses with no complicated setup and no learning curve.

While the product is clearly for the masses, being inexpensive, easy and streamlined, it only leaves me wanting more. Its a great product and most people will love it. I hope product awareness is high on this one as once they find out about it, I know most gamers will love to snap one up. If its a success we’ll hopefully see a premium revision of the product in the near future too.

[Roxio]