We all have those moments when we tell our friends, family, or even coworkers about the “ridiculous kills” we get when playing our online multiplayer game (or games) of choice. And usually the words that follow such tales go something along the lines of “aw man, you should have seen it”. Only a couple of weeks ago capturing that kind of gameplay meant having to part ways with a considerable amount of money but now thanks to the folks at Roxio its become a much more reasonable. Read on for our full review of the Roxio Game Capture.

Although this was the first capturing device that I’ve personally had in my possession, I’ve seen some of the higher end and lower end devices out there. On the lower end you have those “DVD Capture” cables which are meant more to capture – well pretty much just any standard definition input by utilizing composite cable connections. On the other hand you have HD Personal Video Recorders (or PVRs) such as the Hauppauge or HD Capture cards, which are built for PCs.

Now when compared to the lower end of the video capturing spectrum, DVD capture cables cannot come close to the quality provided by the Roxio Game Capture. Its pretty much a no-brainer whenever discerning the differences between any composite and component connection. On the higher end, although devices like the PVR mentioned above or capture cards can take higher resolutions, there’s one department where they can’t touch Roxio and that’s convenience. Allow me to explain.

The Game Capture is small. About ¾ of the size of your standard DVD case and the thickness of 2 of those cases stacked together. And while the Hauppauge PVR isn’t particularly huge, if you had the choice of hauling one or the other to a LAN or a friend’s house along with the rest of your stuff, I’m pretty sure you’d want the lightest one available. As far as capture cards are concerned let’s be real; I doubt anyone wants to drag their CPU towers anywhere -- let alone to capture gameplay video. And I know that this whole size thing may be a non-issue to some as they may not have any plans to move around with the device but as far as I’m concerned, the smaller the better. Heaven knows that I have enough hardware laying around that if I can have something out of site when its not in use well then that makes me a happy camper.

Roxio has gone above and beyond of what’s expected from a sub 100-dollar capturing device and I say this because of the software that’s bundled in. Not only do you get the ability to capture your gameplay, but you can also take everything you’ve recorded and put together some pretty slick-looking videos with the included full-fledged video editing software. And for all you online streamers out there, the Game Capture works perfectly when used in conjunction with Adobe Flash Encoder and in fact will take a 720p input, but as you know the output will all be pending on your setup as well as internet bandwidth.

As far as drawbacks are concerned the biggest omission is the lack of support for Mac. I found that to be a bit weird mostly because Roxio has such great software for Mac already that providing support for this device seems like a no-brainer. Another thing to take into consideration will be that video quality will be determined by the hardware. In other words, if your machine only meets the minimum requirements don’t expect to be outputting at the best video settings.

Video quality will definitely be the Game Capture’s weakest bullet point with it’s supported resolution topping out at 480p. Now I know that at face value it can sound pretty weak especially in a generation of video games that is all about 1080p this and HD that, but trust when I say that it is very much bearable and easily gets the job done under most circumstances.

After spending plenty of time with the Game Capture, I have to say that I highly recommend it for those who’ve been seriously searching for a way to re-live those intense gaming night moments. And especially for those that don’t want to break the bank doing so. Now you can actually prove how good you really are in Black Ops, and show it to the whole world!

Highly Recommended

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