This is a review for the Avermedia live gamer portable. This review will reflect my experience with the product using the current software available at Avermedia's website as of 4/13/2014. I will update this review as needed if it needs to be revised in the future due to any software updates that change the functionality of the live gamer portable significantly. I chose to rate the LGP 4 out of 5 stars because while I think it is the best portable capture device for consoles out of all the ones available, I still think there is room for improvement such as adding up-scaling or being able to stream without a PC (which I think another device can actually do).
Hardware:
The live gamer portable is primarily made of hard plastic with a thin, smooth, anti-slip rubber bottom that grips most smooth flat surfaces and helps to keep it from sliding around easily. It has what feels like a thin aluminum top with a plastic, easy to push, lighted "hot button" in the middle of the top for starting and stopping recordings or streaming.
The button's outer ring lights up solid blue when the LGP is powered and lights up red whenever it is recording or streaming when connected to a PC with a USB cable. The ring lights up solid red when USB powered in PC free mode, and flashes red while recording. The button's function is determined by the Avermedia RECentral recording software setup or the mode you select with the switch on the LGP. If you switch the LGP to "PC free" mode using the switch, the button will default to starting and stopping recording. If you setup the RECentral software to streaming mode, the button will be used to start and stop the streaming. The mode switch is located on one of the long sides of the LGP. It allows you to manually switch the mode of the LGP to "PC free mode", or "PC mode". The other long side of the LGP is where all the video and audio inputs and outputs are.
The LGP is very lightweight (4.3 ounces without cables and with an SD card inserted) and will fit in most pockets (5 ¼ inches long, 2 ¾ inches wide, 7/8 inches high). The unit itself is easy to travel with but you will most likely need to take one or two HDMI cables and one mini USB cable to use the LGP wherever you take it. You will also need a Class 10 speed SD card to record your game capture if you won't be able to connect the LGP to a PC with the required driver and software installed on it and with adequate hard drive space if you want to record your capture and not just stream it. Avermedia recommend using at least a minimum FAT32 formatted class 10 speed SDHC card (SDXC can be used if formatted from default exFAT file system to FAT32). If there is no available USB port that delivers 5v to power the LGP wherever you go with it, you will need to purchase a separate USB to AC power supply adapter to provide power to the LGP. If you're like me you already have one you use to charge other devices that require a standard size USB port that delivers 5v power. Any adapter of that type should work with the LGP if you connect it to the USB power adapter using the supplied mini USB cable that comes with the LGP. You could also use a portable battery type device as an alternative to an AC wall adapter.
Inputs/Outputs:
When looking at the side of the LGP where the inputs and outputs are, the ports from left to right are: 1 proprietary component video and stereo audio input (using 5 RCA plugs to proprietary port adapter dongle included with the LGP; if you were to lose this adapter you would not be able to input any component video source other than PlayStation 2/3), 1 standard HDMI input, 1 standard HDMI output, 1 3.5mm (1/8 inch) stereo audio input, and 1 3.5mm (1/8 inch) stereo audio output. After testing the HDMI pass-through with a device made for testing input lag, I can confirm that using the Avermedia LGP device to pass-through an HDMI source does not add any perceivable input lag to the source once it reaches your display or TV. To be accurate, I measured no input lag whatsoever. The device I used to test this is called a Leo Bodnar Input Lag Tester. There is a noticeable delay from the source to the monitoring software when displayed by your PC though, so it is not feasible to use the software as the primary display for your source if playing a game as it takes a second or longer for your controller input to register the corresponding action on the monitoring software. For example, if you were to press the controller button to look left with your character in a game, you wouldn't see your character look left until a second or more after you pressed the button.
Another important thing to note is that the LGP does not up-scale any source. Whatever resolution is being output by your source device is what will be output by the HDMI out of the LGP. So whatever display you have connected to the output of the LGP will behave as if you have connected the source device to it directly. I discovered that when I connected a PlayStation 2 to the component input of the LGP and connected the HDMI out of the LGP to my monitor, my monitor would not display the PlayStation 2's output correctly because my monitor cannot accept a 480i video signal. So you need to make sure that your TV or monitor can accept the resolution and frequency output of whatever source you want to record or stream if you want to be able to use the HDMI pass-through feature of the LGP. I had to buy a separate SD to HDMI up-scaler for some of my sources like PlayStation 1/2 and old 240p consoles to use it with pass-through. Another thing to note is that the LGP is apparently HDCP compliant, so you cannot stream or record HDCP encrypted sources through HDMI such as the PlayStation 3. It is possible to bypass this by using some HDMI splitters but I do not endorse this and you do so at your own risk as I do not know the legal implications of this.
Software:
The current firmware update, driver, RECentral software, PC free mode utility software, and TS file format to MP4 file format converter software is compatible with Windows 7 and higher 32-bit and 64-bit, and Mac OS 10.7 and higher. No other operating systems are supported. I had to update the firmware to the latest version before I could use the current driver and software. It was a fairly uncomplicated procedure but I had to read the instructions on how to do it properly on the official website. If you purchase the LGP you'll want to make sure you have the latest firmware version installed in the device before using it for optimal use.
Streaming/Recording:
Note that you cannot stream in PC free mode, only record your source to a SD card in the LGP's SD card slot. Streaming and recording using the official Avermedia RECentral software is very easy and user friendly in PC mode. It is very easy to understand and to operate and if you have any trouble Avermedia's website provides several instructional tutorial videos on how to use the LGP and the software. I prefer to use Open Broadcaster Software for streaming as it provides features that RECentral does not have such as creating scenes with different sources that you can switch between for a stream. To use LGP with DirectShow compliant software you have to download and install the "Stream Engine" software after installing the LGP driver. I had some problems with video and audio syncing when first trying to use the LGP with OBS but found that I could correct this problem by changing the LGP Stream Engine setting for frames per second to 30 instead of 60. Other than that problem streaming to Twitch using OBS with LGP Stream Engine seems to work fine. I cannot comment on using the LGP with XSplit because I have no need or desire to use that program especially since it requires a monthly subscription.
There is a PC free mode utility that is installed in your computer with the application and driver software that allows you to select what bit rate and resolution the LGP records at during PC free mode recording. You can choose between 720p and 1080p resolution and 4, 8, 12, and 16 Mbps bit rate. At 16 Mbps each minute of recording uses 120 MB of SD card space. 4 Mbps uses up 30 MB of SD card space per minute. Changing the resolution selected doesn't seem to change the data rate.
For PC mode, the available video formats in RECentral you can choose to capture in are MP4 (H.264 and AAC audio) and TS (H.264 and AAC audio). There is a free software utility available to download at Avermedia's website that you can use to convert TS format files to MP4. The resolution options available for recording and streaming in PC mode should be adequate for anyone.
So to sum it all up, I think the Avermedia is one of if not the best external capture device's for consoles available today. It's combination of portability and features should satisfy most gamers for their streaming and recording needs not to mention being very affordable while doing so.
LGP Pros:
* Lightweight, small, and highly portable (not including cables)
* Works without PC (recording only)
* Works with DirectShow compliant software like OBS
* Easy to use when using Avermedia RECentral software
* HDMI pass-through adds no input lag to source
* Recording and Streaming create high quality video at 720p or higher resolutions and 3.5 Mbps bit rate and higher
LGP Cons:
* Requires several cables connected to it which may create a cluttered mess of cables wherever you place the LGP
* Must be powered for HDMI pass-through to work
* May not work well with 3rd party software before first tweaking settings
* Requires separate USB 5v power adapter if no USB port available for power in PC free mode
* Software and driver not included in package (must be downloaded from website)
* Software monitoring cannot be used as primary display of source when gaming due to high input lag
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
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