CAMLIVE HDMI Capture – Cam Link Competitor?

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This is the ATEN CAMLIVE, not to be confused with the other camlive that shows up when you google that – in fact it comes up first. Either way, these are HDMI capture cards which let you capture the output of your DSLR camera – or even PC or games console – and record or stream it. I have the CAMLIVE and the CAMLIVE +, but are they as good as the brand you are likely more familiar with, Elgato, and their Cam Link? Lets have a play and find out. But first, if you haven’t already, consider subscribing for more videos like this one every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Let me start with running you through what you can and can’t do with these, starting with the standard CAMLIVE. This, much like the Cam Link, is a single input, no output design meaning it’s primary usage is for camera inputs. You can technically use it with a PC or console but there is definite input lag there so the experience won’t be great. It’s able to capture up to 1080p60, so no 4K recording possible. It’s a UVC device so it just plugs in and starts working, no drivers or third party software required.

The CAMLIVE + is slightly different, allowing you to passthrough up to a 4K60 signal, although it still only records a maximum of 1080p60. You can connect USB PD power, and it connects via a USB C port to your streaming PC. Sadly 1440p, and high refresh rates, aren’t supported, so if you want to record your 1440p 144Hz PC output, doing it in software, or with the Elgato 4K PRO MK.2 are your only options. Even 1080p 144Hz doesn’t appear to be supported, so this will still be better to use with a camera, or a last gen console.

So that’s what they can and can’t do, lets test them out, starting with the standard CAMLIVE.

I’ve got it set up so my Panasonic GH5 is outputting a clean 1080p feed, and I’ve got the CAMLIVE plugged into a USB C port on this laptop. I’m currently still syncing my separate audio source, but I’ve got this Blue Yeti Nano here so I can switch over to that for a more ‘streamer’ setup. The audio syncs pretty well out of the box. You can use the audio from the camera, in my case I could plug in a mic to the camera directly and use that, but really any of the options seem to work well.

There are a few setup tweaks you will need to make though. By default, the CAMLIVE and OBS will use the Rec.709 colour space, but at least with my GH5 that looks like this. Way too warm and oversaturated, so you need to manually set up the device to use Rec.601 instead.

Then, if you notice this kind of blockiness in your recordings… That’s because when using the USB C to A adapter that comes in the box, if you plug the USB C connection in “the wrong way round”, it will connect as a USB 2 device instead of USB 3.1 meaning much lower bandwidth. I’m not sure why you can plug it in “the wrong way round”, the whole point of USB C is it’s fully reversible and mirrored, so I guess they’ve hard wired it to use one side of pins, like TX/RX1 instead of both 1 and 2 for example, so the ‘reverse’ pins are not used. That seems like a bit of a design flaw, but what do I know. The same can happen with the CAMLIVE + when using it with a USB C to A cable by the way, although I got lucky on my first attempt with that.

So, you’ve seen the CAMLIVE, what about the plus? Well I thought I’d record some gameplay with that one. It’ll have to be 1080p, much like this feed, but I’ll keep the standard CAMLIVE connected to my camera and do a streamer setup.

Right, I’m playing some CSGO with my camera and recording to the laptop – I’m using the Blue Yeti Nano mic here, you should be hearing game sounds too. The playing experience is fine, there isn’t any noticeable input lag increase from the passthrough so it’s fine. Of course, I’m using a 1440p 144Hz monitor at 1080p60 so it’s not as good as it could be, but it’s reasonable enough.

To wrap this up then, if you are already set on buying either of these and are watching reviews to confirm they do what they say and work well, you can rest assured they do, barring the USB orientation and colour space bits. But if you are surveying your options, know that you can buy this type of camera capture stick for as little as £15 on Amazon (ill leave a link below for those). If you are willing to spend the ‘premium’, you’d probably be better off with the Elgato Cam Link – the brand name option – or even their more expensive 4K60 S+ which would even let you record to an SD Card, as well as do 4K60 recording. Sure it’s double the price of this CAMLIVE +, but if you need one of them you are likely business expensing it anyway so price becomes less important. These CAMLIVE devices work fine, but I can’t say they blew me away.