How to Connect a Video Capture Card?

Ever played a really great multiplayer game online and thought, “Man, I wish I could have recorded that?” Well, you can. All you need to do is purchase and set up a video capture card. These devices are easy to use and, depending on what you want, can be fairly inexpensive. A decent model can be found for as little as twenty or thirty dollars. Of course, the top quality capture cards run up to one hundred or two hundred dollars. It all depends on how often you think you’ll use it and the quality of video you’d prefer.

Once you’ve chosen your capture card and got it home, set up and operation can sometimes be tricky. The capture card will be connected to your television via RCA cables and your computer via the USB port. While you’re gaming, your computer can be recording. In order to get the capture card connected, you will need to pick up a few pieces of hardware.

First, you’ll need a couple of RCA cables. These are the cables with the red, yellow, and white male ends through which your game system plugs into your television. In this case, you’ll need the type of RCA cables with two sets of male ends. You’ll also need one of the female adaptors. This will look like the three female inputs on your television, back to back. Into one side of the female adaptor you will insert three RCA two-way splitters. This type of adaptor has one male side and two female.

Once you have the two-way splitters connected, connect one of the RCA cables to the other side of the female adaptor. The other end of that RCA cable will plug into the capture card. The second RCA cable will be input into one side of the two-way splitter. Be sure to line up the colors: red to red, white to white, and yellow to yellow. Plug the other end of the RCA cable into your television. The cables from your game system will plug into the other side of the two-way splitter. Finally, plug the capture card into the USB port on your computer and you should be ready to capture video of your gaming exploits.