Everyone is interested in virtually connecting. But what is the best device for your needs? 

Magewell offers several Families of products which have a target use in mind. And yes. There are no limits to other uses but we can easily sort out the best tool for the job by keeping one thing in mind. What are you trying to do?

Overall the USB Capture, Pro Capture, Pro Convert and UltraStream all allow you to ingest a traditional video signal and do something useful with it. However where that input signal is going will determine what tool or product is best for your application.

USB Capture Family line of devices is simply the easiest way to bring a HDMI, SDI or DVI signal into a host computer. It uses USB 3.1 to connect to your system. Its driverless - plug and play technology makes installation painless and becomes a audio and video source just like a webcam. This allows the flexibility to use hundreds of software tiles. Core applications are Desktop Conferencing, Webcasting, Non-Linear Editing and many other types of software that use video on your computer.

Pro Capture Family capture cards are PCIe connected devices that are installed inside a computer and require drivers to be installed. The core uses and application compatibility are about the same as the USB Capture devices. However, the drivers that come with the Pro Convert family also allow for further depth of advanced features exposed though the Magewell SDK. The Pro Capture Family offers a much wider range signal types and densities. As well, the PCIe connection also offers much higher throughput which equals higher frame rate. As well as multiple HD channels (single, dual and quad), 4K/UHD and Dual 4K/UHD.

If you really need more channels we know of an undocumented trick to change a Dual 12G SDI card into Eight 3G SDI channels. 

Pro Convert Family of devices are the easiest way to convert a traditional signal to a Video over IP protocol, like NDI. These devices do not require a computer -HDMI or SDI in one side and Ethernet out the other. Any NDI compatible system or device on the LAN will be able to find and consume the signal. The low latency of these devices make them great for contribution into a Live Production environment. Or simply as a virtual cable from camera to output by using a Pro Convert NDI to HDMI or NDI to SDI which consumes NDI signals and turns itback into standard video signal. 

UltraStream Family is the simplest way to publish a live RTMP stream to Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Twitch or any CDN that accepts an RTMP inbound stream. No Computer is needed. All you need to do is configure it once and then push buttons to start recording or streaming live. Configuration is now available via it's dedicated mobile app or web control panel.

To recap....

USB Capture - USB connected, Plug and Play = super easy, compatible with virtually any software. 

Pro Capture - PCIe connected, lots of signal options, lots of power compatible with a wide range of software

Pro Convert - Quick and easy way to bring video into the network. 

UltraStream - super simple RTMP live streaming without a computer.