I’ve got several Ugreen high-powered USB charging docks and various cables from them as well that I’ve been impressed with over the last few years, but I was surprised when I saw their name on a video capture card, especially around the 20 price mark. My hopes weren’t high of a decent product at that price, but I’ve been surprised.

For the last few years I’ve tested a number of video capture cards similar to this, but I always go back to the Elgato HD60S that I used to have, and more recently the Elgato HD60X. Both of those are products I purchased myself and have reliably seen me through over three years of YouTube gaming videos. They’re also much more expensive than the kind of capture device we’re looking at here, most crucially because they’re video pass-through devices. That means that it captures the signal from your device (in my case a PS5) on the way to your display (in my case an LG OLED telly). The Elgato HD60X does that without interrupting the quality of the signal from the PS5, so I maintain my HDR and VRR features that the HD60S removed. Those kinds of video capture devices are crucial if you want to play on a separate device to your computer, which I do.

If you’re perfectly happy with playing your games on your computer while recording, rather than another display device, then these more budget-friendly video capture devices might be all you need.

The UGreen video capture device is small item with a HDMI port on one end and a fixed USB cable on the other, with a choice of either USB-A or USB-C port attachments to plug into your computer.

Plug the HDMI cable coming out of your console and into the UGreen. Connect the UGreen to a spare USB-A or USB-C slot on your computer. This may override your Windows sound settings so check that everything is as it should be. In my case it over-rode the default microphone from my Blue Yeti to the UGreen. If it does that, change it back to what you want it to be.

From here, you’re going to need some software to capture your video on. The UGreen does not come with an software so you’ll need to provide this yourself. In fairness, while Elgato supplies a piece of software for video capture, I don’t use that myself. Like most people I will use a free open source application such as either OBS Studio or, my own preference, Streamlabs OBS. What you use is up to you, but I’ll show you I got Streamlabs to work correctly.

If using Streamlabs you need to add the UGreen to your sources. So, “Add a new source to your scene” by clicking the + in a white circle. Select “Video Capture Device” and then “Add Source”. The next pop-up will list any video devices you currently have connected, such as webcams, but move the slider where it says “Add a new source instead”, and then click “Add source”. You’ll get an opportunity to name the device, or leave it as the default “Video Capture Device” name. When happy, click “Add Source”. On the next window there’s a drop down which will list all of your available devices, and hopefully the Ugreen will be there. Mine said “UGreen 25854”. When you select that after a few moments the screen will refresh and you should see a display from your console (assuming it’s on of course).

At this point, I had video but no sound. It took me a little while to figure out why not, which included trying the UGreen plugged into USB-A and USB-C, turning other devices on an off, playing around with Windows Sound Options and tearing apart Streamlabs looking for the correct option. It turns out that on the same screen that you selected Ugreen from the drop down you need to scroll to the bottom and tick the box that says “Use custom audio device” and from the drop down select Microphone (Ugreen). Then, and we’re nearly there, you need to go into the Advanced Audio Settings in Streamlabs, which you access by clicking on the little cog on the Mixer window next to any of the device, expanding the Ugreen device and changing the Audio Monitoring to “Monitor Only (Mute output)”. At that point sound roared out of my speakers as I’d turned the volume up to max trying to get it to work.

Yours may work differently, but that’s what I had to do to get mine to work. A bit of a faff and no instruction on that anywhere, but having sussed it the video capture device is spot on.

I’ve been playing Gran Turismo 7 on it and there is very little lag between input and what I’m seeing on my computer monitor. I’m not saying that pro-gamers will be totally happy, but I think it’s perfectly reasonable for the majority of users.

From what I’ve seen, for the cost of the unit, I’m very impressed. It took a bit of figuring out to get it to work with Streamlabs, but critically it does work once you suss it out. The capture device only gets slightly warm with use, not hot like I’ve experienced on others. It works fine on USB-A or USB-C connections. Recordings of video and sound are good. So, yes, short of spending anything between 5 and 10 times as much on an Elgato or similar high-end capture device, I think this is a great entry point into the world of game streaming.

This capture card is very good, captures excellently at 1080p 60 FPS with almost no input lag.

Works just as well via either the USB C or USB A connection

The build quality is very good, it’s also very light and compact.

All of the sockets and plugs fit nicely, no issues there.

This can be used for live streaming, standard video capture or for converting a photo camera with hdmi output into a webcam.

I’m very happy with this, worked without any issues at all.

Box contained device with connection diagram and a quick start guide for OBS Studio. Other options include VLC and guvcview for video capture, recording and/or streaming. Recognised in linux as “1de1:f105 Actions Microelectronics Co. UGREEN 25854” USB 2.0 device. Also has USB-C option for use direct with compatible tablet or phones.

Following the setup advice for OBS, was able to get a sharp and responsive capture of a HDMI input device. Could therefore record to file and RTSP stream to phone. By then plugging into graphic card’s HDMI output, could create a video feedback loop to observe lag times. They were being barely noticeable, even 3 or 4 iterations had insignificant video delay. Photo shows it with no input connected, as otherwise might have issues with copyright.