Diamond GC1000 HD 1080 Game Console Video Capture Device Review

Thanks to the Diamond MM site I can show you the actual interface from the DMCap software.  As you can see here the software uses a pop-up style menu that hides like your start bar when not in use.  Icons are (from Left to Right) Capture, Snapshot, Display Ratio, Volume Down and Up, Mute, Playback, Schedule Record, Source Input and Setup.   Video is slightly delayed and there is a noticeable pause in video when games like BioShock Infinite switch over to a cut scene.

Recording settings allow you to set your recording quality as Low, Med or High.  Change the resolution and the ratio.  The Snapshot can be used both at idle and during recording.  Video captured by the GC1000 can only be stored as a MPEG-2 TS Video (.ts). This file format restricts your options for editing and for uploading to sites like YouTube without first converting the file.  It’s an odd choice but Diamond has provided some solid software for video file manipulation in the included Power Director software.

The DIAMOND USB 2.0 GC1000 HD 1080 Game Console Video Capture Device or GC1000 is an interesting device that seems destined to fill the needs of a small group.  The external design pared with the small software footprint makes portability an option and with no external power supply you only need to pack the device and a length of USB 2.0. 

It is important to note that the GC1000 is an external video encoder and is one reason why video can be saved over the slower USB 2.0 interface.  The device does support HD video at 1080i and the videos are compressed using H.264.  Because the videos are encoded in real time you will notice some lag when recording which is why having an active video pass-thru is so important.   Sadly broadcast programs like OBS are not able to capture the encoded video stream unless you do a window capture which will encode the video again and possibly introduce even more compression artifacts.

I had countless issues trying to get the GC1000 to play nicely with my home theater and it all came down to HDCP protection over HDMI.  I know hating on HDCP and 1080i is like bashing Steam DRM.  It is something we must accept or work around.  Sadly in my opinion the Diamond GC 1000 was designed for devices in a pre-1080p and pre-Twitch world and has largely been replaced by on demand streaming in the PS4.  Still like every niche piece of hardware the GC1000 does get the job done, it just isn’t for everyone.