A lot was posted all over the internet about capturing HDMI output and whether CamLink is worth its $120 price tag since there are $20 alternatives out there. Trying to decide for myself I googled around and all I found were discussions on image/video quality, like this very informative video from Tech Audit TV:
What this (and similar videos) don’t go into, but what is as important, is what these dongles really do, because that’s where the rub is.
TL; DR
| Elgato Camlink 4k | China HDMI to USB dongle |
| does not do scaling of image | scales image to set size |
| passes through raw data stream | compresses data stream to MJPEG |
| PC side needs to process data rate at resolution and fps the camera sends it | PC side can request data at lower rate (resolution, fps) |
| Provides the actual camera fps | Provides own fps, you can select from a list, but for non-standard ones you are at loss |
