Ultra.
The purpose of an Elgato Capture Card is to allow you to record or stream your gameplay from a console (such as a Playstation 4 or Xbox One) to your PC, or from one PC to another.
Elgato Capture Cards
In order to use these capture cards you will need the Elgato Game Capture HD software. To use these cards in Streamlabs Desktop you will need to do some minor configurations.
Initial Configuration on the Console or Gaming PC
First, make sure that the card is connected properly to each device, and that the settings are configured correctly in your console. Here are some videos from Elgato explaining the set up for each unique device.
- Playstation 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfP0qbT5fAw
- Xbox One - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPT6V_G-Kho
- Nintendo Switch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_N4AmYKzV8
- PC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6h3j6I60Vg
You can find other various guides for different devices on Elgato’s YouTube Channel.
Streamlabs Desktop Set Up
To get your Elgato Capture Card to work within a streaming software, you first need to make sure that there is no other software running currently open and using the Elgato Capture Card. This includes the Elgato HD Game Capture Software. To be certain, make sure that you only have Streamlabs Desktop and this guide opened when doing this set up.
- In Streamlabs Desktop, add a new Source that is called Video Capture Device
- Title the source Elgato (or similar). (See video) showing how to do this.
- After adding the source, it will show you the Properties for this source.
- Next to Device, make sure that you have Elgato Game Capture HD selected, and nothing else.
- Make sure that Deactivate when not showing is checked. Every other setting should be ignored. (See screenshot) showing all of the settings you should have set in this menu. If it doesn’t look the same, then configure it to the way it shows in the screenshot provided.
- Click on Configure Video to open the Elgato Configuration Menu
- Configure the video settings for the card itself. Depending on the device you are capturing, select that device in Input Device in this menu. Make sure that with Analog Audio is not selected (unless it’s otherwise needed - more on that later).
- You can change the profile to your liking, usually HD 1080, but you can do HD 720 as well.
- You can either have Allow 60 fps checked or unchecked, but that is up to you.
- Everything else in this menu can be ignored.
- Press Done at the bottom of both menus that are open.
At this point, make sure that your console or gaming PC is turned on. If your console of PC is turned on, and the Video Capture Device Source is added and configured properly in Streamlabs Desktop, you should be seeing a video feed of your device (see screenshot).
If you do not see your device feed:
- Close Streamlabs Desktop and reopen as administrator
- Try deactivating and reactivating the Elgato source by right clicking on the source and going into properties
If you still do not see the source, scroll back up to the top, and repeat the steps checking to make sure to complete each step correctly.
Elgato Audio Capturing Within Streamlabs Desktop
Once you have added the Elgato source in to Streamlabs Desktop, you will notice that in the Mixer your Elgato has automatically been added as an audio device.
To test your audio on your Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, or whatever other device you may be using:
- Make sure you have some sort of audio playing, whether it be a video, or game music or sounds.
- Ensure that your headset is plugged in to your Streaming PC/laptop
- Once you have confirmed that your console/gaming PC is making noise, look in Streamlabs Desktop and see if the audio bar for the Elgato source is moving in the Mixer area
- You will likely not hear the audio. We will fix that later. (See video of audio bars moving)
To make it so that you and your viewers are able to hear your gameplay you will need to have Audio Monitoring enabled on the Elgato source.
- Click on the icon next to the word Mixer in Streamlabs Desktop to open up the Advanced Audio Properties.
- You should see a list of all of your audio devices, including the Elgato audio device.
- Next to the Elgato device under Audio Monitoring click on the drop down menu and set it to Monitor and Output. (See screenshot)
- If you hear your audio then are then you are done with this process.
- If not, then you will want to check a few settings.
- First, you will want to make sure that in your Windows Sound Settings, you have the correct device selected as the default device.
- Right click on the icon in the bottom right corner of your screen, and click on Sounds. Click on the Playback tab at the top, and look at your devices. Make sure that in these settings, you have the device you want to hear your PC audio through selected.
- For this example, it is the Logitech Speakers - NVIDIA High Definition Audio. (See screenshot)
- The name of the device can vary from user to user, so you will need to know which device is the correct one.
If you are certain that you have the correct device selected, but are still not hearing your devices audio through Streamlabs Desktop, then we need to check Streamlabs Desktop settings.
- Click on the settings cog on the left bar in Streamlabs Desktop
- Go to the Advanced settings and look under Audio where it says Audio Monitoring Device
- Make sure that the device you have in the Playback settings from earlier is selected here
- For this example it would be the Logitech Speakers - NVIDIA High Definition Audio. (See screenshot)
- At this point, you should be able to hear the audio from your device (console or second PC) through the Elgato source within Streamlabs Desktop.
- If this is not working scroll back up to the top and complete the steps again ensuring that each is done correctly
What You Should Know
There are many variables when it comes to setting up an Elgato and certain devices that you should be made aware of.
Party chat audio and headsets plugged into PS4 controllers
- If you are using the Playstation 4 as your device and have a headset connected to the Playstation 4 controller, you will need an Elgato Chat Link, in order to be able to hear any voice communications from PS4 Party chat members on your stream or recording.
- The Elgato Chat Link costs about $10 USD.
- To set this up go back up in this guide under Streamlabs Desktop Set Up, and go directly to the area that talks about Analog Audio. If you need to use the Elgato Chat Link you will need to have Analog Audio checked in those settings.
- There is also a configuration that you may need to do within the Playstation 4 Audio Settings as well. To learn more about what the Elgato Chat Link is, (See video).
- Your Elgato device can not be in use in another software, or more than once within a single software
- This is due to how the drivers for the Elgato Capture Card work. If you are using Streamlabs Desktop, and Streamlabs Desktop is using the Elgato, then the device will not work in the Elgato Game Capture HD Software, nor will it work within another streaming software, such as OBS Studio, at the same time.
- This also means that you would not be able to add another Elgato source within Streamlabs Desktop without duplicating the source itself
- If you need to add the Elgato source a 2nd time within Streamlabs Desktop within a different scene simply select "add as existing".
- This will duplicate the source, allowing you to have the Elgato be ran more than once within the software itself.
**Be sure to select "shutdown when not visible" on all of your Elgato and Video Capture Device sources
If you are still unable to get your Elgato to work within Streamlabs Desktop make sure that you don’t have more than one Elgato Source added within Streamlabs Desktop
- Remove every Elgato Source you have added, and add a single one back
- It is very important that you watch the setup video pertaining to the console that you are using with the Elgato and follow all of the steps carefully. There are a few settings that need to be changed on your console in order for the capture card to function properly
Still Not Working?
If you have tried everything in this guide, and are still not able to hear the audio via monitoring you may need to clear your cache data.
**Please contact a customer support representative before deleting your cache for instructions and to upload your current cache for investigation**