Magewell Pro Capture Quad SDI

About this product

When a production PC has to take every camera in the room, the Pro Capture Quad SDI gives it four SDI inputs from a single slot. It is aimed at live production, event recording and capture servers where four separate cards would cost you slots you need for other things. The card fits inside a desktop computer or server and takes four SDI sources at once, the coaxial video connection used by broadcast cameras. It hands the uncompressed picture and sound to software on that computer, which then records, streams or switches it. It is a four-channel HD PCIe capture card.

What goes in

• SDI. Four BNC inputs accepting SD, HD and 3G-SDI, including 2K at 2048×1080, which is the largest input picture. Each input appears in software as a separate capture device, so you can switch or record each camera on its own.
• Long cables. A built-in equaliser allows cable runs up to 150 metres for 3G-SDI, 190 metres for HD-SDI and 330 metres for SD-SDI, which suits halls and venues where the cameras are far from the desk.
• Audio. Up to eight mono channels of embedded audio per input at 48 kHz, so sound travels on the same coax as the picture. These are channels 1 to 8 of the 16 that SDI can carry.
• Feeding monitors too. All four BNCs are capture inputs. To feed monitors as well, use a distribution amplifier or the loop outputs of your cameras or router, or choose one of the one and two-channel SDI cards with loop-through.

Signal details

With dual-link and 3Gb dual-stream signals, the card captures the first link or first stream. Closed captions are available to developers through the SDK. Every input is SDI; for HDMI sources, see the Pro Capture Quad HDMI.

Less work for your computer

Video processing happens on the card, leaving the computer’s processor free for your software, which helps when one machine is switching four cameras. The card handles cropping, scaling (up or down conversion), de-interlacing, aspect ratio conversion, colour space conversion and frame rate conversion, all with 10-bit processing. A PNG image can be overlaid as an on-screen display. One input can feed an unlimited number of capture streams at once, each with its own resolution, frame rate and colour format, so two programs can use the same source in different sizes. That lets you record a camera in one program while another streams it. Scaling makes the picture fit the size you ask for.

Fitting it in a computer

• Slot. PCIe Gen2 x4. It fits a slot that is physically x4 or longer; x8 and x16 slots also accept it, so you can use whichever is free.
• Size. A normal-profile card, 112.15 × 102.92 mm without the bracket, so it needs a full-height slot. For a low-profile (half-height) chassis, see the Pro Capture Dual SDI.
• Power. About 17.1 W at most, taken from the slot, with no extra power lead.
• More cameras later. A rotary switch on the card gives each one a number (0 to F), so several can sit in one computer and be told apart in software.

Works with the software you already use

• Operating systems. Windows 10, 11 and Server 2016 to 2025, Linux (kernel 2.6.35 and above, including ARM) and macOS.
• Standard interfaces. DirectShow on Windows, V4L2 on Linux and AVCaptureSession on macOS, so you can use it with OBS, vMix, Wirecast, XSplit, VLC and other compatible programs.
• Magewell software. Magewell’s Capture Express program is included software, and a Capture SDK is offered for developers on Windows, Linux and Mac.

Where it sits in the range

If you need loop-through outputs, the Pro Capture Dual SDI has one per input and is low profile, and the single-channel Pro Capture SDI has one on BNC. For four HDMI inputs, see the Pro Capture Quad HDMI. All cards are on the Pro Capture range page.