# Using a video capture card **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2025, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883 "2025-12-20T04:53:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/21 "2025-12-21T16:56:32Z")
> [@Kedikat](#): > > But many providers use the same hardware. Just paying each other for use of bandwidth. What do you mean by this? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/22 "2025-12-21T16:58:29Z")
BTW, the next time you experience a slowdown, a simple test you can do is to turn on the hotspot on your phone and connect the same computer to it and try browsing the same websites. Are they still slow then? ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/23 "2025-12-21T17:02:54Z")
The infrastructure of telecommunications is often built by one company. Often long ago. As new companies come into play, due to regulatory changes, they simply buy bandwidth on the existing infrastructure owned by the original builder. So if I am experiencing a problem due to infrastructure fault, it may be present with another provider too. If they are using the same infrastructure, Also need to change all my Email too. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/24 "2025-12-21T17:08:14Z")
I see. Maybe some parts are shared, especially further upstream or fiber bottlenecks out of your city, but that’s not something you can easily determine as a consumer without tracing all the hops from each provider. Might be worth a shot still. The phone hotspot is an easy enough test. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/25 "2025-12-21T17:08:47Z")
> [@Kedikat](#): > > Also need to change all my Email too. You mean you have it tied to your ISP? Darn, that does complicate things. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/26 "2025-12-21T17:13:40Z")
Yeah. The service has been excellent for over 15 years now. But they were recently bought out by another major. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/27 "2025-12-21T17:31:55Z")
OK, assuming for the moment that you’re stuck with your current ISP, another set of tests you could run (in addition to pings and speedtests) is to record your browser’s actual network connections to the various servers and see how they are performing through the day. You do that with the network inspector: - For Chrome: [Inspect network activity  |  Chrome DevTools  |  Chrome for Developers](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/network) - For Edge: [Inspect network activity - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation | Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/devtools/network/) - Firefox and others should have the same tool It lets you see whether all the resources are universally slow, or only certain servers/endpoints. If you’re in the US browsing other US sites, most things should take under 200-300 ms (milliseconds). If you ever see things that are 5000 ms+, something is wrong. If EVERYTHING is over 5000 ms+ (or 30,000 ms+, as in 30+ seconds) then something is very terribly, horribly wrong. If you can then switch the same device over to the phone hotspot and record it again and it’s much faster, then you have some solid technical evidence that their shit is fucked. (It’s not that we don’t believe you, it’s that the ISP will do everything they can to disclaim responsibility and you have to batter down their resistance.) But even with evidence, that doesn’t mean they have to fix it… AFAIK there are no agencies with sufficient teeth to do anything about a bad ISP. The FTC (and/or FCC) tried and failed during the Democrat years, and then were subsequently completely gutted. It’s a wild west out there and you’re on your own… =/ If this only happened after they were bought out, it’s very likely a deliberate cost-savings measure imposed by the new owners. ISPs are some of the yuckiest, most exploitative businesses out there. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/28 "2025-12-21T21:47:23Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > (It’s not that we don’t believe you Perfectly fine to doubt my analysis so far. Internet issues are complex and I certainly could overlook something. I am now setting up a previous router from scratch with the most basic configuration and will plug that in for a week to see if there are differences. The issue seems very universal except for the variation in time of day and day of week. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/29 "2025-12-21T21:58:43Z")
The thing that makes me believe it is external to my hardware setup is the time variance. Right now every site I visit and use works fine. Including this one. Last night sites were barely functional, including this one. My router time is correct at all times. Incorrect time can cause some weird issues. But all my hardware keeps time. Early morning my system works very well. Later in the evening it goes to hell. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/30 "2025-12-21T22:03:20Z")
I currently run a nice NUC with Opensense and Openvpn as router. With a wifi AP. Worked fine for a year or more. But the setup on the NUC is more complex than the usual off the shelf router. So I will try the old one in its place. Doing without a service or two for a week. Soon is the time to rob my house I guess. Slim pickings though. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/31 "2025-12-21T22:04:11Z")
I mean, I entirely believe you. That sort of congestion was very common in the 2000s and 2010s with oversubscribed cable ISPs. DOCSIS is better now, bandwidth is cheaper now and fiber is more common, but it’s still possible some regional ISPs simply don’t have the bandwidth to support their customer base. Especially if somebody bought them and thought “how could we decrease costs or milk our highest users more”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/32 "2025-12-21T23:40:49Z")
Y’all are far enough along in solving the OP’s needs that what follows seems OK for FQ. I just wanted to stop by and point out this a fantastic example of what’s termed an “XY problem”. Not my idea of a great term, but the Masses have Spoken and here we are. See: **[XY Problem](https://www.perlmonks.org/?node=XY+Problem)** for background. An XY problem is when somebody has problem _X_ and decides, based on insufficient knowledge, that they will proceed down a particular pathway to solving _X_. Along the way they hit a roadblock with a subproblem, _Y_, that they can’t solve. So they ask their lifeline / the public / the Dope, how to solve problem Y _without mentioning the existence of problem X_, the one they really need to solve. Lots of effort is then spent on solving Y, when the actual smart way to solve X lies in a totally different direction that completely obviates the need for dealing with _Y_ at all. This OP’s post is sort of an XY_ **Z** _ problem in that video capture cards are irrelevant to capturing screen output as a vid, and capturing screen output as a vid is totally irrelevant to identifying the source of network performance issues and _mostly_ irrelevant to convincing a crappy ISP to do something about performance issues. No disrespect is meant to the OP. The fact this solution process failure has a widely recognized name proves they have plenty of company out in the wild. All of us are prone to creating XY problems. I sure have on many occasions. which is part of why I recognize them when I see them 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/33 "2025-12-22T01:08:51Z")
My original post was answered well. It had nothing to do with solving the technical issues of my internet. Just a question about a particular card. I felt it polite and likely helpful to myself to interact with folks offering further help with the background issue. If the generous folks here can provide me with Y and Z as well as the original X, thanks very much to them. Also. I have the alternate router online. It worked as well as the original one until about an hour ago. Then exhibited the same problem. The alternate is the simplest basic setup. Attached to a Microsoft Surface Pro fully up to date. Right now this website is having issues with me writing this post. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/34 "2025-12-22T01:27:02Z")
Did you try the phone hotspot? Or a neighbor’s wifi, if they’re from a different (or even the same) ISP? Both can help in diagnosis. Is your phone, connected to the same wifi, also slow? Android and iOS are both more resistant to malware and random background processes than Windows, even a fully up-to-date one. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/35 "2025-12-22T01:55:20Z")
Not yet. I will try the Surface Pro with that. Now that I have verified that device has the same issue. I suspect it will be fine. My daily driver PC does not have WIFI enabled. Hardware is there. But I prefer to leave it disabled. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/36 "2025-12-22T03:07:09Z")
My phone is connected to my home network through a VPN to control and surveillance devices. It occasionally disconnects due to me being in metallic surroundings while working. The data load is very minimal when connected so it is hard to tell if a lag is happening. I usually work during the day, so my home network is likely not experiencing that lag at those times. Evening is when the issue happens worst. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883/37 "2026-01-15T09:29:42Z")
Good video cards have an MPEG encoder to help with capturing video from the computer … The same software may be able to get a reasonable video from GPU chips without the mpeg encoder. You are recording your down screen , and they even make it to capture the game (directX ) grahics, not just your non-directx screen… Theres a youtube video # **“Best FREE Screen Recording Software 2026 With No Watermarks”** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-video-capture-card/1025883.md?page=1)