Over the past year or so we’ve been concentrating on our Steam Deck videos, looking at various games and if they run on the Deck. To do this I was using an Ivolar dock from Amazon plugged directly into my Elgato HD60 internal capture card and recording through OBS. Well, I’ve just got a new solution to try, and one that looks much nicer on the desk, but also one that comes with a whole raft of features. It’s called the AVerMedia GC515 Capture Dock, and it’s a USB-based external capture device that can capture video from various handheld and mobile devices. I’ve replaced my current dock with this new GC515, so that’s what we’re going to be talking about in this video, my experience with the GC515 and the Steam Deck OLED. Stay tuned.
So I think the best thing to do is talk about how the GC515 works because in terms of connections, it looks like it has a lot but in reality, it really doesn’t and in actual fact, it’s so extremely simple to set up, and you can either use it with a PC or as a standalone unit too if you plug a little microSD card into the side. Anyway, let’s talk about the setup. I’ve currently got mine plugged into my desktop using the USB Type-C input on the right and this can produce a maximum recording resolution of 4K at 30FPS, or if you’re willing to drop your resolution down, you can get a 1080p image at 120Hz which is more in line with what you could expect from consoles. However, playing from the Steam Deck, chances are you’re not going to be getting frame rates quite that high anyway to take full advantage. Next to that, you can find two USB Type-A ports for peripherals like microphones, keyboards, mice and controllers. Next to that is an HDMI passthrough output which is capable of 4K 60FPS when plugged into compatible monitors or TV screens for nice smooth video playback, however, do not get this confused with the video capture ability. This is playback only.

Across from that is for passing through power. So for example, my Steam Deck power supply is plugged into this port, and power is capped at 65 watts which isn’t too bad, and can easily keep a Steam Deck powered while in use. The final USB Type-C port is designed to run to your handheld or tablet, which is what I’ve got plugged into my Steam Deck and a small Type-C to Type-C cable is included. Please note at this point that there is no power adapter in the box, so you will need to rely on an external power supply from your handheld or tablet. There’s a USB Type-C to Type-A cable included to connect it to your PC, and the length is actually pretty generous and could stretch the length of my desk to my desktop with ease.
So this is how I’ve got mine set up, and I do have an Xbox controller plugged into one of the USB ports too so I can play games more easily. And with that, I can detect the GC515 Capture Dock as a Video Capture Device inside of OBS, change my video settings like a standard Video Capture Device can, and then my Steam Deck screen will show in the preview window. However, this is where issues began to start for me, and that’s with the latency between your input and what happens on screen. It’s huge, and that’s a bit of a shame because on my old setup, I used to rely on the preview window in OBS to play the game I was capturing, and this ran really smoothly for me and sure there was a smidge of input lag, but nowhere near what the GC515 produces. With this AVerMedia dock, I have to rely on the HDMI output to one of my monitors which means I lose desktop real estate as one monitor becomes dedicated to a game only. I tried plugging it into several USB ports on my motherboard including high-speed ports, and also using a Type-C to Type-C cable and plugging it in there, but no difference at all and the input lag to properly use OBS Studio as your preview just makes games really unplayable.

Testing this through the AVerMedia Streaming Centre, and using that preview window, the input lag was a lot better, but it did still remain, and it made playing reaction-based games like Hollow Knight to be a bit of a challenge. Yes I know I am only picking holes in how the GC515 fits into my setup and if you’re a creator who commentates over the top of let’s plays, or wants to capture gameplay for future use, then this device hits the jackpot because as mentioned you can directly record to a microSD card without the need for a PC.
However, do note that this device will only capture your gameplay and while the marketing materials state that this can be used with a microphone, like the AVerMedia Versati Go I’m using here, the microphone can only be used to override the built-in microphone on the Steam Deck for things like Discord or Steam chat while in multiplayer games. Unfortunately, you cannot record your voice to the footage in real-time, and this to me is a big missed trick for content creators who regularly record let’s play videos for their YouTube channels. They could have used a piece of kit like this to completely bypass any editing needed. Just stick the footage onto your laptop and get it uploaded to YouTube, complete with voice-over and game audio. But this unfortunately isn’t the case.
And this is where quality options kick in, because there are a couple to choose from when recording with a microSD card. Inside of the Streaming Centre, you can choose between using an h.264 or h.265 codec, with Good, Quality or Optimal as your three different recording qualities. Of course, h.265 is the newer codec, but honestly between the two, you’re not going to be noticing anything different in your gameplay footage as you can see on screen right now. Not enough to warrant the larger files that the h.265 codec produces anyway, which again is a little strange considering it’s supposed to be the more optimal codec. Also do be warned that these settings look to only affect the recording to the microSD card. OBS Studio with my content, when it came to streaming on YouTube or recording to my desktop, took over, and the GC515 merely became a capture card.
Being called the Streaming Centre, it can be used to live stream directly to Twitch, YouTube or TikTok and it’s got some simple controls to create a scenes. None anywhere as in-depth as OBS Studio but it’ll do the trick. You can also opt for a vertical or horizontal capture, platform dependant of course, though I did experience some crashing while trying to do this and had to give it some perseverance. There’s a cut transition between scenes though no fade which is a shame, and you can opt to record up to 4K 6FPS and set your streaming bitrate settings and all of that inside of the settings menu which is handy depending on the platform you’re streaming to and also your bitrate and internet connection. You do need to provide a stream key and server though before streaming, something that OBS does for you automatically now when you log into your account. Updating the firmware for me was super ropey and crashed on several occasions, and after experiencing this with the software I just really left it alone and did all of my recording either directly to a microSD card or OBS.

Let’s look at the physical dock for now because for one I am impressed with how it looks. It’s quite smart looking, and coming in the space grey colour, it definitely fits in with my setup here. Having the blue light across the front is tasteful yet modern, and it does flash red so you know it’s recording. It is very plasticy which does give off a cheaper feel, and the recording button on the front is pretty responsive for me. My Steam Deck sits in there very nicely and I’m not worried about it falling or tipping. It has got a plastic front to hold it but a rubber rear to protect it from any kind of scratches.
So the AVerMedia GC515, how can I conclude this video? Well, it’s a niche product and one that is really only aimed at those handheld gamers or tablet users. It’s very narrow in terms of scope, and I think the inclusion of an HDMI input on the back of this thing as a passthrough could be your all-in-one solution for content creation and capturing content so you could say have a PS5 and capture video from there, and then switch to your Deck and capture video from there. You know, some kind of all-in-one solution rather than just a narrow handheld aim. For content creation when using it with a PC, I do however think that AVerMedia need to think about the delay when using it with OBS Studio, because so many content creators out there right now are using OBS for their videos, and your reactions in real-time may not line up with such a delay. Imagine playing a horror game and you’ve had a jump scare on your game screen, only for the jump scare to happen a second or two later on your OBS feed. It needs looking at. But maybe that’s not the aim here. Maybe the aim is more for people who need to capture good quality and clean footage from a handheld console or tablet. It means if you’re a gamer you can kick back, relax, record your footage and get it uploaded to edit another time. It costs £179 on Amazon right now, and there’s an affiliate link below if you wanted to check it out for yourself.