Magewell Eco Capture Dual HDMI M.2

Two HDMI Capture Channels from an M.2 Slot: No PCIe Required

The Magewell Eco Capture Dual HDMI M.2 installs directly into an M.2 slot on a motherboard, captures two independent HDMI channels at up to 1080p60 per channel, and requires no PCIe expansion slot. At £276, it is one of the more genuinely innovative products in Magewell's range, and one that many buyers have not encountered before: a full-featured dual-channel HDMI capture card in M.2 form factor.

What Is M.2 Capture and Why Does It Exist?

M.2 is the connector standard most people associate with NVMe SSDs. The slot is present on the vast majority of modern motherboards, and increasingly it is also present in compact systems that do not have PCIe card slots at all: NUC-style PCs, mini-ITX and micro-ATX builds, embedded computing systems, and compact rack servers based on small form factor motherboards. The M.2 slot carries PCIe lanes, and Magewell's Eco Capture M.2 cards use those lanes for video capture, in exactly the same way a PCIe card uses a PCIe slot. The physical card is roughly the size of an M.2 NVMe SSD. Installation is simpler than a PCIe card: no bracket, no slot cover to remove, no edge connector to seat carefully. You insert it at an angle, press it flat, and secure it with a single retaining screw. If you have fitted an NVMe SSD, you already know how to install this card.

What It Captures

The Eco Capture Dual HDMI M.2 provides two independent HDMI input channels, each capturing at up to 1080p60. Both channels operate simultaneously from separate sources. FPGA processing handles signal conversion on the card. Each channel presents as an independent capture device to the host OS and production software.

When to Choose M.2 Over PCIe

The M.2 format is the right choice in specific deployment scenarios:

• Compact PCs and NUC-style systems that have M.2 slots but no PCIe card expansion slots
• Embedded and industrial computing systems where board space and slot count are tightly constrained
• Servers with available M.2 slots but fully occupied PCIe slots already allocated to GPU, RAID, or networking cards
• Any deployment where board space, chassis size, or cooling clearance makes a full PCIe capture card impractical

If your system has available PCIe slots and you need resolution above 1080p60, a Pro Capture HDMI card will give you higher ceiling options. The Eco Capture M.2 range trades the upper resolution ceiling of PCIe for the ability to install in hardware where PCIe is simply not available.

Eco Capture vs Pro Capture

The Eco Capture range sits below the Pro Capture range in Magewell's lineup. Pro Capture targets broadcast and production environments requiring 24/7-rated operation and the full professional driver feature set. For permanent broadcast infrastructure running continuously at maximum load, Pro Capture PCIe remains the primary recommendation. For compact, flexible, and space-constrained deployments where PCIe is not an option, the Eco Capture M.2 range is the solution that makes capture possible at all.

Software Compatibility

Compatible with vMix, Wirecast, OBS Studio, Adobe Premiere Pro, and FFmpeg. Supported on Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server; Linux kernel 3.x and above; and macOS 10.14 and later.

StreamKit and UK Purchasing

StreamKit is an authorised UK Magewell reseller. The Eco Capture Dual HDMI M.2 carries Magewell's three-year warranty. All UK orders ship free. UK technical support is available for pre-sales and post-purchase queries, including M.2 slot compatibility guidance for specific systems.