Magewell announced the sixth model in its Eco Capture family of ultra-compact, power-efficient, M.2 video capture cards Wednesday. Providing input signal compatibility for older 4K source equipment, the Eco Capture QL-SDI 4K M.2 captures one video channel — with embedded audio — up to 4096×2160 at 60 frames per second over quad-link, 3G-SDI connectivity.

Magewell’s Eco Capture cards video capture with low power consumption in a space-efficient form factor. The low-latency devices feature a PCIe 2.0 bus interface with an M.2 connector and measure only 22×80 millimeters (0.87×3.15 inches).

While recent 4K products often support the transport of Ultra HD video over a single, 12Gb/s SDI connection, some existing equipment still utilizes the earlier quad-link approach in which four separate SDI cables combine to carry one 4K signal — especially in rental inventory. The quad-link Eco Capture QL-SDI 4K M.2 enables integrators and OEM product designers to bring live, 4K content from these sources into their software and systems.

The new quad-link model joins five existing Eco Capture M.2 models, including two other 4K configurations: the Eco Capture SDI 4K Plus M.2, which captures one 4K source at 60fps over single-link, 12G-SDI, and the Eco Capture HDMI 4K M.2, which supports 4K video at 30fps via an HDMI interface. The Eco Capture family also includes dual-channel models that capture HD and 2K video over HDMI or SDI; and a quad-channel HD/2K model with SDI inputs. All six Eco Capture products also support up to eight channels of embedded audio per input.

Eco Capture cards are compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems and support OS-native APIs, including DirectShow, DirectKS, V4L2 and ALSA. Stream replication enables each input channel to be used by multiple software applications simultaneously with identical capture parameters. At the same time, FPGA-based video processing provides high-quality up/down/cross-scaling, picture controls, and color space conversion without tasking the host system CPU. A comprehensive SDK is also available, enabling developers to access the cards’ full feature set directly.

Here are the specs: http://magewell.com/products/eco-capture-ql-sdi-4k-m2