Is this normal for the 3DS capture software? (preview stutter and frame drops)

[slowmomatt]

One goal I had when purchasing a 3DS capture card was being able to play things in a more console fashion on my TV. However when I try to play the 3DS using the capture software preview, or other previews such as OBS, there is a very noticeable stutter/lag and consistent drop to 30fps from 60 as I play.

I suspect this has to do with v-sync but changing the v-sync settings for the 3DS capture software does not change the preview or the stutter. I have also tried this on a laptop I own and I run into identical issues.

The catch however is that everything that I record, whether through the capture software's built in recording, or even OBS, does not exhibit this stutter/behavior at all in the final output file. It is perfectly fluid with no issues.

Is this stutter/v-sync issue just an inherent part of the capture software that I have to deal with, or is there something I can do to fix this? I have included two clips to show what I am talking about:

3DS capture preview as I see it on my screen (has stutter/frame drops): https://youtu.be/1d4bMTyevY0
3DS final output file (does not have stutter/frame drops): https://youtu.be/iwa0GMM84iI

[anthreyony]

I believe I've also observed this issue. For me, the preview stuttering in the capture software is only present when I have the application selected and "in-focus". If I click away from it, like on my desktop or to another application, the stuttering goes away.

[slowmomatt]

I believe I've also observed this issue. For me, the preview stuttering in the capture software is only present when I have the application selected and "in-focus". If I click away from it, like on my desktop or to another application, the stuttering goes away.

Thanks for the response and tip, unfortunately the problem seems to persist for me even when I click out of the software onto other programs or my desktop. I was thinking it was an inherent flaw with the software capture but if you've figured it out where you don't have any stutter/frame drops in your preview window, I wonder how I can achieve the same effect.

[BRAINSTORM]

I also have this problem, drops frames in the preview making it not ideal for capturing. Most of the time it's an occasional stutter here or there but every now and then it'll freeze up for a solid half second-to-second and catch up, leaving a massive stutter in your recording. Not ideal for trying to capture deathless runs of things. Would suck to pull a deathless run of Contra 4 only to capture a massive stutter right at the end.

I used to not have this problem either. For me though, OBS also captures the stutters. I'm only trying to record - you said OBS doesn't capture them for you, how do you have it set up to record OP?

[Grylvak]

In the past I've had an issue where I was plugging my capture card into a USB port that had a oversaturated USB controller. You could try having the capture card being the only USB device plugged in to the computer and see if that lessens the problem.