Acasis Capture Card & Docking Station 2-in-1

Hardware Type: Dock

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Review:

(Note: This product was received at no cost for review via the Amazon Vine program.)

(Note: This product and the ANYOYO USB-C Video Capture Card & USB Hub have many things in common, so I’m copying these reviews and changing them where appropriate.)

When the Nintendo Switch first launched and players were met with the whopping price of $80 to get an extra dock from Nintendo, many quickly looked for alternatives, only to find that third party docks often “bricked” their Nintendo Switch, breaking their even more-expensive hybrid console. As time passed, third-party device-makers got better at ensuring these docks wouldn’t damage the hybrid console, and at that point the question of which one to get became one of price and feature set.

Some devices, like the Genki Covert Dock, its successor the Genki Covert Dock Mini, and the Gmeaou Switch Dock seek to reduce the size of the dock as much as possible, to deliver the ultimate on-the-go solution. Others, like the Mobapad A1 Switch Dock and the Fenolical Switch Charger Dock offer built-in charging for your controllers, both adding functionality and potentially decluttering your countertop. Then there’s the Acasis Capture Card & Docking Station 2-in-1, released in 2024, and what it does is… well, right there in the title – in addition to allowing your Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch OLED model to connect with your TV, it also acts as a video capture card to connect to a PC or Mac to record and stream video and audio from your Nintendo Switch.

Before getting into that, let’s talk about what this device offers simply as a dock. While a small size isn’t this device’s main purpose, it should be mentioned that it is fairly small – the main device is roughly 2 3/4″ square and only about 3/4″ tall. It doesn’t come with a Nintendo Switch charger, but it does come with two USB cables (one USB-C to USB-C, and one USB-C to USB-C with an adapter to turn one end into a standard USB 3.0 cable). One of these cables can be used as a power cable, and one can be used to attach the Nintendo Switch to the dock. Or if you prefer, you can use a Nintendo Switch charger you already have and save the USB 3.0 cable to attach this device to a PC for the capture card stuff. Either way, this doesn’t come with an HDMI cable, so you’ll have to provide your own.

Hooking up the device can be a bit tricky, as it has 8 total ports, and you’ll need to ensure that everything is plugged in where it needs to be. These ports are labeled on the side and not the top, which means that you’ll have to lift up the device and have a look at it while you’re plugging things in, at least for the first time. A bit inconvenient.

Once hooked up, it works just fine as a dock and charger for the Nintendo Switch, and the device even has an extra headphone port if you don’t want to use the one built into the Nintendo Switch… though I don’t recommend it – the one on the device results in quieter sound with inferior sound quality. Just stick with the one built into the Switch. There are also a 3 extra USB ports here (two standard, one USB-C) to plug in accessories or a wired ethernet adapter. In other words, just in terms of pure functionality, what’s here can absolutely act as a stand-in for Nintendo’s own dock without losing any functionality, so long as you don’t mind losing the ability to slide your Nintendo Switch into the dock.

I should note that, as with many modern third-party Nintendo Switch docks, this device doesn’t just work with Nintendo Switch, but also with any USB-C devices with video output function, such as many modern Android and Apple phones, the Steam Deck, and some computers, laptops, and tablets. With this device’s capture card capabilities, this adds even more functionality for these devices.

As for the Acasis Capture Card & Docking Station 2-in-1’s use as a capture card, it works, and it works well, albeit with a big caveat. You want to be sure that you’re connecting it to a USB 3.0 port using a USB 3.0 cable or you’ll run into trouble. You’ll also need to download free capture/streaming software online, as this device doesn’t come with any. There are instructions here for use with OBS software and Potplayer on PC, and for OBS software on Mac, though I suspect you could probably make other software work with this device if you know what you’re doing.

To be clear, by “instructions”, I mean a lengthy list of settings changes you’ll need to make to the software to get things setup, and the included instructions doesn’t give any guidance on how to use any of this software itself once you have set things up. Unless you are an old pro at setting up and using device capture software, you’re probably in for a lot of trial and error and a lot of Googling to look for answers as you try to get this thing to work the way you want it.

To be clear, once you do have it all set up, it works great! But getting there is going to be a real ordeal for a more casual player looking to get their foot in the door of streaming. I’m not saying it’s not doable, but definitely don’t expect this device’s instructions to hold your hand in any of this – it doesn’t even tell you where to go to download the software you need.

In the end, I think this is a great dock, and it works well as a capture card as well, but it definitely could be improved with better labeling on the device, more user-friendly instructions, and if they’re not going to use proprietary software they could at least point to a good startup guide for the software they do use, or write their own. However, if you’re willing to put in the work to figure out how to use the capture software this device connects to, it adds some great capture card capability on top of a solid Nintendo Switch dock.

tl;dr – The Acasis Capture Card & Docking Station 2-in-1 combines a solid portable Nintendo Switch dock with the capability to use this as a video capture card as well when you also connect it to a PC or Mac. To this end, it works well, but the device isn’t very user-friendly. If you know how to use capture software, this should work great for you, but if not you should probably expect to spend a good amount of time fiddling with this to get it working how you want. In the end, it’s still an overall great device, it just needs much better documentation.

Grade: B+

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