StarTech.com Composite to USB Video Capture - S Video Converter / Analog to Digital Video Adapter with TWAIN and Mac Support (SVID2USB23)

Outstanding product. The Windows drivers worked flawlessly on Win7x64.. but due to the way things are with DirectX and WDM. A simple driver installer "cannot" simply install this type of device, it takes at least three seperate manual setups.. or more if you let USB plug and play run amok. Its tedious.. every capture device driver install .. is tedious. (After that) Twain32 works in Irfanview, Artweaver, XnView and anything else I tried, a Twain32 live preview and image grabber dumps the snapshot in the program like you would expect, lets you select S-Video or Composite as the capture source. Windows Live Movie Maker treats it like a Webcam with an Audio source and stores clips in .wmv files, it pops up dialogs to give you access to the DirectX Decoder/ProcAmp/Image panels for live fine tuning. VLC works with it. Windows GraphEdit works with the COM and WDM components. [This does not have a >time base corrector< built in.. they cost a bit too much to imagine that being in something this small] So VHS or BetaMax tape captures will have that "swimmy, jello" effect unless you take it into account and get a TBC. For super clean reliable sources though its fine. Colors and Brightness Contrast are adjustable but defaults are pretty good. Its a bucket of fun if you know what your getting into and know the tradeoffs and what all the details are about, the information and the drivers are "there".. unlike many alternatives. CDROM comes with Windows exe and MacOS pkg installers.. but seriously.. don't expect to just run them and they work.. they just don't for capture devices. (I have not had it long, do not know the frame drop stats, or any potential long term heating or audio sync issues that come from very long capture sessions). I did test it with a 2007 mac-mini running 10.6.8 and install produced an Application installed in Applications with a separate Uninstaller App to remove it. Capture was flawless.. far easier than the Win7 driver install. Saved files in a native .mp4 format using native Apple codecs. The max capture resolutions appears to be 720x480 do not think this is for 1080p or 1080i captures.. [it is Not] its for SD or lower captures.. its "best" of breed for SD type resolutions and highly compatable across many operating systems and versions. I have not tested on Win10 or the new MacOS (post-OSX) and suspect it won't work well on those, too much change and different demands.

This worked like a charm for a conference I recently recorded. I wouldn't want to use this as my only device. It's a good secondary and backup recorder. I monitored the HDMI output. The unit slowly flashes a blue circle around the record button when recording. There is no other indication other than that. You can use the SD Card Mode software utility that installs along with Vivastation to select the resolution and bitrates of 3,5,8,15, or 20 mbps. My recording defaulted to "auto" and it seemed to use 15 mbps to capture my 1080i video stream. It looked great and I was able to use it for the finished files. Next time I might see about using this to capture 5 mbps for immediate upload use while recording a higher bitrate version for post-production. At this price point you have what seems like a reliable device for this backup purpose. It's limited obviously in terms of feedback and verification. You have to do the math to figure how much time you have available on the SD card. I calculated 4 hours available on a 32 GB card with a bit of a cushion--maybe 15 minutes. This was using the auto setting which was apparently at 15 mbps, so 20 mbps should get you 3 hours, and so on. By the way, 64 GB cards will not work with this. I had to cal Startech to confirm that. Its a SDHC not SDXC device.I am also trying to use this for analog capture, not using the component input, but using another Startech device to convert composite standard def to HDMI. Not sure why it's not working. The documentation is poor with a lot of electronics like this. At least Startech makes up for it with excellent customer service and products that generally do work very well once you figure out the quirks.

This item is not well supported by the company that produces it. It comes with software for the mac (EZCAP) that is pretty clunky. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. It claims to work with other software but so far I have not found a single other piece of software that works. The hardware itself seems to work as long as you can get the software to work. I guess for the price...

Will NOT work with a VCR. Unless it happens to be one of the super rare ones that output all 5 Component lines! It will NOT work with composite, Red, White, and Yellow.Also, it will not record dvds if they are copy protected.Not to mention the terrible manual. it literally does not even tell you what the LED colors / flashes. mean when you push the button. You have to guess, and hope you are right, or call Customer Service to have them tell you.I will tell you since i went through the trouble.Solid Blue= Good to go.blinking Blue= RecordingSolid Purple=CopyWrite protected inputFlash red = Error. Could not record.what a waste of money.the ONLY pro, was that I was able to get someone on the phone to talk to. otherwise it would have been a one star rating.