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  1. Beer-phile
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    I recently got a PWAY Video capture card off Amazon. Nothing fancy. I'm using it to view "TV" on my Surface2 tablet from my cable provider's set top box.

    It seems to be working well in the Windows 10 'Camera' app and in Streamlabs OBS. The picture is clear and there is no lag between the STB and the screen I'm seeing on my tablet. The problem is, the picture is very small. After tinkering for a while, I still cannot make it go full screen. None of the traditional ways to make a picture go full-screen work (eg. double clicking it, fit to window etc). Does anyone know how in can enlarge the picture?

    Also, I cannot hear the TV audio. Again, after much tinkering, I gave up. The video is more important but the audio would be a nice addition.

    Could someone please help me with these 2 issues? Perhaps there is a better software I should be using on my Surface2?

    Thanks in advance!
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  2. Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    United States
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    on your tablet, did you try turning the tablet sideways
    to get full screen ??
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  3. Member
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    Aug 2006
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    United States
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    Originally Posted by BobLoblaw View Post
    Also, I cannot hear the TV audio. Again, after much tinkering, I gave up. The video is more important but the audio would be a nice addition.
    Is the STB set up to output LPCM audio via HDMI? The specs for your capture device indicate it only accepts LPCM audio.
    Ignore list: hello_hello, tried, TechLord, Snoopy329
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  4. Beer-phile
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    Great White North
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    Originally Posted by october262 View Post
    on your tablet, did you try turning the tablet sideways
    to get full screen ??
    Lol, Yes that has been tried. I'll attach a photo I photo I found online of the same issue. The picture should occupy the entire screen (black area), but instead it only is about 1/6 the size its should be.

    Edit: I have also noticed that when I plug my desktop PC's HDMI into the capture card/tablet, it displays much larger than the
    stb. Almost full screen. If my STB displayed at this size, I would be content.
    Image Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version

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    Last edited by BobLoblaw; 9th Aug 2021 at 22:03.
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  5. have you tried VLC it can use your card to display or record
    *** DIGITIZING VHS / ANALOG VIDEOS SINCE 2001**** GEAR: JVC HR-S7700MS, TOSHIBA V733EF AND MORE
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  6. Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    College Station, TX, USA
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    PW-CH2C HDMI to USB2.0(Type-C) Video Capture Card

    I'd lay odds its using the Macro Silicon MS2109

    Its a very popular chip since early 2019.

    Its supposed to be UVC compliant and "driver less" so Windows 10 loads a class driver rather than a specific device driver.

    Its really a video capture chip plus an onboard 8051 microprocessor acting like a UVC go-between converting generic UVC calls into the devices commands for initiating a video stream.

    They are very cheap.. but the 8051 is very (Very) slow.. and often a user doesn't wait long enough for the device to set itself up before it starts streaming and starts pressing buttons.

    If I recall correctly this run had a bug in it where the chip fab disabled YUV, and only allowed a compressed MJPEG video stream to work. (OR) it was you could do YUV but only at lower than 1080i resolutions and everything higher had to be MJPEG. (they call it &JPEG.. something gets lost in translation.. this is not a TWAIN device.)

    Also I believe the capture devices made with this chip "always" has a Blue USB connector or port.. that normally would indicate USB3.0 compatibility.. but not in this case.. it only works with USB2.0, further explaining why you can't do YUV at higher resolutions.. the data pipe and the 8051 are too slow to chunnel all that data through a simple USB2.0 connection.

    My experience with USB3.0 is to avoid the Left hand port out of all laptops, try to use the Right hand port.. because that is usually the "fake USB3.0" or true USB2.0 port the manufacturers are loathe to tell you about.. because its slow and stable and complies explicitly with the USB 2.0 spec from the standards committee.

    Some people say they have a Thinkpad or some whiz bang best laptop in the world and have never had a USB 3.0 problem.. (sigh).. whatever.

    Try that and try stepping down the resolution.. so the device works.. instead of just fails to honor its packaging specs.

    Audio problems are a whole other issue with the 8051 UVA support, basically it has to travel over the same USB 2.0 port, too high a resolution and there is very little room for the "uncompressed" LPCM audio stream. My experience here is it doesn't downgrade the audio very gracefully.. but keeps trying to insert samples in disjointed crackling break ups. If the video resolution is low enough you get audio samples.. but beyond a certain resolution (above 720p) it gets dicey.

    my overall opinion.. is under certain circumstances.. you can get a $6 dongle made with one of these to work.. but its not the holy grail.. it seems to be.. physics keeps getting in the way.. without true stable USB 3.0 support your not going to get a 4k dongle for $6 to work.

    windows 10 keeps closing off avenues for hardware manufacturers to provide and sign their own device drivers.. so they've been cornered into building to support whatever microsoft allows in their out of box class driver set.. UVC/UVA .. do you know how old UVC is? Windows XP Service Pack 2.. gosh.. its hopeless.. we're all doomed.. its depressing how far the mighty have fallen. The MS2109 doesn't even support the latest UVC protocol, but only UVC 1.0 (from 2002 !!).. sure its uncompressed.. at low resolutions.. but its clunky and was 1.0 give me a break.

    .. don't leave it plugged in when not in use.. they burn up rather quickly. Some come with tiny heat sink fins attached to the chip.. but they don't attach it to the shell.. so there is no where for the heat to go.. the air gap does not wick heat away to the shell fast enough, there is no fan.. and its just pointless.
    Last edited by jwillis84; 10th Aug 2021 at 05:27.
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