Does anyone have an August VGB100 USB 2.0 Video Capture board?

[Onceler2]

I read that it captures into mpeg 2 but no word on the bitrate or the resolution.
Does any one know? Does any one have one of these?

[manono]

Hehe, is a year later too late? I just got one. It advertises being able to cap in all kinds of formats but I see only MPEG-2 available in the included Arcsoft capture program. It'll cap both NTSC and PAL and I'm capping PAL VHS tapes and it gives me 720x576 MPGs, with MP2 audio, which I thought odd. If I remember correctly (I tested it a couple of times last night) its max bitrate is 7500. I switched immediately to using VDub and lossless compression. Seems to do the job well for not much money.

In case anyone's interested, here are the links for it on both Amazon US and Amazon UK:

www.amazon.com/August-VGB100-Video-Capture-Device/dp/B008F0SARC

www.amazon.co.uk/August-VGB100-Video-Capture-Card/dp/B008F0SARC

I'm on Windows 7 32-bit and installation was a breeze. I did follow one tip from an Amazon US comment - to install the drivers before plugging in the device. It has a Conexant chip inside. At this point I don't know much more about it than that.

[Brad]

The USB device ID indicates it's the same thing as the Mygica EZGrabber2: http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/OTG102

[PuzZLeR]

Hi Manono,

Would you recommend it as an elite USB capture stick, in line with the ATI 600 USB, ezcap.tv (the real one), Hauppauge USB-Live2? Not sure how many you've come across. (I could care less what most of the "reviews" there say.)

It'll cap both NTSC and PAL and I'm capping PAL VHS tapes and it gives me 720x576 MPGs, with MP2 audio, which I thought odd.

I too first thought MP2 audio was odd, however quickly found out most bundled software does use it with MPEG-2 caps, such as WinTV (Hauppauge) and Catalyst Media Center (ATI), and even TV cap software like Beyond TV and SageTV do too. After buying several more such devices over the years it's not so unusual anymore to me.

[manono]

The USB device ID indicates it's the same thing as the Mygica EZGrabber2: http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/OTG102

Which doesn't mean anything to me. Is that good or bad that there are several of the same devices being sold under different names? Is the Mygica said to be a decent capture device? Interesting link, thanks.

Would you recommend it as an elite USB capture stick, in line with the ATI 600 USB, ezcap.tv (the real one), Hauppauge USB-Live2?

Hi PuzZLeR,

At this point I can't recommend it or not recommend it. I received it in the mail yesterday and just did some test caps last night after installing it and the software. It's the first USB capture device I've ever used or even seen so I can't compare it to any of its other competitors. I liked that it was easy to set up and use, that I could easily use VDub with it, and that I could buy the thing in the US, for use with my PAL VHS tapes. I got burned buying a Hauppage capture card earlier that only did NTSC (my fault, I suppose), and my Canopus ADVC-300 has gotten temperamental and is refusing to work after capping many tapes for me up until now.

I only stumbled across this old thread when searching for a forum about the thing where I hoped to find out how others got it to cap in something besides MPEG-2. I also want to know if it's possible to access the other proc amp controls. Most are unavailable and I can only adjust the brightness and contrast at the moment.

[PuzZLeR]

Ahh, I was hoping you had others around that you could compare. Thanks anyway. Nice to see that it works with VirtualDub and also for PAL. I guess people like me, with over 90% content in NTSC, have it too good in the capture world.

At face value, it seems the VGB100 is another ezcap.tv clone. The real ezcap.tv is actually quite good, and its clones vary in quality. I would assume this device is on the better end from what I sense. At least it's got good value at that price for the budget conscious.

I can say, and can hear, good and bad about the Canopus, but one of the bads is not its unreliability. You must have really overworked yours.

[Brad]

Is that good or bad that there are several of the same devices being sold under different names? Is the Mygica said to be a decent capture device?

The multiple name thing is... neutral? The Mygica is included in my comparison thread (grabbing the shots for post #3 is slower going than I anticipated).

I also want to know if it's possible to access the other proc amp controls. Most are unavailable and I can only adjust the brightness and contrast at the moment.

If you install the program distributed by Mygica and Diamond you should be able to use its controls to change the proc amp, while still doing the actual capture in VirtualDub. But the only other adjustment that's generally useful is setting Sharpness to 0, and for some reason just opening their app causes superblacks to be clipped (superwhites remain intact).

At face value, it seems the VGB100 is another ezcap.tv clone.

I believe it's similar to the Hauppauge USB-Live2, as these OTG102 devices identify themselves as "Conexant Polaris". The oddity is the unique chip number they use.

[manono]

If you install the program distributed by Mygica and Diamond you should be able to use its controls to change the proc amp, while still doing the actual capture in VirtualDub. But the only other adjustment that's generally useful is setting Sharpness to 0, and for some reason just opening their app causes superblacks to be clipped (superwhites remain intact).

Thanks, I'll check them out. Yes, I'd set sharpness to zero. Also, since most of my caps are of black and white material, I'd set saturation to zero as well, although it's easy enough to do that later.

I am showing below 16 blacks getting clipped to 16. I figured it was something I did or didn't do in VDub, as my intitial caps using the included ArcSoft software was showing from 0-255.

Not sure how I missed your posts on this earlier as they might have steered me to a different USB capture device. But I haven't really begun capping with it yet. Not for another couple of weeks. Thanks for another good link.

[PuzZLeR]

I believe it's similar to the Hauppauge USB-Live2, as these OTG102 devices identify themselves as "Conexant Polaris". The oddity is the unique chip number they use.

Correct, if it were indeed proven to be a Conexant under the hood. However, the renumbered chip, which, as even the link notes, seems dubious to me at best. It could be nothing more than a smoke screen put in place to disguise the fact that it's just another ezcap.tv clone.

This, of course, is just speculation at face value. I could be wrong.

[Brad]

That's an odd conspiracy theory. The chip has a Conexant logo on it; anyone else using it would be opening themselves up to lawsuits for no good reason.

[PuzZLeR]

I didn't want to post this, but when I was checking August out, it seemed not only suspicious that they have funny numbering on that chip, but they make an effort to distort the fact that their head office is indeed in China where lots of ezcap.tv frauds, in many forms, have come from.

Yes, it does indeed look like an untampered Conexant logo, but I'm still not convinced. (Not trying to be difficult on purpose. ) I agree with you that you'd be asking for a lawsuit this way, but we're talking about a nation that is lacking in such jurisdiction when companies there can copy McDonald's, Nike, KFC and other big players, and get away with it.

Tell you what, since it's not the best time now at the holiday season, how about in early 2014 I contact a few people concerned (at August, Conexant, and any others) and see what they say? I'd love to hear any response we get. This could be very interesting.

And if I'm being justifiably unfair to any company, I will re-edit this post if I'm proven wrong from an official rep.

[manono]

Hehe, from the very beginning I was hoping against hope I hadn't accidentally bought an EZCap ripoff. Forgive me if, unless and until proven otherwise, I go on thinking it's a good USB capture device, in the same league as the Hauppauge USB-Live2 vaporeon800 mentioned.

I take it the EZCap imitators don't have a Conexant chip in theirs?

[PuzZLeR]

I take it the EZCap imitators don't have a Conexant chip in theirs?

That's hard to say. The real one, the ezcap.tv uses the Empia EM2861 chipset, used also in other credible devices, but most of the fakes have used a Philips (with often a different USB interface that can cause compatibility problems).

I'm not sure if any of today's fakes, maybe the "better ones", use the actual EM2861 since I haven't cared for them at all lately or ever.

Linuxtv.org says this: "It seems that EasyCAP is not a companys or brand name, but some chinese manufacturers use this label for at least four completly hardware different clones of equally looking audio and video capture devices. EasyCAP devices and clones are vastly sold in onlineshops at low prices."

Working through the grammar, the latter can be open-ended for any chipset.

I just have a 50/50 suspicion that this one from August has one that could be similar to either the EM2861 chip or Philips or Conexant, disguised as a true Conexant, to pass off as a different model than the ezcap.tv fakes to appear similar to Hauppauge, but not a Hauppauge with the distinction in numbering.

I'm not paranoid, just that it looks fishy. I've seen worse twists before.

Hehe, from the very beginning I was hoping against hope I hadn't accidentally bought an EZCap ripoff. Forgive me if, unless and until proven otherwise, I go on thinking it's a good USB capture device, in the same league as the Hauppauge USB-Live2 vaporeon800 mentioned.

Even if fake, it could still be a good product if it is very similar to the ezcap.tv, or the USB-Live2, both in the same league.

I'm going to dig at this.

[SpatialProf]

I'm using a VGB100 for the first time. I'm using composite video with the cables provided. The driver and software install OK. The software detects the device OK and I get the sound on the PC when I play the tape. However, the video picture is either extremely noisy (i.e illegible) or the software just shows a blank blue screen. I've tried different tapes and I've tried different USB sockets, but to no avail. I've tried restarting my PC and uninstalling/reinstalling the driver and software. No joy. Does anyone have any hints or tips please?