Startech USB3HDCAP opinions

[AVMiii]

Although StarTech.com cannot support the use of 3rd party software with our devices, I have tested the USB3HDCAP with VirtualDub (http://www.virtualdub.org/). VirtualDub uses the DirectShow driver that is supported by most capture applications.

Using the “Capture AVI” function with VirtualDub, I was able to get uncompressed bitrates of about 160-180 Mbits/sec at 720x567i60. At 1080p60 using the HDMI input, I was able to get approximately 1075 Mbits/sec.

[AVMiii]

Oops hit the enter too soon, so replying to my own thread. Use for above would be for converting Hi8 tapes to both archive files for HD and either DVD or Blurays. I've tried the Mep2 route with Hauppage and not too impressed so want a card that can do AVI. The above USB eternal box seems to do so. There are some other Averimedia USB boxes that apparently don't accept analog S-Video, so the choices are somewhat limited if I want to be able to do AVI. All very new to me, but am learning that it's a lot more complicated than I though. Anyway does the above seem like a reasonable choice? Are the Capture AVI specs reasonable? Looks like I better lay in a big HD to store these files.

I've thought about the Digital9 DV route, but AVI and then editing seems like the slightly better quality route.

[Brad]

So you have this device, and used it in VirtualDub?

That's surprising, because it uses a H.264 hardware encoder. It's possible that what you captured is just a decompressed output from the H.264 chip.

EDIT: Never mind, just read the blog post by TheThrillness linked in another thread. Weirdly, though, he doesn't even mention that it's an H.264 encoder...?

[usually_quiet]

So you have this device, and used it in VirtualDub?

That's surprising, because it uses a H.264 hardware encoder. It's possible that what you captured is just a decompressed output from the H.264 chip.

EDIT: Never mind, just read the blog post by TheThrillness linked in another thread. Weirdly, though, he doesn't even mention that it's an H.264 encoder...?

The author of the TheThrillness review mentioned using AmaRecTV to capture, which also doesn't work with cards that hardware encode. I'm not sure what is going on here either. Does the product listing at the Startech website contain an error, or does this device have the ability to provide both uncompressed output (or decompressed output) and compressed output via hardware encoding?

[TheThrillness]

EDIT: Never mind, just read the blog post by TheThrillness linked in another thread. Weirdly, though, he doesn't even mention that it's an H.264 encoder...?

That's because it's not a hardware encoder. It's DirectShow based, lossless YUY2 capture. People are maybe getting confused since StarTech also include bundled capture software that records lossy video.

Thanks for the coverage.

[AVMiii]

Thanks for the response Your Thrillness. In reading your review you seem not too excited about this device, but maybe that's in comparison to other 1080p/60 USB devices that might be better suited for HDMI capture. Those same USB boxes (Averimedia) don't seem suitable for my application, capturing my Hi8 tapes via S-video. I want to capture to the best archival format, which seems to be AVI using Virtualdub or something similar, edit to add titles and then encode to something that I can put on a DVD or Bluray. Would this card be a good choice for that?

Also, you mention that the StarTech includes software, I think called StreamCatcher, that allows for lossy capture. It also has the provision to capture to AVI at 12Mbits/sec. Would you have any opinion on using their supplied StreamCatcher vs Vituraldub or AmaRecTV for least lossy capture?

Thanks for the review!

[usually_quiet]

EDIT: Never mind, just read the blog post by TheThrillness linked in another thread. Weirdly, though, he doesn't even mention that it's an H.264 encoder...?

That's because it's not a hardware encoder. It's DirectShow based, lossless YUY2 capture. People are maybe getting confused since StarTech also include bundled capture software that records lossy video.

Thanks for the coverage.

The confusion stems from something in the Overview section on Startech's product page:

High-performance Onboard Encoding
With onboard encoding, the video conversion process functions independently of your computer resources to maintain system performance. Plus, since software encodes in H.264, the most widely adopted video codec in the world, your video files will be natively compatible with almost any media device such as iOS® or Android™-smartphones and tablets.

[AVMiii]

I'm pretty unschooled on video capture, but can someone outline the difference between a lossy capture using an on the card/device "hardware encoder" such as Mepg 4 or H.264 and a device that offers "lossless" (its not really is it?) AVI capture? What exactly does the card do if it is capturing to AVI?

[TheThrillness]

This isn't the most technically correct answer but good enough to help the understanding.

Hardware encoders/lossy cards are generally only made to work with the software that was specifically written for the device (e.g. AVerMedia REcentral). Really common in USB2 cards that advertise HD capture since transmitting uncompressed bandwidth for HD video over USB2 is not possible. The device has to encode this in the hardware and send out a compressed stream (aka lossy video) at the users specified bitrate.

When someone says a lossless card they are generally referring to a DirectShow device that works in any program. They are primarily written like this because they are either internal cards or USB3 (where bandwidth is generally not an issue). You can use any DirectShow codec you want to capture lossless video. It's not exactly lossless since most of the cards downsample from RGB to 4:2:2 but this is generally as close as you will get at the consumer level. Better than the 4:2:0 offerings from lossy.

I generally favor the DirectShow devices since you can tailor the card to meet your needs but the lossy cards are generally acceptable unless you are really picky about video quality (madVR helps). I will say that I wouldn't be buying such an expensive card just to capture Hi8 tapes over S-Video. I'd actually be recommending something like an EzCAP/Dazzle or maximize quality by importing a slightly more expensive "Lossless" card like the IODATA GV-USB2 which is in the top 3 SD capture cards to ever exist.

[ajk]

I'm pretty unschooled on video capture, but can someone outline the difference between a lossy capture using an on the card/device "hardware encoder" such as Mpeg 4 or H.264 and a device that offers "lossless" (its not really is it?) AVI capture? What exactly does the card do if it is capturing to AVI?

Lossless capturing means that the capture device performs an analog-to-digital conversion, but it won't attempt to compress the video stream in any way (as opposed to something that delivers MPEG2 or H.264 to the computer).

While you can save the raw video stream, even at SD size it is huge, so generally lossless codecs are used to reduce the file size at a 1:3 or 1:4 or so rate. Still big, but kinda manageable. This happens on the computer, not the capture device. Using a lossless codec means that you get exactly the same data, bit by bit, back when decompressing.

Having a lossless capture to start with is a good idea if you need to do a lot of restoration and other processing, though lightly compressed lossy files (eg. DV, high bitrate MPEG2 etc.) are also commonly used.

[athairus]

I have one of these cards. I've only used it with HDMI, so that's all I can comment on so far. It does the job, it captures 1080p60 with 0 dropped frames, even on my relatively underpowered 2013 Macbook Pro. If anyone needs some specific info on the card, just ask.

Only major drawback I can think of is that it has no OS X support. I have to boot into Boot Camp if I want to do anything with it. And I get nothing but a black screen as a capture if I hook it up to a VM (within OS X). Guess the world of USB 3.0 isn't totally bug-free yet. That and 1200p support would be great.

I can confirm, by the way, that it doesn't compress the video to H.264 before sending it over the USB 3.0 bus. It's lossless. (it does do a RGB->YUV pulldown... do I have the terminology right?)

[usually_quiet]

I have one of these cards. I've only used it with HDMI, so that's all I can comment on so far. It does the job, it captures 1080p60 with 0 dropped frames, even on my relatively underpowered 2013 Macbook Pro. If anyone needs some specific info on the card, just ask.

Only major drawback I can think of is that it has no OS X support. I have to boot into Boot Camp if I want to do anything with it. And I get nothing but a black screen as a capture if I hook it up to a VM (within OS X). Guess the world of USB 3.0 isn't totally bug-free yet. That and 1200p support would be great.

I can confirm, by the way, that it doesn't compress the video to H.264 before sending it over the USB 3.0 bus. It's lossless. (it does do a RGB->YUV pulldown... do I have the terminology right?)

I wouldn't use the term lossless to describe the video output from this device. I would use the term "uncompressed" instead. "Lossless" is mostly used to describe a form of compression that doesn't discard any information. When the losslessly compressed data is decompressed again, the result is exactly the same as the original source.

I have never seen the word "pulldown" used to describe translating from one color space to a different one, only "conversion".

[FLP437]

Is it possible to use virtualdub with this device to get a YUY2 or a lossless lagaryth file or other lossless similar type from an analogic source. Are all the possibilities in virtualdub available as they are for others DirectShow devices.

[TheThrillness]

Is it possible to use virtualdub with this device to get a YUY2 or a lossless lagaryth file or other lossless similar type from an analogic source. Are all the possibilities in virtualdub available as they are for others DirectShow devices.

Yeah it will work in VirtualDub to give you what you want. Just select Lagarith as the video codec in YUY2 mode.

Actually glad you brought this thread back up as something interesting was found afew days ago which I added to my original review link.

"Thanks to charliecharlo on the shmups forum who discovered you can actually use the Micomsoft drivers with this device. It should fix all the issues I described in this review and I'd highly recommend this capture card if you don't need the passthrough or can't get an internal card. The steps are as follows:

1. Obtain copies of both drivers

Micomsoft - http://micomsoft.co.jp/xcapture-1_VideoKeeper2_i1.1.0.140.1.zip
StarTech - http://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/sets/USB3HDCAP_Drivers/USB3HDCAP_Driver.zip

1.5 Uninstall any existing USB3HDCAP drivers using Device Manager. (It's under 'Sound, video, and game controllers')
2. Copy the [ENTRY] and [ENTRY.NTamd64] sections of CY3014.INF from the Startech drivers to the Micomsoft drivers. You'll only be working in the "64" folder if you're on 64-bit. Just overwrite the existing section in the Micomsoft drivers and save
3. Restart your computer and allow it to install unsigned drivers (Google this)
4. Use DPInst.exe in the Micomsoft drivers and allow installation when Windows warns you
5. That's it. The USB3HDCAP is now using the updated Micomsoft drivers"

[ChaosMageX]

Has anyone tried using the StarTech USB3HDCAP in GraphEdit or GraphStudio or GraphStudioNext?

I have the following questions that I need answered in order to determine whether this device would be good for my needs:

What does the graph look like? Does it use a Crossbar Filter connected to a Capture Device filter, which are then connected to filters for encoding and compressing the video and then muxing it together and sending it to a fie writer? Could someone post a screenshot of a working graph for making a lossless recording from the StarTech device's HDMI input?

If the device does use a DirectShow Crossbar Filter, does this filter operate through C:/Windows/System32/ksxbar.ax, or does it have its own crossbar filter file?
If the device does use a DirectShow Capture Device Filter, does this filter operate through C:/Windows/System32/ksproxy.ax, or does it have its own capture device filter file?

Basically, what I'm asking is whether this device could be plugged in and used at the same time as my Diamond ATI TV Wonder 750 HD, which is a TV Tuner device.

My ultimate goal is to set up a graph in one of the mentioned DirectShow filter graph editing applications that is able to simultaneously record the input from both the HDMI capture device and the Diamond ATI TVW 750 HD, which are respectively hooked up to the HDMI and S-Video outputs of my DirecTV R22-100 DVR. I want to create two synchronized recordings from both outputs because after recording, I would use CCExtractor to obtain a subtitle file from the analog recording which I could then have the option of playing over the high definition recording. If I can't run them simultaneously, I'll have to take twice as much time to copy a show off my DVR twice, and then even more time to edit the extracted closed captioning data to realign it with the high definition recording. It wouldn't be such a hassle if HDMI actually supported a separate data stream for closed captioning data, but that's a rant for another time.

[FLP437]

Thanks
I don’t yet own one, startech usb3HDcap ,but I’m convinced I will get one to test

[Saturn2888]

"Thanks to charliecharlo on the shmups forum who discovered you can actually use the Micomsoft drivers with this device. It should fix all the issues I described in this review and I'd highly recommend this capture card if you don't need the passthrough or can't get an internal card. The steps are as follows:

1. Obtain copies of both drivers

Micomsoft - http://micomsoft.co.jp/xcapture-1_VideoKeeper2_i1.1.0.140.1.zip
StarTech - http://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/sets/USB3HDCAP_Drivers/USB3HDCAP_Driver.zip

1.5 Uninstall any existing USB3HDCAP drivers using Device Manager. (It's under 'Sound, video, and game controllers')
2. Copy the [ENTRY] and [ENTRY.NTamd64] sections of CY3014.INF from the Startech drivers to the Micomsoft drivers. You'll only be working in the "64" folder if you're on 64-bit. Just overwrite the existing section in the Micomsoft drivers and save
3. Restart your computer and allow it to install unsigned drivers (Google this)
4. Use DPInst.exe in the Micomsoft drivers and allow installation when Windows warns you
5. That's it. The USB3HDCAP is now using the updated Micomsoft drivers"

Doing a diff of the two INF files, I believe you can also copy over these strings to make sure the product and manufacturer match as well:

[Strings]
PRODUCT.NAME
MANUFACTURER.NAME
PROVIDER.NAME

What do the newer drivers fix over the old ones Startech's using? Google Translate isn't very helpful here :/.

[TheThrillness]

What do the newer drivers fix over the old ones Startech's using? Google Translate isn't very helpful here :/.

The range selection now works, as does the video decoder tab. You can also use the card without excess power from the 100% bug being fixed.

New drivers: http://micomsoft.co.jp/XCAPTURE-1_Driver_Ver_1_1_0_141_5.zip

[FLP437]

Hello

I just received my new startech usb3hdcap.

As member AVMiii, my first purpose for acquiring this card was for capturing analog PAL video footage ( Video8 /VHS ) with as good quality as possible, for archiving master copies. I intended after to further post process to get enhanced/restored versions to use on a PC environment and eventually to encode/author DVD copies ( I want to use lossless capture to reduce losses due to the further re-encoding ). Also, I as been attracted by what seemed to me like an almost general video capture device due to its broad input spectrum , portability/connectivity ( external device/USB3 ) and good HDMI capture quality.

I wanted to try this device as the capture card offer for the present PC generation with windows 8/8.1 with PCIe, allowing losseless capture of analog sources (composite , svideo ) namely with applications like VirtualDub is almost absent. In this context we are faced with the resurrection of a XP PC with a used ATI or similar card or some sort of A/D USB or firewire converter that only allows lossy captures and sometimes obliges using a proprietary application in general with limited options.

Only to do a inicial test i tried it on a normal laptop (i5 3210m 2,5Mhz, 6Mb Ram, SSHD( 8GB SSD+ 1TB Sata HD), Nvidia GF 630M 1GB ), and installed the micomsoft x capture-1 driver ( 1.1.0.140,1 , not the last one) as stated by member The Thrillness . The installation carried out flawless.

My actual workflow for Video8 capture is:

Digital8 Cam(tbc on )- svideo – USB3HDcap – laptop (usb3) – VirtualDub –lossless codec( HuffYUV /Lagarith)

I have previously captured in Dv lossy format through firewire and this workflow as given to me the best results it´s why I have used a similar one
Digital8 Cam (tbc on ) – firewire – PC – WinDv -dv sd file
(I tried also an alternative workflow Digital8 Cam(tbc on /dnr off )- svideo – external TBC AVT8710 –ADVC-55 -firewire - PC – WinDv -dv sd file ) but didn’t see evidence of better results)

With VirtualDub I tried first with the HuffYUV codec ( 32 bits no MT) 720x576 YUV2 4.2.2 and had no special problems , no drop or inserted frames, no jitter, no synch. video/audio problems. The Cpu load was between 25-35% . If preview is not used cpu load is marginal 6-12%

I tried next the lagarith codec and again no problems , however the CPU load as been between 40-50%.

The captured results seemed quite ok however even if they appear to have additional quality I would have expected a higher quality difference related to the previously captured DV lossy ones

I also tried Xvid and H264 codecs but with these the Cpu load exceeded 100% and I got droped , inserted frames clear the machine as not enough power for using these codecs.

However the usb3hdcap companion app “StreamCatcher” can capture H264 with low cpu load (about 30%) but the quality level is limited VBR or CBR ( about 8 Mbps bit rate as maximum). I have not tried the companion app for miconsoft driver I think called “VideoKeeper” I don’t know if it will work and could give better options than streamcatcher. Anyway these apps only have interest if using a under-powered machine and if quality is not the goal.

I tried also HDMI captures through virtualdub and I have been very impressed with the results and quality I tried only with 720p and 1080i with no problems . To select the input to use I have tried 2 solutions, the capture filter in virtual dub or previous selecting the input through the companion app that can be closed after that.

As I said I want to get a ,as good as possible master copy , however even if I have a minimum IT/ video known how, I´m still on my way through the video expertise learning curve and it will take some time to get there..

In this context there are too many variables and options and I have some doubts about some of them.

A mediainfo related to the captured files shows some figures that seems strange to me
Display aspect ratio 5:4 and not 4:3
Scan progressive with HuffYUY and not interlaced, however the footage as the typical aspect of interlaced , I think I have probably mixed up some options but can´t figure out which ones

Can a more experienced user advice me if for this workflow , the selected virtualdub options are the correct ones to get the best results ?
Also anyone knows the advantages of the new miconsoft driver update ?

[Brad]

Hi FLP437. Thanks for the info. Hope my reply isn't too late.

I would very much like to see some short samples if you'd be so kind. Particularly with TBC off, to see how it handles bad input. You can attach AVIs up to 500MB.

The captured results seemed quite ok however even if they appear to have additional quality I would have expected a higher quality difference related to the previously captured DV lossy ones

Score one for the "DV's inferiority is exaggerated" crowd?

I also tried Xvid and H264 codecs but with these the Cpu load exceeded 100% and I got droped , inserted frames clear the machine as not enough power for using these codecs.

Hmm. XviD is single-threaded but it should still work okay with SD resolutions, using a CPU from the past several years. x264vfw should also work well, with appropriate settings tweaked to your own setup.

A mediainfo related to the captured files shows some figures that seems strange to me
Display aspect ratio 5:4 and not 4:3

It isn't flagged, so a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1 is assumed. 720/576 = 5/4.

Scan progressive with HuffYUY and not interlaced, however the footage as the typical aspect of interlaced , I think I have probably mixed up some options but can´t figure out which ones

You have Huffyuv's field threshold set to 576, which is a very poor choice. It means that only videos with 577+ lines will be encoded in interlaced mode. Since it's lossless, the video output you get is still the same, but the compression efficiency is perhaps worse. Set it to 288 instead. (And then use a different codec when you capture 720p...)

It's entirely possible that MediaInfo will still say "progressive" regardless. It doesn't matter. It has no way of knowing the actual content type; it can only tell you flags.

Can a more experienced user advice me if for this workflow , the selected virtualdub options are the correct ones to get the best results ?

The Capture Pin looks weird; 50.000 frame rate instead of 25.000 and I'm surprised that the "I Frame Interval" under "Compression" isn't greyed out. Similarly, the Capture Filter says 288p @ 50, but if you're getting 25 fps interlaced files without compression artifacts I guess that's all fine.

Just curious: what does the "VBI Lines" option of the Capture Filter do?

You should figure out what the neutral setting of the Proc Amp's Sharpness Control is. I suspect it's 0, since the "32" default there is at the 1/8th position. There are devices that soften video when sharpness is set too low, but they typically position neutral at halfway. If you don't feel like feeding test patterns in to test, use the camera's on-screen menu text. The video is (over-)sharpened when haloes are visible.

P.S. Why would you choose not to use the multi-threaded version of Huffyuv?!

[FLP437]

Hi vaporeon800,

"I would very much like to see some short samples if you'd be so kind. Particularly with TBC off, to see how it handles bad input. You can attach AVIs up to 500MB."

I´m attaching a sample video8 capture made with the startech usb3hdcap using a Sony digital 8 camcorder through the svideo and with the internal tbc and dnr both off. The capture as been made with Virtualdub and huffyuv MT codec. The difference to the capture with the internal tbc on is very limited perhaps cleaner but really a very small difference . An external TBC like the AV-8710 incorporated in between the camcorder and the capture card with or without the internal tbc on gave a worst result at least at my eyes.I already have put Huffyuv's field threshold set to 288 thanks.

Related to the Xvid and H264 codecs I will try later if with appropriate settings tweaked to my own setup it will be possible in medium powerful laptop like mine to do the job with these codecs.

"Just curious: what does the "VBI Lines" option of the Capture Filter do?"

I´m not sure myself but I have gone to Wikipedia and one phrase captured my attention
“Most consumer VCRs use the known black level of the vertical blanking pulse to set their recording levels. The Macrovision copy protection scheme inserts pulses in the VBI, where the recorder expects a constant level, to disrupt recording to videotapes.”

Could it be a process to block Macrovision and allows copies ??

"You should figure out what the neutral setting of the Proc Amp's Sharpness Control is. I suspect it's 0, since the "32" default there is at the 1/8th position. There are devices that soften video when sharpness is set too low, but they typically position neutral at halfway. If you don't feel like feeding test patterns in to test, use the camera's on-screen menu text. The video is (over-)sharpened when haloes are visible."

The default value of the Proc Amp's Sharpness Control is really 32 if I change and after press default it goes to 32 . But perhaps as you say is not the neutral position . I have tried to change values to the ends and very high levels give worst results , however for low values is not easy to tell, namely between 32 and 0. I tried to put the camera menus but they don’t show up on virtualdub preview. The av-8710 when is not receiving video generates a pattern perhaps with that I can identify if it is or not a neutral position .

"P.S. Why would you choose not to use the multi-threaded version of Huffyuv?!"

I was interested to see how a medium laptop reacted in a worst scenario. The sample that I’m attaching now as already been made with the multi-threaded version of Huffyuv.

I have tried to capture also with a asus tv7134 wdm video capture card on a legacy XP Pc. I think cards like ATI are considered the best consumer capture cards but I read also that capture cards with the philips saa7134 decoder are similar or even superior as they have 9 bits decoder and not a 8 bit decoder as in Ati cards. But again the differences are to subtle perhaps the result from the 7134 card is better that from the usb3hdcap but if it is is to small a difference indeed. I don't know the type and quality of the decoder chip inside the usb3hdcap, it was interesting to know if it is a good one.Perhaps only after enhancement and restoration ( and the multiple re-recoding associated ) will the differences between the different captures modes be more evident .But i have to stabilize my capture method to avoid recapture again and again.

When i have a little more time i will try also the new driver from micomsoft and will see if it adds additionally functionality.



Ps- vaporeon800 I will be grateful if you can give me your opinion about the sample capture and eventual problems related

[Brad]

I was able to recompress your sample from 444.86MiB down to 391.11MiB (= 88%) using Ut Video in interlaced Predict Median mode. On the system I'm currently using, this also decompresses faster: >300 fps compared to <190 fps judging by VDub's "Video Analysis Pass". MagicYUV decompresses >450 fps, but the result is 1.89MiB larger than Ut Video. I would suggest using one of them rather than Huffyuv-MT unless you have some other reason to prefer it.

Related to the Xvid and H264 codecs I will try later if with appropriate settings tweaked to my own setup it will be possible in medium powerful laptop like mine to do the job with these codecs.

You're better off capturing lossless and recompressing after processing for a playback copy. I was just noting that it should be possible if you really want to.

Could it be a process to block Macrovision and allows copies ??

I doubt it. I know what VBI is, but what I was asking is: what happens visually to the image if you tick the checkbox and start increasing the number from 0? If anything.

I tried to put the camera menus but they don’t show up on virtualdub preview. The av-8710 when is not receiving video generates a pattern perhaps with that I can identify if it is or not a neutral position .

Bummer that it fails to show the camera menu. I believe the AVT-8710 can only generate colorbars, which aren't helpful for this. Ideal tests include sharp horizontal and diagonal details. I uploaded a small DVDR file containing such patterns in another thread, if you're able to play NTSC discs.

I will be grateful if you can give me your opinion about the sample capture and eventual problems related

Thanks for uploading it. The level of line jitter looks low, so that's good.

The #1 thing I see is blown-out brights. In every frame, objects are hitting the hard limit of Y=255 and clipping hard. Ideally you want them to just touch 235. The black level looks okay, so try lowering the Contrast control of the Proc Amp. (Don't worry about the visualizations in the image if you don't know what they are; the point is it's hitting the top of the scale.)



I could be wrong, but it looks like the chroma has been noise-filtered even with the camcorder's DNR turned "off". If so, I assume the camcorder is doing this and not the capture card. I don't consider this a defect, at any rate.

[FLP437]

Hi again,

And what do you think of capturing analog video with this device. Is quality of the captured footage for you as good as with legacy ATI cards like all in wonder 600/650 or cards with Philips Saa7134 or even black magix or matrox for instance .

I don’t want to compromise quality, however if with this card I could get similar quality captures (if they were better that was excellent ) as from other well established capture cards it will be great, as it as almost all type of inputs ( composite, svideo, component, vga, hdmi , dvi ) could work with any pc with usb3 ( and support several host controllers ) and his more operating system and pc architecture independent as is an external card .It allows uncompressed video stream, is wdm direct show compatible and works flawless with virtualdub or amarectv. Being compatible with the miconsoft drivers is also good as it seems the support is better and the drivers updated more frequently.

The only point here is capture quality and namely decoder quality, if it is good enough it could be a good general purpose capture card for analog and digital video for the actual pc generation (desk or laptop) .

[TheThrillness]

The #1 thing I see is blown-out brights. In every frame, objects are hitting the hard limit of Y=255 and clipping hard. Ideally you want them to just touch 235.

It might be because he has chosen Bypass on driver configuration, one of the other settings should fix this.

[Brad]

If the SAA7134 is special in any way these days, it isn't because it's 9-bit. You can buy USB capture sticks that use 10-bit chips for $25. The TVP5150 in the ATI 600 USB is also 9-bit, BTW.

Provided you can fix the issue I pointed out, I don't think other hardware will wring particularly better quality from this Video8 source.

[FLP437]

The #1 thing I see is blown-out brights. In every frame, objects are hitting the hard limit of Y=255 and clipping hard. Ideally you want them to just touch 235. The black level looks okay, so try lowering the Contrast control of the Proc Amp

How can I identify that I not hitting the 235 limit.

[manono]

By making some short test captures before doing it for real, and putting on a histogram as vaporeon800 did. For too-bright whites, lower the contrast. For too-dark blacks, raise the brightness.

I do this in AviSynth but you can do the same in other programs. I suppose VDub has a histogram you can use.

[FLP437]

I just tried the last driver from Micomsoft Ver.1.1.0.141.5 - 01/27/2015, as with the previous version the installation as gone flawless.

I don’t see visible differences, neither in quality, speed improvements or bug´s .

Nevertheless two things are visible:
1 -capture pin, with the last driver the frame rate appeared to be weird as it shows 50 ( could it be fields and not frames ) and now it shows 49,95 what is even more weird
2- capture filter there are 2 new options, the vertical mirror and horizontal mirror.

However this seems to have no visible impact on the output frame rate that continues at 25. Even on a standard sub-powered i5 laptop where I have tested it there were no drop frames or inserted frames and almost no jitter.

I tried also the companion app for x capture-1 Video keeper to see if it works, but I had run into some problems .Ffirst the install language was English but the application itself was in Japanese ( eventually the idiom could be changed but it was difficult to select options in Japanese). Nevertheless I got the impression that this wasn’t going to work with the startech as it wasn’t able to detect the presence of the x capture-1, however it was not important it was a curiosity.

I got a review from a Japanese site related to the X capture-1, I translated it with google translate and put it in attachment as they share a common hardware base, however the startech device as not the pass-through feature. Based on this review I’ve identified the analog video decoding chip and found a datasheet that I am putting also in attachment .

Related the last post and blown-out bright the suggestion of trying the other options in color range doesn´t seem to work as it doesn't fix the option , but changing contrast level in the post process should work.

By default the devices tries to capture at 50 frames as seen in capture settings ,it´s necessary to select 25 ( PAL ) and sometimes it returns to 50 ( or 49,95 now with the new driver ). But this happened already with the previous driver.
Also by default in the capture filter auto resolution scaling & RGB24/32 output is selected

[FLP437]

Sorry the review attachment as not been correctly made

[Brad]

Related the last post and blown-out bright the suggestion of trying the other options in color range doesn´t seem to work as it doesn't fix the option , but changing contrast level in the post process should work.

I assume you mean the Proc Amp, which should be more like pre-processing. Trying to fix it with filters after capture won't work, because the levels have already been clipped.

I feel like you're reluctant to try the Proc Amp adjustment, for some reason. All you have to do to see whether it will work is do a quick capture of the same portion with the Contrast control over-corrected too low (like 80 instead of 128). If there is still hard clipping (just at a lower level) then the Contrast adjustment is useless. If you've got soft peaks, then you can see about going back and fine-tuning the Contrast to just touch 235.