So is this a legit Windows 10 driver for Pinnacle MovieBox 710-USB?

[Videogamer555]

Pinnacle MovieBox 710-USB is one of the few old USB capture dongles that actually has a Firewire port for capturing digital audio and video from a DV camcorder. While in my research I've not found anything on the official Pinnacle website regarding Windows 10 drivers for legacy Pinnacle hardware. However a Google search for Windows 10 drivers for this very device, links me to this unofficial webpage https://oemdrivers.com/graphics-pinnacle-710-usb that contains a link what it claims is a driver that will work with this device, and can be installed on Windows 10 x64. The file you download from them is a CAB file, that contains a SYS (driver) file and an INF (driver installation info) file, as well as a CAT file (apparently another file that drivers need for installation). The INF file is interesting, because it says in one line "Copyright (c) 2004-2007" which suggests the driver is no newer than 2007, which is before Windows 10 even existed. Does this mean it's a fake driver download? Or does it mean that the owners of the "oemdrivers.com" website have actually modified (disassembled, edited the assembly code, and reassembled) and re-signed the driver with Microsoft, to make it work in Windows 10? And if it is modified and resigned (by someone other than the original driver's author) to be compatible with Windows 10, is it safe? Or should I assume it may contain a virus?

[Alwyn]

Pinnacle drivers from Pinnacle:

http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/Hardware_Installer/readmeHW10.htm?utm_source=c...0f005a0a1c0e10

These worked for my 710-USB on Win 10. The 710-USB doesn't work for me on analogue capture on Win 11. It works OK for DV to USB transfer on Win 11.

Be interesting to see if that other driver works on Win 11...

[jwillis84]

its a virtual driver on Win7x64, it shows up a long time after its plugged in to a USB port.. you might have to trigger a rescan of the hardware manually to get it installed. The Firewire port is not a true IEEE1394 port, it only works with AVC devices and transfers DV audio video. I haven't tried it with Win10x64 (I don't think) but it would probably work. The real problem is USB3.0 and above ports are legendary for their instability or partial compliance with the watered down specification of "optional" USB 3.0 compliance. But since its "virtual" it will probably work on a sufficiently stable USB device driver.. USB 2.0 ports are rock solid, because the Spec committee ruled with and Iron Fist and mandated "Compliance and Compatibility Bake off events" before allowing them to be called "USB 2.0" but their a lot rarer these days. After USB 2.0 the chip makers got together and destroyed the spec committee and said "never again" they couldn't make cheap chips and over promise on the brand USB 3.0 is a joke.

[Videogamer555]

Pinnacle drivers from Pinnacle:

http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/Hardware_Installer/readmeHW10.htm?utm_source=c...0f005a0a1c0e10

These worked for my 710-USB on Win 10. The 710-USB doesn't work for me on analogue capture on Win 11. It works OK for DV to USB transfer on Win 11.

Be interesting to see if that other driver works on Win 11...

It claims to work up to Windows 11 on the page I downloaded it on.

Also, I checked the driver that you linked to, and its supposed to only be compatible up through Windows 7. Windows 10 and above introduced additional security measures regarding drivers being signed by MS, if I remember correctly, so drivers from Windows 8.1 and older aren't guarantied to work on Windows 10. How did you get it to work on Windows 10? Did you have to go into your system settings and disable driver signature enforcement? Did you have to download a copy of MS Visual Studio and perform "test signing" on the driver?

[Alwyn]

How did you get it to work on Windows 10? Did you have to go into your system settings and disable driver signature enforcement? Did you have to download a copy of MS Visual Studio and perform "test signing" on the driver?

No, I didn't have to do any of that. You've given me an idea though, I might try those on Win 11.

MS Visual Studio and perform "test signing" on the driver

What's involved with this?

All that said, my 710 is showing up in Sound Video and Game Controllers, so I assume it's installed correctly. It just doesn't work for analogue video capture: there's no input option ie no S-Video/Composite option available.

There's only one thing for it: image your system and then install your new driver and see what happens! Trailblazer...

[cbracer]

There are a lot of posts about the 710 scattered around. I just did one here with success on DV imports. The Firewire and dv capture work just fine as long as you have the driver and the windows 1394 driver (legacy version in win10). The S-Video / Composite however is problematic because the driver is for win7 64 bit and Microsoft took out too many old lines of code in windows 10 thinking nobody will miss them..... There is a program called "Crossbar Thing" which allows you to activate the driver and select the input either S-Video or Composite..... which then activates that for non Pinnacle capture software. But it does not always work in Vdub and never works in AmeRecTV. The driver is broken in Win10. Have not tried Win11.

Here's my conclusions..... for capturing DV use either the double Apple firewire to thunderbolt adapters, OR use the Pinnacle 710 with the correct 1394 Legacy driver. Then use WinDV. For analog with the 710 you are best to use only Pinnacle software to capture from in Windows 10/11. If you jump down to win7 then most other capture software will work. For win10 the most solid experience has been AmaRecTV v3.1 and the IO Data GV-USB2 video adapter. That combination has been error free. VDub2 I use for quick edits, but the capture program in VDub2 is not compatible with Win10 so don't bother trying. VDub1.9 may work.

[lordsmurf]

you are best to use only Pinnacle software to capture from in Windows 10/11.

Studio is crapware, quality loss.

VirtualDub and VirtualDub2 in Win10/11 depends on factors. Very few negative reports to date, you'd only be the 4th I've seen is 2-3 years now.