August VGB100 - External USB Video Capture Card - S Video/Composite to USB Transfer Cable - Grabber Lead for Windows 11/10 / 8/7 / Vista/XP

Following August’s video tutorial on YouTube I downloaded the ‘new’ drivers and installed everything quickly and easily. Since then I’ve digitized about 30 VHS tapes without a hitch. I started with the included software which is basic but works fine. Later I started using OBS which is certainly more robust. It took me quite a while to decide on one of these to purchase as the reviews are uniformly bad from the cheapest to the most expensive units. This one seemed to have a higher number of successful users. I watched the August YouTube video they published in May detailing the installation. It was nicely done and featured ‘new’ software. So I figured I could disregard all the older reviews that complained about the software. Also, most said they had success with OBS. With both softwares the video and audio is quite good, not much loss from the VHS tapes. I have encountered one problem though, that occurs every time I shut down the computer. When I open the software (August’s or OBS) it does not connect to the device. I’ve found that all I have to do is unplug the device, and plug it back in. That usually does the trick but sometimes closing the program and reopening it is also needed. In any event, I’ve never failed to get it working in less than a minute’s time. And once up and running it stays connected until the computer is shut down again. OBS has some odd behavior which was noticed by another reviewer. His review helped me figure it out the first time. What happens is sometimes when OBS is opened I will have audio but no video. Other times, video but no audio. Sometimes neither. Here’s what I found works: If no audio, unplug and replug device If no video, go to Video Capture Device/Properties, if checked, uncheck ‘Use Custom Audio Device’ Recheck ‘Use Custom Audio Device’ and make sure correct device is in the pull down below (Analog Audio in (USB 2.0 Video Capture)). Video appears as soon as box is checked. I’m not sure why this works, but it works every time for me. People have mentioned having problems on newer hardware. I’m using an older computer with USB 2.0 ports and haven’t tried it on anything newer.

The device works fine, however, I had problems with my computer with the initial installation. I followed the instructions. I Did NOT PLUG DEVICE I began to install drivers from mini cd. The installation stopped because it could not find the device I plugged in the device and restarted installing the drivers, the installation completed. I installed the software, using licence key from cd case I went to device manager to check that drivers were correctly installed: I was able to capture video from my old Sony 8mm camera to my computer. HOWEVER, WHEN I RESTARTED MY COMPUTER LATER IT WOULD NOT BOOT PAST THE SPLASH SCREEN. After an hour of trouble shooting, clearing the cmos, etc. I decided to unplug all usb devices thinking that the new device drivers were causing the problems. I was now able to boot into Windows 10. I had to uninstall the device drivers in order to boot the computer with usb peripherals connected. I went online and downloaded drivers from their website. I was now able to boot the computer properly and use the device. It captured the video well. The software is great for capture, however, it is limited . I used other software to edit the video and create a dvd.

This was the cheapest one I could fine. Set up was easy, had 2 problems will list it and the fix, I am using windows 10, 64 bit pro Problem 1 1. Driver installation - instructions said to install the driver then plug in the device (this is actually the most common practice on usb devices) but when I tried to install the drivers the program errored out. I then plugged in the device then ran the driver installation, worked like it should 2. Sound/Device in use - A common problem you will first see is an error saying something like "device in use" and people listed fixes but I will explain a real fix and the root cause. When you install the device it uses you sound card, the speakers AND mic. The problem lies in the mic, you windows will switch it to your default mic so the device can't use it to record sound because windows hijacked it. The Fix. Open up sound properties (Right click windows icon) select control panel>Hardware and Sound>sound (or type "sound" in the search. Select the "recording tab" right click on the VGB100 and select "disable" . This will stop windows from using the device gain when you unplug and plug the USB back in. The software with the device is easy to use, the only thing I wish I could do is set a record time. I have started recording a 6hr tape only to forget about it and let it record 18 hours making a 25 gig video file. I easily fixed this but I bet slower computers would have trouble handling that. If you plan on recording something long, set an alarm!

I've tried two different operating systems and several different pieces of software, but had no luck getting this to work. I first tried this device under Linux (Ubuntu 16.04, kernel 4.4.0), and it showed a USB ID of 1f4d:0102. It was claimed by the cx231xx driver and appeared as a /dev/videoX node. So far so good. With guvcview, it would not respond to any ioctl()s requesting frame sizes, and manually forcing a frame size didn't work. I also tried both VLC and Cheese, but each of these just showed a blank image -- as if no video signal were detected upstream. Since the manufacturer never claimed Linux support, I managed to put together some spare hardware and install Windows 7 on it. Neither the installation package for the drivers nor the application software included on the CD were very impressive, and they are apparently affected by some critical bugs. The capture software (ArcSoft ShowBiz) would easily get into a state where it would complain about being unable to open the capture device; some other reviews mention this, but I didn't find any of the possible fixes to be helpful. ArcSoft has apparently discontinued support for ShowBiz, so I don't expect these problems to ever be fixed. During the rare moments when the capture device was correctly detected, the software only gave the option of capturing in one of several different PAL or SECAM standards. This was not especially useful, since my input source is NTSC.

Physically it's good. It arrived on time and in good condition. Video capture works good. I'm capturing from an older device and I had to play with the settings some before I got a video signal. Here's a hint - once you've set your source, video input, and audio device correctly if you're only getting audio and no video click on the "device settings" button and try different video standards until you get one that works. Mine required NTSSC_M_J. I have absolutely no idea what that means and I'm too lazy to look it up, but that's the one that got a video signal from my older Panasonic camcorder. Now for the reason I'm only giving it 3 stars. The "ShowBiz" software that comes with it is pretty buggy - and that's putting it kindly. Capturing works fine, but it locks up after each capture session. When I re-launch it, if I try any of the editing features for videos I've already captured it just locks up again. So if you're like me and on a mission to convert a ton of old family movies to digital format you'll do ok buying this to capture the video, but you should plan on using some other software package to do any editing, converting, etc.

This external USB video capture card makes transferring old tapes and analog footage to your computer easy. The plug-and -play USB connection worked instantly on both Windows and macOS. This device is very handy.

If you try to connect a gaming console that is a Super Nintendo / Sega Genesis or older, this capture card fails to sync the video signal properly and discolors the entire thing. Pictures show the same signal through the provided software, and then plugged into a regular CRT TV. Consoles newer than that, like the N64, or Dreamcast, capture okay. No one that I've talked to that owns other capture cards has this problem, or knows why it's happening on the August VGB100. Also, the S-Video cable just doesn't work at all with anything I try it on. I move the s-video plug from a TV that takes S-Video and is working as expected, to the August VGB and get no signal, even when deactivating and reactivating the capture with the signal active. So, it captures a relatively small range of consoles that are old enough to still use standard def composite, but not too old so as to throw the signal out of sync. Probably worth $3, not $30.

Works great with my canon gl2, although i had to order an S-Video cable which i recommend you do the same, they are very cheap. First i installed all the drivers and then i just plug in the cord from the av output on my camcorder and put it in the capture device along with the s-video cable then into my computers usb port. Now the app that it comes with is horrible, i highly recommend obs studio which is what i use and is free. Once the camcorder is set up, add a device on obs and select video capture device, and select the capture card. Then after adding it, right click your mouse while hovering over the video capture device and open device properties and scroll down to audio output mode and click on capture audio only which sounds odd but it works. After that it should show up on the screen. Then go to the top left and select scene selection and click new, then play your video from the camcorder and press "start recording" on the bottom left and let your video play through. When your video is done, press stop recording and go up to scene selection and click "export" and select your video and you can save it to your desktop. I hope this works for you if you are having trouble, it works for me.