AV.io HD - Grab and Go USB Video Capture for VGA, DVI, and HDMI up to 1080p at 60 fps

I almost gave this 4 stars because it wasn't quite as "plug and play" as I had hoped but with a little bit of configuration no the source computer (macbook pro 2010) and my capture software (Wirecast) I was able to get really good results. It was plug and play in the sense that it was detected but the image was problematic.I was disheartened initially because the video and powerpoint was coming in aliased (jaggy edges) and very dark. I was engaged with epiphan support for a while and then got busy and didn't get around to figuring out what was up. I ended up troubleshooting it and responded with an email to epiphan. It is as follows:"Hi there -I would like to circle back with you on this issue so that you could inform others who might have the same issues I did. As a matter of fact I suggest you pass this onto the entire team so that this info somehow makes it onto your webpage/literature.So, this isn't really an issue with your hardware as much as it's a configuration issue on the source computer and the capture software. However, it would be quite easy for one to think so due to the seeming "plug and play" nature of the device.Bottom line is this:1) from within wirecast one needs to go to sources/source settings/AV.io HDMI Video Video/ and make sure the FPS is set to 30 or 60. This will correct the frame stutter. For some reason Wirecast was defaulting to 15 fps. Note: this was not an issue from within VLC...only Wirecast.2) The source computer, a macbook pro 17-inch, Mid 2010, needed to be color calibrated for the AV.io. It was coming in SUPER dark...as in so dark it was mostly un-usable for many parts of the material. Once you start up the color calibration tool from the display settings on the mac it almost immediately becomes brighter to where I had to do very little actual tweaking.3) Finally, there is the mirroring, vs extended desktop. Which is better? I know that in the past I was getting really bad aliasing (jaggy edges). I'm not sure 100% this is what fixed it but what I ended up with a smooth image was setting the AV.io config utility to 'use signal input resolution' and 'performance mode'. I also decided to mirror the display and for whatever reason the LCD says 1920x1200 and the AV.io as 1920x1080. I assume this is correct because it works and works well.Anyhow, that's pretty much it. I hope this can help someone else in the future."So, this is a solid device and perhaps with your particular configuration you won't have the same issues I did.

After trying a similar type of device from a different vendor that did not work well, I was very skeptical about trying this. However, my concerns were eliminated literally within minutes of installing it as it worked perfectly and easily right out of the box. Using it with a Windows 10 machine, you can verify operation using nothing but the regular built in Windows Camera app which can take images of single frames or can record video also. Thus, without even installing any software at all on a Windows 10 machine, you can grab images and video in less than a minute after simply plugging it in. No exaggeration! Physically, it feels very sturdy and does not get hot to the touch like I've experienced with other vendor's similar devices. Still true even after it has been on for about a week straight now.The capture quality is excellent and I'm very pleased with the simplicity. Unlike some other similar devices I've seen, you do not even need to know what format you source video is in. Whatever your capture software opens the device as in terms of capture format, the hardware will scale it appropriately and does a very good job of doing so. So if your input video is in 1080p and you want to capture 720p, you do not need to do any configuration of the device or do any transcoding after capture. Very nice!Only drawbacks I noticed: Even though the device appears to be brand new, there was a newer firmware available that I installed. Only took a couple minutes to rectify, simply due to you need to go to their website and download it. No software included in the box at all. Also, would love for them to provide a utility which can report the format of the incoming video as I've seen with some other vendors. Would be a very nice to have feature.

Capture works perfectly with typical HDMI, DVI, and VGA sources. It comes in as a UVC class device, so no drivers need to be installed for both Windows 10 and Linux for capture to work. Capture format support is very simple: all frames returned by the capture device are in uncompressed YUV 4:2:2 format. If connected to a USB 3.0 port it is possible to get full 1080p60 capture with no frame drops, assuming the CPU is able to keep up especially when compressing the video realtime. In Linux, video is acquired through the Video4linux interface and audio through the ALSA interface. It works perfectly fine with VLC player and FFMPEG and any other capture software in Linux.One curious feature of the AV.io is that it doesn't seem to tell the capture software what the HDMI source's video resolution is. Instead, if you ask the device to capture 1280x720 at 60fps, it will take the HDMI source and scale to 1280x720 even if the source is, say, 1920x1080. Not a problem, just a curious feature.The other big selling point with me is that it works with Linux. I have a few other HDMI capture cards and while they work great, they require me to boot into and run Windows 7 or later and the manufacturer of those cards has explicitly stated they are not interested in Linux. If you want one less reason to run Windows, buy this capture card instead of other brands!

It didn't work well for me at 1920x1080 resolution. Video output had substantial amount of jitter especially on the right side of the screen. At lower resolutions, it worked well. Looking at the VGA timing signals on an oscilloscope showed why - at 1920x1080, they were not within spec. Returned it for a refund, which was received without any issues.

Everything arrived well and the unit worked as advertised, thanks