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Mac Mini M4 & Sequoia 15.3.1, USB Capture Card not recognized.
- Thread starter Aimo
- Start date
Use a different capture card. One that probably costs about 4x what that one does.
A quick google search turns up an Amazon listing for $20. A good chip all by itself, not including everything around it, is probably more than that.
The cheap chips are USB 2 only, so the cheap devices that have USB 3 connectors (and the hype that goes along with that), don't actually have the USB 3 pins hooked up. So they have to cram HD video through USB 2, which doesn't even have a chance at keeping up, and so they compress the video, hard, in the chip itself before it even gets to the computer at all.
And because they're cheap, they use a quick, dirty, and inefficient method - MJPEG - which is simply a JPG still image of each frame with no knowledge of the other frames, so as to take advantage of their similarity. So the quality is even worse than that bitrate might have with a better compression method like H.264.
And then there's the haphazard design and manufacturing problems that come with such a low price point as well. It's essentially random what works and what doesn't, with *working* still burdened by the problem above.
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Stick with the name brands, that actually care about customer loyalty, and thus have some accountability to those customers. And like I said to start with, expect to spend about $80 to $120 for a single input.
A quick google search turns up an Amazon listing for $20. A good chip all by itself, not including everything around it, is probably more than that.
The cheap chips are USB 2 only, so the cheap devices that have USB 3 connectors (and the hype that goes along with that), don't actually have the USB 3 pins hooked up. So they have to cram HD video through USB 2, which doesn't even have a chance at keeping up, and so they compress the video, hard, in the chip itself before it even gets to the computer at all.
And because they're cheap, they use a quick, dirty, and inefficient method - MJPEG - which is simply a JPG still image of each frame with no knowledge of the other frames, so as to take advantage of their similarity. So the quality is even worse than that bitrate might have with a better compression method like H.264.
And then there's the haphazard design and manufacturing problems that come with such a low price point as well. It's essentially random what works and what doesn't, with *working* still burdened by the problem above.
---
Stick with the name brands, that actually care about customer loyalty, and thus have some accountability to those customers. And like I said to start with, expect to spend about $80 to $120 for a single input.
Also, if you must use USB, you're practically limited to one HD video source, total. The single controller that connects to all the ports, just can't handle the data rate for two uncompressed HD video streams.
If you happen to have *two* USB controllers, both of which connect to external ports, then you can have two HD video sources IF you connect them carefully so that each one is on a different controller.
If you can use an internal PCIe card, that's a much better way to capture video. Even for a single input. But it also allows 4 simultaneous HD inputs with no loss of quality for any of them...if you get a 4-input card that is *not* designed for security systems. Those only have a single converter (the expensive part) and a quick-and-dirty switch to connect it to one input at a time. So if you get a multi-input PCIe card, make sure it has a dedicated converter for each input.
If you happen to have *two* USB controllers, both of which connect to external ports, then you can have two HD video sources IF you connect them carefully so that each one is on a different controller.
If you can use an internal PCIe card, that's a much better way to capture video. Even for a single input. But it also allows 4 simultaneous HD inputs with no loss of quality for any of them...if you get a 4-input card that is *not* designed for security systems. Those only have a single converter (the expensive part) and a quick-and-dirty switch to connect it to one input at a time. So if you get a multi-input PCIe card, make sure it has a dedicated converter for each input.
Thanks for the advice.Use a different capture card. One that probably costs about 4x what that one does.
A quick google search turns up an Amazon listing for $20. A good chip all by itself, not including everything around it, is probably more than that.
The cheap chips are USB 2 only, so the cheap devices that have USB 3 connectors (and the hype that goes along with that), don't actually have the USB 3 pins hooked up. So they have to cram HD video through USB 2, which doesn't even have a chance at keeping up, and so they compress the video, hard, in the chip itself before it even gets to the computer at all.
And because they're cheap, they use a quick, dirty, and inefficient method - MJPEG - which is simply a JPG still image of each frame with no knowledge of the other frames, so as to take advantage of their similarity. So the quality is even worse than that bitrate might have with a better compression method like H.264.
And then there's the haphazard design and manufacturing problems that come with such a low price point as well. It's essentially random what works and what doesn't, with *working* still burdened by the problem above.
---
Stick with the name brands, that actually care about customer loyalty, and thus have some accountability to those customers. And like I said to start with, expect to spend about $80 to $120 for a single input.
I don't know how much it is on Amazon, but it's less than $10 in China.
Amazon is too expensive for the same product.
I'm not using it for professional recording, so this product was enough for me, but I'll consider other products based on your advice.
Thanks again.