Software to capture video from a device?

Question

I recently bought an EzCap USB video capture device, which works like a regular capture card except through USB.

Anyway, the device works fine, except the software that came with it to capture the signal is very... bloat-ware like. It's filled with ads and makes a stupid program force itself on startup.

I've tried to capture the media through VLC, but there's a severe input delay. Even though I hate this software (ShowBiz DVD 2) the video capture is perfect, and there isn't any delay or lag. Is there anything better than VLC that can capture video through a device?

Preferably something that I can run full-screen. The ShowBiz DVD 2 software plays nicely and records great, but like I said, it forces some stupid program on start up, and the bigger problem is that the capture screen is like, 2 inches across. It's impossible to play a PS2 game on the thing.

Answer 1

Thanks to Xantec's comments, I was able to get VirtualDub working.

To get the EzCap 116 device to play in VirtualDub, you should download the latest version of the program.

Start the program, then:

• Go into File > Capture AVI...
• If no video plays, go into Devices > WDM 2861 Capture
  • if that is already selected, then go to Video > Video sources and select either the Composite or S-Video, depending on what you're using
• If the video is choppy or does not play, try these:
  • Go into Audio > untick Enable audio playback (having it ticked creates severe frame rate issues)
  • Go into Video > Compression and change it to something other than "No recompression" (you may have to experiment a little)
  • Go into Video > Capture Filter and change the settings (Default is NTSC_M, I have luck with NTSC_M_J and others have luck with NTSC_433. If you live elsewhere in the world, you might try some of the PAL options. YMMV)
• For best results when capturing, make sure that you're running the capture in a static, unchanging size; i.e., "Stretch to window" is not ticked nor is "Full Screen". If you want to change the size, you can go into Video > Set custom format, but VirtualDub seems to set the size at the device's natural output.
• If you want to apply a filter to your video as it plays, go to Video > Filter chain > Filter list... and add your desired filters.
• When capturing, your audio will desync. It's a fairly common problem with VirtualDub. Look around for tutorials on how to edit your video to fix this.