Video Grabber

[Just17]

I thought I should post some details on this wee device - cost about $25 - and can be used to digitise VCR tapes etc.

The device I have is a Silvercrest VG2000 (Video Grabber) but was sold with other names also.

LSUSB gives

Code: [Select]

Device 015: ID eb1a:2863 eMPIA Technology, Inc. Video Grabber
I tested it today using a DVD player on both Composite Video and S-Video outputs of the player.
The results were very good .....  I did not have a VCR to test with, so I am not sure how it would behave with a VCR. One thing is for sure ....  the device itself is not introducing any artefacts or disturbances to the video.

I played the video stream in VLC ....... selecting for composite video and audio the following

Video:  /dev/video0
Audio: hw:2,0   (from the drop-down menu)

It took a little while to figure out how to record from the S-Video signal ......

Video:  /dev/video0:input=1
Audio: hw:2,0   (from the drop-down menu)

That was all it took!  

Of course the numbers of the devices above will change according to the hardware present.


The only negative I happened across with this is the video bitrate is huge!
That needs to be dropped before saving, else it would use >1GB per minute  

The only warning to anyone thinking of getting something similar is to make sure the device is supported in Linux BEFORE you buy it.

BTW, I tried to use PCLinuxOS-PVR instead of VLC, and while I could record the video, I could not record the audio, as the app does not allow selection of a separate audio channel.

That covers it for now.

[pupthai]

Yes I have something sim to it a em2880 chip inside.  It is an older one and support has been confusing at times - sometimes it will work in vlc with just hitting play - then after updated I go back to modding the config file to default to the input=1 etc but it does work well for recording. 

I had a load of VHS-C tapes that I played back on my old sony cam and used the grabber to record them - (worth the price just to do that collection) - I then converted them all to MP4 and they fit on my wife's phone.

Caution: Grand mothers with 16gb sd in smartphone pack mess amount of baby video and pictures everywhere they go.