Recently I needed to digitize several VHS videotapes, but since there was no MiniDV camera, no TV tuner, or even any video card with the ability to capture video and audio signals nearby, I ordered myself such a gadget at the ebay.com auction. :
EasyCAP USB 2.0 is a small device that allows you to capture video and audio directly via a USB port, without the use of any additional devices. The adapter does not require external power and allows you to easily and simply digitize any VHS tape. In addition to all these delights, I was also pleased with the affordable price of only 207 rubles ($6.69) and this includes delivery.
The package with the device took approximately 40 days. Apparently, not only the congress of the Chinese Communist Party, but also the New Year’s bustle at our post office affected the duration of the parcel’s passage. But I was in no hurry, so I could afford to wait that long.
Contents of delivery
The device, as always expected for small tripe from China, came in a small paper bag, in which I found the following:
- Actually EasyCAP USB 2.0 itself.
- USB extension cable.
- CD with drivers, codecs and software.
- Instructions in English.
Which fully corresponded to the configuration of the lot on ebay.com.
So, EasyCAP USB 2.0, in person:
The gadget itself is made in the form of a large flash drive. The USB connector is carefully closed with a cap. I was pleased with the quality of the case - firstly, it is rubberized, that is, Soft-Touch technology is used; secondly, ventilation holes were prudently made along the entire perimeter of the case (EasyCAP gets a little hot during operation).
The gadget is equipped with output connectors for connecting RCA cables (tulips) and a connector for connecting S-Video. Each wire is labeled with a small label.
The English instructions describe everything very well, from connecting various devices to EasyCAP and ending with installing the software. By the way, about software and drivers: the kit includes a CD containing not only drivers and codecs, but also the “Honestech VHS to DVD 2.0 SE” program, which allows you to quickly convert an analog signal to a digital one, and immediately edit it (trim, edit , add simple effects), and then burn it to disk.
I was very surprised that this software product was protected by a key that was written on a CD.
You don't have to install drivers at all. When I connected for the first time, Windows 7 itself found and installed some of its own drivers, with which EasyCAP also worked fine.
Working with EasyCAP USB 2.0
Now about the results of the device itself. Personally, I was quite pleased with the result of the digitization. But I replaced the program that was on the included CD with “VirtualDub”. EasyCap and the software supplied with it handled the digitization of VHS tapes just fine. Things are a little worse with the digitization of a non-standard video signal.
For example, I have a small portable gaming console Ritmix RZX-50, which has TV-Out. I tried connecting it to EasyCAP, playing something and recording a video. The program that came on the disk recorded video from the RZX-50 very poorly, with terrible distortion. But VirtualDub pleased me in this regard; the video quality was at a decent level.
But there was a fly in the ointment. The green LED indicator, which should indicate that the device is connected to the computer, suddenly turned yellow and then stopped glowing altogether. But, fortunately, this did not affect the operation of the device at all.
Setting up "VirtualDub" for recording signal with EasyCAP
I used the . It is completely free and distributed under GPL v2.
So, we connect EasyCAP to the computer (the drivers should already be installed on the system) and connect the video signal source.
Launch “VirtualDub” and select “Capture AVI” on the “File” tab.
Make sure that in the “Device” menu the switch is located next to your EasyCap.
If the image appears streaky, don't be alarmed. In the “Video” tab, select “Preview” and the image should become normal. If this doesn't help, try the following, which was posted in the comments to this review.
Now you can expand the received signal to full screen by pressing “Alt+Enter”.
To record a video signal to an AVI file, you need to do the following:
First, set the file into which our signal will be output. To do this, in the “File” tab, select the “Set Capture File...” item, enter a name and click “Save”.
Now press “F5” or select “Capture Video” on the “Capture” tab and record the video to a file.
To stop recording, press “Esc”, or select “Stop Capture” on the “Capture” tab.
After recording, the AVI file can be processed with any video editor.
Since “VirtualDub” allows you not only to record a signal into a video file, but also to see it in real time, and even expand it to full screen, with its help EasyCap can display a video signal from various equipment, be it Dendy/NES or home DVD, on a computer monitor -player.
But the best program for this purpose is Media Player Classic. With this player you can not only watch movies, but also capture videos from our EasyCap in a couple of clicks.
To capture a video using it, select “Open Device” from the “File” menu.
After a small window for selecting settings (if you have many video capture cards in your system), the video stream and audio captured by EasyCap will be broadcast to the player window.
Types of EasyCAPs
Many Chinese companies use the EasyCAP label to produce USB video capture devices. There are at least four types of EasyCAPs. Outwardly, they are practically indistinguishable, but their iron filling is different.
The very first versions were called "EasyCAP DC60" and were built on the Syntek STK1160 chip.
In addition, there were also variations of EasyCAPs built on Empia EM2860, Somagic SMI-2021CBE and UTV007. Some of them were called “EasyCAP DC60++”, for example, my EasyCAP comes with a disk on which this particular model is written.
I got a gadget based on the UTV007 chip. Its main difference is that it uses one chip to process both audio and video, while other EasyCAPs use a separate processor for audio processing, usually AC'97 or Cirrus Logic 5340-CZZ.
Another distinctive feature is that, unfortunately, of all four varieties, EasyCAP, built on the UTV007 chip, does not have drivers for GNU/Linux distributions. Apparently no one has reversed the protocol yet.
A device is defined in GNU/Linux like this:
Shell
$lsusb Bus XXX Device XXX : ID 1b71 : 3002 |
What's inside?
The EasyCAP case was easily opened with a regular plastic card. The body halves are secured with tight latches.
Device board with located elements:
As you can see, the board is multi-layered.
The same UTV007 chip:
Conclusion and useful links
For its price range, EasyCAP is an excellent solution that allows you to digitize a video signal quickly and with sufficient quality. If you need to digitize your VHS video collection, you can't find anything more practical. The only thing that bothers me is the delivery time. However, it is possible that similar devices are also sold in stores in your city. True, their price will be a little more expensive, but not significantly.
An example of the quality of digitized video using various programs, suggested by user Vasya; + Samples
Update 30-March-2019: If you have some problems with various video capture programs, for example, image quality suffers or the program completely refuses to work with EasyCAP, then a good alternative to the software that comes with the device may be OBS Studio, this software package is not only free, but also comes with open source code. Thanks to the user dmitry for using this program in conjunction with EasyCAP.
EasyCAP USB drivers are software that is necessary for the operation of the device of the same name. Usually already included with the device.
What is EasyCAP USB? This is a small device with which you can digitize analog video from old VHS tapes, tuners, cameras and other devices. The device itself is an adapter, on one side of which there is a regular USB port with an indicator, and on the other side there are RCA connectors (popularly called “tulip”).
To digitize, you need to connect a device (for example, a video cassette player) to your computer via an adapter. And for the PC to successfully detect the player, you need to install the EasyCAP USB drivers. They also come with a special program for viewing and recording videos.
When you have everything connected, launch the program and turn on the device itself. After this, the video will start playing on the computer screen. To start recording a video, click the corresponding button. Before this, you can specify various parameters: resolution, color settings, video standard, etc.
Installing drivers is no different from installing other programs. Just run the executable and follow the installer's instructions.
Features of the program
Provides operation of the EasyCAP USB adapter for video capture.A special program for video playback is installed with the drivers.
Includes digitization settings (video resolution, color options, etc.).
Support Windows 2000 and higher.
EasyCAP USB drivers are usually supplied on a disk with the device. But if you don’t have a disk, then you can download the drivers absolutely free.
The name Easy Cap (actually pronounced “easy cap”) comes from the words easy and capture. In fact, the easiest way to capture analog video from a VCR is with this device. Almost any computer or laptop with a USB 2.0 port and a Windows system, including the latest one, is suitable for work. EasyCap can be connected to a video source via tulip or s-video, audio - via stereo tulips. Capture is carried out on the fly in mpeg1 or mpeg2 with a resolution of 720x576.
Each copy of Easy Cap is manually tested by us for performance and, if all tests are successfully passed, it receives a protective hologram with an individual serial number, which can be used to confirm the origin of the device when contacting technical support. We are responsible for what we sell: we advise our customers on correct installation and make returns if problems that cannot be solved arise.
Our devices support all the latest versions of Windows: XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10, but unfortunately do not work with Apple Mac.
Brief description of the device
Among dozens of similar externally Chinese EasyCap devices, this is the highest quality and most reliable for home VHS digitization. Tested on dozens of types of devices with different hardware and prices. More expensive than others, but it's worth it. And it also comes in a nice blue case, unlike the classic black ones.
Since January 2020, our blue EasyCaps have increased slightly in price because they received a new filling: now they contain not one, but two chips: a Samsung K4S1616220-TC70 SDRAM memory module and an updated UTVF-007 base chip (VID_534D, PID_0021). This development of the technology of the well-proven good old UTV-007 (VID_1B71, PID_3002) provides an even higher quality image than its predecessor, supports many third-party capture programs, suppresses noise and video interference, is extremely easy to use and configure, and does not even need to install drivers , immediately starting work under any Windows system, including Windows 10 x64.
Unfortunately, the best is the enemy of the good, and now SECAM color support and the Android and MAC OS operating systems are in question. It's all about the driverless organization of the new filling. For example, the standard Windows driver, which automatically attaches to such a device, does not have a format switch, and the new device does not have its own driver. Even if the chip can understand SECAM, there is no longer a button to switch the source, and auto-detection does not work. Perhaps a software solution will appear in the future, we will inform you. In any case, do not take EasyCap anywhere, because inside identical external devices there can easily be both different chips and different board layouts. There are more than a dozen EasyCap filling options, new ones are added every year, but not all are suitable for digitizing cassettes.
Best filling for Easy Cap
Why is this still the best filling?
- Firstly, UTVF-007 is one of the few chips that give a really cool picture. And although it only supports two color systems: PAL and NTSC, this is not new. Other chips commonly used in Easy Cap 2.0 devices, STK-1160, MBA-22N and AMT-630, also do without SECAM. Usually this is not necessary, since there were no household video cameras, and therefore no home recordings in SECAM format. There was only a TV broadcasting in it. And if you need to digitize domestic TV recordings, consider the EzCap 170—it understands all three formats.
- Secondly, devices based on STK-1160 have problems with sound, MBA-22N is picky about the quality of the incoming video signal and does not like household VHS tape recorders, and AMT-630 is much inferior in picture quality. UTV-007 is good, but due to its single-chip nature it is only compatible with native software and is prone to overheating during prolonged use, while our new hero UTVF-007 is much more stable and predictable both in quality and compatibility.
For each of the popular chips, we have noticed at least two versions of printed circuit boards of different colors and properties. Less commonly found inside EasyCap are other outdated chips that no longer support the latest versions of Windows. For example, this one: STK-1150 is the predecessor of STK-1160. As a result, even the seller does not always know what exactly he is selling. Imagine what a lottery it becomes to buy EasyCap directly in China through Aliexpress.
Includes blue EasyCap USB 2.0
Each kit includes:
- EasyCap USB 2.0 capture device (blue, made in China);
- USB extension cord;
- Instructions in Russian;
- Yellow DVD with ArcSoft ShowBiz 3.5 capture software. When you first start the program asks for the serial number. It is in our paper instructions and on the disc itself. If you don't have a DVD drive, download the program
The collection of recordings on video cassettes has become an increasing headache over the years - old films gradually dry out and demagnetize. Only digitization will help save records, and for this you will need equipment and software.
To process the video, you will need a camera or VCR from which the tape will be played. For capture - a computer with a card and a signal processing program. There are not many options for capture cards; there are both internal and external ones. First, I recommend taking a closer look at EasyCAP USB 2.0.
On one side of the EasyCAP USB there is a USB 2.0 port, on the other there are tulips for connecting audio and video cables. If you purchased a used adapter without a driver disk, you may have to carefully open the case and see what chip is installed inside. This will help you download the correct driver.
There are also internal capture cards. The picture shows an Ewclid brand board.
Alternatively, you can use a TV tuner for the same purposes. For example, a card produced by the Russian company Beholder.
After connecting and installing the drivers, you will need a program to process and encode the signal. The choice here is large: from a simple program from the disk included with EasyCAP, to Adobe Premiere Elements or a full-fledged Premiere.
What to choose is up to you: it’s best to try different options yourself. Free software from the disk often does not cope with its functions very well, and mastering Premiere is poorly compatible with the task of digitizing home footage of birthdays and proms. Personally, I like it best.
VirtualDub is a free utility for Windows that is great for capturing, editing, and editing video streams. It has a huge number of settings for video processing, so the output can be a much better picture than the input. To find your way around the settings, I recommend looking at one of the Russian-language instructions.
Don't forget that to digitize in good quality you will need a lot of free space on your hard drive. The file size varies depending on resolution, compression and a bunch of other parameters and sometimes reaches crazy numbers. For example, when recording at 640 × 480 resolution with the Microsoft Video 1 codec, one hour will be equal to 15 GB. So don't even think about specifying a FAT32 formatted drive as the save location - you'll quickly run into a 4GB file size limit.
And one last piece of advice: try not to load your computer while coding. Video processing requires computing resources, and if you decide to while away the time with some toy, you risk getting the picture and sound out of sync as a result.
1. Install the software from the kit
2. Connect your VCR/video player/camcorder/game console to the EasyCap device
3. Connect EasyCap to the USB port of your PC
4. Launch the included software
5. Set the default video standard in the program (PAL/NTSC/SECAM, etc.)
6. Start playback on VCR/Video Player/Video Camera/Game Console
7. Press the "REC" button in the program.
8. Alternative use of the device that you may not have thought of.
Introduction
The modern world is changing rapidly, and such a thing as video cassettes has long sunk into oblivion. But what to do if your favorite videos remain on tape? In this case, a device for digitizing video tapes at home called EasyCap USB 2.0 will help you. This device is designed for digitizing any analog signal - from 8 mm film to classic video cassettes.
First, let's figure out how it works. We will not delve into the difference between an analog signal and a digital signal; this is beyond the scope of our article. Let us only mention that modern recording formats are digital, that is, the image is encoded using a combination of zeros and ones. The format used on video cassettes is analog. Analogue signals are produced by VCRs, camcorders, video players and similar devices. The computer works with numbers. Therefore, we are faced with the task of converting one into the other. To do this, you need a so-called “digitization board”, which, in fact, is our EasyCap device.
EasyCap device overview
The Easy Cap device is a small box with a USB connector on one side and the familiar “tulips” or, scientifically, RCA on the other. In addition, there is another “S-Video in” connector.
Fig.1.
“Tulips” have different colors - yellow is used to connect video, red and white are used to connect audio.
Connecting and using EasyCap - instructions
There is nothing complicated in connecting the device - just connect it to the USB connector of your computer. The LED on the device body should light up. Then connect the signal source using Tulip cables (RCA). This can be any device - a VCR, video player, 8 mm video camera, any camera with an analog output, and even a game console. The author of this review successfully uses EasyCap to connect his Play Station to a computer, which allows him not only to display the image on the monitor screen, but also to record his favorite games at any time!
Now the device is almost ready for use, there are only a few steps left to complete, or rather, install the driver and a special program for digitizing. Both are available on the disc included with the device. Just install the disk into your computer or laptop, the installation menu will launch automatically. 
Fig.2.
Click the "Install" button and install all software following the on-screen instructions (or simply click the "Next" button as needed).
Fig.3.
The device for digitizing video is equipped with the Honestech TVR program. This program is extremely simple, has a minimum of settings and is easy to work with. After installation, the following icon will appear on your desktop:
Rice. 4.
Launch the program by clicking on the icon. If the program displays the error “Could not initialize the capture device”, it means that you forgot to connect the device itself to the computer.
Now press the “Play” button on your video player, and your favorite cassette will start playing in the program window!
Attention! You will almost certainly see that the image is cloudy and dirty, in addition, it is transmitted in the wrong colors. For example, like in the picture.
Rice. 5.
To fix this, you need to set the video standard with which your video player or video camera works. To do this, click the “Settings” button: 
Rice. 6.
A window with settings will appear. Select the first tab “Video Settings”, and in the “Video Standard” window select what your signal source works with - a player, video camera or set-top box. If you are not sure what exactly to set, switch one by one until the image becomes clear and crisp.
Rice. 7.
Now you can press the record button in the program and enjoy your old recordings!
Alternative uses for the Easy Cap video capture device
This device can be used not only for digitizing old videotapes at home. It displays real-time images from any connected source on the screen. What does it mean? To connect a game console, you no longer need a separate TV; you can use a monitor. Connect, launch the program and play - no delays! Using exactly the same principle, you can use an old VCR, turning it into a TV tuner with a control panel (if you remember, all old VCRs supported this feature - in order to record channels through them, they had to be configured inside the tape recorder itself, duplicating the settings TV). You can also connect any set-top boxes that have a “tulip” type output. And also - you can connect an analog video camera to this device, which can be hung in the entrance - thus, you will protect your home.
P.S
Please note! This device cannot miraculously improve a damaged video or restore lost pieces! There are no means in the world that would be capable of this. All this device can do is transfer your recordings to a computer with virtually no loss of quality. Then, of course, you can try to improve them a little by using special filters in programs such as Adobe Premier, but you still won’t achieve DVD-like quality. This is due to a number of points:
1. Objective moment. Any films deteriorate over time. This results in image deterioration. That is, if a cassette has been lying on a shelf for twenty years, the quality of the recording has noticeably dropped.
2. The moment is subjective. Everything is relative. Remember the first digital cameras. Now open your old photos. They haven't changed. Only your perception of quality has changed, because now any cheap phone takes better pictures than the most expensive camera of that time. It's the same with your recordings - now monitors can display billions of colors, they are bright, saturated, and, most importantly, large. They simply clearly show all the shortcomings of the equipment of that time.
So, let's summarize. The EasyCap device not only can convert all your records into digital format. It can also be used as an alternative to a TV when connecting any devices that produce an analog signal - for example, television receivers, game consoles or portable video players. We also do not recommend delaying the digitization of old video cassettes and 8 mm films, especially since now this can be easily done at home. Cassettes deteriorate over time!
