Cheap composite video to HDMI converter - Is it really THAT bad?

[@iscander_s]

An important notice: those white boxes are made by numerous Chinese manufacturers and come with a multitude of different conversion chips inside. VWestlife have one of the "older" ones with better chipset thus it can provide such nice quality, a lot of the modern ones that you can buy today are much cost-cutted and have miserable image quality. The worst part - they are absolutely indistinguishable by their appearance

[@vwestlife]

Same thing with the "EasyCap" USB video capture devices -- there are four or five different chipsets in them, and some of them have a fake S-Video input that just combines the luma and chroma together, and/or mono audio even though there are separate left and right audio inputs.

[@greatquux]

Ah makes sense why two of the recent ones I bought to play my N64 both were washed out and dim when comparing on the same TV but using composite inputs.

[@GammaMAXXdotcom]

That’s very important information to me, because I’m looking for better equipment to redigitze my analog tapes with. I’m used to using the method seen in this video (As recommended by Alec from Technology Connections) as I sometimes use the separate units individually for other purposes. I’m sure a lot of people would love to know where you can still buy a high quality (or at least generally decent) analog composite to HDMI box, and an HDMI capture device, both of which actually support 59.94. That’s a video somebody needs to make! My existing digitizations have excessive judder with NTSC tapes, with a frame being duplicated on average every four or five frames. It’s actually difficult to tell it’s even supposed to be 60fps. If somebody can find a reliable source of currently produced hardware to serve this purpose that doesn’t cost a fortune or isn’t just second hand thousand(s) dollar professional grade equipment, that would be great to know.

[@und4287]

​@@vwestlife IIRC the mono audio easycaps also have some kind of sample-rate? limit

[@maxmustardman298]

Too bad the majority of how to convert vhs tapes channels fail to mention that, or just dont know

[@thiekus]

Pro tip: you can open command prompt/cmd directly on current directory of explorer by selecting top address bar right after location, then edit and type "cmd" on address bar and press enter. This very handy as you don't need change directory by manually "cd" to target directory.

[@mycosys]

Someone doest use power toys.

[@rvnx]

You can also press shift and right click anywhere in the folder, then select "open command prompt (or powershell) window here"

[@tm36105]

@@rvnx This is the way.

[@leonidas14775]

Wow! that's really helpful

[@tumblingdown8612]

holy crap

[@EdgardoDC]

I would suggest using OBS studio for capturing the image and set the image to a 4:3 aspect ratio. You can fix the source aspect ratio before capturing as well 👀

[@ran2wild370]

The advantage of this white box is hardware acceleration and real time converting.

[@katrinabryce]

@@ran2wild370 You would use OBS as a replacement for the Windows Camera App, not as a replacement for the conversion box.

[@Pesthauch666]

btw. OBS does this also with ffmpeg working in the background, like many video conversion and player software, that very often are just fancy frontends for ffmpeg.

[@mycosys]

the problem with 'fixing' the file just about any other way is you lose resolution. What it seems ffmpeg did is tag the output file as anamorphic 4:3 rather than re-encode it (hence the speed). So you need a player that can stretch the pixels but you retain the most source quality

[@ccllvn]

this, avoid using this hard command line crap

[@jcxtra]

A quick shortcut in VLC to change aspect ratios - just press the 'a' key (I remember it by 'a' for 'aspect ratio') and it will cycle through the most common types. Very useful if you want to fix an aspect ratio and you don't know which one is right and/or if you're full screen and don't want to search through the menus. There's also 'd' for de-interlace too. :)

[@CT-vm4gf]

Shortcuts are awesome.

[@SRQmoviemaker]

It's bad I love shortcuts but my lazy ass never looks em up but when I come across stuff like this it's in memory forever lol

[@RyansColoradoRailProductions]

I have used a website for converting old stretched 4:3 baseball games back to their original aspect ratio, but the max file size was 100mb. Thanks for suggesting a few alternatives so I won’t have to split the video into multiple parts anymore!

[@parkerlreed]

ffmpeg is your friend.

[@willthor6639]

@@parkerlreed been using it for YEARS

[@Pesthauch666]

@@willthor6639 To be fair ffmpeg is used in most video and audio conversion and player software anyway, so most people might have used it without even noticing. Some tools are just fancy frontends with ffmpeg doing the actual work when pressing the "encode" button. I personally prefer to use it straight from the terminal without any GUI since i feel I have to maximal control about what's going on this way without some software using weird parameters, filters or options.

[@dh2032]

@@Pesthauch666 yes it's background task, app, but user interface or lack of one?

[@sbrazenor2]

They probably use ffmpeg on their end to convert it. You can use applications to pipe into it on Linux, and it's the backend of a lot of things. I also recommend Handbrake, which is a GUI application for the same kind of thing.

[@awesomeferret]

Wow, that's way better quality than I was expecting. I didn't know composite video could look that good.

[@fartking2845]

Super VHS was near DVD quality. 420p I believe?

[@bzuidgeest]

​@@fartking2845 420 lines yes, but that is mostly useless if you are going to put it through as a composite signal. Also a interlaced signal. TV of the time could not handle progressive signals. Also the color signal i thought was not changed between vhs and svhs leading to it barely being better. Certainly dvd could do much better, but as always that depended on the quality of the mastering job.

[@fartking2845]

​@@bzuidgeest Thank you for clearing that up. I always assumed it was progressive and not interlaced.

[@brantisonfire]

@@bzuidgeest I think they increased the luminance but not the chroma from VHS to SVHS so the colors are still a little washed out.

[@vwestlife]

If the video has playback problems at 720p60, try switching to 480p, or watch it on Odysee instead: odysee.com/@VWestlife:3/cheap-composite-video-to-hdmi-converter:b

[@Scyth3934]

What was that clip at the end of the video from? 😂

[@vwestlife]

@@Scyth3934 The EP tape that I showed earlier in the video.

[@BG101UK]

I'm glad you brought this up! IMHO It would be better if KZbin actually still offered 30fps *without* hobbling the resolution! I honestly don't see any benefit with 60fps on the majority of content I watch anyway, so the extra bandwidth/CPU/RAM usage is just a waste really, especially on a bog-standard LCD display.

[@snap_oversteer]

Seems to work fine for me with forced H264 codec.

[@prodeusunity7393]

@@snap_oversteer yes, youtube still offers 720p and higher in 30FPS but only in H264, this is evident using YT-DLP and using ehanced-h264ify

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

I have an almost identical converter called the Sewell Manta -- the only difference is that it has a VGA input instead of composite. It also always outputs the image as 16:9, though it seems to have somewhat decent support for input resolutions (at least, among the common ones).

[@emmettturner9452]

The chip it uses is intended to handle scaling and analog input for an LCD TV. They just take the output and route it to an HDMI transmitter instead. That’s why it works with Macrovision protection and why it doesn’t properly support 240p (no off-the-shelf TV image processors do).

[@OrielFilms]

I've used a few different composite video converters over the years and I've never been a fan of them. Either the image is blurry, washed out or over exposed, they crop the image in too much or have that aspect ratio issue. At the moment I'm capturing and archiving all my old VHS tapes using an HDMI VCR (Panasonic DMR-EZ45V) going into my HDMI capture card using OBS. I've found this to have the results I like the best. There was a big audio drift issue that I believe was a windows issue that I had to sort out and now longer (6hr+) tapes dont drift noticeably. Love videos like this ^_^

[@WindmillGS]

I've had a couple of these converters and inverted audio channels seems to be a standard issue for them. I think it falls into the "you get what you paid for" category and isn't that big of a deal as long as you keep it in mind in the future. (Sticker label as a reminder helps a lot)

[@SRQmoviemaker]

I've had 3 converters like that, easy fix with the lablemaker.

[@okaro6595]

I once had a DVR that reversed the channels. Becaue it used SCART it was harder to fix. I had to modify the cable

[@damustermann]

Good that in the instructional video they talk about the importance of having the car on an even and flat ground. Of course, while standing on a sloped driveway. I just love this channel and your choice of media.

[@DreQueary]

Ffmpeg is one of the greatest pieces of software ever. Trimming video or changing formats without losing quality or re-encoding. It can also make videos network optimize, again without re-encoding.

[@Aeduo]

People will spend money and more effort with stringing together janky commercial solutions and get worse results and spend more time. Something like handbrake is ffmpeg based and should also be more GUII-user friendly.

[@mycosys]

@@Aeduo Handbrake was SO cool when it landed back in the day, so the easiest way to transcode your..... linux isos.

[@connorm955]

@@Aeduo Handbrake is great. I use it to fix 4:3 videos that people added black bars to.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Turning videos DASH friendly, or undoing that and having a normal file again, are two underrated use of FFmpeg

[@rzeka]

ffmpeg and ImageMagick should just come preinstalled on every computer.

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

Nice a new video just on time before bed about an RCA to HDMI Kevin you rock and love your videos always watching them

[@wilkes85]

I have the HDMI to composite one and use it on a CRT. With the resolution and aspect ratio set properly in Windows, the picture is so clear I can actually read all the text!

[@nudebaboon4874]

I bought one and had to stop using it, as on switch on it would let out a loud shriek that would've damaged the speakers if the volume hadn't been so low. Can your HDMI to composite work without a computer, and what is the make and model number? Thanks.

[@AndrewGray1987]

The performance of those $10 composite to HDMI adapters is higher than most (consumer) dedicated composite capture devices. Technology Connections actually made a video about it a few years ago.

[@redpheonix1000]

13:00 The NSYNC running gag kills me every time

[@hueckelaromat]

Thanks for this excellent video! Again something learned while having a laugh during the video. The use of the advertising videos is great and helps lighten up the topic while not making the video bloated. I love it!

[@kbhasi]

Oh my. When I saw the thumbnail for this video in my KZbin subscription feed, I was immediately reminded of a HDMI to composite A/V adaptor I have that uses the same shell and was likely made by the same ODM. I bought one to use with the in-flight entertainment systems on older Singapore Airlines aircraft that had composite A/V inputs next to each screen. They had since refurbished their aircraft during the pandemic and upgraded to newer systems, so I never had a chance to use the adaptor in practice, but I did test it at home and it did work if I set the display output resolution to somewhere around 800×480 or 1024×576.

[@heavymetalnewsdesk]

When you hooked the camera directly into it, that told the story. That's excellent video quality, and much better than what you see on most people's KZbin channel, in fact, what I saw on my tv was exactly what I see with my camera plugged directly into my tv

[@Eyetrauma]

I'd give up all my modern advances to live in the world of a 1997 Jetta instructional video.

[@marknouws4409]

The absolute timing on this video! I spent hours messing about with one a few hours ago and then i start youtube to find this 😂😂

[@shimtest]

the white box might be a mystery, but taking care of my 80s VW Jetta is no mystery now

[@vwestlife]

*1997

[@caeserromero3013]

I used one of these recently. I needed to convert old NTSC VHS tape to PAL DVD. I had a PAL/NTSC compatible VHS player, but when I connected it to my capture card, it was only recording black and white. I had a convertor box which would make the signal colour but it only had scart input and HDMI output, and my capture card only had composite input. I knew my dad had one of these boxes so I borrowed it and it bridged the gap between HDMI and composite and enabled me to back up those old NTSC VHS tapes in colour to MP4, which I then converted to DVD and burned successfully. Convoluted way of doing it, but given the format constraints I was working to, it got the job done.

[@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY]

IF PAL DVD, cannot play to NTSC only DVD players if NTSC DVD, works fine with both PAL and NTSC DVD Players.

[@electronicwaves]

Great video as always! One thing that helps a lot in the analog to digital conversion is a TBC (time base corrector). Full frame stand alone TBC is becoming more and more difficult to find and ridiculously expensive but one could get away either with a high end VHS device that includes a digital TBC, or a DVD recorder that has TBC: There were selected models like Panasonic DMR-ES10 and Panasonic DMR-ES15 that had line TBC and the best thing is that you can use those as passthrough, no need to burn VHS to DVD!

[@mw01908]

I have one of these, and I bought a blackmagic pro intensity card, but I could never get windows to see the card. I'm looking for another way to capture the HDMI stream from the panasonic. What would you recommend?

[@electronicwaves]

@@mw01908 If I understood correct, you have Panasonic DVD recorder that has both TBC and HDMI output. Then you should consider yourself lucky! I have no experience with blackmagic pro intensity card, but I have bought 2 relatively cheap HDMI to USB adapters from aliexpress. The first one is based on the low end IC that doesn't support 1080 60fps and also has limited color capabilities. So I ordered another one based on the MS2130 IC that is supposed to support true 1080p 60fps and USB 3.0 speeds. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to test it thoroughly but some test captures show a noticeable difference compared to the cheaper adapter. Btw these adapters don't need any drivers installation, they are automatically recognized from the OS, plug and play. I used OBS to capture from both devices.

[@stereophonicstuff]

I'm sure the analog video transfer purists are going to bemoan doing things this way, but I've been interested in going this route for quick down and dirty analog video transfers, ever since Technology Connections did his video on using one of these--and showing how good the results ended up being for so little time and money invested. I'm really impressed with the quality and results, especially considering how long the deinterlacing (to 60p) and upscaling (to either 720p or 1080p) process takes using other methods like QTGMC or Video Enhance AI. Is using something like this HDMI converter the right way to do things? Absolutely not, but the results more than make up for it when time is limited or the material being captured doesn't warrant going all out (like old VHS tapes of TV commercials).

[@pdrg]

If it helps, there are lots of transcoding programmes that are basically front ends for ffmpeg, they write the command strings for you then ffmpeg does the heavy lifting. This is thanks to the mysterious "GPL" part of the file name GNU Public License and the beautiful open source community

[@ghostcruncher1043]

I have one of these things, and when paired with a cheap HDMI capture device, the results are pretty good! Beats any AV capture devices!

[@heavymetalnewsdesk]

I was curious about this very thing and today I ordered an HDMI capture device and one of these mystery boxes, but my mystery box has an s video port and an aspect ratio switch. I have several high quality old school cameras that output a composite signal, and a composite video switcher, it has 5 inputs. I'm setting up a video studio using this equipment because I don't believe in buying a whole gaggle of new cameras. What matters is what's in the shot, not how large the resolution is. And I watched several reviews of analog USB capture devices, and the results were mostly very poor in comparison to this type of setup. Generally, with one of the direct AV to USB devices you have to spend $200 to get 480p, at 15fps, and like this, using the a/v HDMI, into an HDMI capture device you can get a much higher resolution at 30fps for around $20

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Considering the price, it’s not bad at all! Certainly not ideal for high quality archival type backups, but it’s still good for testing and to easily set something up. It would be nice if it also had S-Video, but it still works well. It won’t achieve the same look as composite on a CRT, but then again it isn’t designed with things like that in mind. Great review!

[@ihartmacz]

I would be really happy if these had S-Video. There is a composite NTSC PAL converter that shares the same design. I have a feeling that these are all made by the same company, or at least, come off of the same assembly line. They cheap and cheerful, and they do the job.

[@GamesFromSpace]

I think a lot of the SCART ones support s-video with a cheap passthrough adaptor.

[@SexycuteStudios]

You can buy ones that include S-video. At my work, we use 32 of them because it is much cheaper to convert the signal of a specialized several-thousand dollar computer with S-video output, over to HDMI so that a 200 dollar 40" TV can display the signal, than to replace the computers.

[@phalxor]

this is very comprehensive and I appreciate it I just wish you had included some test patterns or maybe throw a pixelated video game in the mix to see the before and after. converting a signal where the source is a vhs video it's hard to expect it to look much worse

[@uxwbill]

I've had occasion to use one of these and came to a similar conclusion -- it's not bad at all. VHS on a huge screen doesn't look majestic, but it's better than nothing. Unfortunately, those that go in the other direction don't perform nearly as well. I'd hazard a guess that the conversion chip is from Macrosilicon.

[@n__neen]

8:41 telling the user to check fluids on a level surface, when the driveway the thing is parked in here seems to be slanted down towards the back of the car :/ unless the camera was slanted?

[@AmirZaimMohdZaini]

This RCA to HDMI usually works better than connecting the RCA cable directly onto its port inside LCD TVs. Images usually clears a little bit, however still have some blurry effects.

[@BubbaBigDude]

Yay Callie popping the hood on the Jetta again! LOL 😅

[@ct1660]

On the HDMI to composite adapters, they don't require that Mini-USB connector as the power it needs to operate was supplied via HDMI (despite having the port), yet the composite to HDMI adapters require it. I came across a lot of these of either type, including one that can do BOTH. I've seen other variants which is more streamlined (I use one of those to connect to my HDMI-only TV to my A/V switch box). I've seen them sold at Micro-Center for around $14.

[@devjock]

With stuck heatsinks, if it's a silicone like thermal transfer material, it's usually possible to "cut" it using some strong fishing line, used like a cheese cutter / rope saw. Depending on how tough the "glue" is, use a few bits of wood instead of wrapping the fishing line around your fingers.

[@xmdslipkfanx]

I bought one years ago to hook up my SNES to a tv without composite. Worked great. Still got it!

[@Aeduo]

That input latency had to be rough to deal with.

[@xmdslipkfanx]

@@Aeduo there wasn’t any🤷🏽‍♂️

[@Aeduo]

@@xmdslipkfanx that would be pretty nice. The input latency might've been coming from his capture device and/or the software he was using to monitor it.

[@Destroyersoul-e9x]

@@xmdslipkfanx Same, i dont notice any added latency with the HDMI2AV adapter, its not worse than using my LCD to play emulators.

[@Grinder2112]

I'm thankful you were only trapped in that well for about 30 seconds. Well done on not letting it distract you from the typic at hand.

[@RickyVinnie]

im happy you made this video vwestlife i was wondering about this item, and you always provide so much info

[@chrisnunya7171]

I've noticed that for some reason, my "Ruku" television skips certain parts of this video when your talking about the aspect ratio but it all plays perfectly well on my phone. This video is totally not watchable on my television. I wonder why that is?

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

I have something like that but something that converts HDMI to SD. It even has a PAL / NTSC switch and it actually works quite well for the few times i actually need something like that. I once even got a dedicated PAL / NTSC converter in such a little box too and that thing actually disappointed me a lot as the PAL signal had some really nasty artifacts from the format conversion, resulting in a pretty uneven framerate conversion that even has some nasty ghosting here and there. SO yeah these little boxes are sometimes hit or miss.

[@zekester2097]

Can confirm that the PAL converter is very noisy. I've used many of these "Mini" adapters that you can find on ebay (and I think walmart?). I primarily use their composite to VGA adapter, so I can use older game consoles on a VGA/DVI only monitor.

[@mycosys]

The biggest issue with these sort of things for me is that you can buy a decent 15 year old Home theatre amp with HDMI 1.4 & decent deinterlacing DSP and multiple input switching and composite/svideo out and component in etc for like 80USD. And then you have a home theatre amp with audio DSP too.

[@CrashCarson14]

Yep and those would have proper chips and audio sync too

[@Aeduo]

Not very compact nor convenient though. :p

[@MonkeyPunchZPoker]

I got a pre-HDMI Panasonic reciever for like $30 at a pawn shop, for the price I figured why not just in case. My $40 all in one chinese amp (had bluetooth and an SPDIF input) I was using as for my desktop died so I decided to give the massive Panasonic a try before spending any mroe money, and wow everthing sound so much better. It's a little ridiculous becaues my Sony bookshelves barely fit on my desk and the reciever is on a table next to my desk but I can't imagine a desktop system sounding any better.

[@mycosys]

@@Aeduo Compared to what? I already had a mass loaded ATX studio PC and several portable racks full of studio/synth gear. And a full ATX gaming PC and turntable etc, 55" 12bit IPS etc. Yeah, if for some reason you need your entire capture and gaming rig in your laptop bag its probably not the solution. If you already have some sort of desktop/lounge setup its not hard to find space for. Makes a good monitor stand at worst lol. I used to VJ with a Full Tower EATX system and use the top drive bays as a handle to shove my arm in XD to me it seems.... fine? lmao

[@mycosys]

@@CrashCarson14 I have some reasonably high end studio gear an im pretty sure i dont have a better DAC, let alone DAC-Amp, 24/192 Burrr Brown DACs, near flat from 5Hz to 100kHz, Farrouja DCDi deinterlacer/upscaler, lossless 10 channel audio etc. My only regret is pulling the trigger when ebay had a free shipping sale (shipping 20lb amps is normally impractical) rather than waiting for something with a phono preamp and 6 channel analog in. But... not much

[@RetroJay1974]

I have one of these, but it has a black box. Mine overlays a small bit of text stating it has a signal, I know its only there for a few seconds but I wish it did not!

[@dennisthebrony2022]

I was thinking about getting one of these for capturing video from my Wii and VHS VCR to my MacBook Air M1, using an HDMI Capture card!!! Thanks for sharing this video!!!

[@bzuidgeest]

The aspect ratio change is lossless because the only thing ffmpeg does is change a flag on the file about the aspect ratio. A flag not every player might obey. Your mileage may vary. If you choose to reencode the actual stream, it will most certainly not be lossless.

[@vasopel]

mkvtoolnix can also to that "change a flag on the file" lossless thing ;-)

[@kaitlyn__L]

Man, Windows Media Player still has that nonsquare pixels bug? I remember that annoying me in 09. I mean, I’m assuming it’s the same bug, maybe they fixed it but then reimplemented it! At least when using one of these things on a TV you can use your TV’s own aspect ratio setting to fix it.

[@lauram5905]

It's Windows Media Player, non standard in just about every way unless you install your own decoders 😂

[@TheRealAstroChicken]

Dude, I bought one or two of these from Amazon last year! They were cheap and I loved the idea. I can't remember if I tried them yet.

[@mchenrynick]

I use Freemake for changing aspect radio of videos. After selecting the target video type, select the screen size to change it to (e.g. 640x480 for your 4:3 video) and make sure the STRETCH option is selected. The converted video will now be the correct size by default.

[@Goodvibes-un9qk]

I really enjoyed the video. Just wanted to suggest an alternative to ffmpeg for this sort of capture, cause I've used a very similar device to record gameplay from older consoles. If you record using Open Broadcaster Software you could apply the aspect ratio correction before the file is even written, as well as potentially get some more fine grained control over the bitrate of the captured footage (depending on the device drivers). Thanks for the informative video!

[@mycosys]

Thats basically using ffmpeg as the capture software, which is what he probably should have done with whatever frontend. You can just tell ffmpeg to input a device rather than a file

[@Skawo]

All of these mini converter boxes in this style seem to do a good enough job now. Tested an AV to RF one and an HDMI to Composite one - both do the job fairly well. But, yeah, the 4:3 thing is a bummer. Supposedly there WERE versions of this out there that had a 4:3 / 16:9 switch, but seem to have gone out of production. Wonder if there's a pin on that HDMI output chip you could wire a switch to restore this functionality. Another problem with this thing is that it does not support the PAL60 format at all.

[@dashcamandy2242]

9:45 - That's pretty impressive for a CATV recording in EP mode. 13:04 - Here We Go, Tearin' Up My Heart again. I Drive Myself Crazy, No Strings Attached, This I Promise You. Do Your Thing until The Game Is Over (or until you Pop). I blew a subwoofer in my car once, playing "Space Cowboy (Yippie-Yi-Yay)." Volkswagen: "Hey, we got rid of the transmission dipstick. And, to make the oil dipstick easier to locate, we made it the _same color as everyone else's transmission dipstick_ for the ultimate Fahrvergnügen."

[@EffendiChung]

I bought 4 of these from a supplier, same brand and supposedly same batch. The audio on these are reversed in 2, and normal on the others. Opening it, it comes with 3 visually different boards. They do last, however, been using them for 10+ years and are still kicking.

[@Ale.K7]

Every single generic (both cheap and better quality/higher price but still generic) miniplug to RCA cable that I bought in the last several years has the channels reversed (red as left and white/black as right, one even has "L" and "R" stamped and is still backwards). Interesting to see that they're reversing them on other stuff too.

[@poorman-trending]

Sometimes it can be more about how long it will work for rather than if it will work at all.

[@Markimark151]

I bought a similar AV to HDMI adapter few months ago, because I just want to be able to play older video game consoles and VHS tapes on an HDMI only computer monitor, I mostly recommend it for playback purposes, not for recording and digitization since there’s better capture devices. But for HDMI input-only displays, and it’s simple hook up, I say it’s great for a cheap price and if you got lots of LCD monitors, because they’re easy to plug in for analog video!

[@clayerik]

Please name some devices what's better for capturing.

[@Markimark151]

@@clayerik the PCI capture card or the AVer media A/V adapters they capture better analog video with S-video and A/V to the computer.

[@Aeduo]

Pretty good guide. Would be neat if it had a native format 480i/240p or at least 480p mode, though.

[@Plasmacore_V]

Does clicking the aspect ratio button under the export menu in Clipchamp not do anything? *edit* it looks like Clipchamp only does 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5, 2:3, and 21:9

[@8bitwiz_]

I have a device in the same plastic shell, only it's black. But on the inside, it's completely different. I haven't had a chance to use it since finding it in a thrift store bin, so I don't know how well it works, but it looks like the chip dates that I can see are from 2017. (Your chips might be from 2013!) It has a brand name, I guess... the plastic case says "GANA MINI AV2HDMI UP Scaler 1080P", but there is no identifying text on the circuit board. I would expect similar aspect ratio problems, but hopefully they got the audio channels right! (I will be sure to check.)

[@zangl2955]

I love the little bits of humor peppered in there.

[@radioactivekitty9174]

Wait, I think I've seen these at Walmart -- under their ONN brand. They have both Composite IN to HDMI OUT as well as one that does HDMI IN to Composite OUT.

[@scorbiot]

If you're afraid of command line, I recommend FFmpeg Batch AV Converter. It's not much more than an FFmpeg GUI, but you don't really need much more.

[@deathstrike]

These "el cheapos" weren't even meant for working with video. They were primarily built for "upscaling" classic gaming consoles who had composite output (RCA) to something that a modern television could basically work with. It works ok with say NES/SNES/Genesis/GameCube/N64. Basically anything with Composite. The earlier HDMI enabled televisions had a full suite of inputs in the back for just this kind of work (HDMI/YPbPr/VGA/SVideo/Composite). Now these cheapie tvs are lucky to have more than two HDMI inputs and little to nothing else. I have an older Sanyo 19in HDMI with the full input suite I use as a test monitor. If you can find one of these, even though the picture isn't fabulous, I highly recommend them for testing, as opposed to these crappy upconverters.

[@agy234]

Walmart has these under their ONN brand, they’re not bad quality. USB-mini b for power is my only complaint

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

there are Adapters for Mini USB Male to USB-C female.

[@wellivea1]

The best thing would be a capture/conversion card that captures video at whatever aspect ratio, resolution and framerate is put into it. Letting a cheap low-power black (or white) box deinterlace and upscale a signal for you rather than doing it yourself *will* be significantly worse in terms of detail preservation. Also, you can use any directshow software with those capture cards (virtualdub being the most common), I don't know why you would use the built-in windows software which will re-encode it to what is likely a pretty bit-starved and inefficient encode.

[@xenoxaos1]

I was sad that there wasn't any output of the serial port... There may be a menu for switching audio channels or aspect ratio.

[@bichela]

It is most likely TTL level maybe 9600,8n1 so hacking might be possible.

[@hugheyball9905]

Thanks for the video. Tip: Use "Handbrake" as an encoding solution, it's free and easy to operate.

[@secondchancejunkyard7946]

I've noticed that most RCA to HDMI converters in general seem to not include the S-Video input. It makes me wonder if it's because it's not necessary for the picture quality.

[@pokepress]

One interesting thing about this video is that my Chromecast seems to have trouble with the video recorded from the device. Whenever you switched to it, the picture would usually freeze (the audio keeps playing). I can still bring up the timeline and such, so it’s just the playback that’s frozen, not the device itself. I’ve seen it happen with one or two other KZbin videos, but not to this degree. No problems when I play this video on my phone.

[@analogvideochannel4612]

I wish these boxes had a way to output the direct 480i or 576i resolution and some configuration rather than being forced to one of two setting sthat both upscale, deinterlace and crop off the edges as the actual analog to digital part in many of them seem to do a much better job than the av->usb2 dongles you get these days. Those often output in the original resolution losslessly but the analog to digital part in them is usually crap and with no sort of buffering. I've generally landed on passing the video using various dvd-recorders from the mid 2000s when capturing vhs, as some of them (but far from all) had some excellent hardware in them built to handle videotape input well.

[@Nantawat_Kittiwarakul]

Wondering how would it handle genuine PAL signal? Should it output deinterlaced video at 50p and not in 60p right?

[@viva2archive]

I tried a cheap converter from Amazon and had to return it because it had a fixed output at 60. With a PAL input, it just repeated every fifth frame which made it unusable. It seems to vary with different chipsets though

[@oscodains]

They do have problems overheating it seems fme, so long-term use (for a TV) is not advised.

[@DJAllOut]

There's an easier way to change the aspect ratio of a video. Use a program called avidemux, keep the video and audio set to "copy," set the output format as the same as the input (ex: mp4) then go to Configure, and the option to force the aspect ratio is right there. No re-encoding or command line stuff needed.

[@mycosys]

Thats another GUI for ffmpeg. Its exactly what he did without the point and click. Personally i would have probably use Handbrake as the forntend, but ive transcoded stuff on a server without the gui many times before downloading it.

[@andreasu.3546]

So much gold in that VW Jetta video.

[@mercuryoak2]

This looks similar to what I have at home but I got it from Best buy. It was called vid box . The one I have has S-Video and RCA analog and then you can use it to exported through USB into the software that they give you. The only thing I didn't test with it yet is if I could do recording from a VHS tape that was pre-recorded and it has the copyright on it. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have an issue with the type of VCR that I have at home. The only downside is you can't do it through HDMI unless you have a special adapter otherwise it does the job.

[@Babbages]

4:40 Look to the top right of the video where it says 16:9 if you click that you can change the aspect ratio for the final edit of the video in Clipchamp I use that all the time lol

[@h3mb3]

I think the gamma and/or contrast is wrong, as in general with these analog video -> HDMI converters. The shadows are a bit crushed and highlights are a bit blown out.

[@velvetpilot2008]

I bought one of these for my SEGA Dreamcast but it looked awful on a 23.5" 1080p computer monitor. Then I bought a Kaiko all in one VGA cable and used that instead. HUGE difference even if it was only 640 x 480p. Then down the road I got a VGA-2-HDMI box and it still looks pretty sharp on a 43" 1080p TV. But I guess you have to work with what's available. I could have dealt with it if it were Master System or Genesis. Maybe.

[@mikefellhauer3350]

There's also the opposite version available for going from HDMI to composite, and the switch on that unit switches between NTSC and PAL.

[@andygozzo72]

yeah, i have a feeling i may have one somewhere, got it several years ago but never tried it just stuck it out of the way...now dunno where it is!

[@mIRChele]

I've used something that looks like it but actually converted hdmi to composite and not vice-versa, because I was using it on an old TV. It even runs without external power, taking all it needs through hdmi. By disassembling it I discovered that the chip used also supports rgb. Unfortunately, these manufacture doesn't seem to care about doing a SCART version with rgb support, I think the video quality would be

[@HIDLad001]

I have used the reverse version (HDMI2AV) in the past, and it works all right.

[@wisteela]

I got given one of these, and I've used it with my 1998 Sony Handycam to connect to my TV. Works really well, but much better in 720 otherwise it's too sharp/harsh. Switching mode whilst powered with a signal doesn't seem to work. Thanks for the heads up on the reversed audio channels, and I must get a Y splitter. On mine it says on the top Mini AV2HDMI UP Scaler 1080P. 4:3 ratio is handled by the TV.

[@naanabsoj]

I would love to know more about that video head cleaning cassette.

[@Madness832]

I had one; the side switch was incorrectly marked "PAL/NTSC."

[@JPX64Channel]

looks really good!! the advantage is that you don't need to de-interlace it and you automatically get a 60p or 50p video feed, big disadvantage is needing a separate (and expensive) hdmi capture card...another disadvantage, not useful with playing with video game consoles in your flatscreen

[@andrewmorgan6734]

Some of those Chinese converter boxes have a switch choose 16:9 between 4:3 aspect ratios. If you want a higher quality converter with other analog inputs like component, S-Video, or SCART a XRGB Framemeister, OSSC 1.6, or Retrotink 5X Pro. All these options are quite expensive and come with long list of advanced options and have little or no input lag. These scalers and converters were created with gaming in mind. Other KZbin channels have covered scalers pretty well when it comes to gaming and video capturing/editing.

[@ruikazane5123]

I don't even have HDMI but I watched this one. Unfortunately, the latency is too high to use it with a PS2 and play some games using a modern monitor. For those video transcoding jobs we preferred Handbrake, you can select multiple codecs, custom resolutions (with or without following an aspect ratio) and compression levels to suit. Also doesn't show some scary things on a command prompt!

[@belperite]

I wonder if it's possible to get a 50Hz one of these (or change the settings on a 60Hz one) for PAL 50 sources.

[@dictare]

Did that tape come with a complimentary bottle of "video head cleaner"?

[@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777]

VLC got it right years ago. And Quicktime Pro 7 - in terms of lightness and ease of use with pro features.

[@raygunpyle]

I have the VGA version of this white box. I got this in order to play SNES/other composite video on my flat screen CRT monitor. A few years back, a family friend retired and was cleaning out their office and they had it sitting in storage brand new in box.....They said "Do you want it?" You better believe I said yes! It works, but you can still tell you have a composite signal....still not bad overall. It works for my purpose.....I want to test my L/R audio channels now for reverse signals....LOL

[@Vuusteri]

Some of those Chinese conversion boxes can be quite annoying. I bought SCART to HDMI converter (€40) that stretches the image to 16:9 non-linearly, that is, it's only stretched on the sides but not in the middle. It's almost impossible to reverse. Why the heck would they do that when the source footage is presumably always 4:3?

[@j.w.techchannel]

Very informative video, I enjoyed it. I also have a converter box like this, except it's for SCART input. It was a similar price as the one in this video and also does the job alright, although the picture is slightly darker than it should be. Can't complain though.

[@bibasik7]

I used to have the opposite converter, HDMI to composite. I used it to connect my PS4 to a CRT TV, the only TV we had at the time. The video quality was awful. Composite was always a bit muddy, but it was usually much better than the mush that came out of that white box.

[@Warp2090]

I have a composite to HDMI and im able to backfeed it, I used a roku on a old crt television so I think you could backfeed them

[@andygozzo72]

@@Warp2090 unlikely unless it was designed for it, some may well be switchable bidirectional

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@Warp2090 I have 2 TV's in my game room, my main 55in 4K Sceptre TV, and next to it for my retro stuff an early 00's 27in Panasonic CRT with component/composite input, and stereo output, that I have a Roku Express + 3900X attached too it, and looks like it's close to the end of it's life only getting Roku OS 11.5, and not Roku OS 12 like my main 4K stick did, so going to have to get a newer express, and convert it down to component, or composite as I usually have both TV's going during football season, or other events when 2 things are on at a time we want to see.

[@Warp2090]

@@CommodoreFan64 nice

[@Warp2090]

@@CommodoreFan64 never heard of "sceptre" though

[@mpuppet1975]

I have one of these boxes but it is black and it has a brand "Ebaco" printed on the top. It also says "AV2HDMI Up Scaler 1080p". I also have the "HDMI2AV" and "VGA to HDMI" boxes (the latter is a white box).

[@The201Ray]

I have the same exact device but it does the opposite takes hdmi to Composite. Same exact box

[@thepeternetwork]

I have an HDMI capture device that's really an HDMI-to-USB adapter. I am able to split the HDMI signal from my game console between the television and the capture device. The only lag I've experienced when capturing video is that the audio de-syncs no matter how many times I try to line it back up in post. Thoughts?

[@CoalTen59]

It can be tricky to learn, but I have used the OBS software to capture my old video tapes. It allows you to use any webcam (such as your capture card) as the input, and you can specify the output aspect ratio and resolution.

[@Aeduo]

It's possible also that ffmpeg or vlc can itself capture and correctly tag the video files with an aspect ratio of your choice without extra steps.

[@mycosys]

Thats basically just adding a frontend to ffmpeg. You can just tell ffmpeg to open a device, it really doesnt care much if its a block device (filesystem) or a streaming device.

[@illteteka]

I have one of these, i would say the video signal comes out a bit soft as well. Used it to play dreamcast the other day and it works great!

[@BCThunderthud]

I have a few cheap converters and capture devices and the problem I've had is they don't work with all sources. They're fine with a VCR but some older stuff will show no signal or won't manage the vertical hold correctly. Yours seems good but these things are always kind of a gamble, depending on your needs I guess.