It’s incredibly flexible for situations where you would like to capture a higher-end video camera, document camera, etc.That said, this does make a nice device for testing or possibly handing out to faculty/staff/students to try in unique setups. That said, I’m probably not going to recommend it as a complete replacement for our more reputable dongles for the foreseeable future. “There must be something wrong with it!” I keep thinking to myself. So, do I completely trust this device? Maybe… it hasn’t failed me yet, but it was only $32, and it should cost $300! It’s hard to wrap your mind around such a device when the cost is so low. I then connected a game console to the device, and sure enough, it worked! I kept the connection alive for a few hours, and the image never dropped. This is how good a proper DSLR can look in Zoom. First, I connected my aging Canon 5D MkIII DSLR at it, and it performed well. To check compatibility, I threw some oddball hardware at it to see how it would respond.
by using the universal UVC ( USB video device class) driver that ships with all modern Mac and PC computers, no driver software needed! To my surprise, IT WORKED! I plugged it in, and the device was immediately recognized as “USB Camera” in Quicktime, Zoom, etc. Willing to roll the dice on a $32 purchase, my supervisor gave me permission to test the device. But, they were still $300+ and not something most technicians felt comfortable simply handing to a faculty, staff, or student in fear of the device going missing.Įnter 2020… and Amazon seems to be awash with this very inexpensive HDMI to USB thumb-drive style devices, listed under multiple manufacturers (usually not a good sign).
Generally speaking, these dongles were much less expensive (usually in the $500 to $300 range), offered fewer features, and generally worked well. This is during an era when HDMI to USB conversion was a luxury, reserved for those with deep pockets.īut, during the past 3-4 years, we’ve seen the rise of HDMI to USB dongles. The single-purpose device was robust, came with dozens of features and capabilities (many of which weren’t utilized in the higher education market), and would work well for five to seven years with minimal issues (except for the faculty and staff that would tinker with the settings – which I’ve been guilty of!). Click Start in the Convert window to start the recording.In the golden age of AV, when confronted with the joyous task of converting an HDMI signal to something a local computer could easily ingest, you would simply fork out $2,500+ on a proper 1U device that would elegantly make that digital transition with ease, and call it a day.To specify a video container type, select the MP4/MOV radio button.Click the button with the crossed tools which is located next to the Profile field.Select the Display the output check box.In the recording’s Profile field, select Video – H.264 + MP3 (MP4).In the Convert window, click Browse to select the destination file for your recording.