Image and video capture devices require a lot of resources. To use the Vivitar Creator to record HDMI you should have a computer with a fast processor, USB-C or USB3 ports and plenty of disk space for recordings.
Plug in the USB DongleLinux, Windows and MacIntosh Apple should all recognize the device. Expect a poor performance if you are connecting with black USB2.0 port or have a slow computer. You get better performance using a blue USB3 port or Type-C.
Open Device Manager on your Windows PC and it should have detected and loaded a driver for a USB Video device. Video going into your dongle should be just like from a webcam camera. A laptop will probably have a camera listed.
VLCOpen your VLC player. Menu Media->Open Capture Device.
Menu DirectShow->Video device name->USB Video. Defaults are okay. We see some other connected imaging devices on the list such as laptop webcam.
Colour bar test pattern is a good sign. The Vivitar dongle shows this when connected without video input.
Connect an HDMI input signal to the Vivitar dongle. You may experience latency delay issues. It is a two-way situation where the source PC may struggle to work with a slow connection.
Follow installation instructions for OBS-Studio for Windows, Linux or Apple. Go to Sources on the bottom of the screen and look for Video Capture Device and USB Video.
Open properties for the USB Video. The + plus sign helps search for devices to add. Default values should be okay.
You may also see your laptop webcam on the list. Try that signal, too. It should preview an image from the camera.
Colour bar test pattern is a good sign. The Vivitar dongle shows this when connected without video input.
Connect an HDMI source. You may have to change audio settings. Popping or crackling sounds indicate a mismatch.
There is a full-screen view. Explore the menus. Look for recording start/stop buttons. OBS is a video editing suite that lets you dub audio and splice clips.
Menu File->Settings->Output the default video output format is Matroska video .mkv.
This software will also work with Dazzle DVC series capture cards for analog TV. You may have to select PAL or NTSC settings.
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