EasyCap review

As it turns out, the EasyCap USB 2.0 capture card is a pretty decent piece of machinery. When you order it online, it should come with a yellow cd that has the drivers for both the capture card and a Movie Maker-type program called "ULead Video Studio". After finally getting the capture card to work, I couldn't be happier with the product. It has a large variety of recording options (accessible through ULead), and the quality is better than most USB capture cards. The video studio itself is pretty impressive, better than the average movie maker.

Some things to mention: if you're getting a green/pink screen every time you try to capture video, your USB ports aren't USB 2.0. Or, if you're like me, they aren't enabled, or something went wrong somewhere down the line and they don't work anymore. Open up the Control Panel, click on System, click on the Hardware tab, and the click on "Device Manager". Find "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" (near the bottom of the list) and click on the + next to it. If there is a yellow icon to the left of "intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller - 24CD", then you have the same problem I did. Get ready to reinstall Windows.

Also worth noting: recording video in uncompressed AVI format will take up essentially 1gb per minute of recording, or so I've heard. You may want to go with WMV, or try out other options. If you have any issues with skipping or audio/video lag, just try out different resolutions and recording formats until you find one that works.

Conclusion: If you're looking for a cheap (but effective) capture card that is easy to use, look no further. The EasyCap is well worth the $5-$15 you'll spend on it. I give the ULead Video Studio an 8.5/10 (it can really eat up your virtual memory sometimes, and there is the occasional lag in either video or audio), and the actual EasyCap hardware a 9/10 (it's kind of big and clunky, and I don't care for the fact that nobody advertises it as "USB 2.0 ONLY").