OBS Studio - How to enable the "Video Capture Device" as a source USBHDCAP

Open the "video capture device" Source, properties.

1. Change [Audio Output Mode] from these:

Output desktop audio (DirectSound)

Output desktop audio(WaveOut)

2. Change [Audio Output Mode] to this:

 Capture audio only

This is not what it seems, selecting one of the others pipes the output of the device through a mix with the other source; either "Desktop audio" DirectSound or WaveOut .. which I suspect are Desktop1 Desktop2

If you select one of those then you disable the ability to enumerate and use the "Video Capture Device" as an audio source in the "mixer" panel of OBS.

Instead "Capture audio only" means, do not pre-process it and mix with anything else, pipe it straight into OBS as an independent source. It literally means "leave it alone" do not "do anything to it" simply "present it".

You CAN still check the box [x] User custom audio device, and "must" use CY3014USB, Analog 01 WaveIn to connect the video capture device to the OBS mixer.

This "might" seem like it would disable the ability to capture [both] video and audio to a [Start Recording] session. It DOES NOT ! 

Any Streaming or Recording includes [both] video and audio.

This is a very BIG deal.. it explains the original interpretive conceit with OBS and why its so hard to use for most people.

OBS Studio - Monitor silent with Startech USBHDCAP device "fix"

Here is how to fix a video capture device that records video and audio, but does not play sound while recording.

1. Click > [Settings] in Controls Panel (Lower right)

2. Click "Advanced" in Left Ribbon panel

3. Click [Audio] > Audio Monitoring Device [drop down]

Select a device other than "Bluetooth Headphones (2- Bluetooth Audio)" 

Example:

Select "Bluetooth Headset (2- Bluetooth Audio)"

4. Click [Apply] in lower right corner

5. Click [OK] in lower right corner

The A2DP Profile for some reason on OBS 21.1.2 (64 Bit) does not down sample the 48 Khz Line Input for the CVBS Composite or S-Video Inputs properly. When it defaults to "Default" or "Bluetooth Headphones (2- Bluetooth Audio)" the Monitoring audio cuts out and goes silent. Also the "Default" takes out not only the OBS video capture source, but any other Audio source on the Desktop, including Browsers playing video or other Application sources.

I suspect the source code for OBS 21.1.2 may not be initializing the windows mixer properly or not handling down sampling properly.. or the A2DP profile is just not working properly.

In any event the change is immediate and does not require restarting the application and all other audio sources are mixed and can be heard. Although with this video capture device, the video device audio input is not selectable and it captures the Desktop mix instead

Also a "Custom" audio device that selects the CY3014 device must be used or there will be no audio capture or monitoring.

How to Remove Soft Touch Paint, quickly and safely

In the Early 2000's it seems everything Black was painted with a soft touch paint. By the 2020's it had degraded into a gummy sticky material that seemed almost impossible to remove even with IPA alcohol.

It turns out its actually not a paint, but a transparent "coating" that is sprayed over the top of black plastic pieces. I think its some type of silicone, making it generally hydrophobic.. so things like scrubbing tile cleaner or other things won't work to remove it.

But quite simply the LAVA hand soap is (not) electrically neutral, it has a clay mineral called Lanolin and Pumice, which combine to penetrate, lift and isolate it and allow it to be "Washed" away.

I've tried this on an old Mevo hand camera, a Diamond Multimedia Game Capture box, and a Toshiba RD-XS54 DVR.. and it works every time.. and I had tried nearly everything for years.

Anything that tends to melt plastic like MEK or Nail Polish Remover.. just makes the situation worse.. blending the silicon with the melted surface.

But using a soaped up rag with LAVA hand soap quickly and simply removes only the silicone layer.

Since this was a transparent "film" and not really a paint.. any pictures, labels or symbols that appear to be part of the paint, were actually under neath the "Soft Touch Paint" and remain after the gummy sticky film is removed.

Your mileage may vary.. not every case will be identical to mine.. but give it a try cautiously.

It really seems like "magic".

When is 4:2:2 not 4:2:0

4:2:2 is generically interpreted to be 4 samples luma, 2 chroma cr, 2 chroma cb but ignores the field based nature of most video capture

4:2:0 is a somewhat interpretive acknowledgement of the loss between fields interpostively

4:2 is Luma:Chroma over all where ::0 is the alternate state or field where no chroma subsampling takes place and the previous chroma subsampling for the associated field is substituted for the same or similar pixels which are going to take the place of a chroma sample for both fields combined.

 You can think of this as loosing information when the two fields are "smushed" together, or taking advantage of the similar or identical nature of the chroma sample and removing the redundancy.

Some have interpreted this as "skipping" a chroma sample inter field, or only taking a chroma sample every other field on the odd or even field.

This can be true or partially true for MPEG2 in certain cases, unless fields are retained, in which case it returns to 4:2:2 as each field much have its own chroma subsampling field to remain a part of the video stream.. but again this may require a software codec to deal with the extra information.

Whether any hardware codec would expose fields or retain their 4:2:2 format remains to be seen.

DV is "de-interlaced", MPEG2 can be "de-interlaced" or "not de-interlaced"

The DV video format is "progressive" in the sense it is frame and not field based. So a type of de-interlacing does occur as part of the digitization process.

MPEG2 was a more robust standard, in that it was a choice whether to de-interface the fields and then compress or retain the fields and compress. Less motion artifacts could be expected by avoiding de-interlacing. Depending on whether a hardware encoder like a standalone device or software encoder were used might allow this choice or not.

It remains to be seen if DVRs on the low or high end retained fields for capture and playback, varied between brands and models or simply defaulted to de-interlacing.

There are "Profiles" related to bit-rates and features. But I don't think those allowed choosing the de-interlace feature.

MPEG4 and other Professional codec also allowed this choice but its not something people often seek control over.. or understood.

Until we reach a technology can take field based information and infer a depth or object oriented interpretation of the image information and interpolate physics between frames its unlikely de-interlace technology will have improved much. Recent improvements in self driving cars appear to be approaching this level of technology but trickling down to the generic video market will probably take another ten years into the 2030s.

140/400 is 0.35 still less than 0.5 of 4:2:2, so S-VHS with s-video on MPEG2 is still over kill

Kind of explains why HDV and D-VHS devices standardized on the MPEG2 digitization format with 0.15 overhead before reaching 4:2:2

They were much smaller than DV files or DV storage requirements, and still had far more chroma resolution. For that time.. they were future proof.

Only once the physical line lengths and aspect ratios began to change did they finally have to abandon the MPEG2 720x480x180 formats afforded by 4:2:2 for greater pastures.

80 / 240 is 0.33 just over 25% so DV may be barely enough for Standard Video if using s-video

 I would still be favoring MPEG2 if using s-video with Standard VHS "just in case" and for the convenience of a dedicated capture platform like a DVR, especially one that you could directly off load the video from in MPEG-TS format.. which is more tolerant of dropouts

A full conversion to MPEG-PS for burning DVDs would be likely to introduce more compromises to maintain the stream rate required by those playback formats.

Again, MPEG4 would be preferred to that.. if available.. in a dedicated device, native operating system players will not be encumbered by long expired licensing deals for MPEG2 playback codecs and more likely to be supported by minimally featured playback devices and programs going forwards.

However, MPEG2 capture devices like DVRs are more likely to have dedicated Time Base Correction and Frame Stabilization which is now no longer features included in a purely digital age.

I am biased.. since stumbling on to the ability to offload MPEG2 TS data directly from some of the most premium DVR capture devices ever made.. shortly before they were abandoned and shelved or consigned to the dump.. but their convenience and usage demonstrated by their popularity for about ten years says a lot about their overall effectiveness.

If an MPEG2 capture device like a DVR were used as a pass-thru device to feed an MPEG4 capture device for digitization, that might be the most effective combo and future proof.. but the odds of acquiring and combining them without introducing impedance mismatches or other signal glitches and coordinating them over a long period of time would seem cumbersome.. if only theoretical.