So it turned out the Startech USB2TVTuner is not a hardware compression based device. Hailing from the year 2002 and sold up thru 2007 it was basically a simple YUV digitizer with USB bridge to get the raw 4:2:2 from the capture chips to the software on a PC.
I found this out after examining a unit that no longer worked.. the hardware was busted in some manner.
And confirmed looking into a device driver .INF file which only referenced EMPia capture chip technology.
This leaves the ADS DX2 Express and the Pinnacle dazzle AVC-130 and AVC-170 as the most common WIS GO007 hardware capture devices. But only the ADS DX2 had a not ready for prime time 64 bit device driver that was never signed and roughly works under Windows 7 x64 with difficulty.
It appears Micronas and then TDK acquired the WIS chip rights and it might have been taken off the market or folded into another portfolio.. but WIS based hardware compression capture chips disappeared after XP support basically ended for things like the Plextor M402 and related series.
ATI had a go at continuing MPEG2 hardware compression until the end of that company being acquired by AMD. ATI had the 550, 650 and later 750 chips with mostly Windows Media Center support under XP and then Vista.
Lumanate would produce the excellent Dell Angel MPEG USB series, which targeted the Windows Media Centers worked with Monsoon SnappySoft capture software.. and AMCap (after a fashion).
AverMedia of Taiwan and Hauppauge of New Jersey/China (?) are still offering products and had a long line of offerings both with recognized and individually proprietary and their supported versions of capture software.
