My father bought a device on eBay that is supposed to let him attach a VHS VCR to his computer so that he can convert his old VHS tapes to DVD.

The device he purchcased consists of a small device that plugs into his computer's USB port and the other end of the device connects to a VCR by RCA cables. 

The device is called "EasyCAP". That's what's printed on the device.

I plugged it into his Windows 10 laptop and it doesn't have any drivers. In control panel it is listed under hidden devices. But there is apparently no driver.

I ran across a site that deals specifically with this device and how to get it working with Windows 10. 

I took the device home with me so I can work on figuring out this device in my free time. I don't have a VCR, but I have a Super Nintendo (actually it's my sons) that I can connect to it to test it.

I will document my experiences with getting this device working on my father's Windows 10 laptop below.

Using Linux to investigate

I plugged the EasyCAP into my computer at home running Ubuntu 18.04. 

The lsusb command lists the device id as 534d:0021. 

A quick Google search for the device id yielded some results which I may refer to later.

Another search for 534d:0021+windows also returns some promising looking information that I'll return to.

One result in particular caught my eye. On a Stackexchange discussion, one user wrote:

It's not the drivers I finally figured it out. It's the usb cable that comes with it. The usb cable that attaches to it and then you plug the other end to the computer .it is thin and cheaply made. Get your self a top of the line usb cable and you are good to go.I had one lying around my home and tried it and it works great. I thought it was the driver for a long time until it hit me try a quality usb cable. That is it just purchase a quality top of the line usb cable and your good to go. Post if it works for you. Take care -- Super User. "Easycap not working on windows 10." Super User. 1 Dec. 2017. Web. 14 Nov. 2019. <https://superuser.com/questions/1136760/easycap-not-working-on-windows-10>

I rebooted my laptop into Windows 10 to test this out. I would love it if the solution was as easy as using a different USB cable.

In Windows I inserted the installation CD that came with the EasyCAP device. I opened the CD in Windows Explorer and I ran the setup.exe file. 

This file is supposed to install the driver for the device and the "honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE" software.

I ran the installation, accepting all default installation options. I even installed Adobe Reader.

Plugging in the EasyCAP without the short USB extension cable that came with it.

The EasyCAP came with an 18" USB extension cable. I removed that cable from the device and I plugged the device right into a USB port on my laptop.

Windows began automatically setting up the device which it recognized as "AV to USB2.0". 

After Windows said that the "AV to USB2.0" device was ready, I looked for it in the Windows Device Manger.

Sure enough, the device could be seen in Windows Device Manger under "Cameras" as "AV to USB2.0". 

At this point things were looking very hopeful because when I was trying to set this up earlier, the "AV to USB2.0" device (the EasyCAP device) was not visible from Windows Device Manger unless I went to "View -> Show hidden devices".

Running the included "honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE" software

This is where I first noticed problems when I was trying to get this EasyCAP set up on my father's laptop. When I ran the honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE software on his laptop, the software didn't detect the EasyCap and it would only allow recording or selecting the use of the laptops web cam.

I ran the honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE software and I was asked to enter the Product Key which was printed on the CD that came with the EasyCap.

The software defaulted to showing the signal from the laptop's web cam, just as it did on my father's laptop.

I went to the "Option" menu to see if I could select the EasyCAP, and unlike when I connected the EasyCAP to my father's laptop with the included USB cable, I was able to select the EasyCAP as an input device from the "Option" settings menu.

The EasyCAP was selectable under the name "AV TO USB2.0".

Wonderful!

Testing out the "bad USB cable" theory

Wanting to see if the theory of the "bad usb cable" was really the problem, I unplugged the EasyCAP and plugged it back in, but instead of plugging the device in directly, I plugged it in using the included USB extension cable to test if that might be what was keeping the EasyCAP from working properly for my father.

I did not expect the EasyCAP to work on my laptop with the USB cable, but it did. So at this point I was confused.

All I knew at this point was the the EasyCAP worked on my laptop without any problem, but not for my father's laptop. Even when the same installation process was used.

I decided I would try something out on my Dad's laptop tomorrow. I think I will remove it completely from device manager and start all over, but when plugging in the EasyCAP for the first time, I will plug it in to his laptop without the USB extension cable.

Back to testing the included "honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE" software

With the EasyCAP setup and selectable from the included "honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE" software I connected my sons Nintendo 64 with the RCA connectors. All I saw was a black screen.

Obviously this isn't working as I thought it was.

At this point I considered that the included "honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE" software was the culprit and I checked to see if I could use the EasyCAP as a capture source in VLC media player. I still had a black screen in VLC, and with another capture software I tried.

In all three softwares I tried, the EasyCAP was selectable as a capture device listed as "AV TO USB2.0" but in all softwares, all that was visible was a black screen.

I considered at this point that maybe my Nintendo 64 was broken, though I really believed this was a driver issue with the EasyCAP (AV TO USB2.0).

Turning to YouTube for solutions

I searched YouTube for "easycap 2.0 windows 10" and there were a substantial number of results. 

The first result titled "EasyCAP DC60 sm-usb 007 - How To - Win7 Win10 64bit Drivers and Heat" looked like it had the information I was looking for. The part about "Heat" at the end looked interesting too because I've noticed that this EasyCAP I have plugged in to my laptop runs hot. 

Below is the video that I watched.

I noticed that the disc that came with my EasyCAP says it's Windows 10 compatible, and it says "Version 4.0a" while in the video above it says Version 2. When I opened up the case of my EasyCAP (you can just pry it open) I noticed that the circuit board said V 2.0. 

The number on the main chip says "MS2100E PBA-GKFLG0F 1835". I wasn't sure if those were all "0s" (as in zero) or "o" (as in the letter oh).

This seems to be it, or some revision of it, on the Macro Silicon website. But there are no drivers for it on that site.

The video above does have a link in the description for where to download drivers for Windows 10.

So I downloaded the recommended files from https://www.driverscape.com/download/sm-usb-007

Just as the author of the above video said to, I downloaded the second to last driver listed on that page. It said 1.0.2.28 was the driver version next to it.

I extracted the files from the downloaded zip file and there was no setup file, so with the EasyCAP plugged directly into my computer, I located it in Windows Device Manger under "Cameras -> AV TO USB2.0". Then I right clicked on the device name and clicked the menu item "Update driver".

When prompted, I selected the option to "Browse my comptuer for driver software" and I selected the location of the extracted driver files. But Windows said "The best drivers for your device are already installed."

So then I ended up right clicking on the "AV TO USB2.0" device in the Device Manger and I selected "Uninstall device". And I uninstalled it.

Then, to reinstall the device with the driver I downloaded, I used the "Action -> Add legacy hardware" option to try to install the driver I just downloaded. Windows said the driver was not compatible with my device. 

 

 

Continuing On...

I found out from a couple of sites that talk about the EasyCAP that the EasyCAP can come with any one of about 4 different chips. 

Those sites are:

https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Easycap

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fplaza.rakuten.co.jp%2Fjashi%2Fdiary%2F%3Fctgy%3D16&act=url

Unfortunately, I didn't see any mention of the Macro Silicon branded chip that is in mine.

I ran across another site that has a big list of drivers and troubleshooting info for various versions of EasyCAP devices:

EasyCAP drivers for Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 | Visser I/O 

I don't see the name of my chip listed there, but I do see a reference to "007" which is listed on the disc that came with my device as the hardware revision. I figured I'd try the driver listed for "007" on that previously listed page. 

There were two drivers listed with "007" in the title:

Trying different drivers

Somebody in the comments of that page above mentioned looking up the hardware id of the EasyCAP device. 

I looked up my ids, and I found the ids to be USB\VID_534D&PID_0021&REV_0121&MI_00 and USB\VID_534D&PID_0021&MI_00. Those were the same ids that the commentator reported.

There was also a link to a driver file in that comment. I downloaded it and it was a zip file containing a setup file. 

I ran it and it asked me to reboot my laptop. 

Once my laptop rebooted, I plugged in the EasyCAP.

Then I ran the honestech VHS to DVD software. It was still a black screen.

And finally, it worked!

And I was just about to give up, but then I decided to turn the Nintendo 64 that was connected to the EasyCAPs RCA cables off and on again. 

And that was all it took. Once I turned it off and then on, I was able to hear sound from the game that was inserted in the Nintendo 64, and I saw the game image on the screen!

So yeah, the last driver I installed worked.