Troubleshooting ATI 600 USB clone on Mac?
 

I am trying to get started digitizing a bunch of VHS tapes that I have and need help to troubleshoot/fix the problem of my Mac not seeing my capture device. I've been told that it's not ideal to be capturing on a Mac, but unfortunately there's no way around it. It's the only tool I have at my disposable.

So -- Equipment:
iMac (OS 10.12.6)
VCR: JVC SR-MV40
TBC: Green AVT-8710
Capture Card: ATI 600 USB clone (on a Tevion "High Speed DVD Maker USB 2.0)

I downloaded and installed OBS (and iShowU Audio Capture) which was also recommended to me for the capture, but when I attempt to add a new Video Capture source, it doesn't show up.

Looking back at the box the capture card came in, there's a manual that mentions the system requirements as Windows XP/Vista. Even if I'd wanted to, there's no installation CD or web address with drivers & software to download.

Are these drivers/software something I can find on the web or that someone has hacked here? I couldn't find anything in my preliminary search. Perhaps this means that I cannot use this capture device?

If this is the case, what should I use in order to capture on a Mac?

Thank you for all and any insight.

In theory, the chipset of the ATI 600 should work. But it won't be documented.

Most USB cards use an eMPIA bridge. And on those cards, the bridge is what controls the audio/video chipsets on the card. The 600 USB (and clones, which are clones due to same TI video chipset) use this bridge.

The infamous Easycap/EZcap (aka Easycrap) cards also use an eMPIA bridge, which is where numerous myths and misunderstandings came from. It's why some people consider all USB cards to be "Easycaps" (false!), or why some folks think an ATI 600 USB is "the same" as an Easycap (false!). Note that most of these myths have thankfully been exiled to the scrap heap, but 5-10 years ago, that BS was too often repeated. You do sometimes see that nonsense still repeated in Youtube commenters, but "those people" have largely moved on to even worse methods (Chinese composite>HDMI converters, or Blackmagic junk, the current fad in video butchery).

Anyway, there is some information out there on using Easycap/EZcap cards with Mac.

It is heavily dependent on the OS X version. As with WinXP, video capturing was mostly a task of 10.6.8 era, which each new version dumping off more and more "support" (rarely official support, just that it worked).

As an example, this: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/32004/easycapviewer
Mirrored from: https://bentrask.com/easycap/
Note: The ATI USB 600/clones do not use STK1160 chips. Those chips are why Easycap devices suck. ;)

VideoGlide should specifically work: https://www.echofx.com/videoglide.html
The main downside here is 640x480 max resolution. But for VHS, 640x480 will suffice, and can be edited in FCP.
It's $30, but Mac is expensive, and buying software (that would be freeware on Windows/Linux) is not uncommon.
This would be my first attempt.

Remember, there was never a guarantee this card would work, but I think it can.

I considered buying VideoGlide and can certainly do that to try it. The limited ability to only capture at 640x480 is a downside I was trying to avoid if possible.

Before buying that to try, I’d wanted to confirm that the main issue isn’t lacking a specific driver/software that I need to install first? Pretty new to all the lingo!

I saw on another forum here that someone had installed a Windows partition to their Mac. I wonder if that’s a worthy thing to research if that would open up more possibilities.

Videoglide doesn't limit all cards to 640x480. Of the two Diamond VC500 Mac (not the same as the normal VC500 cards), one of them did support 720x576. I believe I had to install something from the bundled CDs to make them work with videoglide (bundled version). Both empia based with different chipset, but neither the same as the ATI 600 and clones, so whether those work I don't know.

Update on this:

Confirming that the ATTI 600 USB clone does work on my Mac OS 10.14 using the VideoGlide software!