There actually were a few legitimate issues with the previous generation of USB-2.0-only capture chips from MacroSilicon. The original MS2109 used in all those

There actually were a few legitimate issues with the previous generation of USB-2.0-only capture chips from MacroSilicon. The original MS2109 used in all those AliExpress capture dongles was designed for 720p capture; it could do 1080p at 30fps, but it would downscale the input to 720p and rescale it up in the process. 1080p mode was still useful, however, as it made MJPEG quantization artifacts far less prominent [1]. There was also another huge problem with those dongles, but it was not MacroSilicon's fault. At some point most of the sellers started offering a more expensive "USB 3.0" variant reportedly capable of capturing 1080p at 60fps... which of course was a scam, since the MS2109 is 2.0 only (literally the only difference in these cards was the connector being blue, they didn't even have 3.0 pins). Many YouTubers, not knowing about this, kept recommending people to get the 3.0 version, which resulted in these cards getting a negative reputation for being "okay but unreliable". This project is basically what those fake cards should have been. [1] https://www.naut.ca/blog/2020/07/09/cheap-hdmi-capture-card-review/ https://www.naut.ca/blog/2020/07/09/cheap-hdmi-capture-card-...