Magewell SDI Plus USB Capture

The Magewell USB Capture SDI Plus is a plug-and-play, single-channel video capture dongle designed to ingest professional SD, HD, and 3G-SDI video signals into a computer via USB 3.0. Operating entirely on standard UVC (USB Video Class) and UAC (USB Audio Class) protocols, it requires no proprietary driver installation to function. This makes it instantly recognizable as a standard webcam source to broadcasting and video conferencing software across Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS. It captures uncompressed video at resolutions up to 2048x1080 and frame rates up to 120 fps, relying on an internal FPGA to perform video processing tasks like up/down scaling, de-interlacing, and color space conversion without taxing the host computer's CPU.

The "Plus" designation in this model indicates the inclusion of several critical connectivity enhancements tailored for live production. It features a zero-latency SDI loop-through port, allowing operators to send the unaltered video signal downstream to a local field monitor, projector, or hardware switcher while simultaneously capturing the feed via USB. Additionally, it provides discrete 3.5mm analog audio jacks for line-in and line-out. This allows users to embed an external analog audio source (such as a feed from an audio mixing console) directly into the USB capture stream, or extract the SDI's embedded audio to monitor it locally.