Sorry, no straight forward answer here. There are a few issues that needs to be adressed...

First of all, DisplayPort (DP) is not the same thing as DVI. And DVI is sometimes analog (not very often nowadays), sometimes digital. Analog DVI cannot be fed into a scaler that assumes digital input (even though the connectors almost look the same (different pins if you look carefully).

Black Magic's capture cards are very pecky in that you must specify exactly the source's right resolution and frame rate.
Loptops often output a resolution that is not exactly what you set it to in Windows. You can check if you have a monitor that can display what resolution it get's from the laptop.

An (better) alternative would be to use a Magewell HDMI USB dongle, or a Magewell Pro PCIe card that automatically adjusts to all things it can eat.

Some scalers just scale the resolution, not the frame rate. Some are limited to 1080i, and/or don't handle all PC resolutions - just video resolutions. A quick look in the manual for the CVP CS-802D that you link to SEEMS to be able to do what you need. But I find it hard to tell definetly.

Probably you will be able to use a HDMI-DVI or a DP-DVI adapter if you need to get HDMI into a scaler with a DVI/DP input.

Then you have EDID, and worse HDCP and Macs, see this discussion in Streaming idiots.

Finally, sometimes you need to split the signal from the laptop. One for your production and one for the projector (unless you feed the projector from your production). Might complicate things if you don't know what contact you have for the projector.

Good luck :)

Thanks Streammediaevent, the Startech capture cards look really interesting! But note the incompatible USB controllers (see below).

Whats's your experience re HDCP (and some Mac laptops in particular)?


From Startech' spec:
Confirmed compatible USB 3.0 host controllers: Intel, Renesas (NEC), VIA, AMD, Fresco FL1100
Incompatible USB 3.0 host controllers: ASmedia, Etron
A computer that supports USB 3.0 or higher is required. This product will not work with USB 2.0 or 1.1 controllers.
Will not record digitally encrypted content.

All the above is basically correct. After almost 10 years of production at different venues one has to be prepared for that presenters use all kinds of laptops. And that different vanues accept different inputs. For examample, we are currently streaming (with live sign interpretation and subtitles). This particular conference room only accept VGA and Barco's Click share. This time we don't need to tap any presenters laptop, but we send subtitles to the projector. This by converting HDMI to VGA.

Whenever Clickshare is used the only way to tap it (AFAIK) is to split the output from the Clickshare receiver. Or split at the projector (unless it happen to has signal out).

At least in Sweden very few venues provide a tap of the signal that is sent to the projector.

Where possible, NDI is a good solution.

In some cases that's just not possible. People sometimes won't (or can't) install the NDI capture app to their PC.

Or they have a PC running Linux. Is there an NDI capture app for Linux?