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Comment by mdorazio | Hacker News Reader

Serious question - do Mac users just not use HDMI to USB capture devices? I got mine for $10 off eBay [1] and it works great with my Sony camera (RX100 IV) with zero new drivers required on PC[2].

[1] https://www.ebay.com/itm/HDMI-to-USB-2-0-Video-Capture-Card-...

[2] It's limited to 1080p, which is more than I need from a webcam.

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I got one of those capture devices and connected a Lumix G7. Plug and play in Linux. Now I'm using OBS with v4l2loopback to have greater control, crop, etc. Nobody cares or notices the nearly half second delay. And nobody notices the bokeh and nice colors either :(

My camera (the a6000) isn't supported by this software, so I've been very happy with my $12 hdmi capture card, weird proprietary HDMI cable and dummy battery.

I hate having to press the ‘play’ button every time. Is there a solve for that?

micro-hdmi is about as proprietary as micro-usb

The dummy battery is what annoys me the most, since it means you have to swap out a battery every time you want to use the camera, vs just pull out 2 cables.

Isn't there really bad lag inherent in that process though? (My only source is personal experience with a HDMI-to-USB3 capture device with ~200ms+ lag - about 6-7 years ago)

If you want a good quality camera for Zoom/Facetime/etc anything over ~32ms would be grating - especially if you're using an external microphone attached directly to the computer.

This is not only for Mac. Also, you really don't see a value in a camera supporting that without buying extra hardware, even if its cheap?

I see the value, but 1) this is a solution for a problem that's been cheaply solvable for years via brand-independent options, and 2) I find it kind of funny that people who strongly care about buying extra hardware/dongles would use Apple products...

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