Hi -
I've been looking for a video-to-USB converter which can take Apple II video signals and turn them into a good looking MP4 (or any other popular format) video file.
Knowing that Apple II video is a bit off NTSC standard, I anticipate much the same trouble as seen with some flat screen TVs or monitors, such as wrong colors, or vertical stripes / upscaling artifacts, or aspect ratio distortions.
None of these ill effects are acceptable for me. I want a perfect solution. And it should run under Linux / able to be used with drivers for Linux.
So the question:
Is there anyone out there who has found a good solution ? I've seen that some folks who made youtube videos featuring vintage Apple II games must have found an almost perfect solution. So it must exist !
So far I've set my sights on the "ClearClick Video To USB Lite" box whose manufacturer claims it can process video from legacy game consoles, but this is not a proof that it will yield the desired results with Apple II video. And the price for this box is not in the "throw into the trashcan without regrets" range anymore.
Any hints ?
- Uncle Bernie
Here is one solution, but it will most likely end up looking like you recorded it with an emulator: A2DVI + HDMI Recorder
I should have added that it's not for use with Apple II, but for use with my Apple-1 Color Graphics Card. Which has exactly the same non-standard NTSC signal as the Apple II itself.
- Uncle Bernie
There is a slight variant of CVT's suggestion. Instead of using an A2DVI card which is an Apple II bus card and thus no bueno for Apple-1, you could use a NTSC->HDMI converter with the HDMI to USB video capture device that CVT suggests. That SHOULD work, the problem is usually finding a NTSC->HDMI converter that works well with the Apple type non-standard NTSC signal. I've tried several and some work better than others, from vitually unusable to about as good as it could be. Luckily these things are fairly cheap, so if worst comes to worst you can try a few until you find one that gives satisfactory results.
Ah... Apple I... I am going to guess that the Apple i signal might be essentially the same as output on the apple iic video connector, with serial and timing signals. If so, you should be able to adapt the a2Cdvi adapter to generate hdmi output. Another one you can look at is retrohackshack's RGBtoHDMI product. This is a more unversal solution and has a public code repo where you can get the software and update it with the specific parameters required for your video card. I used to use this for my IIc work until a2Cdvi came out. I did a writeup for this a few years ago here: https://eositis.wordpress.com/2025/06/03/another-apple-iic-video-adapter-rgbtohdmi/
I would also recommend the RGBtoHDMI adapter with a cheap HDMI to USB converter
However from retrohackshack.com you would need a RGBtoHDMI adaptor, the Analog board add-on, Analog cable and source a Raspberry Pi Zero and an SD card from another supplier
The other option is a ready made one from https://cjemicros.co.uk/micros/individual/newprodpages/prodinfo.php?prodcode=DB-IB-1V but that would have to ship from the UK
Seeing the ClearClick Video To USB Lite is quite cheap its probably worth a try.