LinkPi encoder family

Playground Hardware
#588

I currently have a HDHomeRun Connect 4K, and was looking at setting up Channels with that as well as a LinkPi for cable channels from DirecTV Stream.

I’d rather not pay the $300-$400 upfront for the ENC5/ENC8 (particularly since I’m not sure how long I’ll use this and do have 4 OTA tuners), so I’m wondering about using the ENC1 with 2 Ospreys (or other input devices).

From what I understand, it has 1 HDMI port and one USB, which can take a USB capture card. Is there a good capture card for this setup that doesn’t cost too much? I saw some mention the Elgato CamLink, though that is more than half the cost of the ENC1…

#589

I don't remember which one I bought, but it was one of the USB 3 under $20 from Amazon. The cheap ones are all about the same. Make sure you have a small fan on it as they tend to run a bit hot. One of the larger ones may be able to stay cool with a larger surface area.

#590

I have a single LinkPi ENC3 that I use for ch4c. It doesn't get a ton of use, but it's worked OK with this Capture Card: Amazon.com: Audio Express AXHDCAP 4K HDMI Video Capture Card, Cam Link Card Game Audio Adapter HDMI to USB 2.0 Record Capture Device for Streaming, Live Broadcasting, Video Conference, Teaching, Gaming : Electronics

Interestingly, quite a few people I know (including me :slight_smile:) have bought single port encoders initially (with reasons not dissimilar to yours), but have ultimately ended up with multi-port units. The irony, of course, being it would have been cheaper to buy a multi-port unit from the start.

The USB Capture Card addition does give a serviceable second port, but I would not consider it equivalent. Heat could potentially be an issue, as is getting 1080p60 on both ports.

#591

I'm using these on both my youyeetoo enc1v3's and saved a few bucks on a used/returned ones :person_shrugging: over a year of use and their rock solid for ~250 and 4 tuners. i personally don't care about 50hz vs 60hz I've actually been putting the usb encoders first for most of the year, just to kinda stress test them and I've never had a problem (with this encoding part of the setup) and the room frequently was 85deg every afternoon all summer.

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#592

The Monster USB 3.0 capture cards sold at Walmart are MS232, I think... Regardless, they can do 1080p 60 Hz over USB 3 and 1080p 50 Hz over USB 2. I actually, tried to hack the firmware on one and successfully got it to display 1080p 60 hertz over USB 2. but it just wasn't enough bandwidth. It ended up leading to just video corruption weirdness.

I suppose they would be a good option if you have an ENC5 V2 unit, because those have onboard USB 3.0.

In general, though, my opinion is to stay away from the capture cards if possible and just get a larger encoder if money allows, because they really do kind of tend to lock up on these LinkPi units. I've had nothing but issues with the USB cam part of these devices, but the actual encoder itself is fine.

I also can confirm that the Elgato Camlink 4K does work with the ENC1 1080p 60fps does enumerate, however, it will lock up if you put your device to sleep, and then you have to reboot or replug the USB dongle. It's like almost not even worth it because it's just going to lead to failed tunes. I don't have my units anymore because I sold them on eBay, but if I did, I would test on my ENC5 units to see if it's any better over USB 3.

#593

This has been my experience as well. From what I can tell, using just the HDMI inputs on a LinkPi device (mine is an ENC5-V2) pretty much maxes out its encoding capability. Adding another source to the USB input seems to put it over the top, leading to a host of problems. I have abandoned the LinkPi USB port as a video input source.

#594

I ran into a problem with the ENC1 Pro where when I plugged a Google TV Streamer 4K into it I would get this horrible ticking sound. It didn't happen with the ENC1 I have. After talking to support, they told me changing the audio settings in the Google TV from Auto to PCM would fix it, and it did. I asked if they could fix the firmware so it negotiated properly and I got test firmware today that fixes the issue. They say the fix should be in the next firmware release.

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#595

I was having some weirdness and i ended up just downgrading my firmware to the last from 2025 and my ENC5-V2 is working so much better now. Honestly, these LinkPi units are great, but their firmware can be really buggy.

#597

Just wanted to update. I spoke with YouYeeToo support and they were able to confirm to me that there are some issues with the July firmware and to flash back to the May firmware, and that did resolve the weird HDMI handshaking stuff I was running into.

Will it resolve the memory leaks I was seeing? That's still to be determined, but I'm going to keep an eye on that. So far, it's tuning really nicely in ah4c.