Magewell Pro Capture Hexa CVBS

About this product

If you still have composite cameras, tape decks or CCTV feeds that need to reach modern software, the Pro Capture Hexa CVBS brings six of them into one computer at once. It is for security, archive and AV teams who would otherwise need six separate capture devices. The card fits inside a PC and takes six standard-definition composite signals (CVBS, the single-cable analogue picture signal used by older cameras, tape decks and CCTV), each with its own stereo audio. It is a six-channel PCIe capture card that takes up a single slot.

What goes in

• Six composite video inputs. NTSC, PAL and SECAM are supported, and the card detects which standard each input is using, so you can mix sources without setting each one by hand.
• Six stereo audio inputs. One analogue left and right pair for each video channel, which means sound is captured alongside its picture instead of through a separate audio interface.
• One connector on the card. Everything arrives through a single DB25 socket, and the supplied breakout cable splits it into the six video and audio inputs. The cable is in the box, so you can connect sources on day one.
• Made for standard definition. Input resolution goes up to 720×576 pixels, which covers NTSC, PAL and SECAM composite sources in full.

What comes out

• Six channels to your software. Capture goes up to 720×576 pixels at up to 30 frames per second, in 8-bit YUV and RGB formats such as NV12, YUY2 and BGR24.
• Processing on the card. Cropping, scaling, de-interlacing, aspect ratio conversion, colour format conversion, frame rate conversion and OSD composition are done on the card, so the computer receives the picture in the shape the software asked for.
• More than one stream per input. Any one input channel supports unlimited capture streams, so two programs can take the same input at different sizes. You can record a channel in one program while watching it in another.
• Low delay. Latency is 64 video lines, which keeps live monitoring close to the source.

Where it earns its place

• One slot instead of six. Six analogue sources go into a single PCIe x1 slot, which frees the other slots in the PC for storage or graphics cards.
• Fits slim PCs. It is a low-profile card, 118.16 × 68.88 mm without the bracket, and a low-profile bracket is in the box.
• Room to grow. Several cards can share one PC. A rotary switch on the card sets a card number from 0 to F, so the software can tell cards apart.
• Built to stay on. The card is rated for continuous operation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Maximum power draw is about 6.12 W, taken from the slot, so there is no extra power lead to connect.
• Faults found at a glance. LEDs show whether each channel has locked to a signal, which saves time when you are tracing a dead feed.

Setting it up

Fit the card in a free PCIe slot, connect the breakout cable and install Magewell’s driver. Software sees the card through the standard capture interfaces of the operating system: DirectShow on Windows and V4L2 on Linux. That lets you carry on with the programs you already know, including VLC, OBS, XSplit, vMix, VidBlaster and Wirecast. Recommended operating systems are Windows 10, 11 and Server 2016 to 2025, Linux with kernel 2.6.35 or later on x86, x64 and ARM, and Mac OS X 10.9 or later. The capture interfaces for this card are the Windows and Linux ones, so please ask us before planning a Mac installation.

Where it sits in the range

This is the Pro Capture card for composite video. If your analogue sources are VGA or component rather than composite, see the Pro Capture DVI. The other cards are listed on the Pro Capture range page, and Compare Models puts them side by side.