In my ongoing quest to find a decent USB capture device for my old consoles that doesn't cost a fortune (although, once I've tested a bunch of these, I might end up spending as much as I would have on one of the expensive ones, so I have that going for me), I decided to try the AverMedia ET111. I figured that since I was already using an AverMedia product that they should work together in harmony and everything would be wonderful.
I was almost right.
The device is pretty simple. It's got composite inputs and a USB connector on one side and an HDMI connector on the other. I forgot to take a picture of it, so you'll have to use your imagination (unless I update this article later and add a picture, in which case this sentence will get unwritten). The USB connection is important since it provides power, but it's pretty short, so you need to have it near a power source. A lot of the negative product reviews are from people who miss this crucial step.
I got it all connected up, and played a little bit of Blaster Master to test it out (I had briefly considered playing the same game for all of the trials, but that would be boring).
The quality was a lot better than the Blackweb converter that I used, and there wasn't any ghosting or bizarre artifacts all over the screen. The screen did jump up and down a lot, which was a little distracting and disorienting. I suspect that it's related to converting the image from 240p to 480i, especially since I didn't see the same jiggling on my television screen (and I'm using a splitter to get the signal to both places) but I haven't really dug into it much.
It cost a little bit more than the Blackweb device, and you can find it on Amazon or probably other places online. And, it's better, but still not great.
The quest continues.