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Hardware Setup

Five steps from box to working capture.

1. Unbox and inspect

You should have:

  • The Pengo unit (titanium-grey aluminium brick, pengo wordmark on top, single blue LED on the front)
  • The included USB-A to USB-A cable (do not substitute)
  • The user manual / warranty card

If anything is missing, contact the seller (e.g. B&H at 1-800-482-8205).

2. Connect HDMI source → grabber

Using any HDMI cable (the source side, not the one in the box):

  • Plug one end into the HDMI OUT (or "HDMI", "Monitor Out") of your source device — a game console, a camera, a PC, etc.
  • Plug the other end into the grabber's HDMI INPUT (centre port).

USB and HDMI ports

3. (Optional) Connect local 4K display

The grabber's HDMI LOOP OUT is a zero-latency bit-perfect passthrough at the source's native resolution. Use any HDMI cable to connect this to:

  • A 4K TV or monitor, if you want to watch the source at full quality while simultaneously capturing to your PC
  • or nothing — leaving the loop-out empty is fine; it doesn't need a sink to operate

This is the killer feature for game capture: the player sees their game in 4K60 on a big TV while the streamer records at 1080p60.

4. Connect the included USB cable to your computer

  • USB-A end → grabber's USB 3.0 port
  • USB-A end → your computer's USB 3.0 port (blue insert, or labelled SS or with the trident SuperSpeed icon)

No hubs, no substitute cables

Per Pengo directly (B&H Q&A, 2021-11-03): "You must use the USB cable included in the package. It is a proprietary unique cable. Any adapters/converter should be plugged in between the computer and the included cable. No HUBS!! — it will affect the bandwidth and power provided to the Pengo."

A short USB-A→USB-C adapter at the computer end (e.g. Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport, Anker USB-C-to-USB-A, CalDigit TB3 dock) is fine and is widely reported as working.

5. (Optional) Connect headphones and microphone

  • 3.5 mm headphone jack → your headphones or powered speakers (mirrors the audio from the active stream, 48 kHz / 16-bit)
  • 3.5 mm microphone jack → a mono mic (this is mic-level, not line-level — if you have a mixer or audio interface output, you'll need a pad/attenuator first; see Troubleshooting →)

The mic input is summed into the USB audio stream and the HDMI loop output.

6. Power on

The grabber is bus-powered; there is no power button. Plugging in the USB cable turns it on — the front blue LED will illuminate.

If the LED doesn't come on:

  • Check the USB cable is fully seated on both ends
  • Try a different USB 3.0 port on the host
  • Verify the cable is the original, not a third-party substitute

What happens next

The grabber should now show up to your OS as a webcam + microphone. Pick your platform: