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Windows Pengo Tool

The Pengo Tool (Pengo.exe) was the official Windows companion app for the Pengo 4K HDMI Grabber, published by Pengo Technology Co., Ltd. (taiwan). It was a small four-panel utility that displayed live device info and bundled a firmware updater.

Pengo Technology Co. is defunct

The company ceased operations around 2024. The official installer is no longer hosted and the warranty registration at pengohome.com/register no longer resolves. The information below is preserved from the original Pengo 4k Grabber Tool Installation Guide (retrieved via the Wayback Machine) and the Windows Firmware Update Guide for archival purposes.

What it does

The Pengo Tool shows four panels:

Panel Purpose
INFORMATION Product name, serial number, firmware version, hardware version, USB version, Power Idle toggle
VIDEO Live readout of the current input / capture / bypass formats (e.g. RGB 4:4:4)
INPUT/OUTPUT Live readout of input, output, and bypass resolutions
VOLUME Three sliders: headphone-out, mic-in, source/playback (mirrors the OS volume controls)

There's also an UPDATE button in the title bar that flashes new firmware to the grabber.

Installation (if you have the installer)

The installer is shipped as a .rar file (called Non Upgrade App.rar for the main app, Upgrade App.rar for the firmware updater version).

  1. Unzip the .rar.
  2. Run Setup.msi (or setup.exe) inside.
  3. Click through the Pengo Setup Wizard → choose install location (C:\Program Files (x86)\Pengo\ is the default) → Install.
  4. Click Close when done.
  5. Launch Pengo.exe from the start menu or install directory.
  6. Plug in the grabber. The INFORMATION panel will populate with:
Product name:      4K Grabber
Serial number:     20000130041415
Firmware version:  190122
Hardware version:  02
USB:               3.0

!!! note "Why "4K Grabber" not "Pengo 4K HDMI Grabber"? The internal product name string (read from the firmware's descriptor block) is just 4K Grabber. The full marketing name "Pengo 4K HDMI Grabber" only appears in the printed manual and on retail listings (B&H's "Pengo Technology 4K HDMI to USB 3.0 Video Grabber"). The USB descriptor reads Pengo HDMI Grabber. Same hardware, three naming tiers.

Updating firmware

Don't brick your grabber

The firmware update procedure is bricking-risk. Read all of the following before clicking UPDATE:

  • Do not unplug the USB cable during the update.
  • Do not have any HDMI source plugged into the grabber during the update.
  • Do not run any other applications in the background.
  • Do not run the firmware updater if you do not have a specific reason to — Pengo's firmware updates were rare and the original firmware 190122 is the only known release.

If you have an Upgrade App.rar from Pengo and a specific firmware .bin to flash:

  1. Run the upgrade installer (not the non-upgrade one) to get a version of Pengo.exe that includes the UPDATE button.
  2. Plug the grabber in without any HDMI source connected.
  3. Open Pengo.exe and confirm the INFORMATION panel shows the device.
  4. Click the UPDATE button in the title bar.
  5. Wait for the progress screen — DO NOT touch the cable.
  6. When you see "Upgraded successfully! Please restart device and app." in green, close Pengo.exe, unplug the USB cable, and plug it back in.

Replacing the (now-lost) firmware update

Pengo's last known firmware revision is 190122 (released 2019-01-22, according to the date code). No newer firmware was ever published.

If your grabber's INFORMATION panel reports a different (older) firmware version after a factory reset, and you don't have access to the official updater:

  1. Don't attempt to flash. The 190122 firmware on a working unit is already known-good.
  2. The Linux uvcvideo driver and OBS / VLC will work identically regardless of the internal firmware revision — there is no host-side driver that branches on firmware version.

Why no driver checks firmware?

UVC / UAC are standardised protocols. The host kernel talks to the device via standard descriptors; firmware version is informational only and doesn't affect what the host can do.

Linux users

The Pengo Tool is Windows-only — there's no equivalent for Linux or macOS.

On Linux, you can read the same INFORMATION manually with:

lsusb -v -d 1e4e:701f | grep -E 'iManufacturer|iProduct|iSerial|bcdDevice'
  iManufacturer           1 Pengo
  iProduct                2 Pengo HDMI Grabber
  iSerial                 3 20000130041415
  bcdDevice            0.05

(Equivalent on macOS via system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -A 5 Pengo.)

If you have an installer archive you can share with the community, please open an issue on GitHub — it would let future owners keep their units updated.