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Linux Setup

The Pengo HDMI Grabber works on Linux with zero driver installation. The kernel's built-in uvcvideo driver (and snd-usb-audio for the audio side) handle it natively. Manufacturer-stated minimum kernel: 2.6.38 (2010) — in practice every distro released in the last decade is fine.

Verified on Linux 7.2.2 (CachyOS, Arch-based) with the in-tree uvcvideo driver, no extra/ packages installed for the device itself.

What this section covers

Page Contents
Detection & drivers Verifying the grabber enumerates, what /dev/videoN and /dev/snd entries appear, kernel modules, USB power warnings
FFmpeg & GStreamer Command-line recording, transcoding, streaming, virtual-camera output for OBS/Zoom
OBS Studio Setting up OBS for streaming on Linux
Audio capture (ALSA / PulseAudio / PipeWire) Routing the HDMI-embedded audio and the mic input

TL;DR

# 1. Plug it in. Should immediately appear as /dev/video0 and a USB audio card.

# 2. Confirm
lsusb | grep -i pengo
v4l2-ctl --list-devices

# 3. Watch a live preview
ffplay /dev/video0

# 4. Record 30 seconds to MP4
ffmpeg -f v4l2 -input_format mjpeg -framerate 60 -video_size 1920x1080 \
       -i /dev/video0 -t 30 -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast output.mp4

Why no drivers

The grabber speaks the USB Video Class (UVC) protocol for video and the USB Audio Class (UAC) protocol for audio — both industry-standard specifications with kernel drivers in the mainline tree. There is no proprietary blob. Whatever webcam works on your system today will work identically to how the Pengo works.

Identified USB ID

lsusb reports the Pengo as 1e4e:701f with the strings Pengo / Pengo HDMI Grabber. The chipset is from Cubeternet. A second pair of devices (048d:8595 and 048d:8950, ITE IT5711 family) may also appear on the same USB port — these are auxiliary chips on the grabber's internal USB hub and do not need separate drivers.

Power-user notes

  • Use the included USB cable. Pengo is explicit: hubs and substitute cables break enumeration.
  • USB 3.0 port only. USB 2.0 works at degraded frame rates.
  • Two grabbers? They work side-by-side on the same host only if attached to USB ports on independent bus roots. Two ports on the same internal hub will not both stream at 60 fps.
  • No HDCP support — encrypted sources show black.
  • 1080i is unsupported — set your source to 1080p.

Start with Detection & drivers →.