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Troubleshooting

Common problems and what to do about them. Most of these come straight from the B&H Q&A thread and the Pengo user manual.

"It doesn't show up at all"

Symptoms

  • lsusb shows nothing Pengo-related
  • No blue LED on the front of the unit
  • /dev/video0 doesn't exist (or doesn't have Pengo in its name)

Things to try

  1. Use the included USB cable. This is the #1 cause. The cable shipped in the box is "proprietary unique" per Pengo. A hub or random USB-A cable will not work reliably.
  2. Try a different USB 3.0 port. Especially one on the back of the machine (often a separate bus root from the front-panel ports).
  3. Check the front LED. If it's off, the grabber isn't getting power.
  4. Try a USB-A-to-USB-C adapter at the computer end if your machine only has USB-C. Make sure it's a short passive adapter, not an active hub.

"The image is black"

Almost always one of these

  1. HDCP — your HDMI source is sending protected content. Apple TV, most streaming sticks, Blu-ray, some game consoles' protected outputs. → Use a non-protected source (camera, computer desktop, console game in non-protected mode).
  2. 1080i — your source is sending an interlaced signal. → Set your source to 1080p.
  3. No HDMI signal at all — the source is off or the cable is loose. → Verify with a TV plugged into the loop output. If the TV also shows black, the issue is upstream of the Pengo.

Less common

  • The HDMI cable from source → grabber is damaged or below High Speed spec. Try another cable rated High Speed or Premium High Speed.

"Frame drops / stuttering"

  1. USB 2.0 port. The most common cause. Plug into a USB 3.0 port — blue insert inside the connector, or marked SS or with a trident icon.
  2. Cable too long. USB 3.0 signal integrity drops fast past 3 m. The included cable is short on purpose.
  3. USB hub between device and computer. Per Pengo, hubs will "affect the bandwidth and power provided to the Pengo." Plug direct.
  4. Switch from YUYV to MJPG. YUYV uses ~4 MB per 1080p frame; USB 2.0 can't keep up. MJPG is much lighter.
  5. Two grabbers on adjacent ports sharing one internal USB bus.

"USB cable works on Mac but not on PC" (or vice-versa)

The included cable is USB-A on both ends. Most computers have at least one USB-A port. If yours only has USB-C:

  • ✅ Short passive USB-A-to-USB-C adapter at the computer end — works
  • ✅ A powered dock with a USB-A port — usually works
  • ❌ Active USB-A-to-USB-C adapters — sometimes fail to enumerate
  • ❌ Long adapter cables — too much signal loss for USB 3.0

"Audio is distorted / too quiet"

The 3.5 mm mic input is mic level only. Line-level sources (mixer outputs, audio interface outputs) will distort heavily.

Fixes:

  • Use an attenuator/pad like the Sescom MX-LAU-25 (BNC/XLR to mic level) or the Whirlwind PCDI (stereo, line → mic).
  • Or: a small inline -25 dB / -50 dB attenuator cable between your source and the Pengo's mic input.

"No audio from the headphone jack"

  • Verify the headphones are plugged all the way in.
  • In your sound settings, make sure the Pengo's output / sink is selected, not just the input.
  • The headphone jack carries a mirrored copy of the active stream — if the USB stream is black, the headphone output will also be silent.

"Latency is too high for live gaming"

The Pengo's latency isn't officially specified, but user reports describe it as "smooth, no perceived issue" for streaming and conferencing.

For absolute lowest latency:

  • Plug a TV directly into the HDMI loop out — that's zero-latency passthrough
  • Use ffplay -fflags nobuffer instead of OBS for monitoring
  • Use YUYV format (lower pipeline latency than MJPG) — but you'll need a solid USB 3.0 connection

"Pengo Tool doesn't recognise my grabber"

The Windows Pengo Tool is the official companion app but it's old and inflexible. If it says "No device found, please check!!!":

  1. Confirm Device Manager sees Pengo HDMI Grabber under Cameras — if not, this is a USB enumeration problem (see the top of this page).
  2. Try a different USB 3.0 port (rear panel preferred).
  3. Close OBS, PotPlayer, VLC, Discord, Teams — anything that may have grabbed the UVC interface — and re-open Pengo Tool.
  4. Reboot. The Pengo Tool's USB device polling is one-shot and doesn't recover from a suspend/wake cycle cleanly.

If you can't find the Pengo Tool installer at all, the company is defunct and the original download link no longer resolves. You don't need it — OBS, VLC, and PotPlayer all see the grabber via standard UVC and don't care about firmware version. See Pengo Tool → for what the tool actually shows and how to get the same info via lsusb on Linux.

"v4l2-ctl says 'Cannot open /dev/video0'"

Permission issue. Add yourself to the video group:

sudo usermod -aG video $USER

Log out and back in (or newgrp video in the same shell).

"Two Pengos don't both stream at 60 fps"

The two USB ports on the same side of many laptops share a single internal USB bus root. Both grabbers competing on the same bus will underperform.

Workarounds:

  • Plug one into a port on the opposite side of the laptop (often a different internal hub)
  • Plug one into a port on a separate dock or PCIe USB card
  • Drop one or both to 30 fps in OBS

"Is there a heat sink / cooling needed?"

No. Pengo staff (B&H Q&A, 2020-08-03): "A heat sink is not required." The unit is rated for 0 – 45 °C operating temperature.

"Will this work with my PS2 / PS3?"

Probably not, and not just because of age — older consoles often output interlaced (1080i) signals, which the Pengo does not support. You'd also need an RCA-to-HDMI adapter for the PS2 (composite video is not HDMI).

"Does this work with an iPhone?"

The Pengo does not have a Lightning input and is not a Made-for-iPhone device. With an Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter or USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter, you can sometimes get an HDMI signal out of an iPhone or iPad — but only for content the iPhone will allow to be displayed externally. Most streaming apps (Netflix, etc.) will output HDCP-protected HDMI that the Pengo will show as black.

"Linux: kernel says 'uvcvideo: Failed to set UVC probe'"

Usually a USB bandwidth issue. The fix is to switch from YUYV to MJPG in the application (or in v4l2-ctl --set-fmt-video).

"Linux: device disconnects when I unplug the HDMI source"

By design — UVC devices renegotiate the stream when the input changes and briefly disconnect. Most apps reconnect automatically within a second.

"What about HDMI 2.1 sources?"

The Pengo is HDMI 2.0. It accepts HDMI 2.1 sources (which are backwards-compatible at HDMI 2.0), but you won't get HDMI 2.1 features (4K120, VRR, ALLM, eARC, etc.). 4K60 works fine.

Still stuck? See FAQ → or Resources → for support channels.