Empia EM28xx USB analog TV, video capture, and webcam bridges
A family of USB 2.0 bridge chips from Empia Technology used in hundreds of consumer analog TV tuners, composite/S-Video capture sticks, and webcams sold from the mid-2000s onward. A handful of products built on these chips, such as StarTech's SVID2USB232 video-capture adapter, are still sold new for digitising VHS tapes and other legacy analog sources.
recommendation
Worth keeping but flagging as a legacy-leaning niche, because the bulk of EM28xx hardware dates from the analog-TV era yet the driver is still actively maintained upstream — patches in 2026 added support for new em2828X variants and for StarTech's SVID2USB232 capture stick, which is still sold and supported by the vendor in 2024-2025. There is no removal effort in flight, so it should remain, but a comment noting that most supported devices are end-of-life would help future triage.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent upstream feature work added support for an Empia em2828X bridge in 2026, indicating the driver is still being extended rather than retired.
- lore.kernel.org
Recent upstream work also targeted StarTech SVID2USB232 support in 2026, showing live maintenance for currently marketed/employed hardware niches.
- cateee.net
LKDDb identifies this as the Linux driver for Empia EM28xx USB devices and lists many legacy analog-TV/video-capture products tied to the family.
- startech.com
StarTech had a current product page for SVID2USB232 in 2025/2026-era web indexing, supporting that at least some EM28xx-based capture hardware remained sold new.
- community.startech.com
A 2024 vendor community article discusses active end-user troubleshooting for SVID2USB232, consistent with ongoing niche deployment.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Directory inspection via shell (`rg --files`, `sed` on Kconfig) confirmed a real multi-function USB media driver for analog TV, DVB, webcam, audio, and RC support. Lore evidence came from MCP `lore_file_timeline` and `lore_activity` on `drivers/media/usb/em28xx/em28xx-core.c`; cited lore URLs were taken directly from those results and show substantive 2024-2026 work, including new device enablement, with no active removal/deprecation signal found. Deployment evidence came from web search: LKDDb established the chipset/device family and StarTech URLs indicated at least one EM28xx-based product line still present and used in 2024-2025. Conclusion: not obsolete enough to deprecate, but the hardware base is mostly legacy/niche, so keep the driver with legacy-context annotation rather than remove it.