USB cameras, microphones, HDMI capture cards, and audio interfaces are supposed to "just work" on macOS. In reality, it's often difficult to quickly access or monitor them without opening large and complicated software.
Sometimes you simply want to see whether a USB camera is active. Sometimes you want to check an HDMI source connected through a capture card. And in other cases, you may want to use a Mac mini without a dedicated monitor by viewing its HDMI output through a USB capture device directly on another Mac.
macOS supports many modern USB AV devices out of the box, but it surprisingly lacks a simple built-in utility for live monitoring and recording. Most users end up using oversized streaming or editing applications just to preview a video signal or monitor audio input.
That becomes especially noticeable with:
- USB webcams
- HDMI capture adapters
- USB microphones
- audio interfaces
- secondary computers
- headless Mac mini setups
A lightweight monitor utility is often much more practical when you only need real-time access to a device, want to record a stream, or quickly switch between multiple AV inputs.
That's one of the reasons I built AV Monitor Pro - a native macOS app designed for monitoring and recording connected audio/video devices in real time.
It can preview USB cameras, capture cards, microphones, and HDMI sources with minimal setup, and it's especially useful for workflows like running a Mac mini without a monitor, monitoring external devices, or recording live AV input directly on macOS.