After a bit more research I found one alternative:

https://www.startech.com/AV/Converters/Video/ … rter~VGA2HDPRO2

From what I gather the advantage and at the same time disadvantage with the ossc is that it works on scanlines and hence will not convert framerates and such.
Since I want to capture almost exclusively DOS based games like adventures, strategy and text mode stuff, I am not sure I meed the low latency the ossc offers.

More info on the OSSC here: http://junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php?title=OSSC

I look at it as a tool. Its not plug-n-play, but its VERY tweakable vs. the consumer upscalers and ADCs. Its basically a ADC chip like whats found in your monitor, but you have access to almost all the register settings controlling image capture and quality. It also upscales if needed (via a FPGA) and outputs DVI or HDMI video. It also has a basic post processor that can mask overscan and add scanlines to the output.

Note: I have used the OSSC as a straight analog-to-digital passthru device for PCs before and it generally works well. It will not do framerate conversion, the video is untouched on the digital side BUT your capture device needs to tolerate non-standard (generally non-VESA) resolutions if your source isn't standard.

Thanks for the good info! It is all pointing more and more towards the ossc.