AIW 8500DV - Lousy sound quality with 'TV on demand' active.

[Nick M V Salmon]

Hi all

Barton 2500+ at 12x200 for 2.4GHz
Abit NF7-S (NForce2) + Latest drivers from NVidia
2x256MB Corsair XMS3200LL TwinX
30GB ATA/133 Maxtor
2x 80GB ATA/100 WD Caviar SE in RAID0 (Video Capture)
Windows XP Home

Hercules All In Wonder 8500DV;
WDM Capture drivers - 6.14.1.6178
Display Driver - 6.14.1.6292
Control Panel - 7448
MMC - 7.7.0.1

Sound is fine with "TV on demand" inactive but, with "TV on demand" active,
'live' or playing after a pause, the sound quality goes completely to pot -
lot of hiss and the higher frequencies are distorted with lots of 'hissy'
sibilants. Video capture is fine but the audio is crap when played back,
even using "DVD 48KHz 16bit Stereo".

I've noticed in the NForce2 'Soundstorm' control panel that ordinary TV uses
the Line Input whereas "TV on demand" uses WAV Input. (The Line Input is
always 'live' TV.) I've tried all sorts of different balances between the
various volume controls to no avail. I cannot get rid of the higher
frequency's distortion unless I back off on all the higher frequencies with
the NForce2 'Soundstorm' control panel's graphic equaliser - then ordinary
TV sound is very 'flat'.

NB: DVD also uses WAV Input (I don't even connect the analogue cable.) & it
sounds fine without any adjustments.

Are more recent versions of WDM audio drivers (& MMC ?) any better for
this..? I tried some 8.x ATI Catalyst version a while ago but I had a lot
of trouble with it, so I reverted to these older drivers Etc. (The version
numbers don't seem to match but they were all downloaded from Hercules at
the same time AFAICR.) I've tried various NForce2 audio drivers but they
don't make any difference.

NB2: I also use WAV input with Windows Media Player & that sounds crystal
clear too.

TIA...

[UK]_Nick...

 

[Nick M V Salmon]

Excellent, thanks Wayne, that did it - lowering the line in record control
to notch 1out of 8 (1/8) reduces the 'clipping' almost completely. Still
some minor sibilance but nothing like as bad as it was. Only trouble
is, the setting reverts to 6/8 if I switch back to normal TV - what the hey,
it's good enough now I can just leave it in time delay all the time.

I owe you a beer. ;-)

[UK]_Nick...

Hi Nick, I had the same problem, then I discovered I could control the
volume levels on the "recording bus". I had to "mute" the "Line-In" volume
on the "Play Bus", and turn down the "Line-In" volume on the "record bus"
from the normal level of about 6 or 7, down to a 3.

None of what I just said would have made sense to me a few months ago
because I only knew about the standard volume control. But then I
discovered it was possible to install a custom sound control designed
specifically for my sound hardware. The software for your sound hardware
should provide its own volume controls that allows you to control the "Play
bus" separate for the "Record bus". As usual, more features mean it's
harder to learn and use, but it's much more powerful and more useful. It's
now possible to record only the sounds you want without all of Windows
prompts, reminders and warning sounds.

My symptoms were the same as yours. The sound was good when playing
real-time TV. But the sound was clipped when playing a time-delay program.
That's because the real-time audio track only goes through the "Play Bus".
But when you play a time-delay program, the audio track has to route through
the "record bus" to be recorded, before being played back through the "Play
Bus".

Hi all

Barton 2500+ at 12x200 for 2.4GHz
Abit NF7-S (NForce2) + Latest drivers from NVidia
2x256MB Corsair XMS3200LL TwinX
30GB ATA/133 Maxtor
2x 80GB ATA/100 WD Caviar SE in RAID0 (Video Capture)
Windows XP Home

Hercules All In Wonder 8500DV;
WDM Capture drivers - 6.14.1.6178
Display Driver - 6.14.1.6292
Control Panel - 7448
MMC - 7.7.0.1

Sound is fine with "TV on demand" inactive but, with "TV on demand" active,
'live' or playing after a pause, the sound quality goes completely to pot -
lot of hiss and the higher frequencies are distorted with lots of 'hissy'
sibilants. Video capture is fine but the audio is crap when played back,
even using "DVD 48KHz 16bit Stereo".

I've noticed in the NForce2 'Soundstorm' control panel that ordinary TV uses
the Line Input whereas "TV on demand" uses WAV Input. (The Line Input is
always 'live' TV.) I've tried all sorts of different balances between the
various volume controls to no avail. I cannot get rid of the higher
frequency's distortion unless I back off on all the higher frequencies with
the NForce2 'Soundstorm' control panel's graphic equaliser - then ordinary
TV sound is very 'flat'.

NB: DVD also uses WAV Input (I don't even connect the analogue cable.) & it
sounds fine without any adjustments.

Are more recent versions of WDM audio drivers (& MMC ?) any better for
this..? I tried some 8.x ATI Catalyst version a while ago but I had a lot
of trouble with it, so I reverted to these older drivers Etc. (The version
numbers don't seem to match but they were all downloaded from Hercules at
the same time AFAICR.) I've tried various NForce2 audio drivers but they
don't make any difference.

NB2: I also use WAV input with Windows Media Player & that sounds crystal
clear too.

TIA...

[UK]_Nick...