soundcard issues

[wendy]

Hey
I'm new to all of this please have patience with me
I just got a video capture card and can't seem to get audio to work at all
with it. I have an integrated soundmax digital audio card, which means I
have no idea how to connect the audio leads from the capture card to the
sound card.
So I think I need to buy a sound card with the imputs on it. Am I right? And
if so can I just put the new sound card in and go? Will it be OK to use on
top of the integrated sound?? And also what soundcard is best? I have seen
some on ebay for as low as $6 (Aussie)
wendy

 

[kony]

Hey
I'm new to all of this please have patience with me
I just got a video capture card and can't seem to get audio to work at all
with it.

Generally speaking, it is good to mention the specific
hardware in question. Futher, mention of how this video
capture card inputs audio to the system (for example, an
internal socket or external minijack) might be relevant too.

I have an integrated soundmax digital audio card, which means I
have no idea how to connect the audio leads from the capture card to the
sound card.

Which sound input the capture card can use, depends on the
versatility of the software included. Typically that
software has some kind of configuration menu where you might
be able to choose the audio input. If there is none, it is
likely the capture card manual specifies which input it
"needs".

So I think I need to buy a sound card with the imputs on it. Am I right?

No your onboard sound should be sufficient for this. Since
we dont' know which method the capture card uses, nor what
cables were included (or that you otherwise have available),
we can't directly advise. Generally speaking, if your
capture card has an output jack on the back and a 1/8" to
1/8" miniplug cable that came with it, you would connect
that to the motherboard audio-input jack on the back (often
visually identifiable by it's blue color but might be
labeled as well as illustrated in your motherboard manual.

If the capture card instead has an internal pin-header
socket, and a cable with (usually 4 pins) plugs for this,
obviously you'd connect one end to the capture card and the
other to the motherboard's sound input jack, typically it's
labeled "Aux In", that might be printed on the board next to
the (usually white) 4 pin socket, and also should be
illustrated in the motherboard manual. If for some reason
you had already used that Aux-In socket, it might be
possible to instead route the sound input to the "CD In",
usually black, socket. This would be less common and it may
be necessary for the software you use with the capture card,
to be reconfigured to use this CD-In instead.

No matter which input you need, do use, confirm that the
appropriate input in the software is selected. Sometimes
the software words things poorly or in a non-standard manner
and so it can be a matter of trial and error to find which
corresponds to the connection you used.

And
if so can I just put the new sound card in and go?

You could certainly put in a new sound card if you want one,
though it should not be at all necessary for the capture
card, would instead be the kind of thing added if you had
other gripes with the onboard sound such as poor sound
quality or a lot of CPU overhead playing games.

If you add a sound card, you have the same scenario, hooking
up the jacks and then configuring the capture card (or 3rd
party if you chose 3rd party software) for the appropriate
input type. Also if you add a sound card you would either
have to disable the onboard sound (jumper or setting in the
bios setup menu) or possibly assign the primary sound device
in (windows?) Control Panel- Multimedia (or Sounds And ...).
It is also good to mention the operating system you are
using in the initial post, and in this case perhaps the
specific motherboard too since it is the onboard audio being
considered.

Will it be OK to use on
top of the integrated sound?? And also what soundcard is best? I have seen
some on ebay for as low as $6 (Aussie)
wendy

You're not much better off with a low-end sound card than
with integrated audio. Presuming you had only considered
the sound card due to addition of the capture card, try the
onboard audio as it should work fine with it.

"Best" sound card is relative, there's a wide spectrum
ranging from barely (if any) better than onboard, then
various multi-channel cards, some with joystick input/midi,
a few with hardware gaming 3D sound, and then incrementally
more inputs, outputs, digital tricks and moving up further
the audiphile cards where cost can be no object.

You'd need to define exactly what features and uses you had
for the card, and the budget, to determine what's
appropriate. With gaming and higher sound quality being
the two most common motivators to replace onboard audio, if
you have neither of these concerns then you may as well use
the onboard audio.

 

[wendy]

sorry, i'm new to this!
The card that I am using in an AOpen VA1000 and the cable that came with it
has a black plug on one end which goes into the video card and from that it
has 6 leads coming off it. 3 for the AV from my VCR (red,yellow,white) one
lime green one which says Audio Out, an S-Video one and a black one which
says IR Receiver In.
The green one needs something to be plugged into it as it is a female plug,
it looks a little like the AV cables but is slightly different.
The software that came with the card is WINDVR.
I didn't get any documents with my PC relating to its motherboard but I
opened up the case yesterday and couldn't find a damn thing that this could
plug into.
I really do appreciate the help as I really want to get this thing going!
wendy

 

[kony]

sorry, i'm new to this!
The card that I am using in an AOpen VA1000 and the cable that came with it
has a black plug on one end which goes into the video card and from that it
has 6 leads coming off it. 3 for the AV from my VCR (red,yellow,white) one
lime green one which says Audio Out, an S-Video one and a black one which
says IR Receiver In.

The lime green one, is it a male plug or a female socket?
That should plug into your motherboard's rear audio input
jack. If it is a female socket, then you need another
cable, a male-male 1/8" Stereo plug cable. 1/8" stereo jack
is what fits in the motherboard rear jacks, looks like a
small headphone or analog speaker plug.

The green one needs something to be plugged into it as it is a female plug,
it looks a little like the AV cables but is slightly different.

your VA1000 product manual should detail how this needs to
be hooked up. Since the card doesn't have a pin-header on
it for audio output, the method should be using a 1/8" plug
that plugs into the rear audio-in socket on the motherboard,
a blue jack.

On second glance, I had seen a picture of an AV1000 that
only had rear 1/8" jacks, but the following has internal pin
headers instead,

http://global.aopen.com.tw/Products/images/video/Products/va1000power-nt3-l.jpg

Does yours have two small white jacks in the upper right
corner (or elsewhere on the card) like the one in the
picture, OR does it have two 1/8" jacks on the rear bracket
of the card, probably green and blue colored?

If it has the green and blue jacks, connect a 1/8" male-male
audio cable from one of those to the blue audio-in jack on
the motherboard.

The software that came with the card is WINDVR.

I believe WinDVR does have settings to control which audio
input it uses, BUT it is probably set to default to using
the Audio-In jack on the rear of the motherboard. Try
WinDVR with the default settings first before changing any
of them.

I didn't get any documents with my PC relating to its motherboard but I
opened up the case yesterday and couldn't find a damn thing that this could
plug into.
I really do appreciate the help as I really want to get this thing going!
wendy

You never did mention the motherboard make and model.
Motherboards typically have two types of analog inputs, and
almost all of them have both of these types - small colored
4 pin sockets on the motherboard that look like this,
http://images.devshed.com/dh/stories/Building_System_Scratch/addAudioConnector.jpg
(though the "Aux In" I had mentioned previously, is usuall
white plastic on a semi-modern motherboard),

or the rear audio jacks on the motherboard like one of
these,
http://www.pcperspective.com/images/reviews/78/Asus-K8N-E-Deluxe-audio.jpg
or the other types where there was still a joystick/midi
port,
http://www.dansdata.com/images/duron/audconn320.jpg

On either of these, the video capture card would have a
cable running from it to the blue jack on the motherboard.
Perhaps there was supposed to be such a cable included with
your video capture card but the cable is missing. I dont'
know, the capture card manual should have details of these
basic setup steps and which parts might be necessary but
weren't included in the product package.

 

[wendy]

thanks so much, I didn't get any kind of manual with the card, I think
someone pilfered the box before I got it!!!
I have the connection of the blue, pink and green on the back of my PC. The
card only has two connections - one for an aerial to go into and the other
for the cable to go into that I got which has the followingn coming out of
it:

Red, white and yellow AV
A black one that says IR receiver in
A green one that says Audio out
An S-Video cable

I have been told by someone that I need to connect my VCR to the blue socket
using an adaptor because my VCR only has yellow and white AV jacks? Does
this sound right? I don't want to capture TV from the card, I just want to
capture VHS.

 

[John McGaw]

thanks so much, I didn't get any kind of manual with the card, I think
someone pilfered the box before I got it!!!
I have the connection of the blue, pink and green on the back of my PC. The
card only has two connections - one for an aerial to go into and the other
for the cable to go into that I got which has the followingn coming out of
it:

Red, white and yellow AV
A black one that says IR receiver in
A green one that says Audio out
An S-Video cable

I have been told by someone that I need to connect my VCR to the blue socket
using an adaptor because my VCR only has yellow and white AV jacks? Does
this sound right? I don't want to capture TV from the card, I just want to
capture VHS.

Pretty standard in the home AV market are:

red = right audio
white = left audio
yellow = video

Those three would connect to the appropriate jacks on your VCR.

Or, if your VCR has an S-Video on it then you should probably use that
rather than the yellow video.

The lime green one should be connected to the line-in, also usually lime
green, on your audio connectors on the computer.

The IR receiver would normally be a little "dongle" which would be
placed on the front of your computer setup so that the remote control
and it are in a direct line-of-sight.

 

[kony]

thanks so much, I didn't get any kind of manual with the card, I think
someone pilfered the box before I got it!!!
I have the connection of the blue, pink and green on the back of my PC. The
card only has two connections - one for an aerial to go into and the other
for the cable to go into that I got which has the followingn coming out of
it:

Red, white and yellow AV
A black one that says IR receiver in
A green one that says Audio out
An S-Video cable

you need a stereo patch cable with 1/8" (stereo) male phone
plugs on each end, plugged into the motherboard blue jack
and the capture card green jack.

Here's a picture,
http://www.lindy.com/us/productfolder/03/35/35450/3_5SJM_3_5SJMbig.jpg
you should be able to pick one up from a good electronics
superstore or various places online- probably $2 plus S/H
online or about $8 locally but that's US dollars, I've no
idea there.

I have been told by someone that I need to connect my VCR to the blue socket
using an adaptor because my VCR only has yellow and white AV jacks? Does
this sound right? I don't want to capture TV from the card, I just want to
capture VHS.

No, your yellow VCR socket connects to the capture card's
(dongle, the multi-connectored cable for the card) yellow,
and VCR white jack is only mono (1 channel) sound so you
would need a splitter that plugs into the VCR white jack and
splits that audio signal to both the left and right (red and
white) on the capture card dongle. Splitters should also be
available at a local electronics shop or online, are another
~ $8 USD item.

It would seem you have purchased a barebones or OEM product
that is missing some of the parts needed to use it, though
none of them come with a Y-splitter for audio as must VCRs
these days are stereo rather than mono.

Don't be surprised that your VCR captures look horrible on a
PC, since a VCR has such low quality and poor resolution
which is partially hidden by the low resolution of a TV set.

 

[wendy]

Don't be surprised that your VCR captures look horrible on a
PC, since a VCR has such low quality and poor resolution
which is partially hidden by the low resolution of a TV set.

Yeah, it is OK, I pretty much just want to back up a bunch of old 80's
cartoons I have on VHS for my nephew as they are getting very worn!!