Recorded sound clipping and popping using ATI TV Wonder Pro capture card

[str8eiht]

I'm having an irritating problem with my new ATI TV Wonder Pro sound card. ON both mono and stereo digital tv channels i i'm getting annoying little pops and crackles on the peaks, like when someone says "PASS the BALL, PETE" u get pops and crackles on PASS and PETE, sorry for the silly example..!. I've tried lowering the LINE IN volume under windows volume control, but it doesn't make a difference. In fact i noticed that if I lower the level ALL THE WAY to the BOTTOM (as in muted completely) it still records sound!? If i raise the level i can observe in Sound Forge the level go to red, seems strange, it's like the LINE OUT on the TV card is hard wired for a minimum volume. I also don't see any option to lower the line out volume on the TV card properties. I've tried two different sound cards. One is a SoundBlaster Live! I tried the latest drivers from the creative website as well as the native built in ones for WIndows XP. I also tried using my motherboards built in C-Media AC97 sound device, both have the same result. So i'm thinking it's got to be a problem with the ATI TV capture card right? I'm using the following drivers for the ATI TV Wonder Pro card ...

Multimedia Center (9-03-0-0),
DAO MDAC Driver (9-1-0-0)
Core graphics driver (10/28/2003)

Could it be a bad cable? or a grounding problem? I was thinking i might try another coaxial tv cable as well. Any help would be appreciated.

[Paco103]

That is a strange problem. I use the same setup in my system (TV Wonder Pro with SB Live!) and have no problems at all.

One thing I do that I've found makes a huge difference in recording quality is to always set the priority of ATIMMC.exe to High. You can do this from the task manager by right clicking on the process.

My room mate had similar sound problems with his recordings when he was using the onboard sound. Make sure that your sound drivers are set to full hardware acceleration in the dxdiag program (type 'dxdiag' in the Start --> Run menu). As far as setting the priority every time, I have found a little program on MajorGeeks called Process Switch (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download429.html). This just runs in the background and monitors your program launches, and modifies the thread priority as you desire. That's all the ideas I have for now.

[ukulele]

It sure sounds like the input level is too high. Grounding problems are more erratic. Another possibility is a poor connection that is effected by vibration when the volume is highest. I noticed that when I record from line in from an audio output channel on my stereo, that the input level is almost always too high for the AC97. Now I record sound from a headphone output so I can control the level with the volume control. Remember to set your equalizer to neutral and turn any filters off to get the broadest frequency range for recording. You might play with that and see how it does.

[str8eiht]

Originally posted by Paco103
That is a strange problem. I use the same setup in my system (TV Wonder Pro with SB Live!) and have no problems at all.

One thing I do that I've found makes a huge difference in recording quality is to always set the priority of ATIMMC.exe to High. You can do this from the task manager by right clicking on the process.

excellent suggestion i'll try that, right away and post back the results

sound drivers are set to full hardware acceleration in the dxdiag program (type 'dxdiag' in the Start --> Run menu). As far as setting the priority every time, I have found a little program on MajorGeeks called Process Switch (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download429.html).

cool, i downloaded it, i'll give it a shot, is this a common problem with all TV cards?

[str8eiht]

Originally posted by ukulele
It sure sounds like the input level is too high. Grounding problems are more erratic. Another possibility is a poor connection that is effected by vibration when the volume is highest.

do you mean vibration in my computer case?

I noticed that when I record from line in from an audio output channel on my stereo, that the input level is almost always too high for the AC97. Now I record sound from a headphone output so I can control the level with the volume control. Remember to set your equalizer to neutral and turn any filters off to get the broadest frequency range for recording. You might play with that and see how it does. [/QUOTE]

i don't use an external equalizer, it's coming straight from the digital box. I tried mic in, but it was also too loud, i might try it again and try to get the level down though, it was pretty distorted, the LineIn2/MIC2 on my SBLive! front panel breakout box had much better control over this, i'll give that a shot and post the results, thanks for the tips

[str8eiht]

k i was able to try the suggestion of raising the THREAD priority for the MMC app but unfortunatley it made no difference. I'm going to try the ATI TV card in another computer and see if the problem is isolated to the computer that i was using. i'm also going to investigate the idea that it might be a problem with the coax cable coming into the room, possible the splitter is causing the problem, it hasn't been changed in years!

thanks again guys

[Peter M]

Right, you need to assert whether the distortion is on the original signal already.

From there, the TV card is nothing to do with audio disruptions (unless not properly tuned onto the signal), simply because audio data do not travel the system bus; they're routed directly into the sound system's CODEC inputs via a sideband cable. So if you got a clean audio signal from the TV card and can't record it properly, you should focus on the audio stuff in your computer.

[str8eiht]

Originally posted by Peter M
Right, you need to assert whether the distortion is on the original signal already.

From there, the TV card is nothing to do with audio disruptions (unless not properly tuned onto the signal), simply because audio data do not travel the system bus; they're routed directly into the sound system's CODEC inputs via a sideband cable. So if you got a clean audio signal from the TV card and can't record it properly, you should focus on the audio stuff in your computer.

cool thanks for the info, i'm gonna try the card in my other computer and see if the results are the same

[Canyon411]

I believe you said that reguardless of the position of the line in slider, the recorded volume was the same. I just wanted to make sure you were adjusting the "record" line slider and not the "volume" live slider.

I have the ati tv wonder. It's not the pro (I think the only difference is the wireless remote) and Everytime I launch the tv viewer, the "record" line slider resets to 75%. I have to go into "record" properties and adjust it to 45~50% to stay clear of distortion. It's more noticable during playback of a recorded program then watching tv real-time.

[Canyon411]

....also I meant to mention that I too have a soundblaster live for my sound card. I hated giving up my "line in" jack to the ati tuner card and using "mic in" sounds worse even with the db boost turned off in mic properties.

I noticed on the tuner card that there was an audio out header (4 pin) at the end of it. I modified an audio patch cord (the kind that goes between a cdrom and soundcard) to utilize the extra inputs on the inside of the soundblaster circut board. One end of the audio cable I extracted the pins from (white molded end) and pluged them onto the audio header pins of the tuner card. The other end (cd-rom black molded conector) fits right into the "aux" internal conector of the soundblaster card.

It works like a charm and keeps my line in free for other devices, namely my 6 channel dj mixer, for studio work.

[str8eiht]

Originally posted by Canyon411
I believe you said that reguardless of the position of the line in slider, the recorded volume was the same. I just wanted to make sure you were adjusting the "record" line slider and not the "volume" live slider.

I have the ati tv wonder. It's not the pro (I think the only difference is the wireless remote) and Everytime I launch the tv viewer, the "record" line slider resets to 75%. I have to go into "record" properties and adjust it to 45~50% to stay clear of distortion. It's more noticable during playback of a recorded program then watching tv real-time.

the pro does stereo sound recording as well, the remote is pretty rad actually, yeah i have the same problem with the sound AUTO adjusting it self, not sure if this is a windows problem or creative labs driver related

[str8eiht]

Originally posted by Canyon411
....also I meant to mention that I too have a soundblaster live for my sound card. I hated giving up my "line in" jack to the ati tuner card and using "mic in" sounds worse even with the db boost turned off in mic properties.

I noticed on the tuner card that there was an audio out header (4 pin) at the end of it. I modified an audio patch cord (the kind that goes between a cdrom and soundcard) to utilize the extra inputs on the inside of the soundblaster circut board. One end of the audio cable I extracted the pins from (white molded end) and pluged them onto the audio header pins of the tuner card. The other end (cd-rom black molded conector) fits right into the "aux" internal conector of the soundblaster card.

It works like a charm and keeps my line in free for other devices, namely my 6 channel dj mixer, for studio work.

rad that sounds like an excellent idea, if it's an easy enough mod to do i might consider it, all your doing is just doing a rewire of a cdrom audio cable right? reason is i might return the card to get something that works with Windows media center edition 2005, so i don't want to do anything that voids the return policy warrenty, sounds like an excellent tip though, i always get really solid advice from this board

[Canyon411]

Just as you have said, the only modification is done to the audio cord and not to any of the other components. The soundblasters have several internal audio input headers and it makes perfect sence to use them to keep the rear pannel jacks available for other things.

I might just do another mod and take a blank slot block-off plate and mount a couple 1/8th inch stereo open circut jacks on it. Modify a few more audio cords and solder the leads to the new jacks. Then just insert the clip conectors on the opposite ends to any unused internal soundblaster inputs. Let's see, If I remember right ......

1) cd-rom 1......conected to my cd burner
2) cd-rom 2......conected to my dvd rom
3) aux..............conected to my tuner card
4) tad...............not used / normally for modem/answering machine
5) pc speaker...not used / could jumper from speaker out on mobo

A guy can never have too many audio input options, can he

[str8eiht]

rad i don't even know that TAD stands for! as it stands , i'm just about to try out your suggestion before i try the ATI capture card in 2nd test system, if both fail, no problem because i was thinking about returning it to get a TV capture card that is certified to work with windows media center edition 2005, i'm just looking for a Canadian source for a happauge PVR-150 with ir remote right now

i'm interested to try out your suggestion just for the sake of learning something new though!

what kind of music do you record on your computer? anything with awesome guitar solos? that's what i'm into!

[Canyon411]

T - telephone
A - answering
D - device

I'm into country but have a hard rock side as well.

Great guitarists I like : Joe Satrianni
: Stevie Ray Vaughn
: Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits)
: Eric Clapton