Line in Microphone recording problems

[sara82]

Hi, I have looked for ages to try and find an answer so I hope someone here can help. I have windows xp and basically want to do some line in recording, I want to record from a mini disc player to my computer. It took ages to actually get any sound to be heard on the computer from the mini disc. I have a single cable going from the mini disc headphone jack to the microphone jack (pink) on the front panel of my computer tower. But trying to record is useless nothing is detected.

I also have red and white aux in jacks on the front panel but no sound is heard from the computer when I try to plug the mini disc into that. In the realtek hd sound effects manager under audio I/O all the jacks front and back show up but not the red and white ones, and also under the mixer tab there is no multistream button which after reading about I think I should have.

Incidently I have also been trying to record homevideo using nerovision and the red, white and yellow jacks at the front and while I receive video no audio is recording. There are no exclaimation marks anywhere in device manager. I have two possibilities for sound recording in sound and audio devices in the control panel, Realtek HD audio input, and Medion bda analogue audio capture, and I'm not sure what to be using. I used to be able to record in this way before (not home video) but then my computer broke and I cant remember the settings I was using before. I am pretty sure I used to use the red and white aux in, but not sure. any help would be gratefully appreciated even if it seems obvious, because more than likely I am overlooking something simple.
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[Nelson37]

You have a secondary audio/video capture card, the Medion, with front-mounted input jacks, this is kinda unusual. These types of cards usually hook to the sound card, but not always.

On the sound card, you do NOT want to use the Microphone jack, there is a line-in jack, usually blue. Also check the Recording options on Advanced Volume Control and make sure the line-in jack is not muted. Often when a secondary capture source is present, all other inputs are muted. Not a bad idea to always mute unused capture jacks, just make sure to remember this is you change connection type.

The Microphone jack is designed to amplify a mic signal and will distort a standard line-in signal.

[Relayerman]

I use a Creative Audigy sound card so my scenario might not fit your situation, but the Audigy will only let 1 input device be enabled for recording at a time. For example, I use a regualr microphone for Teamspeak when playing games so I open the audio control panel and manually tick the checkbox on the recording properties for the microphone. When I want to record cassettes or LPs to my PC for CD conversion I have to manually tick the checkbox for line-in (which is Aux 2 for me). Doing this auto-unchecks the microphone. It may be that you don't have the correct input device checked in the recording properties in Windows.

[sara82]

Thanks for all your help, I've now fixed it.I plugged the cable into the blue socket, but the volume was so low but then I realised the realtek audio manager was controlling the volume, so I messed about with it abit. In audio I/O I changed headphones to 2 channels and the volume got much louder and now I am able to record. Thank you again for your help most people just said I need to get a new sound card.