AIW8500DV; C-Media 8738-MX; SOYO Dragon Ultra Platinum MB

[coolshades]

When I capture/record using the AIW card, the audio has an annoying hissing sound which does not happen when I simply play through and not record. This happens regardless of the source, TV cable, composite, or s-video. On suggestion of a friend, I just ordered a new Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150 card but has not received it yet (too late to cancel). Since then I have done more research and seems that the on-board sound chip is the problem. I hate to have to buy a new sound card, especially the on-board chip has SPDIF/optical in and out, not to mention the $$$ issue. Does anyone have any idea how to record with clean audio if the Hauppauge card does not work?

Cool

[DereX888]

As youve said - problem is with C-Media chipset, not with your AIW card. In your case I would buy new sound card instead of Hauppauge capture card...

Do you have hiss when capturing at 48kHz only, or at 44.1kHz as well?
This may be the problem. I've seen problem like this on a small PVR PC I've fix for someone, it too had on-board C-Media audio. I've taught the owner to change capturing profiles on his ATI's MMC (basically his preferred DVD-Video Cap Profile, but with 44.1kHz instead of 48kHz) and he is upsampling audio to 48kHz with SSRC after his capture is done.

Also check this out (it may help, but not neccessarily in your case):
Right click on your "speaker" icon and select "Adjust Audio Properties" (or find Sound and Multimedia Properties in your Settings/Control Panel). Select tab "Audio", then select button "Advanced" for Sound Recording. Make sure the slider for "Hardware Acceleration" is set to Full, and "Sample rate conversion quality" is set to Best. For some reason Windows very often sets it in the middle of both settings. Adjusting both settings to their max values will force your audio use more processing power during audio recording.
AFAIR above helped me once to fix audio/video desync on a machine with ATI AIW and some crappy audio card, so check it out or give it a try as well.

[racerxnet]

I'm using Soyo Ultra P with the 8738 onboard chipset and not having any issues at all. What are your control settings when recording the audio. Did you try and reload the drivers for the OS? What are you recording from/with. What OS are you using? 0644 drivers are the latest for the cmedia chipset. If you are having problems with the chipset now, I doubt that the Hauppage will be any better with recording the audio. The source could be coming from interference within the PC case itself; your cables could be the cause of the noise you are hearing.

Athlon Mobile @ 2.3ghz
1 gig RAM
400 FSB
Xp Pro Sp1
Cmedia 8738
DvRex Pro
Rex RT
M2 Digital Audio
Amber MPEG encoder
Pro Coder
Edius-Rex Edit-Premier Pro-Boris-Xplode
Matrox dual monitor video card

MAK

[coolshades]

Derex888, thanks for your suggestions. The hiss problem is without regard to DVD, SVCD, VCD, or any format. Both h/w acceleration and Sample Rate conversion quality are set to the highest. I would try to refuse the Hauppauge card and swallow the shipping charge.

Mak, thank you also for your response. I have Xp Pro sp2. My h/w is Athlon XP2000 with 768Mb 2100 DDR. I am using the latest C-media drivers 0639 from cmedia.com.tw. Where did you get the 0644 driver? On the C-media record control, I only have the Line input turned on. I have no hiss problem if simply playing my home video or watch tv through AIW, they sound great. When I record something, the playback will have hissing audio.

Cool

[racerxnet]

Well, your post suggests that the noise is not inherent in the chipset itself if it plays DVD's without the "hiss"! It would appear that it is coming from the source you are recording from, or the cables. Are you sure that you cables are connected correctly? Just a thought. Is the line level to high when you record, possibly causing it to clip?

You should check the cables as a possible cause of your problem first. Both inside your PC and the external cables. Then start to backtrack from there. What I have done is to loop the sound into the Cmedia input so that I can hear the sound while I am capturing footage from the VCR. This would provide youi with the ability to listen for the hiss while you are capturing also. Not sure if this will work as I have to do this with the Rex for audio.

MAK

[coolshades]

Mak, I just edited my last response as I thought my driver was 0644. I got the latest driver from cmedia, and I just checked it again, it is 0639.

My hook up is correct as I had checked with the manual again. I have used two different sets of monster cables (both work fine with my audio system) to connect the vcr/video camcorder to the AIW connectors. I am quite sure that the external connections and cables work fine. I have also used my friend's AIW cables (he has an AIW 8500DV, just like mine) to connect to the AIW card and sound jacks, and the hiss is still there.

My AIW card does not connect to any sound card internally. Since I am a newbie at this, please explain how to loop the sound into the Cmedia input.

Thanks,

Cool

[DereX888]

Well, your post suggests that the noise is not inherent in the chipset itself if it plays DVD's without the "hiss"! It would appear that it is coming from the source you are recording from, or the cables. Are you sure that you cables are connected correctly? Just a thought. Is the line level to high when you record, possibly causing it to clip?
MAK

Recording and playback are entirely 2 different things. Something that has good playback not neccessarily must have good recording
I.e. every old ISA audio cards could playback any source audio (within its specs ofcoz), but trying to digitally record sound with them often couldn't yield same results If it were true no one would have need to buy Soundblaster AWE64 Gold for about 4x more money than some Zoltrix Audio crap (it was equivalent of today's C-Media, only much worse)...

There's nothing wrong with C-Media's playback, Im sure, and if there is any difference between C-Media and other cards/chipsets then it must be beyond human hearing abilities anyway. Yet the difference between audio cards and chipsets will show when using them for recording.

Anyway: Hiss is strange. Could come from many different little nifty things, what comes first to mind: few sources left on during recording (i.e. MIC is set to always on), or too loud analog signal setting may cause hiss too in some cases (check and adjust volume level in your recording properties/volume) and tons of other things - including wrong drivers as you've said.

Mak, I just edited my last response as I thought my driver was 0644. I got the latest driver from cmedia, and I just checked it again, it is 0639.

My hook up is correct as I had checked with the manual again. I have used two different sets of monster cables (both work fine with my audio system) to connect the vcr/video camcorder to the AIW connectors. I am quite sure that the external connections and cables work fine. I have also used my friend's AIW cables (he has an AIW 8500DV, just like mine) to connect to the AIW card and sound jacks, and the hiss is still there.

Well, your hiss comes internally from your system apparently, otherwise you would have had it during playback as well, obviously.
Its good yove tested wires by swapping them with someone elses, I know first hand that ATI's dongle cable is not the sturdiest out there
Get newest drivers first. Then try some older ones too, 'coz very often newest drivers while they fix something they also introduce new problems... Seek through other boards for your chipset type and similar problem.

And let us know what was the cause once you fix it

But anyway - honestly I believe you'd give yourself great favor by buying some decent audio card (doesnt have to be top of the line), specially that they are not expensive at all these days.

[racerxnet]

Your install disk from Soyo should have the latest 0644 drivers on them. I beleive Soyo's drivers are the latest for the Cmedia chipset. Go into properties and sound card to reinstall the drivers from the disk. I have to run a cable from the Rex output, to the input of the Cmedia jack to here the audio on the PC as I capture from the VCR or DVcam. This is a result of the Rex setup and what I have to do.

When I suggest the cables, I am also referring to the cables inside you PC box. Might even be a bad Dongle??? I cannot say as its hard to determine without the PC in front of me.

Do you hear the audio Hiss thru the PC speakers when you are capturing??

MAK

[lordsmurf]

C-media is a bad audio card. Period.
I am not surprised.

[racerxnet]

Absolute bottom of the trash bin. Though its low budget, it still does the job when needed. I have 3 Bryston 4B's and Kappa 9's if I want to listen to music. Any music from a PC is substandard to my rotten hearing, thats why I need to feel it also!!

MAK

[coolshades]

Thank you all for your suggestions and help. I folded and bought a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (was debating whether I should go with Santa Cruz or Catalina). The TBSC instantly eliminated the hissing recording from tv. I will test with composite and s-video inputs also and will update y'all.

racerxnet, I will check with the SOYO cd and give C-media another try this weekend.

Cool

[racerxnet]

Just wondering why you are capturing audio through the Cmedia, when you can input thru the purple dongle with the 8500DV.


MAK

[lordsmurf]

Just wondering why you are capturing audio through the Cmedia, when you can input thru the purple dongle with the 8500DV.
MAK

Ummm.... no.

The ATI card still has to route to an audio card, either internally or via external inputs. ATI cards only do video encoding. Probably 99% of cards are like this. Only some DV and 100% full hardware encoders do audio too (and even then, not all).

[coolshades]

Racerxnet, that's according to the 8500dv manual instructed. I guess it's because when the a/v comes into the 8500dv, I have to use its line out (blue) and plug into the C-media's line in, in order for the video card to feed audio to the C-media for playing back or capturing. I may be totally wrong on this. I am still hooking up similarly with the Santa Cruz card. This is just my guess.

BTW, I tested all input sources, except firewire (which I do not have). Everything comes out like it should be, no hiss.

Again, thanks everyone's help.

Cool

[racerxnet]

Ummm.... no.

The ATI card still has to route to an audio card, either internally or via external inputs. ATI cards only do video encoding. Probably 99% of cards are like this. Only some DV and 100% full hardware encoders do audio too (and even then, not all).

I'm refering to the Cmedia using a 1/8th" jack connection and the ATI using a Left and Right RCA input jack. Preferably, use the RCA connections for the audio. There is no need to connect directly to the sound card itself when the audio can run across the bus.

Thanks for the heads up Kevin (smurf) 8)

MAK

[tipstir]

AOpen sound cards are okay for a few things, yeah I have two of them, why because they're so cheap!

But like you all I've found out the hard way they produce a hiss in playback on recorded media.

AOpen Cobra AW850 & AW850D5.1, 6 channel PCI
Covers the LX and MX - hissy chipsets
Also causes hicups sound effects under
Windows XP. Even with the right drivers
loaded from the TW site not the US site
still acts weird.

Doesn't matter how it's connected to 1/8 female connectors or through the PCI bus, you'll still get the hiss in playback after a record. HISS, Hiss!

Go for a SB LIVE! 5.1 Platinum or better...