Advice on low capture audio volume

[silva455]

Hi, newbie here, hoping someone can give me some guidance. I'm trying to capture old VHS tapes into digital mp4 so I can play them on tablets, etc... I've read all kinds of posts about audio issues which has helped me resolve a sync issue. But now the volume is really low on playback and even when I preview the capture. I've tried multiple tapes all with the same issue.
Equipment:
Panasonic VCR PV-V4660,
Diamond VC500 capture device,
VirtualDub 1.10 to capture the avi file,
Handbrake to recompress to mp4.
Computer is Windows 10, i5, 16GB Ram, 512GB SSD

I've looked thru posts on this forum for days but can't seem to find any help. I tried multiple settings in VirtualDub to increase the volume but nothing has that works. I think the issue is the incoming signal from the VC500. Any known issues with this unit like this? Is there another capture device that is available that's better for similar price point? I'm only doing about 30 tapes so I don't want to break the bank. Thanks in advance.

[davexnet]

I had this problem with my Avermedia M780 PCIe card.
Their support told me it was set in the driver and there were no controls offered to modify it.
They apologized most profusely but mentioned they had to find a compromise on the level.

I stripped out the audio, increased the volume in the audio Editor, and put it back to the video.
This is not a bad solution; the capture was uncompressed PCM, so fixed the volume and exported as my format
of choice. Job done.

[dellsam34]

Does the audio sound muffled? If so could be a dirty audio head, You can try to route the audio output to your computer sound card input if you have one and select the internal audio card in the capture application.

[silva455]

Thanks for the posts. I reloaded VirtualDub and used a different USB jack on the computer and the problem went away. Unfortunately now my sync issue is back. The sync gets worse as the video plays so that at the start its good and 1 hour later its off by a couple seconds. Going to review try various VitrualDub settings.

[jagabo]

I don't see why using a different USB port would make any difference. If you're using a VHS deck with Hi-Fi be sure to select the Hi-Fi track rather than the linear track on the tape. The remote for the deck should have an audio select button for that. If the input device driver has -10 dB attenuation setting make sure it's off.

Regarding the A/V desync, that's very common. You may be able to get around it by fiddling with VirtualDub's sync options. I used to have the best luck with "Do not resync". The best solution is to use a full frame TBC between the VHS deck and the capture card. That's an expensive solution though. Or you can try a different capture program. A lot of people who had problems with VirtualDub have reported success with AmarecTV.