Popping Audio Problems

[tberretta]

I am getting chattering or skipping audio to varying degrees that makes what is an otherwise a perfect video capture intolerable. Several times during the process the capture stops and a window opens telling me that the audio has changed (16 bit 48Hz to 12 bit 36Hz – I may have the numbers wrong) and that I will need to capture them as separate files. I end up with 5 files of video from the 1 tape and all 5 files have the same chattering problem. I am getting great video quality in every scenario with very, very few frames dropped.

This is what I have tried:

Installed a CompUSA Firewire card and connected the camcorder. Used Sonic MyDVD to capture a 1 hour tape and burn a DVD+R. The chattering sound was on the DVD so I checked the captured Mpeg file on the PC and it was on that also. Therefore, the problem was with the capture. The picture quality was flawless – really nice!

I assumed it was the cheap I/O card, so I got online and decided that the Canopus ADVC 1394 card was the answer. I installed it and the Vegas Video software but couldn’t get Vegas Video to capture anything - it would not control the cam, and even when I started the cam manually, it would not capture. MyDVD would not work either. I tried to install WinProducer, thinking it might have a driver that Vegas needed, but the serial number would not take. So the next day I called tech support and finally got Winproducer installed. Winproducer would control the cam and capture video but Vegas would still not work. Even if Vegas was working, Tech said I would have to run a patch (that they e-mailed me) every time I wanted to capture anything because this card will not work properly on Windows XP SP1!! After that information I didn’t even check to see if WinProducer would capture without the audio problem because I didn’t want a product with so many bugs right out of the box.

Next step was to buy Pinnacle’s StudioDV. I installed the card and software (with a few problems) and captured the video as a Mpeg and again the video quality was great. Although the audio problem was better it was still not that good and certainly not as clean as the original tape. I then set the software to capture without compression and the problem was really bad. In both cases there were very few frames dropped – less than 0.1% and only during transitions. By the way, Vegas Video works and can capture from the Pinnacle card, but with the same results.

Is the lack of a PCI sound card the problem?
I had Norton Anti-virus running and that may be a problem, but wouldn’t it effect the video as well?
Is the fact that the tape is an edited copy of the original the problem?

PLEASE HELP…

My System:
Dell 8250 P4 2.4GHz
512 PC1600 RAM
120GB WD 7200 Main HDD connected to the motherboards Primary IDE controller
200GB Maxtor Ultra 133ATA 8MB Cache Video Drive connected to a Maxtor IDE 133ATA Controller Card
nVidia GeForce 64MB Video Card
Integrated Sound (no dedicated sound card)
NEC DVD 4X Burner (Dell’s Proprietary Drive)

Sony DV Camcorder
A DV tape that is a previously edited copy I did several years ago using Pinnacle DV300.

[tberretta]

I disabled Norton Antivirus, tried another source tape and disconnected all but the necessary cables in the back of the computer. Still have the same skipping audio.

I did determine that even when I just play the video using the software to control the cam, the skipping still occurs. Therefore this is happening before it's even captured.

Could it be the lack of a dedicated soundcard?
How does a sound card interact with the capture process?
BTW, my cam is a Sony TRV9.

Please help, I am going nuts!

[tberretta]

One last thing - here is my IRQ sharing info. Do I need to move some hardware to open IRQs and how do I do that?

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Intel Processor to AGP Controller
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

IRQ 16 NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
IRQ 16 VIA USB Enhanced Host Controller
IRQ 16 WinXP Promise Ultra133 TX2 (tm) IDE Controller

Memory Address 0xFC000000-0xFDFFFFFF Intel Processor to AGP Controller
Memory Address 0xFC000000-0xFDFFFFFF NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

IRQ 17 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Companion Controller
IRQ 17 BCM V.92 56K Voicemodem
IRQ 17 SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio

IRQ 18 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Companion Controller
IRQ 18 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Companion Controller
IRQ 18 VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
IRQ 18 Intel(R) PRO/100 M Network Connection

IRQ 19 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Companion Controller
IRQ 19 VIA USB Enhanced Host Controller

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Intel Processor to AGP Controller
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB Intel Processor to AGP Controller
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420