USB Capture Problem

[sdculp]

I have Windows XP Home, Sp 3. My video card is an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 (includes TV). The audio card is a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio. The processor is an AMD Athlon 64 3500+. The mother board is an ASUS Tek A8V Rev. 1.xx.

In the process of trying to get VHS tapes into the computer to edit and convert to DVD, I gave up on the GeForce board and installed an AverMedia DVD EZ Maker USB Gold input device.

The capture software which came with the USB device is Cyberlink Power Producer 4 and does a satisfactory job of capture, except that the audio level is extremely low. I’ve been through all the audio input settings in Creative and Windows, so that is not the problem.

I have other capture software, including Ulead Video Studio 11, ShowBiz DVD 2, Virtual Dub, Windows Movie Maker, Ulead DVD Movie Factory and Nero. Ulead Video Studio and Ulead DVD Movie Factory will capture TV with normal audio level but will not capture USB. Windows Movie Maker will capture USB video OK but not the audio and will not capture TV at all. Nero will capture USB in a single freeze frame but otherwise does nothing at all. Virtual Dub does nothing at all. And ShowBiz DVD 2 erupts into a weird, uncontrollable, runaway snapshot behavior. All of the software shows both the NVIDIA and the AverMedia device as inputs.

I have been working with NVIDIA and GeForce tech support for months to try and get updated drivers, but none will support the TV function and don’t help the USB capture. I went from motherboard audio to the Soundblaster board to try and solve the problem from that angle to no avail.

I have not tried updating the motherboard drivers or the BIOS, but don’t have much hope that it will help solve the problem. Failure to update the video board has been the biggest problem, but I don’t see how that would affect the USB. The USB seems to be the culprit, but I can’t figure out how to deal with it.

Can anyone suggest what might be the solution?

[jagabo]

What you are seeing is typical. USB video capture devices usually only work correctly with the software that comes with them. You might look into SageTV or BeyondTV -- PVR software that work with a lot of different devices.

What format is the audio it captures? AC3? If so, AC3 levels are normally much lower than WAV or MP3 audio. You should be able to boost it by 20 dB in your AC3 decoder.