Hiss in audio of captured video ?

[Dwight]

Soundcard used Sb128 pci..Line In Input from a scart adapter (left out/right out). Video from composite. Sound is super hissy!

What is the cause ? tape ? vcr ? bad cable's ? bad soundcard ?
I get way less hiss if I record my voice with the microphone in the mic slot :S

My tv-card is PCTV Rave.

Otherwise I'm happy with the capture results..but the sound..it's not acceptable.

[jsnkc]

Just run it through a cleaner or noise reduction program.

[Dwight]

That's certainly not a good solution I'm a fraid. No software removes
the hiss completely. I have Cool Edit Pro and Samplitude Master.. neither seem to do that good with VHS hiss (yes, I know how to use them and have used them successfully on cassette tape material).

The sound had less his
when recording the video by using the antenna input instead of the composite + line in I'm curious about why the hiss in line-in...sound card = crap ? or is it perhaps a problem with the grounding of electrical appliances in the same space. Anyone have any advice ?

[kees1952]

Dwight,

probably a wild guess but did you adjust your recording level to the right levels ? You end up with a bad S/N ratio when you record at too low level. As you are working with Cool Edit Pro you can check this.

Regards,

Kees Janssen.

[jsnkc]

You should try SoundSoap or the Sonic Foundry Noise Reduction program, they work great for me when removing VHS and cassette noise. I haven't had any problems with them.

[Gazorgan]

Are you capturing from a VHS machine? Do you have decent audio cables? This sounds so trite, but cheap cables really suck.

Ground loops generally cause hum, not hiss.

Try yoru mic-in port. level is adjsuted 20 db lower, and this works sometimes (low audio out from VCR).

Try a new commercial tape (could be bad tape or tracking)

[Marco33]

What audio bit rate are you caping at?

[Dwight]

Can I get a demo of SounSoap
someplace ?

The hiss is very loud and
my recording levels are normal.

I capture from VHS using
a Scart-adapter with rca-outputs
for stereo-sound and composite video
to connect to my Pinnacle PTCV Rave
card. There's plenty of hiss
in sound on some channels when
I watch tv on my pc, but some
channels are noise free (this is
normal I guess). I tried the mic-in
..same amount of crap :S

The tapes I've used aren't that new..
but I don't hear hiss when I play
those in the VCR. The hiss is added
in the transfer to my pc. I capture
audio totally uncompressed at 44,1khz
sampling frequency. The cables I have
weren't cheap... 9 euro for a miserable
piece of rca-rca cable.

I did record a tape to my hd in wav
using the line-in of my soundcard taking
the sound with the same cable I use in my
capture setup. I did not get a huge amount of
hiss in that so should I come to a conclusion
that the VCR is not that good (or the adapter I use)

Anyway thanks for the responses.

[jsnkc]

No, there is no demo available for it yet, and I don't know if they have plans to release one anytime soon. The program is only $99 and well worth the small investment.

[txpharoah]

DartPro and Sonic Foundry Sound Forge (using the Hiss Cut filter) can both remove noise from VHS and other sources.

Even horrid hiss can be completely removed. The software does exist, and it is not that expensive either.

Read the VHS->DVD guide below, as it addresses removing hiss from VHS conversions using this software. It even show some custom filters.