Capturing with AIW 9800 (Problems with audio volume)

[rb26dett]

I have a strange problem with my captured videos:

While watching the video, volume is normal and it is correctly recording the line-in source.

However, when I go to play back the saved file the volume level is nuts (very high, then very low).

My current 'solution' is just to heavily normalize the audio track when encoding to DivX but that's not much of a solution. Any ideas?

[Coluph]

I had this same problem with a TV wonder card and the MMC software so it's likely you are having the same problem I did.

You can fix it by changing the value in the registry, I forget where exactly this is but you should be able to find it without too much difficulty if you look in the software portion of it using regedit. (be sure you make a backup of your registry before you change anything...just in case!)

There is a record volume setting that is sometimes set extremely high by defualt...I believe mine was set somewhere around 240. I brought it down to around 120 and the sound was nice again. The level was so high it was sounding distorted!

[rb26dett]

My problem isn't just volume too high though ... it's also too low.

And it's lived through my MMC 8.6 -> 8.8 or so (I can't remember what I started with)

It sounds like a good idea to turn down capturing volume though.
This key sound about right?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI Technologies\WDMCapture\UDA1380_MASTER_VOL=3232

(That's hex, equals 12850 decimal)

[mastersmurfie]

Just a thought...are you using the on-board sound on you MOBO? Seems like the ATI AIW sometimes aren't too happy using onboard sound. I had the same problems with my VERY old ATI AIW 128, and even changing the registry values didn't help (mine was the same problem-sometimes volume too high, others too low, and changing the value in the registry made the "low" volume not heard at all...) In the end, I ended up having to purchase a different PCI sound card. All "volume" problems were solved.

Like I said, just a thought.

mastersmurfie

[rb26dett]

Hmmmm thanks for the thought mastersmurfie. That's a pretty odd coincidence. Which mobo where you using ? I have an MSI Neo2-FIS2R which is pretty powerful and even includes things like digital out / 5.1 channel out etc etc ...

I would hate to have to a) buy a new cheap card and lose a lot of functions, or b) spend a lot of money on a nice card.

[mastersmurfie]

Hmmmm thanks for the thought mastersmurfie. That's a pretty odd coincidence. Which mobo where you using ? I have an MSI Neo2-FIS2R which is pretty powerful and even includes things like digital out / 5.1 channel out etc etc ...

I would hate to have to a) buy a new cheap card and lose a lot of functions, or b) spend a lot of money on a nice card.

rb26dett,

try these threads:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=171889

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=171269&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

They might be helpful. I have a VIA P4266, with onboard sound. It's NOWHERE near your MOBO, but the integrated sound is based on the same AC'97. I found an OEM Philips Acoustic Edge really cheap on EBay-been using it ever since. I know there are capabilities of the sound card that I don't even know about yet...

Then again, your problems might be as simple to fix as what was suggested before. Unfortunately, I wasn't that lucky...

[rb26dett]

Thanks for the ideas mastersmurfie!

I am working through some of the ideas now in those threads we'll see if it makes a difference. What's really interesting is that I don't think the volume fluctuates with anything but TV capture (I captured from a composite source a while back and don't remember having audio problems, however now I'm back at school and can't test that theory very easily for now).

Weren't most of the SoundBlaster cards based on the AC'97 chip as well?
Funny thing is I think the Philips card you have is one of the few reasonably priced sound cards that ISN'T based on the AC'97.

I'll post anything else I learn on here, maybe I'm not the only one with this problem. I e-mailed ATI with all the details I could, we'll see if they have anything to say.

For now:
1) Going to try capturing with different programs and seeing if problem persists.
2) Going to try capuring with a known good source (my mp3 player) plugged into line-in and seeing if MMC has any trouble with volume.
3) Trying the stuff in the threads.

[rb26dett]

Update:
It only happens when capturing to MPEG-2 in MMC.
Capturing with MPEG-1 seems to work fine!

What are the real differences between MPEG-1 and 2 ?
Keep in mind I encode at high quality and then later re-encode to DivX to suit my needs later. Filesize isn't an issue.

[lordsmurf]

SoundBlaster uses it's own CREATIVE chipsets.

[rb26dett]

With a little more research, it appears AC'97 is more of an interface specification then a chipset. Soundblaster cards support/use it as well as bascially every audio card designed for PCs.

PS: Someone pointed me to a great MPEG-1/MPEG-2 thread, https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=156454&highlight=mpeg1+mpeg2+differences

[mastersmurfie]

With a little more research, it appears AC'97 is more of an interface specification then a chipset. Soundblaster cards support/use it as well as bascially every audio card designed for PCs.

I stand most humbly corrected...

Everything that came with my mobo said that the audio was AC'97: manual, discs, drivers, etc...and I never thought to look any further--till now...

After much searching this evening, discovered that the integrated sound is RealTek ALC201a which uses an AC'97 2.2 codec ...my VERY bad

At any rate, switching from the onboard sound to the Acoustic Edge card solved my problems.

Sorry for any confusion...I myself was apparently confused.

mastersmurfie

[rb26dett]

Sounds like switching to a seperate sound card would be the easy solution.

For now I'll live with the normalization and wait for a reply back from ATI. I'll do the test with the MP3 player and if that fails too I'll contact MSI and see what they have to say.

I just bought this entire system piece by piece a month ago and I don't feel like spending any more in the near future.

[ronnylov]

I had similar problems on my old ATI Radeon AIW7200 card. The problem occured when capturing PAL TV cannels with mono sound. I had to revert to an older driver of the ATI WDM Audio Crossbar. Maybe the problem is your drivers.