Capture from Sky Digital - no sound?

[smoki]

Im using a Hauppauge WinTV Go (bt878) and a normal coax connection (RF out on the digibox) feeding into it. I can see video, but i have no audio, no matter what i use (antenna or cable setting, PAL-B or PAL-I, etc...).

Can anyone help on this pls?

[Tommyknocker]

Remeber, capture cards cannot rip audio from the coaxial connector. You have to use an RCA connector on the the capture card to get audio in.

[smoki]

hmm...u mean the sound is not even transmitted over? because if i plug the coax in the wall socket (cabletv) i can see video/audio perfectly on the PC.

Funny thing is that if i finetune whatever channel i get the video on (w/o sound) i can hear the audio but the video is gone...

[Tommyknocker]

Have it your way, then. FYI, the only way I know of to get video and audio in my Hauppage WinTV Go card is to input audio into the card's audio in jack, and connect the audio out jack into my computer's line in jack. Hope you get it to work whatever way you come up with.

[smoki]

oh don't get me wrong, i have the same setup as you as that is the only way to get sound out of it i.e loopback from hauppauge lineout into audigy's linein...done.

If i plug the coax into the cabletv socket i can record/capture video with sound from the many available channels. Only when i use the Digibox (Panasonic DSB30) RF-out connections i get no sound (only video)!

so i was hoping someone who has Sky and captures on the PC could shed some light on the Digibox -> PC connection mysteries

i'm using the btwincap drivers btw...

[Richard_G]

Funny thing is that if i finetune whatever channel i get the video on (w/o sound) i can hear the audio but the video is gone...

he sound is transmitted on the RF output from your Sky receiver. The output simulates an RF signal transmitted from a TV transmitter so you can feed it into a TV or video that doesn't have direct A/V connections. The fact that you can fine tune and get sound suggests that you haven't got a setting correct somewhere. UK PAL-I uses a sound sub carrier that is on a frequency 6 MHz higher than the vision carrier (eg. Channel 21 is 471.25 MHz Video, 477.25 MHz audio). Some other PAL transmission standards use a sound carrier that is 6.5 MHz higher than the vision carrier. This would appear to be why you can't tune both the video and audio in at the same time, as you are trying to tune in to the wrong frequency.

If you can successfully get video and audio on your TV card if you plug an aerial into it, it appears that this is working as it should. The only other thing to check is that you are not outputting from the Sky box in a standard other than PAL-I. Try putting it into a TV and make sure you get video and sound.

[smoki]

tried to hook the digibox straight to the TV using the RF output, i don't get video or audio at all. Maybe my TV doesn't like PAL-I...

i will try to use a scart->svhs adapter + audio L/R out from the digibox and feed it into the capture card. I heard this way you're guaranteed even better video signal....oh yes, and audio as well

Even 15m of svhs + 15m audio cables should be cheaper than a standalone dvd recorder.

wait, should i use svhs for video or composite?
the capture card has a Y cable with audio L,R s-video and composite inputs on one end, the other plugs into the card itself.
You can see it here:
http://www.ixbt.com/monitor/images/leadtek-2000-expert/units.jpg

[Richard_G]

If your TV may not like PAL-I, I assume you aren't in the UK. It may be that you have a multi-standard TV that doesn't like it. If using scart to S-Video, you may find that the picture is in black and white. This is what happens if S-Video is not output by the Sky box. You'll probably find that Composite will be perfectly good. It will be far better than using RF anyway as you aren't converting a video signal to RF in the Sky receiver and from RF back to video signal in your capture card.

I use composite to capture from a terrestrial Digital receiver (Freeview) and the quality is fine. I also capture at half D1 (352 x 576) so I can get up to 3 hours per DVD-R. Sky don't transmit at a much higher resolution than that so you won't gain much, if anything, by using full frame and S_Video.

[hhhhbk]

Have it your way, then. FYI, the only way I know of to get video and audio in my Hauppage WinTV Go card is to input audio into the card's audio in jack, and connect the audio out jack into my computer's line in jack. Hope you get it to work whatever way you come up with.

i agree
i had an old brooktree 878 card which i dont think was a hauppauge and i had to loop the audio out from the tv card to the line in on the sound card

to check that it is not a hardware fault just plug your speakers directly into the line out on the tv card[that is if you dont have a 3mm to3mm jack until next time you go shopping]

[smoki]

If using scart to S-Video, you may find that the picture is in black and white. This is what happens if S-Video is not output by the Sky box. You'll probably find that Composite will be perfectly good.

So what cables should i use in order to get audio/video from the digibox to the capture card? The card (and its inputs) will look like the one in the picture linked above.

digibox -> scart-a/v adapter -> 3 cables? -> Y adapter from card -> PC ?

composite is a single cable (yellow jack) right? are there cables with 2 audio (L/R - white, red) leads and 1 video (yellow) lead?

A cable like this would be good?
http://image01.conrad.com/xl/3000_3999/3500/3500/3500/350014_RB_02_FB.EPS.jpg

[Richard_G]

A cable like the one pictured will be perfect as long as it is a scart output cable (scart uses one set of pins for video and audio in and a separate set for video and audio out). The yellow is composite video and the red and white are left and right audio.

[uka100]

Right I have the exact same card as you (WinTv-go) and here is how I do it into my NTL box. Scart cable into NTL box, yellow lead (video) into compositive in on WinTv go card then R and L audio cables (RCA) into a coupler, then into an RCA to stereo cable. Plug the stereo cable into the line in on your computer/soundcard (you get can get stereo sound that way)not your Wintv-Go card. Sorry if that seemed confusing i've labled most things on my picture, any questions ask away!

Key:

1=Scart Adapter
2=Compositive cable
3=R and L audio cables (RCA)
4=Coupler
5=RCA to stereo cable

[smoki]

Hi again, couldn't reply quicker but i was gone for a week.
I got a new TV card, a Leadtek Winfast XP 2000 Expert (conexant chip) and i"m recording right now thru S-Video (i got the wrong cables like an idiot, i had the composite cable kit in one hand, the kit with svideo was in the other..guess which i threw back).

Anyway, the picture is much more sharper and clearer than thru RF, BUT.... by default the colour is kind of washed out...that's ok i guess, i can up the saturation, BUT...there is a weird strange honeycomb kind-of pattern that is really annoying! It almost looks like you're staring really close at a TV screen, you can see the 3 coloured pixel patterns...here's a sample i uploaded.



What's going on here? I thought Svideo has a much sharper and better quality than coax, but if i crank up the saturation a bit it looks just as bad!

Here's an even worse one while recording (DVD quality preset in Winfast PVR):

[smoki]

nevermind...
the original digibox does not output svideo, only composite (thru scart) an RF. That's why is noisy....

thanks for all the replies..............