onboard sound and crackling sound when capturing

[morr1s]

I have a panasonic PV-DV852 camcorder, when I capture VHS thru my firewire and even sometimes just capture my mini-dv footage thru the firewire I get pops and cracks. Sometimes their occasional and other times it will go on for several seconds. I originally thought my camcorder had a problem, but now wondering if it could be because I am using on-board sound. I have an asus p4p800e deluxe motherboard with a p4 3.2c processor and 1 gig of DDR pc3200. The onboard sound is; AI Audio via 8-Channel CODEC, (ALC850 CODEC has eight channels of 16-Bit DAC, a stereo 16-Bit ADC, and an AC97 2.3 compatible multi-channel audio). I have a low end sound blaster card from another machine. Do you think that would solve the problem?

[W_Eagle]

The proof of the pudding is eating. The only way you can find our for sure is to try it. From my experience, often on board sound cards, how high their specs may be, often give problems like various kind of noise.

[morr1s]

If I am transfering thru the firewire cable is my sound card still part of the equation?

[redwudz]

No, the audio card or onboard sound would just be used for playback on your computer when inputing with FW.

But, I would try a PCI audio card and see if that helps.

[crazythunder]

i've captured from my digital cable box to the line in of built in audio on 3 different motherboards with bad results. this was using rca to 1/8th minijack. always garbled the audio. i never tried using the rca outputs on my tv though. i had a creative card fry on me, that's why i was using onboard. went and got a soundblaster mp3 usb, solved all my problems. i would definitely disable the onboard from bios and try the pci card.

[thecoalman]

Does the pops and cracks actually get transferred to the audio on the file? I'd do a test burn and see if they are audible when you view them on a TV.

If they are it's a capture issue, if they are it's a soundcard playback issue. Check the mobo's site for the latest drivers for the onboard audio.

[morr1s]

The cracks are audible after burning to DVD and watching on a standalone player.

[thecoalman]

Well since your soundcard has nothing to do with the transfer (except for playback) I would really doubt it has anything to do with it. You don't even need a soundcard to work with it.

Those pops and cracks are usually associated with analog capture. I have had a similar thing happen to me with my DV cam but that was because what I was recording was extremely loud. Here's an example if you turn it up you'll here them.... www.nepadigital.com/temp/bar.wmv This can't be corrected, at least from my experience. It's called clipping and essentially the audio just isn't there. It has to be "fixed" by adjusting the audio input level of the mic. If you want to see if this is what's happening to you rip the audio out of the clip and play it in any audio editor that will show you the db level. If it's going into the red your screwed.

If what your recording is nomal volume that's probably not the issue unless your cam is malfunctioning.

I'd suggest trying a different cam and firewire cable. That will at least eliminate the cam and cable if the pops still exist.

[morr1s]

I was thinking it could be a camera malfunction. I am hoping that is not the case because it's just over a year old. My biggest concern is the footage I shoot with the camcorder, because at least the VHS transfers have other options to get the footage in. I guess I will mess around with some of the suggestions givin and see what I come up with.
Thanks for all the help.