Poor audio capture, USB Capture device

[racav1]

Running a Toshiba Satellite with plenty of cpu and ram. Trying to record from VCR. Tried three different capture devices and software, all give same poor quality audio capture. Choppy, scratchy, very poor quality. Have checked and updated drivers. Have tried resetting hardware acceleration to lower levels. Suggestions?

[Soopafresh]

Too many possibilties. Disable your antivirus while capturing for starters.

[jagabo]

Is audio being routed through the capture device or to the laptop's line-in port?

[racav1]

Antivirus disabled.
Tried three different capture devices, all USB 2.0. One had a seperate audio jack to "line in", other two were USB only. On all three, the audio lines out of the VCR are going through the capture device.

[jagabo]

It's not likely three different capture devices would have the same audio problems. I think this points to a problem with your laptop not the capture devices.

USB capture devices typically compress and multiplex the audio and video together so it's not really possible for the computer to capture the video normally and the audio with errors.

Use AVICodec or GSpot to examine the captured files. That will tell you the video and audio codecs used.

Try playing your files with Media Player Classic. It has its own video and audio decoders built it. If your video plays fine in MPC then there's a problem with the installed directshow codecs.

Can you play similar files from other sources with no problems?

My guess is all three devices captured with MP3 audio. Check your MP3 decoder.

See if you can decode the audio and convert it to an uncompressed WAV file. Does the WAV file play properly?

To be sure it's not a VCR issue, try capturing from another source, like a cable box or camcorder. If you don't have another A/V source, capture the video from the VCR and audio from another source (tape player, radio, etc).

[dfluke]

This may not be the answer you are looking for but have you considered a DVR. I have one to replace my VHS recorder. It has a standard standard 3 connector video/audio input. I just set it up to record from that input at the highest quality (probably not necessary) that will fit on a DVD. Finalize the DVD and take it to my computer for editing and authoring.

DVR's are relatively cheap plus you have a recorder when your VHS dies.