Connecting TV Tuner Card / Sound card for best audio capture??

[pukhog3]

I have an old ATI All In Wonder tuner card and a brand new Sound Blaster sound card. Could someone please explain to me the options I have for inputting the analog sound into my PC for best capture quality with a video?

For example, do I just want to input the audio straight into the sound card through the 'Line In' port and set the capture settings in the software for the sound card input. Or is there a connection that can be made from the sound card directly to the video card internally that provides better quality (if done this way, which card is the audio from my analog source inputted into).

Also, if you reply, could you please provide the name of any of the cables I would need?

[edDV]

AIW cards vary. Most have an expansion cable harness that accepts external audio and loops to the sound card line input.

[pukhog3]

Is this expansion cable just an adapter that takes the RCA connection from the analog source (along with the video connection) and inputs it directly into the sound card? If so, I could just use a common Y-adapter to accomplish that. Or is the audio input actually passing through some circuity on the AIW card before being passed to the sound card?

[JimmyS]

The cable edDV is refering to is called an output adapter cable in my old all-in-wonder radeon manual. It has has a larger DIN plug on the end that goes to the A/V out connector on the rear of the card. It has an audio plug that goes to the line-in of the audio card, as well as an S-Video and composite connector as outputs. The manual also shows using a CD audio cable between your ATI card and your sound card. I don't remember if I used that or not. CD audio cables are readily available. The exact type you will need (if supported by your ATI card) will depend on the connectors on each card. It would probably be worth your while peruse over to the AMD/ATI site a look up the manuals for the card you have.

[pukhog3]

JimmyS-

Thanks for all that information. I have actually been over the ATI site with a fine-toothed comb. It seems most of the links to any type of manual for these old AIW cards are either dead, or horribly out of date. For example, I can't even find an image of any of the cards, just the boxes, and the closest page I can find referencing the All-In-Wonder Radeon PCI is actually for the AGP version of the card.

However, the information about the CD-ROM audio cable is very useful. I found a site that has this product:
http://www.trianglecables.com/atiallinwona.html

or is it more like this one:
http://www.trianglecables.com/vgacartosvid.html

Could you verify if that is similar to the adapter cable in your old ATI manual?

[Nelson37]

You usually need both of those listed cables. One is output, one input. Source S-video and L-R audio go into the input dongle, the output dongle has a mini-RCA jack which goes to the sound card line-in.

These both attach to the ATI card at the two ports which resemble an S-Video or PS2 mouse connector, but are different. Most ATI AIW cards used this arrangement.

There may be an internal connector which I believe uses a Redbook audio CD connector. Don't recall anyone ever mentioning using it, nor any discussion of possible audio improvement.

Some cards use a custom port which resembles a thicker, shorter DVI port, this has all the cables on one piece but will be harder to find.

One trick for audio was to minimize the input volume with recording volume set fairly high. Or maybe it was the other way around, my audio is set up a different way now.

[JimmyS]

Try this link to AMD:

http://support.amd.com/us/psearch/Pages/psearch.aspx?type=2.5&product=&contentType=Tec...ords=&items=20

Select your card type in the product drop down where its is displaying "any". Also, which card do you have that would help determine exactly what you need.

[JimmyS]

The second link you posted looks like the connector type. The 8 pin male DIN connector goes in to the A/V out connector on the video card. Page 22 of the PDF below shows how it should look (at least for the AIW Radeon).

http://support.amd.com/us/GPU_TechDocs/awra8575.pdf

I found a link for it at the ATI store as well.

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2537999

Looks like a better price at the link you listed. The PDF also covers some of the other cards of that era. Page 47 talks about the CD cable I mentioned. It's the same type of cable that connects a CD or DVD drive to the sound card. From what I have seen so far, the AIW Radeon may be the only one that has it. The first link you listed is as Nelson37 replied, for connecting an external source to the card. This is what ATI would have provided with the card.

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2603775

Its pretty much the same thing as your link, except the inputs are molded into a single housing. These components can vary somewhat depending on which model card you have.

[pukhog3]

Wow. That .pdf document is what I have spent the last week looking for. Thank you so much. My internet searching skills are obviously in need of work.

That answers everything for me. Thanks so much to both of you for your help.

BTW, my AIW card is just the AIW Radeon PCI. And I bought it off of ebay, and it didn't come with any cables. Works great in my Windows XP machine though.

[edDV]

It must have a model number.