Ubuntu+mencoder+Pinacle dazzle capture issues

[mankeletor]

Hi all. I'm trying to capture video from sat tv with a Pinacle Dazzle DVC 100 under Ubuntu 9.04 using mencoder.
I list here a number of problems that were occurring:

1) No sound capture.
Solved. As Ubuntu Jaunty has kernel 2.6.28, and USB audio devices are supported from 2.6.30 (correct me if i get wrong) I had to compile the latest version 2.6.34 with V4L2 and USB Audio modules.

2) What's the audio device name?
Solved.

mankeletor@Sempron:~$ lshal | grep audio
  volume.disc.has_audio = false  (bool)
  access_control.file = '/dev/audio'  (string)
  linux.device_file = '/dev/audio'  (string)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:05.0/sound/card0/audio'  (string)
  oss.device_file = '/dev/audio'  (string)
  info.linux.driver = 'snd-usb-audio'  (string)
  info.linux.driver = 'snd-usb-audio'  (string)
  access_control.file = '/dev/audio1'  (string)
  linux.device_file = '/dev/audio1'  (string)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb1/1-8/1-8:1.1/sound/card1/audio1'  (string)
  oss.device_file = '/dev/audio1'  (string)
  info.capabilities = {'video4linux', 'video4linux.video_capture', 'video4linux.audio', 'access_control'} (string list)
  volume.disc.has_audio = false  (bool)

Must be /dev/audio1

3) Too much dropped frames
Solved.

mencoder -tv driver=v4l2:norm=ntsc:forceaudio:adevice=/dev/audio1 tv:// -vf pp=hb/vb/dr/al/lb,crop=610:450:15:18 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=850 -oac mp3lame -o capture.avi

Will uses up to 60% of CPU. Then you should save video and audio as uncompressed data, like this:

mencoder -tv driver=v4l2:norm=ntsc:forceaudio:adevice=/dev/audio1 tv:// -ovc copy -oac copy -o output.avi

But make sure that you got tons of free GBs on your HD becouse uncompressed video + audio will size about 1GB per min.

4) The capture video file is too big..
Solved. Recode it

5) Audio quality is degraded.
Sample -> Pay attention since 00:00:12.0

Unsolved.
Unfortunately never had better results than using the software provided by the manufacturer.
If someone know how to fix this, please let me know.
Thanks.

EDIT 25th Jun 2010
Solved.
The sound issue were generated by the Pinnacle Dazzle device. Something wrong with incorporated sound card ALSA hw:1,0/OSS /dev/audio1 USB Audio. Probably, the USB Audio module is not working properly for this device. So the audio source shouldnt be plugged to the DVC100 audio input. Instead, connect it to Line-In of your sound card.
After that make sure the Line-In/Capture is working correctly with:

arecord -f cd -D hw:0,0 | aplay

If you can hear the source sound in your speaker it's working fine. If not, maybe you miss to check the capture0 check box. Go to the Alsa Mixer to solve it.
So now forget to use adevice=/dev/audio1 on -tv option