Easycap v2 - Ulead - audiosync

[Akerhage]

Hi, I am new to this forum. Have read the stickys some. I have a soundproblem as well.
Rig and Settings:
I am using my easycap, v2.1 on my sony vaio laptop with windows 7 64bit. I have easycap to my usb via a scart adapter to the VHS-player. Everything is working, I have changed some settings in the ulead program. Ex source "SMI Grabber Device" and format is "DVD". I am using composit and PAL (sweden). I think I have something wrong with the sound. I can only choose "microphone/Realtek High Def Driver". The sound is working though, but quality is not very good. I have the bitrate to 8000kbs. And have changed to widescreenformat.

Problem: Everything works as mentioned, audio is at sync in the beginning, but then the sound is faster then the video. So its not synced at all after a while. I have read that VHS have a framerate 29.97, but I am recording at 25framerate. Should I maybe just change this framerate and be good with the syncing? Or is it something else thats wrong? Is it maybe better if I choose not to encode the sound to mpeg? Do it uncompressed instead? And will the size of the final product be much more if so?

I have 50+ videotapes, have done 4 so far. So really dont want this sound-out-of-sync-problem on all the tapes. I am hoping this forum can help me, have no good swedish forums for this. I will ask later how to edit and make the files to ex xvid for lesser size with best quality.

Thanks for your time!
//A swedish guy

[DB83]

You are in Sweden so frame rate is 25 fps.

Sound should always be processed by the audio device and not the capture device and the lead must go in to the Line-In socket and not the Mic socket

[Akerhage]

Can you explain more? So should I have the sound to mpeg or choose the other alternative? And I have only a usb that are connected to a compositcable and a white/red audiocable. Thats it, thanks for helping =)

[DB83]

I expect then that the red/white cable goes in to the easycap and there is just a usb connection from the easycap to the laptop.

Does the laptop have sound card connectors green, pink, blue ?. If not then the sound can only be processed by usb.

But I do not understand why it should say 'Mic'. Take a look at the sound recording source setting on the laptop itself and see if you can change that.

[Akerhage]

Yes, that is correct, so the easycap is just connected to the usb. No other ports.
I have tryied to manage other settings. But in the devicemanager all I can see under sound is
ATI HDMI Outpu (probably for the tv, when plugged via HDMI cable)
Realtek High Definition Audio (the one used now I think, but only as micophone)
SMI Grabber Device (the easycap itself).

Have no other things there.

[DB83]

Realtek usually comes with an utility that sits in your tray - it looks like a brown-coloured speaker.

Check the mixer settings to see which one is active.

It may, of course, be that realtek thinks that the usb connection is a mic but I have never heard of that one before.

But I doubt if there is enough bandwidth from the usb to process all that video and audio which is why the audio slips. But check the ulead settings as some of these do have one that attempts to sync up audio with the video.

Also, what are your precise video/audio settings ? You mentioned 8,000 kbps but is that a constant rate (recommended) or a variable rate. What audio compression are you using ? LPCM uncompressed will give best results - I think Ulead defaults to mpeg2.

[Akerhage]

Thank you again. I think I must have a "fake" easycap. Thats why the sound is not so good. But I have not tested to have the audio-settings at LPCM. Only the mpeg, and I had varibale bit rate at 8000kpbs. And also Mode:Stereo and Bit rate kbps at 384.

But I should try to have it on LPCM instead?

Maybe you have right, that the usb does not process all. Got a tips to buy a 3.5mm-splitter, to have only the compositecable in the easycap and then put the RCA-cables in the 3.5-splitter and into the mic-hole or the green hole if trying on my other stationary PC.

[DB83]

Mpeg audio is compressed. LPCM is not. But LPCM requires more bandwidth and you may stuggle even more with that.You should have atleast 3 standard audio connectors. Pink is for Mic, Green is Line-out (speaker or headphones) and Blue is Line-in. Audio recording for video capture should always be Line-In. The Mic setting simply will not have sufficient definition.If your other PC also has Realtek, the colour settings can be changed (by the utility). Even so, recording is still done by Line-In.

[Akerhage]

Okay, thanks! Will try and buy a splitter and see if that helps me. To bad I must use the other PC for that. I am at work and are doing it from here. Cannot bring my big stationary pc here. But at least I can try the mic-in first. And if that doesnt work I will have to do it using the other PC.