ATI All In Wonder Audio Capture problem

[oldfart13]

Now that I got both MMC 7.6 and Video Capturix 2001 to work (still can't get Virtual Dub to work though) I've run into a strange problem in that captured audio defaults to single channel even when all presets are set to 16 bit 44KHz stereo audio. You can hear the stereo audio when the recording is being made but when it's played back (regardless of the format) it comes up with only the left/mono audio channel. Running a Pentium 3 1GHz under Win98SE with an ATI All In Wonder 128 16 Meg AGP card and a Soundblaster PCI 512. All playback functions for DVD, VCD, MP3, etc. have stereo output, so it doesn't seem to be the soundcard...

Also, having a lot of problems in capturing above 352X240 AVI or using MMC 7.6 DVD quality or Good Quality (SVCD). I get 10% - 30% frame drops where previously, I had under 1%. Only the vcd setting in MMC 7.6 gives me that low frame drops anymore. Running a Maxtor 30 Gig 7200 rpm drive on an Maxtor ATA 100 controller.

All help TIA.

[djnibler]

Dear Fart:

How are you running the cabling from your capture card into your sound card? Are you using the bannanna plug cable? Check the mixer application on your Soundblaster. Ensure that stereo is enabled for your line-in (I'm assuming you have your video card set to line-in). Check that the ATI app has the audio source set to "Line-In" instead of "What-U-Hear". If all else fails, try a new cable between the video and audio cards. If THAT fails, try internally connecting your video/audio card using the CD type internal sound card cables that should come with your ATI card.

As for the capture format.... don't capture to SVCD/DVD quality pre-settings in MMC. Create your own custom settings for AVI. Make sure the frame rate is 29.97 fps (assuming you are NTSC), set the compression to YUY2 (or the one that says (native) next to it). Experiment with different resolutions and watch your CPU utilization. Next, try some codecs. Install the Huffy and PIC video's codecs. I can't get the Huffy to look good, but everyone here swears by it so.... PIC video's can compress well and keep the quality looking good... try a setting of 19 using PIC's MJEPG codec. You should not need to capture any higher then 720x480 for anything, and your system should EASILY achieve that. I run a P3 766 w 256mb on XP; ATI AIW 7500, and an old WD 5400rpm 20gig hard drive and I can capture 720x480 using the PIC codec no problem.

Jeff

[oldfart13]

How are you running the cabling from your capture card into your sound card? Are you using the bannanna plug cable? Check the mixer application on your Soundblaster. Ensure that stereo is enabled for your line-in (I'm assuming you have your video card set to line-in). Check that the ATI app has the audio source set to "Line-In" instead of "What-U-Hear". If all else fails, try a new cable between the video and audio cards. If THAT fails, try internally connecting your video/audio card using the CD type internal sound card cables that should come with your ATI card.

Cap card is using CD internal cables. What's weird is that I had no problems with the audio or video until I installed Direct X 8.1. Then all hell broke loose. I've done checks for the sound input from the control panel and they all seem to be there but I still get only mono sound on caps. Every other file played through MMC, Windows Media Player, etc. all come out in stereo. It's real frustrating.

As for the capture format.... don't capture to SVCD/DVD quality pre-settings in MMC. Create your own custom settings for AVI. Make sure the frame rate is 29.97 fps (assuming you are NTSC), set the compression to YUY2 (or the one that says (native) next to it). Experiment with different resolutions and watch your CPU utilization. Next, try some codecs. Install the Huffy and PIC video's codecs. I can't get the Huffy to look good, but everyone here swears by it so.... PIC video's can compress well and keep the quality looking good... try a setting of 19 using PIC's MJEPG codec. You should not need to capture any higher then 720x480 for anything, and your system should EASILY achieve that. I run a P3 766 w 256mb on XP; ATI AIW 7500, and an old WD 5400rpm 20gig hard drive and I can capture 720x480 using the PIC codec no problem.

I've tried caps using Video Capturix 2001 since it will accept the VFW to WDM wrapper which (unfortunately) does not work on my system with Virtual Dub 1.4.9. I still get massive frame drops at anything above 480 X 480. Looks like I'll have to plunk down some money and get a Pinnacle Bungee (whenever they show up from dealers in town) or an ADS DVD Solution. I was going to go the DV Bridge route but even though the new ones work okay and the DV AVI tools are great to use, the conversion times are horrendous, something like 14 hours to convert 1 hour of DV. All I want to do is transfer my old Macrovisioned VHS tapes (which aren't coming out on DVD anytime soon) and all my old video 8mm and VHS camcorder tapes to a more long lasting format.

Thanks for the help though...

[MikeV]

I was running fine two days ago, recording stereo and playing back stereo, then I changed my motherboard. When done I had a few more options for the sound input on the motherboard. So I took the audio out from the AIW 128Pro and plugged it into the DVD audio input on the motherboard. Now I am only getting Left channel audio. Have not had time to troubleshoot but, I think the audio out connector is wired differently and the audio cable I used is grounding the left channel.

My audio cable AIW connector??

1 right- red 1 right
2 ground- black 2 ground
3 ground- black 3 left
4 Left- white 4 ground

Saw this wiring on older sound cards and it may be what ATI did, I'll try to check it out tonight and post my results tomorrow.

[Savant]

On my AIW, the interior audio cable is as you described on the sound card end, but on the AIW end it is red-black-white-black. You may have the wrong cable.

Regards,

Savant

[MikeV]

As Savant stated about the cable colors, he is correct. ATI is using an old standard of right, ground, left, ground. All newer motherboards, sound cards, DVD Roms, CD Roms, and CD-RWs are using the following: Right, ground, ground, left. To make your cable compatible to the ATI card you need to swap the black and white wires on the end of the connector that plugs into the AIW card. The below chart show where the wires go;

CD Rom/mb/sound AIW CD in and out

1 Left/white wire 1 ground/black wire
2 ground/black wire 2 Left/white wire
3 ground/black wire 3 ground/black wire
4 Right/red wite 4 Right/ red wire

___ ___
| 1 | | 1 |-
|-| 2 | | 2 |
|-| 3 | | 3 |
| 4 | | 4 |-
----- -----
Not a very good drawing but, I hope you understand. When I swapped the black and white on the CD out connector my stereo TV sound came back.

[oldfart13]

Sometimes it's the simplest things...my CD IN from the sound card has a broken left channel wire. I replaced the connector and now I'm running stereo again. The new CD IN wires come with the old black connector set for white (left), black (gnd), black (gnd), red (right) and the smaller white connector set black (gnd), white (left), black (gnd), red (right) which is exactly what the ATI and Soundblaster need.