crappy sound on VHS > DVD conversion

[batboy]

My HTPC is an old P-4 Northwood rig with Chaintech AV-710 sound card and Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP Deluxe tuner card. I can get relatively decent video when I do a VHS to DVD conversion, but the sound sucks. Any thoughts? Could it be my my cables or should I try a different sound card or is poor sound quality typical with that particular TV tuner card?

[Evilsizer]

is there any audio recording setting for the tuner card?

[batboy]

None that I know about.

I have to use a shielded RCA cable from audio outputs on the VCR, then a "Y" adapter to minature stereo jack adapter. The cables and adapter worked ok when I had my turntable connected into my soundcard. Guess I'll try another soundcard (extra SoundBlaster 64) or the on-board sound.

[Evilsizer]

hmm or if you can record the audio with just the soundcard so that you can get the best audio. then with the video editor if you have one combine the audio with the video... other wise im at a loss why it might sound so bad.

[Malpine Walis]

Yah, you want to try the different sound cards idea first.

For reference, there is no such thing as an unshielded RCA cable. Technically, RCA is only the jack/plug and the cable should be thought of separately (and the cable will always be shielded BTW). Now that being said, there are a few things that come to mind.

First off is the Y adapter. The connections where the cable meets the adapter represent a potential break in the shielding (actually, the connectors will probably block rfi in the hf band and higher but will not help as much at blocking rfi in the lower frequencies that you are passing to your card.

Second is the possibility of a ground loop. Ideally, the shield should only be connected to ground at one end of the cable. If it is connected at both ends, then there is the potential for a current path between both units. Nmow I am not familiar with chaintech cards but if they can be set up so that the jacks can all be reassigned depending on your speaker configuration, then all of the jacks may well be grounded in the sound card. Certainly the jacks in your VCR are grounded as that is the standard for this application. Your turntable might just not have been grounded depending on what it was.

Third, if your are using the 1/8 mini stereo jacks, those can and do go bad after a while. It could be that the contacts have been distorted over time from misuse, it could be that the contacts are oxidized or the jack(s) could be coming unsoldered from the board. I have seen each of those happen over the years.

So as I say, try some other inputs and see what happens. Also, if any of your cards has the option to split the inputs to different jacks, you can then also try your hand at making a custom cable with RCA at one end and mini stereo at the other end.

[batboy]

The more I've been thinking about this issue, the less I suspect the soundcard. The tuner card has inputs for the VCR sound and video signal. So, the software captures these signals at the tuner card, not the sound card, right?

The soundcard plays everything else flawlessly (mp3 file from the harddrive, store bought movie DVD, CD music, games, etc.).

I called Radio Shack and they have a "gold series" 3' long adapter cable that goes from 2 RCA jacks to a 1/8" stereo jack. Currently I have two cables (RCA and 1/8") joined with an Y adapter, so maybe a single cable will reduce potential noise caused by multiple poor connections. I will pick it up on the way home this evening.

One of the IT guys at work told me he has the same TV tuner card in his video machine and he gets excellent audio, so the card "should" be able to capture decent sound (assuming the card is not defective).

I suppose it's possible the software is causing the problem. Can anyone recommend trial or shareware that I can temporarily try to eliminate that factor?

[batboy]

It was the audio cables/adapter. Working fine now that I bought the Radio Shack converter cable (2 RCA to 1/8" stereo) that I mentioned in my last post.

[Evilsizer]

glad you got it worked out BB, what movie on vhs are you converting to DVD,jw.

[batboy]

I'm currently transferring old family home movies, some were 8mm film converted to VHS back in the 80's (with a dubbed in music soundtrack) and others were movies taken with a VHS camcorder (which obviously do have sound). I'm trying to archive the family history to DVD before the old VHS tapes completely deteriorate/disintegrate.