Recording Audio from Video Card

[A2theK2]

Sorry if this might be in the forum somewhere, but I couldn't locate it (send me a link if it's out there), I have the Sony Vaio RB42G, and Windows XP Media Center.

The sound card isn't so hot, and I have 5.1 speakers using all the inputs on the sound card (yes including the 1/8" input), and I also have a video capture card which has audio RCA jacks (inputs).

My question is how I can get my computer to recognize and record audio from the video card(RCA jacks). It doesn't seem to work in Windows Movie Maker or other recording programs like Cakewalk, i'm actually having a brain fart on how to even get the damn audio to come through at all via the video card.

I'm relatively knowledgeable about hardware/software, but this is perplexing me, or maybe i just drank too much last night.

Any help is appreciated.

[AndyH]

IF there is a functional ADC on the video card it will be listed in Device Manager. Check that there are no problems. It is possible that necessary drivers are not installed, for instance.

If everything looks good in Device Manager look at Multimedia on the OS Control Panel. The settings on the Audio tab and the Devices tab have to be correct to allow you to use that input.

Your recording software should have some Options or Settings. Somewhere in there you tell it which input to use for recording.

[jmail]

First of all, what capture card do you have? When you say "... I also have a video capture card which has audio RCA jacks (inputs)...." and then say "... record audio from the video card(RCA jacks)...", it has a tendency to worry a person. All the "capture" cards that I've seen capture video, not audio. The RCA jacks on most video capture cards are video jacks, not audio. I've got a DC10 (?) card with two "RCA" jacks that are colored yellow - that's video in & video out. There are also 2 S-Video cable connections. They are also video in & video out. That's all my capture card has on it. If I want to capture video, I plug the camera's video out into the yellow input jack (or S-Video), and the camera's audio out in the sound card on the computer. I then have to open my video capture program, enable audio capture in it. Then I have to open Windows Volume Control, choose the "Options", "Properties" and click on the "Recording" radio button and then select "Line In" on that panel. Adjust the incoming audio volume, and go to town capturing. The video capture program handles the audio *after* Windows hands it over.

I also have an old AIW Pro. That card, since it had a TV tuner and all that other garbage, had two proprietary wiring hook-up dealies that were a bear to get oriented and put in correctly. The audio on it was captured with the card by off-feeding it with a ridiculous wire off of one of the card's little dealies that then plugged into the sound card. Latency and dropped frames with that setup were a very real issue...

[A2theK2]

I hear ya, and that's actually what i tried to do, unfortunately windows doesn't recognize the video capture card, i.e. when i click on my little speaker in the icon tray (lower right corner), there is no option to select my video card, which is very frustrating. I can see it in my device manager, here is a screen shot, and i'm hoping i'm stupid enough to know that the "legacy" video capture card is what we speak of:
http://www.draghead.com/devices.jpg

Here is a picture of the back of my puter (scroll down to see the back of the Viao and the red/white input STEREO AUDIO input options):

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=1615832&sku=S168-RB42G%2075

Anyway after I posted this, i found a windows message board that mentioned (because I have media center software) it's a known problem that they don't recognize the video capture card, unless you're in media center application (which doesn't give you the option to record by the way)...and it's funny because some of the selling points of this whole unit are the fact that you can transfer your old audio tapes and VCR films to digital, i'm assuming to hook up a tape deck you'd have to use the RCA jacks and record...(don't know how though!!!).
Anyway, here is a screen shot of my master audio options so you don't think i'm pulling your leg:

http://www.draghead.com/audio1.jpg
http://www.draghead.com/audio2.jpg

thanks for your reply, i'm having a day here, and considering just purchasing a external USD audio interface to record my guitar to solve this problem, but I wanted to use WHAT I GOT, instead of paying another $100 to get the M-Audio audiophile or whatever their new product is, any other thoughts?

[A2theK2]

Originally posted by AndyH
IF there is a functional ADC on the video card it will be listed in Device Manager. Check that there are no problems. It is possible that necessary drivers are not installed, for instance.

If everything looks good in Device Manager look at Multimedia on the OS Control Panel. The settings on the Audio tab and the Devices tab have to be correct to allow you to use that input.

Your recording software should have some Options or Settings. Somewhere in there you tell it which input to use for recording.

yeah, that's my whole problem, damn Sonar 4 (cakewalk) and actually my audio manager (see screen shots above) won't recognize it, therefore Sonar won't recognize it...shizzle.

[itsplayed]

Have you looked in control panel under sounds and audio devices to see if it's being shown as an audio device?

[A2theK2]

Originally posted by itsplayed
Have you looked in control panel under sounds and audio devices to see if it's being shown as an audio device?

Well it's not showing up on the "audio" tab as a recordable device, but it is showing up on the "hardware" tab as a 'device'.

is there a way to get it to recognize it as a recordable device?

[itsplayed]

Your Video input device is not being shown in the device manager. What video capture card are you using?

[A2theK2]

i'm not entirely sure, I think its a legacy

http://www.draghead.com/video.jpg