No audio on captures

cgrobin wrote on 10/23/2003, 1:42 PM

I bought Screenblast yesterday primarily to make video clips from tapes that I can share with friends on CD. Now I can't get any audio in my captures.

My primary source is a VCR. I have a Hauppauge WinTV USB that I use for my capture card. I was able to do a capture with sound and video using the Windows Movie Maker but I don't want .WMV files. so I know the device is working.

When I'm doing the capture, I can heard the sound fine through the computers speakers, but it doesn't record. Also, when I start the recording, I get a series of 3 'pops' and the screen pauses for a minute, as if it's having a problem starting. No error messages on the lack of audio.

I have a Dell Dimension 8100
Soundblaster Alive! Value card/software. (I ever reloaded the software last night.)
Hauppauge WinTV2000 USB external capture device
Windows XP (The bane of my existence)

Help! I think there are some really cool features in Screenblast I'd love to get a chance to play with, but if I can't make clips with it, I can't keep it.

Robin

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/23/2003, 6:50 PM

I don’t have a WinTV USB capture device but Hauppauge’s web site claims it can capture AVI files. Did they provide you with any software to do this? It looks like this device is primarily for watching TV on your PC. The resolution may not be great enough for making DVD’s if that’s your final output. Also there’s nothing wrong with using WMV files. MovieStudio should work fine with them. Hauppauge has a FAQ on their web site that deals with things like no audio. Have you tried all their suggestions?

In General, if you are serious about doing quality captures, USB devices are not the optimal solution. (Quote from their FAQ: Because the WinTV USB does not use any compression hardware, image sizes set above 320x240 will result in many dropped frames.) If WMV is working for you just stick with that. If your final output format is CD, this is the format you want to use anyway. (unless you mean VCD which is MPEG1)

~jr

cgrobin wrote on 10/23/2003, 8:28 PM

mpeg would be fine for me.

The problem with wmv is that I have a number of friends with MACs. I had one try testing a short clip I uploading, but it wouldn't work.

Rather than have to jump from one software to another I'd like to be able to do it all through Screenblast. I know the audio is coming through the device because I can both hear it directly on the computer and in capturing through the Windows Movie maker. I just can't figure out why Screenblast doesn't recognize it.

If I record an wmv can Screenblast convert it to another format after editing?

JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/23/2003, 8:43 PM

> If I record an wmv can Screenblast convert it to another format after editing?

Yep, that’s why I asked. Even for DV AVI captures, when you’re finished editing you would render as an MPEG1 file to distribute to your Mac friends. So it doesn’t matter that you use WMV for editing because you will be rendering to the same MPEG1 format anyway.

~jr

cgrobin wrote on 10/23/2003, 9:04 PM

Thanks for the help. Let me play around some more and see if I can figure stuff out.