Radeon AIW audio static

[Mance]

Well, now I have to eat my words. After a thread a few weeks ago where I said I was basically having no problem with my AIW Radeon, now I'm having sound problems. And I'm not alone it seems. I guess I should have kept my mouth shut.

Everything has been great since October when I got it. I even rebuilt the system a month ago to upgrade to a faster hard drive for C: and everything was still fine. Captures, TV, gaming, all worked as well as they ever had. But just last week I did a video project where I installed MSPro6 and did a couple of days worth of video editing (I also captured a brief clip from an external S-Video source using the ATI software for the first time ever, previously I'd only ever captured from the TV tuner). Ever since then any captures that ATI's software does have horrible amounts of static in the audio, making the files unusable (and the rest of the audio, aside from the loud static, is extremely quiet). I can't seem to fix it. Others have been having this problem too, and they've been able to get good audio in their captures by using non-ATI capture software, so it seems to be ATI software specific. But to forego ATI's software would get rid of the ability to record TV shows on a timer to MPG2 (I use this more as a VCR than a capture deck for video projects, for that I have a Sigma DVR).

ATI is aware of this problem, and is gathering info from those affected, but has no response to it yet.

So I'm wondering, could MSPro have had anything to do with the ATI Multimedia Center's ability to capture audio? I've tried updating my ATI drivers to the newest beta, but there is no update for the multimedia center. I guess I'll have to get more drastic and uninstall MSPro6, uninstall and reinstall the multimedia center, and if that doesn't work, wipe and rebuild the whole system again.

Also, it just occurred to me that some people have had good audio when capturing from the breakout box, and bad audio when capturing from TV, and vice versa. I wonder if you can only do one of those well with the ATI software before the other input source's audio gets corrupted?

I know the hardware is good, as it's worked for months. Why some people have had this problem from the get go, and why it's just now started for me, I don't know. I was hoping one of you guys might have a suggestion before I have to get drastic. If possible, I'd like to continue to use the software that ATI provides with their hardware. It's not the best software, and I still think the AIW is basically an overblown toy, but when everything was working, it was pretty fun.

My system:
PIII-800E
ASUS Cubx (BX chipset)
128megs PC133 Ram
Soundblaster AWE64 ISA
Win98SE
Maxtor 20gig 7200rpm (C
Maxtor 80gig 5400rpm (d

No one in the newsgroups seems to know how to fix it, they just recommend to use different software, VirtualDub I think. Can VirtualDub, or any other, do MPG2 realtime captures that are launched from a timer? I just want this to act like a VCR again, I don't care whose software I have to use.

Thanks.

[Sciascia]

Vdub does not perform MPEG compression itself. It will capture to several avi formats realtime compression. I think there is an app called WinVCR that may do what you are looking for, but I believe that you would be better off trying to fix your problem rather than try another app.

What are your audio settings (compression, rate, etc.). Also check all of your capture apps and check to see if there are any "funky" audio level settings. Some of them may seem transparent to other app, but they do have an effect on others sometimes. Also try to find out what codec the ATI was using before installing MSP 6. It may have installed the Ligos codecs and given them a higher priority or over written them completely.

One more thing, if you have any older clips that were captured before the problem, see if they playback ok. If not then it is definitely the codec associated with .mpg audio. If it plays fine, just check to see what decompressor it is using and compare it to a new clip. There might be some kind of flag that associates it with another codec.

If you started having problems after connecting the cable, you may have hum coming from there. If it is a ground problem, it could affect all of your captures, tuner and line. Try it without the cable hookup, then try it with just cable hooked up.

The main thing is to try to isolate the area, if it is a SW or HW problem internal or external then go from there.

Good luck

[Mance]

Thanks for the reply. Those suggestions make a lot of sense and I'll try them when I get home tonight.

I'm pretty sure that the problem is in the ATI software only. When I built this machine the first time I also had MSPro6 on it with no problem. When I rebuilt it a month ago I did not have MSPro6 on it for the first few weeks and it worked fine. I suspect it has more to do with me capturing video from the S-Vid connector than anything else, rather than the install of MSPro. It's just a hunch, but that's my guess. I'm not sure, and maybe someone here knows, but I think that ATI has licensed Ligos Go Motion codec for the realtime MPG capture, which I believe MSPro6 uses as well. It would be pretty funny if they conflicted.

That's a good point about the audio settings, but I have to admit I've never touched them, either before when it worked, or now. Fiddling with the presets seemed to not really get me that much when I tried (I never could capture at 704x480 in realtime like they say you can without dropping a third of the frames), so I mostly stick to the presets. And files I made before play fine now, as does cable TV viewing. Timeshifting, and recording with the scheduler both have this audio/static problem. I guess I need to also see if capturing from S-Vid has it as well or if it's immune.

ATI admits that this is a known problem with Multimedia Center 7, so I can only hope they're planning on resolving this permanently with a new revision. Ha, like I'll be holding my breath.

If anyone else out there has experienced this and resolved it, I'd love to know.

Cheers.

[Sciascia]

I guess that would be strange if they did conflict. If it is a documented problem, then you probably do have a driver problem, I was just hoping that it would be something simple. You know how it is when you are looking at something for to long, a fresh point of view can help to point out the obvious.

Unfortunatley I don't have any experience with ATI HW, I went with a Marvel. I can't say it's been without problems, but most of them were inflicted by me! I have to say that even with all of the negative postings, it is the best card I've ever owned, especially for the price. I first got started, I had some no name TV capture card and Chris and the Doc helped me along to pick out the Marvel (it had just been released). I can't seem to part with it, though MPEG2 capturing is an attracive feature.

Hope you get it straightened out.