Windows Media Encoder External Audio capture problem

[a1s2d3f4]

I have for years live captured video from my DV camcorder and audio from an external sound card using Wmenc without any problems.

All of a sudden I noticed my captures (wmv files) lack audio. Looked into the problem, indeed wmenc fails to "get" audio from my Sound card, even though it recognizes it just fine. (Other programs that work with audio capture are all fine).

I traced the problem to one period in November last year. Did a search and noticed that I installed some ware from Samsung at that time, because I got a new cellphone and needed it to communicate with it. Maybe this is what caused it, maybe something else, that I couldn't trace.

Unfortunately, uninstalling that ware, reinstalling Wmenc components, reinstalling my sound card drivers did absolutely nothing to fix the problem.

Is there someone here, who knows ins-and-outs of wmenc operation who could point me in the right troubleshooting direction? I'd really like to not have to reinstall my entire OS to fix this.

Thanks.

[fvisagie]

Hi,

Some things you could check:

WME Properties>Sources>Audio: ensure it's checked
WME Properties>Sources>Audio dropdown list: ensure correct device is selected
WME Properties>Sources>Audio>Configure: ensure Master Input Mix is turned up and Pin Line Input Mix is Enabled
Control Panel>Sound>Recording: ensure your input device is listed: rightclick in empty area>enable both Disabled and Disconnected
Control Panel>Sound>Recording: click your device, click Configure and/or Properties and make sure all's OK


Those are the basic things. If you're still having a problem after that, you need to pinpoint the cause by process of elimination. Is it your hardware, Windows, WME? So:

With WME, try inputing from another device
Find another program on your PC to capture audio with:
Try capturing from the device you normally use with WME
Try capturing from the device you tried with WME next
Think up some more things to try
Compare results

[a1s2d3f4]

Hi, thanks for the response.

But like I mentioned -all other audio capture programs are working fine with my sound card - I can run them and capture audio perfectly using the same exact inputs etc.

Also, the settings I used to capture with WMENC haven't changed - I am using the same .wme session file to run wmenc and this is what I had been using for years before this problem happened.

Checking through the things you outlined to check:

The only issue that I noticed (and I had seen it before) is that Master Input Mix and Pin Line Input Mix sliders are disabled. But it's very likely that they had always been disabled like that.

Also, when you say "Control Panel>Sound>Recording" - are you talking about mmsys.cpl (in which case, do you mean the Audio tab/Recording setting? - nothing there has changed from before), or sndvol32 (there, I cannot access "recording" property of my sound card by design - always been that way)?


EDIT: to clarify - my sound card is RME Hammerfall Multiface I
And just to dot all the t's and cross the i's - yes, I can capture from other audio devices within WME just fine - just this sound card is not working right. Incidentally, one of the inputs associated with this soundcard (never tried it before in the past) is called Multiface ADAT 7+8 and, there, I see a "Microphone" choice in the dropdown under Pin Line Input Mix. Choosing that, I can actually capture the audio signal from my soundcard, but it is horribly distorted. This shows that WME is definitely able to get stuff coming in from my soundcard, but in some screwed up way. I had always used "Multiface Analog 1+2" (i.e. Input pins associated with my hardware 1 and 2 lines, into which I am feeding my mic signals).

[a1s2d3f4]

Well, I continued trying everything. I haven't changed anything (other than messing with every conceivable controller - and then putting it back to where it used to be), butnow I somehow got it all working again - still don't know what the initial cause was.
I guess, the lesson is - mess with every setting, in case it triggers something.

[setarip_old]

Or just reboot as the first thing you try...

[a1s2d3f4]

Haha. Well, I have definitely rebooted a number of times since last November.
What puzzles me is how reinstalling everything didn't help, which suggests there was a setting tripped deeper in windows (either an .ini file of some kind, or something in the registry).

[a1s2d3f4]

Had this problem come back randomly between 23 and 27th of April. Scanned my machine for obvious changes during those dates. Nothing obvious, except I used telnet, which I normally don't use. But then the previous time (November 2012) this problem appeared without "telnet use". So still don't know what causes it.

I tried to be really careful about observing what I do to bring it back.

Seems that if I set "audio capture" source to that "Multiface 7+8 ADAT" thing that gives me the highly distorted sound, save .wme session, then quit wmenc, then re-launch it and set audio source back to my Analog 1+2, I get it working again.

It might be peculiar to this card, but maybe not.

If it keeps doing it, I'll have to start capturing my registry settings every day, then scanning for differences.