Clicking and Crackling

[Zap_Bee]

Hello,

i'm capturing from tv with a Terratec cinergy 600 using VirtualVCR.
audio is captured with Terratec Xfire.
my problem: from time to time there's disturbing clicking and crackling in the audio stream. sounds like burning wood or so, i hope you get the idea.
i'm quite sure that this is not because of bad tv signal. one time it comes every 10 minutes, other time only once in an hour or not at all.
i have no idea, what it could be, nor what to look for.
i hope anyone can help me.

thanks
Zap

[Wolfman]

is it your fridge motor turning on and off or some other light switch

[Zap_Bee]

Originally posted by Wolfman
is it your fridge motor turning on and off or some other light switch
i thought about that too. but the capture preview sounds good and there are no problems when watching tv. the noise is only on the captured audio stream.

Zap

[fellaw]

Which source did you use? I'm using the Cinergy 400 (Composite & Line-in). The Line-out is connected to the soundcard, which is also an X-Fire 1024.

I don't get such a faulty sound. Could you attach an mp3 sample to your next post? That could help to identify the cause.

[Zap_Bee]

Source is german cable TV
Lineout of Cinergy is connected to linein of xFire
Since the length of this noisy periods varies (2-20secs) as well as the number per hour (1-4 times), i think its not caused by a high input signal level (it is set to 14%)
there are louder parts in the capture without any problems.
no lights have been switched on or off during the capture, at least not by me. and my fridge... hm, strange, but i'll have an eye on it.
here's the link to the .mp3 file (http://home.fhtw-berlin.de/~s0357477/diverse/noise.mp3)
i cannot post attachements

Thanks you so far
Zap

[fellaw]

You're using the antenna(RF) input, don't you? This sounds like a bad tuning of the channel to me.

I've had such noise with my satellite tv, exactly like this one. Not all of the time, only sometimes. It finally disappeared after I had corrected the position of my dish.

However, I can't say why this noise isn't produced all the time.

[Zap_Bee]

You're using the antenna(RF) input, don't you?
yes i do. it is cable tv, so i thought, that signal should be good enough. i got that noise on different tv channels, i.e. it's not only one channel with bad signal.
do you think, using the VCR as receiver and feeding the signal via composite connection into the cinergy might help? i've heard before that the tuners of the tv-cards are not that good, at least not as good as the ones in TV sets and VCRs.

Zap

[fellaw]

This could be worth a try.

Maybe you've got something different going on here, e.g. a bad shielding or interference from PC components like fans or power supply.

Have you checked if you receive the crackling on other devices(VCR, TV) at the same time?

[Zap_Bee]

Have you checked if you receive the crackling on other devices(VCR, TV) at the same time?
yes, and there's no noise at all. i'll try the VCR as receiver and report on the results.

Thanks a lot
Zap