so, anyone know anything about TV capture cards?
 

For Xmas, I received an MSI TV@nywhere plus card.

Today, I tried splitting my coax cable and running a line into the CATV input. I now have a decent TV picture on my PC, but no audio at all. Since coax cable carries audio and video signal, I'm a bit puzzled as to why I have no audio. There is also an "audio in" connector but I'm not sure how to get a separate audio signal to connect to the card.

Granted, I could come out of the AV connectors of a VCR into the card but if I am correct, then I would have to change channels on the VCR, rather than the PC. I'd rather be able to change them from the PC.

Anyone have any ideas? The company support website and the documentation that came with the card are absolutely no help.

No

You didn't write their documentation by any chance, did you?

It was just as helpful. ;)

No

Well then, I'll just say that I appreciate your help every bit as much as I appreciate their fine documentation.

Check videohelp.com. There's a ton of information on capture cards (at least two different flavors of TV@anywhere). Might be a good start.

You're welcome

Did the card come with any configuration software or control panel? Double check any audio settings in there. Also check the standard audio control panel (Control Panels -> Sounds and Audio Devices). Poke around in all the screens there, often certain audio channels are on mute by default.

Finally figured it out about 3:30 this morning. I noticed that one of the adapters contained a wire that looked suspiciously like a mini speaker jack. I plugged it into my sound card and voila, audio. Would have been a tad bit helpful to include this info in the documentation. But I suppose when the manual refers to the bit rate settings as "bite rate", that should have been my first clue that I was on my own.

(sample from manual: "TVR is the powerful and easy for use provide the most feature rich video entertainment.")

Man, for Christmas, I thought it would be cool to upgrade both Matthew's computer and mine with RAM, and put a new video card in his and a tuner in mine. And installation of all of this took about 10 minutes. Getting both PC's to work after these installs took about 5 hours. I spent all evening going back and forth between both machines, trying to get everything to work. Talk about a computer hell nightmare. But alas, now everything is working. I just need more sleep.

Thanks for the suggestions though! I appreciate the help.