USB Capture Card Recorded Video has audio POPPING when seeking forward or back during playback on any software (VLC, media player, etc...)

[mlan01]

Hello,
First time poster. I have recently found some old VHS and camcorder tapes (with the analogue camcorder) with some video I am trying to digitize.

I am using the "UCEC USB 2.0 Video Audio Capture Card" and after some tuning in OBS (following Youtube videos) I am happy with the results. Except! during playback in any software: VLC, Media Player, .... there is popping when I start the video and whenever I seek forward or back. Normal uninterrupted playback audio is fine.

I have tried many different settings I still can't figure out how to fix this. Any advise would be helpful. Is my problem the USB capture card? The audio from the camcorder is MONO only, so I checked the mono box.

Thank you so much

I am using OBS version 30.0.2

Here are my settings:

 

[Suslik V]

Just for info, Mono checkbox in OBS Advanced Audio Properties averages channels data (source L = 1.0, R = 0.0; result: L= R = 0.5).

As for me, the Volume at 17% (you set in Advanced Audio Properties) - is not normal. About 100% is expected in this field.

 

[mlan01]

Thank you for responding to my question.

I lowered it down because the audio was always in the RED. I thought to give it more headroom I would lower it down.

I did put it back up to 100% as suggested and the problem still persist.

I forgot to mention that the popping happens on every other player as well (not just my main PC, but on phones, google TV, etc..).

Is there a good alternative to OBS for the task of video capture anyone can suggest?

 

[mlan01]

I thought I would capture a video of the audio if anyone wants to hear.

Uploaded to Youtube.

 

[Suslik V]

I don't think that it caused by the recording. And this happens to almost any PC and any video you playing back. You may didn't notice it before but at some level it always was here.

Just in case, the mpv player may work better for you.

 

[mlan01]

Hello, I finally tried it and the popping is less loud or perhaps softer when running MPV. It is however still present.

I am really not sure what to do. I tried re-encoding with Davinci Resolve and was unsuccessful.

My next test might be to fire up an old laptop, install windows on it and test that.

 

[Mr Jhe]

hi Mlan01,
You can try settings like mine to record your video,
Previously I also experienced what happened to you for 4 days.
After I tried settings like the following my video was better
without popping sound. I got this setting from my community.
Please try it and let me know the results.

 

[Mr Jhe]

Hello, I finally tried it and the popping is less loud or perhaps softer when running MPV. It is however still present.

I am really not sure what to do. I tried re-encoding with Davinci Resolve and was unsuccessful.

My next test might be to fire up an old laptop, install windows on it and test that.

for me Audio Bitrate (track 1) is 320, and CQ Level pls note never input lower than 14 / minimum 14.

 

[mlan01]

Thank you for the suggestion Mr Jhe.

I tried your suggested settings and the problem persists. Do you remember if you changed anything else?

I am going to try and capture the video on another computer to if there is a difference. I will get back to you.

 

[mlan01]

Alright, I give up!
I tried the setup on another computer with same camcorder and capture card = Popping
I tried using an old VCR with a VHS instead of the camcorder and I still get popping.
All this points to this crappy USB capture card.

Does anyone have any recommendations on a good capture card?

Thank you

 

[Suslik V]

You may take a look at:

GitHub - CounterPillow/mpv-quack: mpv script for temporarily reducing audio volume after seeking

mpv script for temporarily reducing audio volume after seeking - CounterPillow/mpv-quack

github.com

The "quack.lua" script do automatic ducking on seeking for mpv player.

This "quack.lua" file should be placed into the mpv player's "scripts" folder (if you don't have one, then you can create it in the same folder where the "mpv.exe" file lies).

Then you can make new shortcut to the mpv player and use it with additional options like: mpv.exe --script-opts=quack-ducksecs=0.5,quack-duckratio=0.3 - here it means 0.5 sec is duration of fade-in, and 0.3 is fading from 30% of amplitude of full scale. Just more aggressive settings than the default ones.

Or in case you have many users on your PC you can:

Spoiler: .conf files for mpv

• create two new folders in the user's folder (%APPDATA%\mpv). These new folders should be named: "scripts" and "script-opts".
• place the "quack.lua" file into the recently created "scripts" folder.
• place text file named "quack.conf" with the next content:
  

  ducksecs=0.5
  duckratio=0.3

  into the recently created "script-opts" folder.

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Does anyone have any recommendations on a good capture card?

Certified Devices | OBS

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Stream to Twitch, YouTube and many other providers or record your own videos with high quality H264 / AAC encoding.

obsproject.com

but it will not solve the issue you have.

Edit: Content itself, player, hardware (+ good speakers) is the cause. Unfortunately, bad quality equipment will work better here.

 

[mlan01]

Hello,
I ended up ordering another capture card on Amazon. I bought this one: Capture Card. Right from the beginning the audio was better. The signal never went into the RED. It was already in the green unlike the other card I had which was pinning in RED. In my first post we see that I had lowered the volume and was told this was weird.

I also changed audio sampling to 44.1kHz. For some reason having 48kHz created some distortion in the exported video.

Thank you so much for all of your suggestions.