Video Capture from Old Camcorder - DirectSound/WaveOut

[UofAZCats]

I bought a cheap video capture unit from Amazon so I could transfer old videos to the computer. I downloaded and started up OBS. I connected the camcorder to the video capture using RCA's - yellow to yellow and black to white. Under sources I added the USB video capture device. Since I had the camcorder playing the video (no audio) came up on the screen in the background while the settings box was open. I scrolled down to the Audio Output Mode and selected Output desktop audio (DirectSound) as directed by the directions from the video capture device. As soon as the selection was made the video disappeared and I still had silence. I checked the "Use custom audio device" box and then selected "Digital Audio Interface (USB Digital Audio)" in the Audio Device pulldown. I hit OK and then box disappears. The input screen is still black and soundless. It did add Video Capture Device to both the Sources box and the Audio Mixer box.

I have played with the settings and tried switching DirectSound to WaveOut but still get a blank screen and no sound. If I switch that pulldown back to "Capture audio only" (and leave the Cutom audio device box checked and the Audio device as the USB Digital Audio) I get the video back up but no sound. Sound still plays on other applications so it is not the computer or the obvious "have you turned on your speakers?" situation. I have tried plugging the black RCA to the red RCA to see if that was it and still nothing. I have looked through the audio settings in the Controls box and do not see anything that is obviously wrong and did not change anything.

I have recorded with the Capture Audio Only setting so the video was showing to see if there was sound on that recording and there was not. I am not sure what I am missing and any help is appreciated.

 

[koala]

About the audio settings of a webcam device:

• "capture audio only" puts the audio directly in the recorded file. It's not put into the Windows audio system, so you're unable to hear (monitor) it. To hear it, go to Edit > Advanced audio properties and set "Monitor and output" in audio monitoring for the capture device.
• "output desktop audio (...)" orders OBS to put the audio to the default audio device of Windows, which is usually some speakers. To get it into the video file, you need to capture it again from Windows, for example by capturing the desktop audio device. Since this included Windows sounds usually, this is not preferred.
• if you enable "use custom audio device", the device you configure along with the setting is any Windows recording device, and this device is associated with the webcam. This feature is feasible for microphones external to the webcam, so they show up as their own recording device. This can be important for scene switching and enabling/disabling audio along with the webcam. But for capturing from a camcorder this is not relevant, so don't use it and don't enable it.

What you should configure for your special use case:

1. Use "capture audio only". This setting will make OBS output the webcam audio appear on the recording file.
2. Disable "use custom audio device".
3. Enable "monitor and output" for the capture device in Edit > Advanced audio properties. Go to Settings > Audio > Advanced and make sure the Monitoring device is one you're listening to. Either "default" or your speaker or headphone device. These settings will make the audio appear on your Windows speakers or heaphones, so you can monitor it.
4. In Settings > Audio > Global Audio devices disable every device. This will make OBS not accidentally capture Windows audio sounds along with the capture device. This will also avoid capturing the vhs audio twice and distort it: once from "capture audio only" and a second time from the monitoring device.