audio/video capture

I have been trying for a while to get some audio from my television to my laptop; to then record onto a music cd. I've tried 2 different cables that were supposed to work, but neither did. I have been doing a little research, and I've come across a capture card. My question is this: can I get the audio separately from the video (so I can put it on a cd)? Also, what should I look for in a capture card? The only other way I can think of to do this would be to simply sit my laptop next to the television and record directly to the computer but I really do not want to resort to that. Poor sound quality:shakehead

I use Pinnacle to capture. To capture from TV I'll make a VCR recording of the show then use Pinnacle to convert the VHS tape into an mpg (Pinnacle lets you convert to any type of format but mpg is the easiest for my purposes). Once you have the mpg file you can use Pinnacle to extract the audio to mp3 or wav or whatever.

Pinnacle includes all of the hardware and software you'll need.

thanks for the reply. I'll check that out. Here's what I was looking at before... it looks like it will do what I want.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Easycap-USB-2-0-Video-Audio-DVD-VHS-TV-Capture-V22_W0QQitemZ110181335170QQihZ001QQcategoryZ3761QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That's pretty similar to Pinnacle and it's much cheaper. I didn't know they made USB interfaces for vid cap.

I actually did find a Pinnacle one...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=180170740414&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=008

is this what you are referring to?

That's the same company but I have a version of Pinnacle Studio. Studio comes with an interface card that you install in a PC expansion slot, then you plug a cable from the interface card to another board that has all of the different video connections (RCA, S-video, cable etc...).

That's why I was surprised to see they now have a USB interface - much simpler.

I went to the pinnacle website to try to find out the retail price of that item, but had no luck. I'll probably just get that thing, it seems fairly cheap. thanks for your help!!

I've got another question for you. I have this cable: http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p278/georgew84/IMG_0003.jpg and it's supposed to allow me to do what I want to do...however when I plug it in, the sound I get on the computer is loud and distorted. Any idea how to fix this?

I'm not sure how you're using that cable - are you connecting the mini-plug to the speaker jack on your PC? What do the RCA jacks connect to?

yes, the smaller plug into the microphone jack on the computer. Then I plugged the RCA jacks into the jacks on the vcr. I have a home theatre system connected in the mix, so there's lots of choices as far as where to put the RCA plugs. tv, vcr (front and rear), and the home theater has several places. It is so complicated that I just got a separate vcr, plugged it in and put the RCA cables into the jacks on it....simplify:) Still got the extremely loud sound:( The program I'm using is Sony Sound Forge. Are you familiar with that particular software? I'm thinking that the problem may be a setting within the program. Whenever I get ready to record, the sound level meters are maxxed out. I can't figure out how to get it down to a level suitable for listening. I found a way to lower the 'mic in' volume in my volume settings on the computer, but even turned all the way down it's still loud. If you have any ideas, I'd sure appreciate it. I should probably just buy that product on ebay, because it's more likely to work.

I had the same problem with a similar cable. But when I connected it to a different PC it worked fine. I never figured out why it was doing it, probably some kind of ground-loop problem. I always thought those mini-plugs were too quirky anyway. I'd say def get the ebay device, USB is so much better and you'll be able to capture video as well.