No sound when capturing from Hi8 camcorder?
 

I hav been trying to capture with my HP Elitebook 840 G5 from a Sony 8mm tape camcorder CCD-TR840E. I do with a Silvercrest USB Video Grabber (SVG 2.0). I try to do it with NCH Debut software, OBS Studio and Virtual Dub. When capturing I get image but no sound.
I think this Video Grabber isn't fully compatible with my Windows 11 because when I start capture software I need to connect and disconnect the Video Grabber before I begin to see the video signal (usually B and W but sometimes with colour). I have not found any other driver for my VG than a 2012 one that I got from original CD and also in the internet.
As the camcorder has either a RGB out connector and a 3,5 mm jack for earphones I tried also to plug in my TRRS input jack connector (as there is an icon with earphones with mic printed near it). I tried to do connecting to the TRRS input jack connector of my laptop a jack splitter cable with separate headphones and mic input connectors (I needed to bought it): here I connect my headphones to one input bottom of the splitter and a 3,5 mm jack male male stereo cable comming from the earphones output from the camcorder to the other input bottom of the splitter.
Then in my computer I cann't select the input recording device as the headphones with mic option is always greyed out and you see it always "Diconnected" in the window that pops up choosing "open sound system" in Debut, even when you connect all as I have explained before, even if you try to choose "Connect" or "Disable" and after "Enable".
The sound is good in the earphones output connector of the camcorder and I tested also the 3,5 mm stereo cable.
I tried other things but I think these are the most important for understanding my problem.
I should be happy to get any help and also to give all the suplementary information needed.
Thanks!

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With this reply I try to explain better my troubles after being my post some days here in the forum without anyother reply.

I have been trying to capture with my HP Elitebook 840 G5 from a Sony 8mm tape camcorder CCD-TR840E. I do with a Silvercrest USB Video Grabber (SVG 2.0). I try to do it with NCH Debut software, OBS Studio and Virtual Dub. When capturing I get image but no sound.
I think this Video Grabber isn't fully compatible with my Windows 11 because when I start capture software I need to connect and disconnect the Video Grabber before I begin to see the video signal (usually B and W but sometimes in colour). I have not found any other driver for my VG than a 2012 one that I got from original CD and also in the internet.
The camcorder has either a RGB out connector and also a 3,5 mm jack for earphones. When first I didn't get any audio signal in the computer with a red, white and yellow composite cable plugged from camcorder to the Video Grabber, I tried to plug a 3,5 mm jack cable from camera’s out connector for earphones to a input jack connector in my computer.
I needed to do it with a TRRS jack splitter cable with separate headphones and mic input connectors, as there is an icon with earphones with mic printed near it and I understood that a TRS jack cable directly from the camera to the laptop wouldn't work. This spliter cable has a TRRS male connector in a bottom, that I attach to my computer, and two separate TRS female connectors in the other bottom, in one of them I put the TRS male male jack cable comming from the camera, and my earphones in the other.
Then I continued to had not any sound in my computer comming from the camera. I see that in the Windows sound controls, I can't select an input recording device showed as "Headphones with microphone" option, as I see it always greyed out and "Diconnected" (even if you try to choose "Connect", or "Disable" and after "Enable").
Of course I made the test connecting my earphones direct to output connector of the camcorder and the sound was fine. I tested also the 3,5 mm male male TRS cable I use.
I tried other things but I think these are the most important for understanding my problem.
I should be happy to give all the suplementary information needed.
Any help will be wellcome.
Thanks!

Welcome. :)

Bad hardware, bad software = bad quality, bad capture experience.
What's what you have: bad hardware, bad software.

"Silvercrest" just rabadges random cards, often junk. You need to take a photo of your exact unit, and post it here. Front and back.

NCH is infamous garbage software. Years ago, NCH junk ruined one of my computers so badly that I had to reformat it. The OS was bricked by there junk, using their own uninstall (which was done because it did not function as claimed).

OBS is not analog videotapes capture software. It's digital streaming/"broadcast" software, and treats everything like a webcam. A capture card is not a webcam.

VirtualDub should work (even on most bad cards), but settings matter. Audio has specific options in the capture menus, and specific settings in the capture timing settings menu.

This is because modern Windows 10/11 want to treat capture cards like webcams. Lots of capture cards balk at this, and thus no longer work in modern Windows. It's not the cards at fault, but rather the stupid treatment by Windows (or Linux, or Mac, all the OS are guilty of this). The era of analog video capture was the 2000s, somewhat 2010s, not the 2020s. New OS don't care about video capture, which is why legacy OS are most often used for this task, and on offline computers so capture streams are not interrupted by constant nuisance updates.

That will never work. Your computer's generic audio input/mic is not the same as the dedicated audio input on the capture card. It won't sync to USB capture. The pathways for preview are different from the card recording, so simply "hearing" something is immaterial.

There's a tiny chance your current card is fine, but I need to see it. And in that case, you'll need different drivers.

But more likely is that you'll need a different (and very specific) capture card for Win11. Because Win11 is not capture card friendly. You'll need a certain card that has drivers that reject attempts to treat it like a webcam.

Beyond capture cards, Hi8 is a format that likes to drop frames, so the quality of the player, and presence of TBCs, is extremely important. Otherwise fixing just the capture card won't fix your capture troubles.

Hello Lordsmurf thank you very much for your answer and detailed comment post!

The attached files.
I downloaded and installed from your post these files (I also attached a screen capture):

• HuffYUV64.zip (24.2 KB, 3489 downloads)
  VirtualDub 1.9.11 + Filters.rar (6.53 MB, 7828 downloads)

I got a B/W video capture using VirtualDubMod from these download.
This seems to be truth because I don't get any sound from the Video Grabber, (with red and white composite cable)
but as you said before VirtualDub had the best chances to work with audio configuration. I observed that in Audio menu and Volume meter option, I finally could observe audio signal comming from the camera (!). I didn't hear nothing with my earphones connected as I explained in the post . But sound was there in the captured video files (!!) These audio signal came from the 3,5 jack input where I connected the spliter cable comming from the earphones jack output of the camera (I attach an audio cables configuration photo). This sound is sure comming from this 3,5mm jack cable as I only get audio signal when this cable is connected.
If I get a chance with other drivers to improve the result of my captures of course I will be very happy (because now usually I only get B/W image).
For the moment I am very sorry for my poor english and very grateful for your help!:)