Audio/s-video from VCR to DMR-ES15?
 

Am setting up with the “weak TBC” workflow:

VCR (S-Video with line TBC features turned off) -> DMR-ES15 (S-Video output) -> DVK-100 (S-Video output) -> Capture card

Should audio be sent from the VCR to the DMR-ES15 along with the video (before going to the capture card) or should audio go straight from the VCR to the card?

I suspect the answer is "Yes", because you'd want audio sync'd as much as possible.

From my understanding it is best to route the audio through the es15 before the capture card because there would be an audio dealy of around 200 to 250 miliseconds, due to the es15 adding a video delay, and the audio not being affected if it isn't plugged into the es15

Beware of the possibility that the audio path inside the Panasonic DMR-ES15 may be degraded. There are reported cases where one or both stereo channels are not working, due to the partial failure of the video+audio switching IC inside the Panasonic, which is really prone to electrostatic discharge damage. I would make sure that it works correctly before starting any serious capture work. Of course, if you bypass the audio section of the Panasonic you will have to take into account the internal delay of the video passthrough in the Panasonic, as Aya_Rei commented. For Panasonic PAL this delay has been stablished to be 120 ms (german forum link), but I do not know the value for the NTSC ones.

Good to know, @fafeco. I will definitely be aware of that if audio is garbled/missing.

Since the video will also be being pushed through the DVK-100, should I account for a delay with that device as well?

DVK does not process audio like ES10/15, so no. DVK has standard 1-frame (33ms) delay, not ~200ms like ES10/15. Huge difference.