For the time being, do the bst you can with the audio you are able to receive. It can't be that bad, is better than nothing, and you can devise another method later if necessary.

Panasonic DMR-ES10

I'd take the ES10. The main added benefit would be tearing removal. Just realize the ES10 has downsides too.

The Hotronic would be another choice, but those big industrial TBCs can need tweaking. They're not really plug-and-play devices like DataVideo and Cypress. It really depends.

No TBC is perfect.

@sanlyn: ATI hardware audio capture distorts. It's pretty lousy.

Hm. Well, that's a shame, as the owner is getting zero audio from the loop wire. Might have to go with the internal connection from the AIW to the sound card, if possible. But it seems the loop should work. If it doesn't, then why would an internal connection work? They are both the same connection, just different wire. The loop is working in MMC, according to an earlier post here.

Remember, 3 ways: loopback, AUx internal, or bypass.

So far, it sounds as if the first two are failing. So just bypass ATI altogether. Run direct from VCR to audio input. He needs stereo RCA to stereo mini adapter/cable. Those are not hard to find.

However, if loopback is failing, it's rarely the wire at fault. That means it's in the setup for the audio. It's very easy to make mistakes here. I do it all the time, when first setting up a new capture system.