bloodshot710

Like the title says, I need a USB sound card that will pass audio through the input "live" to the output so that I can use my HD radio. I am hoping for something fairly high quality without spending too much (<$100).

I have spent the last couple hours searching and havent been able to find one that says for sure whether it is supported or not.

Thanks for the help guys!

MP3Car.com

 

Sicarius

Just curious. Why do you need "live" passthrough? I'm using line-in on my motherboard for the HD radio and passing it to the USB sound card for output.

bloodshot710

right, what you are doing is exactly what I'm talking about, but unfortunately my motherboard doesn't support that. It will only record then play back, I need it to pass straight through. I am hoping to find a USB card that will accomplish this without spending too much.

FPeter

pass through what? analog or digital input to analog or digital output?

__________________
Intel D201GLY, 512MB DDR2, Samsung SP1213N 3.5" 120/7200/8M HDD, audio through digital line
bye bye noise - the DIY S/PDIF DAC

bloodshot710

I just need analog from the HD radio to pass analog on to the amps through the pc.

FPeter

what type of mobo (and sound chipset) do you have? i have never met integrated sound without this option, only some USB based... try to check the mixer settings again, this should work...

__________________
Intel D201GLY, 512MB DDR2, Samsung SP1213N 3.5" 120/7200/8M HDD, audio through digital line
bye bye noise - the DIY S/PDIF DAC

Sicarius

Well, in RoadRunner, here's what you do.

Install the Winamp Line-in plugin. Yes, it's old. Yes, it works.

Under "Radio" in RRConfig:

• Set "Line used for Radio audio" to "Disabled".
• Check "Use Line-in Plugin". In the text box next to it you'll need something like "line://dev=1,title=Radio,srate=44100,bps=16,nch=2".

You may need to change the dev=# to match your sound card. To find the right number, launch Winamp and configure the line-in input plugin. All your sound devices should be listed there with their device number.

If that works, all well and good. If not, make sure that your motherboard is set to record on line-in:

• Double click the speaker icon in the task-bar.
• Select Options->Properties
• Use the drop-down to select your motherboard's Mixer Device.
• Click the Recording radio button.
• Click OK.
• Make sure "Select" is checked for Line-in and nothing else.
• Close the Recording Control window.

BONUS: Winamp visualizations and mixer controls will work with your radio with this setup.

bloodshot710

Thanks! Just got the chance to work on it tonight, got it all working!

Unfortunately there is a lot of noise in the line, almost sounds like it's clipping, but the volume is even lower than winamp. Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot for the help!

MP3Car.com

 

Sicarius

Let's check the silly stuff first.

Is the radio in the car yet? Is it hooked up to an antenna? Does the antenna need power?

bloodshot710

Yes, everything including the radio is set up in the car. It is hooked up to the original antenna that came with the car. As far as I know the antenna does not need power, I used it with this same HD radio before I had my carpc set up and it worked perfectly.

Sicarius

What's your line-in recording volume set to?

bloodshot710

How do I set that? I haven't been able to change the volume for it at all besides the master volume. That could very well be it if I can find where to change it.

Sicarius

The procedure listed above for checking that your MB is set to record on line-in only also gives you the gain on the line-in.

bratnetwork

I had some issues like this when i was setting up my HD Radio with RR. I'm using the Visteon HDZ300 HD Radio Tuner. I first had it setup to a Intel D201GLY2A and it worked fine, then I upgraded to Intel DG45FC and w/ out changing anything with the radio it made horrible crackling noises and no matter what i did with the antenna or anything it wouldn't go away. What I came to discover is that the Visteon seems to put out a pretty strong audio signal and depending on the sensitivity of the input on your motherboard it can come in too strong and cause that distortion. I just went into the volume controls under Sounds in the control panel and turned the volume down for the Line In and it fixed it.

Then I had a slight hissing that could be heard if there was just talking on the radio or if there was silence on the radio, or anytime the Line In was un-muted and no significant sound was coming over that. To fix that I did this:
Mitch's Floating Ground Fix

kross

Double-click the speaker icon in the system tray, under Options, select Properties, then select "Recording", make sure "Line-in" is checked, then hit OK. Then you'll be able to lower the line-in recording level so it sounds better.

MP3Car.com