Below is my third iteration on Myth Box:

Athlon XP 1800+
FIC AN11 Motherboard with onboard via82xx sound
2 BT878 Capture Cards
Soundblaster Live!
Soundblaster (Ensoniq 5880)

My first tuner is configured to use the onboard sound for audio capture and the records sound fine.

I have configured the second card to use either of the soundblaster cards for audio capture but the sound has a hum whichever I use.

I have tried changing the cable that pipes sound from the BT878 card to sound card. I have played with the alsamixer turning down/shutting off all unneccessary channels. I have researched the alsa configuration:

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.6 ---
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-service-2-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-2-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-2-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-2-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-2-12 snd-pcm-oss
options snd device_gid=29 device_mode=0660
alias snd-card-2 snd-ens1371
alias sound-slot-2 snd-ens1371
post-install snd-ens1371 /usr/lib/alsa/modprobe-post-install
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.6 ---
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
options snd device_gid=29 device_mode=0660
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1
post-install snd-emu10k1 /usr/lib/alsa/modprobe-post-install
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.6 ---
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-1-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-1-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss
options snd device_gid=29 device_mode=0660
alias snd-card-1 snd-via82xx
alias sound-slot-1 snd-via82xx
post-install snd-via82xx /usr/lib/alsa/modprobe-post-install
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

My cards are configured as follows:

Audiodevice on cardid 1 is set to /dev/dsp0
Audiodevice on cardid 1 is set to /dev/dsp2

The CPU is 20% idle when recording two shows.

What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks to all that looked at this. I believe that this is a hardware problem.

I swapped the tuners to the other audio cards and the hum follows the second card. So my second tuner must be bad!!!

I guess you've already narrowed down the problem, but one trick for testing the audio from a tv-card is to plug the speakers directly into the audio-out of the card. This eliminates the sound card from the chain, which can complicate the trouble shooting process.

_________________
Paul Turpie
-------------
<--Is your location in your profile? Why not?

I'd actually point at the sound card and not the tuner. I had similar issues with one of the several sound cards I went through. I don't remember which one it was for sure, but I thought it was a SBLive 5.1. I put in a cheapo Yamaha PCI card and no more buzz.

Gonz

I got back a third tuner card I had loaned to a friend and replace the second tuner. NO HUM!!!! Finally I can record 2 shows.

Thanks again for looking at this everybody.