Don't know if anyone here can help me...but I might as well ask.

I have an ATI TV Wonder HD 650 tuner card in my PC, and it has a composite-in, so I can hook up videogames or DVD/VCR to my PC. I hooked up my Wii, and using ATI's given software, it lagged like hell...like a second delay.

I read up about VirtualDub, a video capture program, downloaded it, and using it, I can play games at a good framerate, but only with the sound deactivated.  If the sound is on in VirtualDub, it lags out every second...it's like going from 30 fps without sound, to 25 fps with sound, and drops to 5 fps every second.  So if I want to, I can play a game (a Brawl match for instance) at a solid framerate, but the sound would only be in the final video, not while I'm playing...and that sucks for me, cause that's no fun.

I'm wondering, could I get an RCA audio splitter and split the Wii's composite audio out to a 1/8 audio jack, so that I can listen to my game coming out of the speakers while simultaneously recording the sound through the composite-in on my TV tuner card?

I have no idea how complicated this sounds...I'm quite confused myself...anybody out there tried this with a tv card, or at least have some ideas?

Nobody? Eh, I figured.

Your audio jack idea may work, but you might get reduced volume because you're splitting it. I've never used ATI tuner cards so I'm not too sure about the technical difficulties there..

ya, not to sure about this one ben. sady idk about how to solve your issues.

It sounds like your pc needs an upgrade. I think that video card doesn't have an mpeg encoder on board, so it forces all of the processing onto your cpu.

Using your existing hardware/software, I'd suggest splitting the signal between your tv and pc. Play on the tv and then you'll have the video on your pc so you can edit it.

I don't think that's a video card/tuner card combo - it's just a tuner card.

 According to the ATI website, the ATI TV Wonder HD 650 has an onboard MPEG2 compressor. That said, I doubt that Virtuadub takes advantage of this, and if you are compressing to xvid/divx (which won't because it is mpeg4 based) then this may be causing the issue.

In regards to splitting, you should be able to playback what is currently being recorded. This is usually just an issue of selecting the correct input for recording in the advanced windows sound options. Otherwise, splitting the audio shouldn't be a huge issue. It may cause a slight drop in volume (although the Wii outputs at a ridicuously high level compared to other devices) and you may get a drop in quality due to crossover.

As long as the quality drop isn't too bad, I think I'm gonna split my composite audio out, so that it's still plugged into the tv tuner card, as well as...directly to my speakers? I don't think I have a line-in on my mo-bo...

And my pc doesn't need an upgrade...this lagging is the tv tuner card's fault...and apparently it happens with most tv tuner cards...the MPEG encoding lags it out.

I'd just like a nice way to record my videogames at a good framerate, but still be able to hear the game while playing, because it's just awful playing without sound.