I'm trying to use VLC's dshow modes to drive my TV tuner. The software it came with is an atrocity. I honestly mostly need it for the console input, since the broadcasts can be viewed with WatchHDTV.

dshow:// :dshow-size="640x480" :dshow-vdev="WinFast HDTV Cinema BDA Analog Capture" :dshow-adev="Capture (WinFast HDTV Cinema)" :dshow-caching=0 :dshow-chroma="" :dshow-fps=0.000000 :no-dshow-config :no-dshow-tuner :dshow-tuner-country=1 :dshow-tuner-input=2 :dshow-video-input=1 :dshow-audio-input=4 :dshow-video-output=0 :dshow-audio-output=1

is the URL I use to display the input of the card.

The problem is that if I set the dshow-caching variable to 200, it injects 200ms of lag, which is too much for console gaming.

So I set caching to 0. This works for about 20 seconds. Then you begin to see huge numbers of dropped audio buffers, the sound sputters, and eventually gives out alright, except for the occasional hiss. It looks like about 19 in 20 buffers are dropped.

At most, you get a small number of frames (maybe 1%) dropped. The weird thing is that CPU utilization is negligible (<30%) so it's unlikely it's running dry on performance.

Relevant info:

TV card: Leadtek Winfast HDTV Cinema
Sound: Realtek ALC888 on-board

VLC: 0.8.6c

Thoughts?