My external preview monitor image slowly drifts out of sync over time. Adjustments in preferences don't help, it always drifts over time eventually.

After doing some research, I am assuming this is due to my sound card, a Creative Audigy II ZS, and that I need a capture card or breakout box of some kind, like those made by Canopus/Grass Valley to lock the audio to an external reference.

My question is, those of you who use a hardware solution to deal with this, what is your preference for hardware, keeping in mind that I am on a fairly limited budget? Sync'ing up that preview monitor is essential to me, mostly to keep people from breathing down my neck while I work.

Hey Kevin I'm anxiously waiting for answers to your question, as I just purchased a Black magic Sp card, and I'm wondering if I should use the outs from that for audio monitoring, or should I get a separate card?

I've never noticed much drift myself, but one quark I noticed, that I'll share with you, sometimes when using JKL a lot, I notice some drift. Just hit stop, and you'll see the video "catch up" after the audio stops. Now you're back in sync for a critical edit.

Chuck

Yeah unfortunately I need to sit and screen assembled shows that are quite long so I can't afford any drift to happen. Anyone have any recommendations?

For that Blackmagic card why wouldn't you use it to monitor audio? Analog outs and SPDIF both on that I see. I suppose you would still be using your computer's sound card or mobo to monitor the PC's audio separately, through a mixing board, but that's just a guess...

Yeah I actually had a brainstorm the other day. I purchased a 4x4 Sierra router on E-bay. My plan was to make # 1 the Blackmagic card, and # 2 out my monitoring (Video to my plasma and audio through a mini mixer to a set of M-audio speakers) Then of course 3 & 4 can be tied into my dub decks. The nice thing about that is I can re route audio to monitor what's coming off the decks. Only probblem is I have to make up 16 or so XLR's and tie them into the router, so it'll be a bit before I get it up and running