diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index a20064c04238694b29498a217bfe92e0a14ee062..51cc0e7b2648cfe01b9362af4ecbc94d923f5867 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2008-04-05  Tim-Philipp Müller  <tim at centricular dot net>
+
+	* ext/hal/hal.c: (gst_hal_get_alsa_element):
+	  Don't munge device string to 'default:x' for capture devices.
+	  Fixes #525833.
+
 2008-04-04  Sebastian Dröge  <slomo@circular-chaos.org>
 
 	* ext/wavpack/gstwavpackparse.c:
diff --git a/ext/hal/hal.c b/ext/hal/hal.c
index 6858aeae0deeb19af8ca1cda7b291b43312160de..d23a91a6774b4eeb34c31c23a1a2e6f76d49d6dd 100644
--- a/ext/hal/hal.c
+++ b/ext/hal/hal.c
@@ -115,7 +115,9 @@ gst_hal_get_alsa_element (LibHalContext * ctx, const gchar * udi,
       return NULL;
     }
 
-    if (device == 0) {
+    /* This is a bit dodgy, since it makes lots of assumptions about the way
+     * alsa is set up. In any case, only munge the device string for playback */
+    if (strcmp (element, "alsasink") == 0 && device == 0) {
       /* handle default device specially to use
        * dmix, dsnoop, and softvol if appropriate */
       string = g_strdup_printf ("%s device=default:%d", element, card);
@@ -302,6 +304,8 @@ ctx_free:
 
   if (string == NULL) {
     GST_WARNING ("Problem finding a HAL audio device for udi %s", udi);
+  } else {
+    GST_INFO ("Using %s", string);
   }
 
   return string;