UpperStrings

Thanks - I have ordered this exact soundcard but am unsure whether the MD unit supports optical out, eg this from the Maplins FAQ where I would buy the cable from: Frequently Asked Questions Q) is miniTos a 3.5mm jack? - chigz A) It is the same size and shape a 3.5mm jack plug. Q) My microhi-fi has optical connector. I want to transfer cassette to my PC which only has standard 3.5mm jacks. Can I use optical to connect between the two units? - richard656 A) no - optical is a digital signal and the 3.5mm jack is analogue - see if your hi-fi has an aux output (usually on red and white phono sockets) In fact I'm pretty sure it doesn't, re-reading the manual. Things have moved on a bit from my erstwhile Sony Walkman Pro!

So mine is only Net-MD not Hi-MD. I read something about hacking / Sony publishing the protocol to allow MD-PC communication but you're saying it's simply not supported with what I've got. I don't have any "legacy" recordings on MD, it will be just home-recorded stuff. Thanks for the sound card advice, the price of the Terratec is good too. Can I get an Optical LineOut if this is better? - there are 2 LineOut sockets, a normal stereo minijack and a flat one. I suppose it doesn't matter too much if some quality is lost - after all eg Windows MovieMaker will compress to.wma quality anyway even if a wave quality audio file is used. Thanks a lot for the advice guys and I will carry on checking out the forum.

Hi, I've just registered as I got an MZ-N910 v cheap off German eBay and have just recorded an opera performance live - even in the cheapest seats with just a clip-on mic I'm amazed at the quality. I hope to make decent single instrument recordings away from my PC for eg uploading to YouTube, as well as taping further concerts! I did my research quite well before selecting the model but not quite well enough. I assumed that the USB interface would enable 2-way operations but having done some more research on the Web I'm now not so sure. I appreciate that questions like this get posted every couple of weeks by new users like myself and can be a pain, but can anyone fill me in on the current state of affairs - is it now possible to download tracks to PC as files using the USB interface, or must they still be recorded on the PC via the LineIn? If the latter I'd also be grateful for recommendations for a decent sound card as I'm using the motherboard's inbuilt one - some people have recommended the Juli@ one or is this overkill for just a simple LineIn requirement? - ie would just need decent quality, not fancy connections etc.