Hi Polrus, As well as you, i'm a beginer with more than 100 old Minidiscs trying desperate to trasfer digitaly all those audio files into my p/c,.. i have been trying many possibilities: Edirol ua-1ex USB Audio Interface, Xitel MD-Port I/O with no success due to a SCMS; i try to record digitally the MD's to a CD's, ripping with Xilisoft program and nothing either because of loss of sound quality,.... anyway; i am tired an frustrated too,..... Polrus, if you already got it, Pease,PLEASE!!! let mi know how to do it!!! I have an Old but pretty good quality deck Sony MDS-S39 with Optical Output and a Toshiba Satellite Laptop M55 Series w/ Windows XP. I hope i am on time for your answer.