Thrush Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Hey guys, just registered! I have used the minidisc.org site now for a while for finding info but somehow managed to miss the fact it has a forum! Anyway, I have done a brief search thru the forum, but am getting a bit puzzled, so here goes....I have a pre-MDLP portable and a pre-MDLP hifi. In the past all I did was connect my portable upto a hifi and record a CD onto MD, and then when I got the hifi with MD built in, did a direct copy to MD from CD - in both case of course, the copy was done in real time. I have been using MD now since about 1996/1997....Shortly after that I got my drivers lisence, and naturally put an MD unit in the car, which to this day I still use! I have an MD head unit, and also a CD headunit with MD changer (which I got when I got a second car, nowadays the MD headunit sits in my works van and the CD + Md changer is in my car)Anyway, then came the computer and MP3 age. With this, all I did was connect my MD hifi upto to my PC via optical TOS cable and copied MP3's to MD, again in real time.With my vast collection of MD's, a lot of it I have doubled up on CD, but much of it is stuff I don't have on CD, and some it there is no way to get a copy of it on CD, or probably even get an MP3 of it, even using P2P networks and filesharing..... So my question is this;Is there a way to "rip" the contents of my MD's to my PC to create digital audio files (like MP3's, WMA's, etc) without having to connect my portable or hifi upto the soundcard and record in real time? Neither my portable or hifi has optical out for the MD (hifi has optical TOS out, but only for the CD - both units have optical in for the MD tho)Basically what I want to do is back up my entire MD collection to the PC, convert them to MP3 or similar files (at around 128-192kbps quality) and then burn them to disc or to an MP3 player. After that I will pretty much discard most of my MD's, as I have found over the last year or so, 90% of the music I listen to is either ripped from CD to the PC, or downloaded as MP3. Once upin a time I borrowed or bought a CD, copied it to MD (for portable use or in the car/van), but now everything is much easier with MP3 files. My phone acts as an MP3 player for a portable, and my pc is hooked into my hifi via optical cable so that I can play out my MP3's from the HDD thru the Hifi (rather than use tinny PC speakers) and I barely even play CD's when at home now!So I have looked at the NetMD stuff but can't get a straight answer on how to rip all the music from my MD's to my PC without having to record in real time, or use an analog cable to connect up. My soundcard has both optical TOS input and a digital-coax (RCA type) balanced input, but neither of my MD products have optical output and neither have digi-coax inputs/outputs. My hifi is a bit old now and only has a 1-bit DA converter anyway!So what to do? Minidisc has been my saviour for years and years now, and I still think it is far better than recording CD's as audio disc (due to being able to edit, move, delete tracks and add to MD's later - which you can't do with CD-R's if you finalise them to be able to play em in a normal CD player) but I can fit probably 10MD's worth of audio onto a single MP3 CD (or even more using a 1gb memory card or mp3 player) and it is all a lot cheaper than buying blank MD's (£10 for 10 MD's is the best deal I have found so far, or I can pay £10 for about 50 CD-R's!!!)Advice please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercury_in_flames Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 the short answer, the only way is real time. sorry dude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrush Posted March 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Arse! I thought someone was gonna say that! Bugger..... Thanks tho!Now, since neither of my MD players support digital TOS or digi-coax OUTPUT, I am limited to using my portable Denon DMP-R70 and an analog 3.5mm to 3.5mm stereo lead only... What sort of sound quality loss will I get?My soundcard is a TRUST 514DX 5.1 digital soundcard (same as this one --> http://www.trust.com/products/product.aspx?artnr=12950 ) but it's internal (PCi slot... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercury_in_flames Posted March 10, 2006 Report Share Posted March 10, 2006 give it a go and see man, If you were using a deck to output an optical signal it would be pretty good, otherwise I cant really say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATELETRONICS Posted March 14, 2006 Report Share Posted March 14, 2006 use the decks analog out not the portable.. it will sound better. if you buy a med md model you can use hi-md rendered to add drac marks while recording. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrush Posted March 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2006 use the decks analog out not the portable.. it will sound better. if you buy a med md model you can use hi-md rendered to add drac marks while recording.my "deck" isn't actually a deck tho; it's a midi "all in one" system, and doesn't have an analog out. Has analog inputs, along with optical input, and an optical output, but no analog output..... So it's gonna have to come from the portable's 3.5mm stereo jack output.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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