zahne Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 so in all my 12 years of being a minidisc owner, i've never tried optical recording until now. i've checked my owner's manual and there is no mention of a special way to set it up. so i just plugged it in and gave it a whirl. i had a dvd player with optical out playing a cd and i have a sharp md-ms702 with optical in swithed on synchro. i pressed play on the dvd player and the md recorder started up once it picked up the sound, as normal. i was curious to see what was different than a line-in. once the 1st track finished it, stopped recording! meaning is stopped recording as soon as the 2nd track started playing. this was very peculiar. i thought there might be a bad connection and i tried again and i just recorded the 1st track only again. i tried a different cd and had the same result. i tried the normal line-in and that worked out just fine. so i knew it was not the whole unit but just the optical function. then i tried optical recording with my sony mz-r70. the same symptoms happened exactly the same way and i tried all the same things. is there a step i'm missing here? i can't imagine that both optical ports are acting up the exact same way. is it an issue with the cable? i've never used it, it looks like it came from a time capsule from 1997 (i mean it looks in mint condition) is there something wrong with the optical port on the dvd player? OR is everything fuctioning as it should be and i'm doing something wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan22 Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 (edited) so in all my 12 years of being a minidisc owner, i've never tried optical recording until now. i've checked my owner's manual and there is no mention of a special way to set it up. so i just plugged it in and gave it a whirl. i had a dvd player with optical out playing a cd and i have a sharp md-ms702 with optical in swithed on synchro. i pressed play on the dvd player and the md recorder started up once it picked up the sound, as normal. i was curious to see what was different than a line-in. once the 1st track finished it, stopped recording! meaning is stopped recording as soon as the 2nd track started playing. this was very peculiar. i thought there might be a bad connection and i tried again and i just recorded the 1st track only again. i tried a different cd and had the same result. i tried the normal line-in and that worked out just fine. so i knew it was not the whole unit but just the optical function. then i tried optical recording with my sony mz-r70. the same symptoms happened exactly the same way and i tried all the same things. is there a step i'm missing here? i can't imagine that both optical ports are acting up the exact same way. is it an issue with the cable? i've never used it, it looks like it came from a time capsule from 1997 (i mean it looks in mint condition) is there something wrong with the optical port on the dvd player? OR is everything fuctioning as it should be and i'm doing something wrong?I just dicovered optical recording last night! I remebered my play station had the optical connection, so I decided to try it out, and the results were amazing! first thing to notice is you dont get those sound fades you normally get when recording analogue with the stereo cable, second thing is track marks REALLY work on this mode! before I had to make them myself wich was rather boring, and finally the soundquality is the best ive heard on my minidiscs, ITS AMAZING!Maybe the problem comes from the DVD play mode, maybe its playing each track individually, try setting it on a sort of ''play all'' mode and that might do the trick. or if you have a play station try recording off it!cheers Edited March 28, 2009 by Juan22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekdroid Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 recording off the PS2 is great. I like sitting the tiny Hi-MD unit on the slim PS2 and recording away. Not sure what the problem was with the DVD unit; I've never tried that.what did you mean by:"...you dont get those sound fades you normally get when recording analogue with the stereo cable" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zahne Posted March 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 huh. i just sold myps3:( i'm daving for a macpro which does have optical too, but i know that other devices in my house have optical, so i'll give them a try! i'm so glad track marks work! that was my real hope. i was hoping to use optical for albums that don't have distinguishable breaks between tracks. i'll try this out on other devices and report back, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan22 Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 recording off the PS2 is great. I like sitting the tiny Hi-MD unit on the slim PS2 and recording away. Not sure what the problem was with the DVD unit; I've never tried that.what did you mean by:"...you dont get those sound fades you normally get when recording analogue with the stereo cable"I wrote about it on the MZ-N510 topic but no one gave me any answers.When I made recordings using the stereo cable 3.5 jack on both ends I always got some horrible effect on the recordings, sound would fade and then come back during the entire album, but now with optical...things are different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zahne Posted March 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 that's interesting, i've never had that issue with analog. but i just a successful test with the optical! all tracks recorded, with great sound and all tracks marked! it must have been the dvd player, i tried a cd changer this time. does optical recording work the other way? let's say i'm using soundtrack pro, garage band, audacity or any other audio recording software. if i hook up my md to the optical port on my mac will the tracks be marked again? i understand that i wouldn't get the meta-data but what about track marking? that'd be great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekdroid Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 I wrote about it on the MZ-N510 topic but no one gave me any answers.When I made recordings using the stereo cable 3.5 jack on both ends I always got some horrible effect on the recordings, sound would fade and then come back during the entire album, but now with optical...things are different.I had a look at what you wrote. Your Sony D-NE718CK, does it sound fine when you hook it up to a stereo with the LINE OUT and played that way? If so, there really should be no reason why you are getting what you are getting. Another way of testing is trying LINE IN on the MiniDisc unit with different equipment and seeing if it still occurs.The MiniDisc unit itself shouldn't be adding anything anything that isn't there, really. This is the first time I've heard of this fading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan22 Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 I had a look at what you wrote. Your Sony D-NE718CK, does it sound fine when you hook it up to a stereo with the LINE OUT and played that way? If so, there really should be no reason why you are getting what you are getting. Another way of testing is trying LINE IN on the MiniDisc unit with different equipment and seeing if it still occurs.The MiniDisc unit itself shouldn't be adding anything anything that isn't there, really. This is the first time I've heard of this fading.Exactly, I thought there was no reason for that to happen, I checked the CD, the Discman, the cable, the MiniDisc, everything. and it still happened.I was running both the discman and the minidisc connected to the powersuply if that matters... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zahne Posted March 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 No track marking with an optical digital output from a computer, alas.that stinks! oh well, it's not the end of the world. how about this:recording from pc/mac to md:let's say i put a playlist together in itunes and hook in my md recorder to the optical port. will there be track marks the same way? also will the meta data from itunes carry over to the md? does meta data carry over in optical in any way for any device? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan22 Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 that stinks! oh well, it's not the end of the world. how about this:recording from pc/mac to md:let's say i put a playlist together in itunes and hook in my md recorder to the optical port. will there be track marks the same way? also will the meta data from itunes carry over to the md? does meta data carry over in optical in any way for any device?I dont think thats impossible, but if you are going to record off a computer (not getting the best sound) why dont you just use the USB cable and leave the optical cable for more sound-serious recordings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zahne Posted March 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2009 does this device make track marking possible? http://cgi.ebay.com/MiniDisc-MD-Port-PC-Li...93%3A2|294%3A50 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theblueraja Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 (edited) does this device make track marking possible? http://cgi.ebay.com/MiniDisc-MD-Port-PC-Li...93%3A2|294%3A50I'm not sure, but I actually own that gizmo. I tried a recording using it, and discovered it sounded no better than a Sonic Stage-to-MD transfer. I think when it comes to fidelity you are dealing with the limitations of your computer's sound card with this device. Never tried track markings. Edited March 30, 2009 by theblueraja Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zahne Posted March 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 i'm not really worried about improving sound quality. my macpro is equipped to handle 7.1 surround and lossless audio for advanced audio production. i'm more worried about the track marking ability. it says it can in fact do that but i want to be sure before i spend $15. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekdroid Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 i'm not really worried about improving sound quality. my macpro is equipped to handle 7.1 surround and lossless audio for advanced audio production. i'm more worried about the track marking ability. it says it can in fact do that but i want to be sure before i spend $15.i've never seen track-marking done properly on consecutive audio (ie. playing a full CD and having every track marked identical to the CD)... I haven't seen this from anything but playing from a real CD in a real non-computer CD drive (PS2 included). Playing on computers and going via optical out (via optical soundcard, etc) has always ignored this track info (regardless of source on computer...files, CDs, etc). Not quite sure the reason... but ... that's always been my observation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan22 Posted March 31, 2009 Report Share Posted March 31, 2009 i've never seen track-marking done properly on consecutive audio (ie. playing a full CD and having every track marked identical to the CD)... I haven't seen this from anything but playing from a real CD in a real non-computer CD drive (PS2 included). Playing on computers and going via optical out (via optical soundcard, etc) has always ignored this track info (regardless of source on computer...files, CDs, etc). Not quite sure the reason... but ... that's always been my observation.My optical recordings off the PS2 have the same track marks as the CD im recording. Maybe theres a little timing difference, but it must be incredibly minimal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekdroid Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 My optical recordings off the PS2 have the same track marks as the CD im recording. Maybe theres a little timing difference, but it must be incredibly minimal.yeah when i said "ps2 included" I meant it works just like a regular CD player with optical out, not the opposite. My wording wasn't the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zahne Posted April 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2009 yeah when i said "ps2 included" I meant it works just like a regular CD player with optical out, not the opposite. My wording wasn't the best.i was a bit confused too, thanks for clarifying. What about chapters on a dvd? will there be track marking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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