optical out

[AV Freak]

How about optical outputs for portable units? They had it on the MZ-1, but that was 10 years ago.

[Bazirker]

I strongly doubt that anyone will put an optical out on portable minidisc players. While I agree with you that it would be highly useful and generally cool, Sony originally designed the minidisc system to prohibit the digital copying of one minidisc to another. Now I believe that some MD decks do have optical outs, but i don't know if some SCMS (Serial Copy Management System) is in place to prohibit MD to MD copying. Dammit...it sucks.

[Shorty]

As far as I know (I checked the MiniDisc.org FAQ about this), SCMS prevents more than one digital copy of a MiniDisc. So you can record from a CD to an MD, but you can't digitally record from that MD to another. Note that you can make as many analogue recordings as you want, since SCMS info is not transferred during analogue recorrdings.

It's rather unnecessary considering that:

You could just as easily make more MD copies of the CD and save yourself the quality loss involved in second-generation compression

Professional decks are exempt

Analogue recordings are exempt

Most users don't need to worry about it, though.

As for no optical out, it's not really needed unless you're planning to plug your MD into a receiver deck or something. But most people don't have equipment that can accept that kind of input so 99.5% of the time people use the Line Out plug to plug into speakers or a stereo.

[MDX-400]

All consumer digital recording equipment that is meant for audio only (i.e. not computer based like CD-R drives) have SCMS built into them. It isn't a "feature" specific to MD. Copying has little to do with why MD portables do not have optical outs. Decks have it and while yes the decks do have SCMS, so do the portables!

Furthermore you can make a digital to digital copy of an MD depending on how the MD copy was made (actually rather if it was a 1st generation or not as dermined by SCMS).

For example if you make an MD recording from a CD via an audio CD player's (or DVD player's) optical output stage then that S/PDIF stream will be flagged with the information that you are making the second generation from the CD (which is the first generation). This means that tracks that are recorded to the MD in this fashion cannot be digitally recorded again from that MD.

However if you were to record from a PC via an optical output from your PC (whether it be a USB connected device or a soundcard with optical output) the PC world cares not about copy-protection and completely ignores SCMS. So if you recorded a track digitally from your CD-ROM drive the bit doesn't get set as the MD simply thinks you are making your own personal first-gen recording. Then that MD can be copied, digitally, to another MD (or other digital medium). In fact the first MD copy can be copied to as many other MDs digitally as you'd like but none of the copies can be copied again as it will not be permitted by SCMS.

So depending on how and what was recorded to the MD you may well be capable of recording from MD to MD. Shorty though raises the valid point that if you copy from MD to MD you are decoding ATRAC and then encoding it once more (unless you are using pro equipment that can access ATRAC directly--but that would not have SCMS anyway).

As for the issue of optical out on the MD it is a valid one, IMO. However the need for the optical out is more for transferring the data from the MD to somewhere else, not necessarily for playback. In other words the main use would not depend on if you had a receiver that has optical input (as most modern-day receivers do) because the difference between the D/A in the receiver and the one in the MD unit would probably be inaudible anyway. The only thing connecting an optical out on the MD to the receiver would do would be to use the receiver's D/A converter instead of the one in the MD portable.

The use for the optical output (if there were portables with that feature) would lie as I mentioned mostly in transferring audio and I do think that it would be a beneficial feature to have.

I too think manufacturer's should include optical output on portables but it is just cheaper not to and since they have been doing that since the MZ-R2 and no one really complained all that much they don't care. It is simple to see that digital outs are just not provided in this fashion if you look at the MD decks. 300 and 400 level decks from Sony have never featured digital output but 500 series and higher decks, which cost more, have always had it.

Roland M.

[Guest Anonymous]

I was looking today for MD recorder with digital output. I need to record interviews with different people and prepare programs for radio broadcasts. So I wanted some recorder with the digital out to transfer audio to my PC without any loss of quality (for radio that's important). Unfortunately, I couldn't find any MD recording walkman with digital output. It's stupid that I have to buy walkman AND minidisc deck just to transfer recorded material... Maybe I should look somewhere else? For example, MP3 recorders with USB2 data transfer?

[Guest Anonymous]

HHB and Marantz both make professional portables with digital ins and outs and no SCMS (scums). They sell for around $1000 though. It will be a cold day in hell before Sony sells a portable with a digi out.

[Shorty]

I'd postulate that the main reason Sony doesn't install optical output on their consumer MD units (note that I said consumer, as the professional units are another matter entirely) because it's not a feature that's generally needed in MD units of that level. Most of the people who buy an MZ-N505, for example, are not going to need the ability to export their MD tracks to another source. We're talking the average user here, not the technically apt people that would frequent this forum, per se. Pro units need them because pros need to be able to use it.

The other reason is cost. It costs money to not only have optical output but to integrate that into the rest of the circuitry while maintaining the remarkably small size MD units have become. For consumer-level recorders, it's simply not worth the extra cost.

Of course, illegal copying is also a concern. But I'd say it's as much a matter of cost and necessity as it is about preventing illegal copying.