SCMS Digital Transfer

[gman_g]

I apologize if this topic has been asked before or beaten to death by others!

I’m trying to get an understanding of how SCM works. Is it worth me pursuing the purchase of an MD Deck with an Optical out?

I have recorded some live shows with Microphones. If I use the Optical out from a Home Deck and feed it into my PC with an Optical input, will the Deck prevent a digital transfer with SCMS? Or is this considered analog and will be transferred through the Optical output of the deck without any degradation in sound?

Also, is it true that sound cards ignore the SCMS data they receive from their optical input, therefore bypassing the SCMS and allowing a true digital transfer?

When does the SCMS kick in?

I hope some of you pro’s out there can help clear this up!

I really appreciate your help.

Thanks

George

[aeriyn]

I'm pretty sure most sound cards ignore SCMS.

Since the optical out on the MD deck is generally used to plug it into a stereo reciever for actual sound production (through speakers) I don't even know if the SCMS on the actual deck would make a difference.

I DO know that if you took a recorded MD, put it in said MD deck and tried to record it digitally through the optical out to the optical in of another MD recorder (say a portable) it would likely have problems of the "NO COPY" variety. Of course, you could always do a UTOC clone on said deck with an analog copy, giving a digitally-recorded MD the UTOC from an analog-recorded MD. But that's a little time consuming... >.>;

Logically, it would follow that SCMS exists on the input, not the output, at least as far as the manual for my MD recorder says.

Hope this helps.

[skyther]

If you recorded the stuff through a mic, that's okay. SCMS doesn't kick in till the 2nd generation copy of a digital source, ie. you can record from a CD, but you can't record digitally from the MD that was recorded from the CD.

SCMS doesn't 'exist' on the input or the output, but it's 'calculated' at the input. The source merely sends the SCMS code to the recorder, telling it how many generations it has passed through. The recorder decides what to do with it.