Brent Harding asked,
| What is the idea of this scms thing?
To impede copyright violations, theoretically. It subverts its own purpose
just about as often as it promotes it.
| I'm thinking about getting an md
| recorder, and want maximum time possible to record long shows, does that
| just mean if I use the digital inputs as sources, I can't copy the disc?
No. First of all, you can't use the digital inputs as sources when you're
recording actual sound waves in the air (unless you use a digitizing micro-
phone or an outboard ADC, but unless the outboard ADC or the digitizing
microphone's ADC is enormously superior to the MD recorder's ADC, that's
just a silly thing to do, because of SCMS), so your recording of the show
will always allow one generation of further digital copying.
Digital transfers are only for copying material that is already digitized:
from a CD, a DAT, another MD, a DCC, or a digital satellite tuner.
Usually, if you want to make a lot of copies, you'll keep copying your
earliest-generation source. Say you have an MD and want to make six copies:
you'll copy the first one six times. You won't copy it once, copy the second
to make the third, copy the third to make the fourth, etc. So unless you're
in a trading tree extended generations don't usually come about. For people
in trading trees, there are SCMS strippers and some tricks one can use, but
one thing about MD is that ATRAC is a lossy compression system, so with each
generation (especially the first MD recorded from the uncompressed source)
there is some slight infidelity, and MD trading trees aren't very deep.
(Even that has exceptions, for there are professional-grade duplicators that
copy the ATRACked data bit-for-bit without decompressing and recompressing.)
| Why would you need this, maybe the analog is better because you can copy it.
Sometimes; a lot depends on the particulars of the situation.
| What if you have a mixture on the same disc?
Each segment of each track has its own SCMS status regardless of other tracks
on the disc or other segments in the track. If you are playing a whole disc
straight through and copying digitally to another MD, SCMS will make the
target unit pause during uncopyable segments but will allow it to record
during copyable segments.
| Do md recorders let you copy discs onto each other?
If you use two units or a dual deck, yes. Within a single-disc unit, no.
| What is this feature I hear about called test mode for anyways?
For seeing and changing internal firmware parameters, and for getting
yourself into trouble if you haven't yet learned what you're doing.
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