Well, I took time this evening to connect a TOSlink transmitter to the
S/PDIF output of the Samsung CDROM drive so I could try the drag-and-drop CD
to MD feature in the Sony MDS-PC2's PC software. The problem I encountered
is that the Samsung CDROM does not output S/PDIF unless the drive is
playing. During stop and pause on the CDROM drive, the MDS-PC2 gives "DIN
unlock", and it glitches briefly when seeking from track to track. This
behaviour of the Samsung drive (not continuing to output valid S/PDIF at all
times) makes the S/PDIF output somewhat useless, because no matter what it
is connected to, some time will be required to acquire lock, thus you'll
always miss the beginning of playback. I have heard some mention that this
is a common problem with the S/PDIF output of CDROM drives.
One way that the drag-and drop software could partially get around this
problem is to play the last few seconds of the preceeding track after each
seek (with the MD in record-pause) to allow the MD recorder a chance to lock
up. Then it would start the MD recording at the instant playback reached
the desired track. This would work for eveything but the first track.
Right now, I see no way to cleanly get the beginning of the first track.
Doing this would not, so far as I can see, create any new problems. (Sony,
are you listenning?)
I should note that the Sony setup instructions intend for you to do the dub
using *analog*, possibly for this very reason. I don't think I'd want to do
the dub through a typical computer sound system, the way they suggest,
because of the big-time audio degradation (compared to a digital dub).
Does anyone here have experience with using the digital audio output of a
CDROM drive? If so, what have you found?
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