Re: MD: cheaper optical cables
I couldn't find them in Serramonte Target either. I will check the Saratoga Target this weekend. Chris - Original Message - From: "Dan Frakes" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "MDList" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2000 9:09 PM Subject: Re: MD: cheaper optical cables A few weeks ago someone mentioned that they saw convertible TosLink/Miniplug digital cables at Target. I offered to pick a few up the next time I went to Target and a couple people responded that they would like one. The bad news is that I went to the "super" Target in San Francisco today and the cables were nowhere to be seen. Sorry to disappoint. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: amps with digital in/out
Just found this on the web http://www.bostonacoustics.com/Default.asp. Boston Acoustics has some rather pricey Dolby DCS5.1 systems with optical inputs. The lower end DT6000 is $599 and high end DT7000 $999. They both have optical and electrical digital inputs, as well as RCA and include a universal remote control that not only controls the speaker system but is also programmable for most modern VCRs, DVDs, and DSS receivers. Chris Eddington Pacifica, CA - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: amps with digital in/out
=== The original message was multipart MIME=== === All non-text parts (attachments) have been removed === Another one from Gateway computer: Dolby Surround Sound 5.1 speakers for computers or home stereo. It has coaxial SPDIF input, but no optical. Chris Eddington Santa Clara, CA http://necxdirect.necx.com/hai/prod_page.html?key=141257nonce=guest_gate Chris Eddington wrote: Just found this on the web http://www.bostonacoustics.com/Default.asp. Boston Acoustics has some rather pricey Dolby DCS5.1 systems with optical inputs. The lower end DT6000 is $599 and high end DT7000 $999. They both have optical and electrical digital inputs, as well as RCA and include a universal remote control that not only controls the speaker system but is also programmable for most modern VCRs, DVDs, and DSS receivers. Chris Eddington Pacifica, CA - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] === MIME part removed : text/html; === - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: USB to S/PDIF interface
I'd be interested. It would be nice if it had companion software or interface to Musicmatch or other MP3 players that automatically records a playlist and increments the tracks. ( I notice that this is done on my sharp MT831 by turning off the SPDIF signal completely, i.e. silence won't increment the tracks). Chris Eddington Richard Wright wrote: Hi all, I'm thinking of developing a USB to S/PDIF optical interface for the PC (and possibly the Mac if it's not too difficult!) and I just wanted to see what the level of interest would be, and how much people would be prepared to pay for the one. Initially, I am looking at only providing an output on the interface - the addition of a digital input would probably double the cost! Cheers, Richard Wright - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Future of MD
=== = NB: Over 50% of this message is QUOTED, please = = be more selective when quoting text = === A Palm Pilot with MD that can play MP3, ATRAC, etc. would be cool. Maybe MD optical technology is too old? Check out this new optical storage technology at http://www.dataplay.com/ Even a MD player with fully digital USB port for downloading music files from a PC would be cool that played both ATRAC and MP3 formats, but the consumer electronic companies will never do it because of copyright and piracy issues. It would be too easy to copy, distribute, and use songs from purchased CDs. The music industry is all over that right now. Chris "Shawn R. Lin" wrote: Billy Hetherington wrote: I believe if Sony learns to push the right advertising buttons, they may convince music pirates everywhere that MD is a much better method of storing MP3 audio for portable playback. Have you ever priced Smart Media or CompactFlash memory upgrades? Or the price of Sony's new Memory Stick upgrades? The reason MP3 caught on is because people are cheap. When they realise that MiniDisc will save them money in the long run, then MD will catch on. Plus people need to realise the limitations of MP3 only players, mostly that you NEED a computer to do any music editing or recording functions with most of these units. I think soon we'll see MD players that can access email, organize notes, etc. I think a neat idea would be for Sony to make portable MD Data drives the size of the current players, that can play back conventional audio discs as well as MP3. The machine could connect to a USB port and you could have 140 mb of MP3 on a disc that costs a few bucks. Just imagine the hype that would surround the MiniDisc then !! Yeah, MD media is MUCH cheaper than CF or SmartMedia. I think even if the MP3's were converted to regular ATRAC and the MD's could only hold 74 or 80 minutes of audio, as long as putting MP3's on MD were FASTER and EASIER, it would make it a hot seller. A simple MD recorder with USB interface would be good enough. Not that cheesy USB to TOSLINK thing, but a real USB interface that could transfer audio data at MUCH faster than realtime. The USB interface should also allow transferring track names, and operating the MD recorder from the PC. In fact, to make the MD recorder cheaper, MP3 to ATRAC conversion could occur on the PC side with no conversion hardware/software required in the recorder itself. Of course, the ability to hold 140MB of MP3's would be great, but there also needs to be an ATRAC conversion mode to allow the discs to be usable on legacy equipment. About the MD recorder that can access email and organize notes... I was fantasizing about something like that when I did that April Fools Palm Pilot/MD recorder combo thing. Now I've come to discover that some company has a Palm Pilot clone (called Visor I think) that has an expansion slot. Supposedly there's an MP3 player card that makes this PDA into a fullblown portable MP3 player, and I think it can also access internet and email. Now if only it had an MD drive in it! Shawn - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Compression on Sharp-831
Luke, Yeah, analog soundcards on laptops can be REALLY bad depending on how well they isolated the analog circuitry from the digital circuitry. I've got a Gateway solo 9300 (or something like that) and it has an optical SPDIF connector (rectangular). I found a standard optical cable which directly plugs into both connectors. Chris Eddington Santa Clara, CA Luke Rayner wrote: Chris Eddington wrote: I have experienced this noise exactly as you have, when trying to record digitally from my laptop. Chris (and maybe others) how are you recording(digitally) from your laptop to md? i have a laptop running windows95 but currently the only way i can record is from the headphone output, which is terrible. i can hear the hard disk spinning etc. also, a few weeks ago someone posted about the sharp ATRAC being better than sony's for recording rock/contemporary music, ie cymbals etc sounded crisper. has anyone got any more comments on this? i know that the sharp ATRAC has problems with the french horn...but is it better for other types of music than sony's? luke Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Compression on Sharp-831
=== The original message was multipart MIME=== === All non-text parts (attachments) have been removed === Dave, I didn't realize you were recording digitally, using an optical cable. What is your digital source? A tape deck with optical out? I have experienced this noise exactly as you have, when trying to record digitally from my laptop. It sounds fine when the MT831 is paused in recording preview mode, but the actual recording on minidisc has noise which sounds like its dropping LSBs, or the sample words are missaligned. I was thinking that it is either the copyright flag bit in the SPDIF stream or some kind of format incompatibility with my laptop's output - but haven't had time to research. Recording in analog mode sounds fine, which makes me think its not the ATRAC compression, but something with the digital input -- ATRAC path. I even tried reducing and increasing the input levels to test if it is ADC quantization noise (but there should NOT be an ADC in the path, but I test anyway). The noise has the same magnitude and characteristics. My suspicion is the copy protection bit is active in the stream from my laptop, the MT831 recognizes this and reduces the compression quality. I will be very surprised (and very pissed off) if this was a bug in Sharp's design or poor compression quality on their part. Can anyone share their knowledge on what the copy protection bit will do in digital recording? Chris Eddington Sharp MT831-A owner Santa Clara, CA Dave Hooper wrote: H... Ok - so if I'm recording digitally, I still hear the same artifacts. So that rules out the ADCs unless the Sharp has some kooky DAC-ADC design on the digital input. Which I'm pretty sure it doesn't. As for the guy who says 'get some better headphones' : The music I'm recording *HAS* hisss in the track. Better headphones would just let me hear the hisss better. My headphones are plugged into my minidisc headphone-out socket. If I record (either digitally or via analogue line-in) into my sharp831 I get a chance to preview the music as it goes into the MD recorder ... and it sounds NOTICEABLY different on record preview to how it sounds when I playback what I've just recorded - on the same MD unit - using the same headphones. So the actual headphones used are irrelevant here. Ideas or knowledge, anyone? (Should I maybe consider taking it back to the shop I bought it at? I've listened to a MD recorded on some Aiwa cheapy portable MD unit and it still sounds better than my twice-the-price Sharp portable.) Hey, are maybe Sharp portables not very good? And does the Aiwa portable use (as I suspect it probably does) the same ATRAC chipset as developed+used by Sony for the Sony portables? dave I find that my Sharp-831 does not offer particularly good compression. I can clearly HEAR the artifacts, especially if the music contains a quiet passage that contains a proportionately large amount of background hiss, and on cymbals, hihats, etc. Just remember, it could also be due to the ADCs. Decks often have much better ADCs than portables. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] === MIME part removed : text/html; === - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Portable MD Player in Car
=== = NB: Over 50% of this message is QUOTED, please = = be more selective when quoting text = === I've got an A4 as well. There is one other possibility that I haven't looked into. There is a car phone connector in the middle armrest for cell phones. Chris jgvp wrote: I took my Audi A4 in for Audi service this morning and asked them, while they were about servicing, to attach one of the accessory cables that came with my MZ R-50 to the Audi radio line in. I had reasoned that when the manual referred to the capability of attaching a CD ( changer) player an MD player could also be attached for input to the radio. However, it seems that any attachment would call for a DIN type plug for any line in ( probably on account of the "changer" aspect. ) Is it still possible to achieve my goal as the "cassette" attachment route is really out of the question from a sound quality point of view ? TIA. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: MP3 to Optical Out
=== = NB: Over 50% of this message is QUOTED, please = = be more selective when quoting text = === Hi Mark, I just bought an 831 two days ago. Hot little product. I just made some digital recordings from my laptop last night. I bought an optical cable with the rectangular connector on one end which plugs into my laptop optical SPDIF output connector. Then I used my MP3 player to play my MP3 tracks as I normally do - the data is streamed out the SPDIF port. You can put the 831 in synchro mode to autostart when a digital signal is present. Check out the minidisc appreciation page for more detail on soundcards and SPDIF: http://members.tripod.com/~Psych/index.html Link :-7 wrote: Hi List, I've got another doosey of a question. I want to record MP3s with my PC onto MD. I'm using a Midiman Dio 2448. I want to go optical out into my Sharp 831, but am having no luck... Do I need to convert the MP3 to some type of digital file and then go out? Any help would be appreciated! Sincerely, Mark J. Linkhorst MD Link http://www.angelfire.com/md2/MDLink __ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: MD Data
=== = NB: Over 50% of this message is QUOTED, please = = be more selective when quoting text = === Where can I get one? ( or get complete info on existing models that I could buy used). Chris [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes I think there are a few people on this list with mdh-10's is that all you wanted to know??? -Jeffrey -- The day MS makes something that doesn't suck will be the day they start making vacuum cleaners. On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Edward Foster wrote: New question. Does anybody have any Sony MD Data device (MDH-10, MDM111, etc..)? Please let me know. Thanks, eD - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
