Hey,
I don't think it does what you think it does. Look at step 3 on this page:
http://www.xitel.com/product_mdpio_02.htm
It reads:
"The MD-Port I/O’s fully customized input and output have been designed to work flawlessly with all portable MiniDisc recorders. It’s optical output provides a pure digital pathway for recording from PC to MiniDisc, while
it’s analog input allows you to record from the
headphone output on your MiniDisc back into your computer in high fidelity. "
It sounds like you still have to connect the analogue output of the MD to an analogue input somewhere on your computer, be it a soundcard or this MD-Port.
I think you're fighting an uphill battle with this one, at Syntrillium we had to deal with tons of people not being able to record digitally from their MD players (they thought it was a Cool Edit problem) when it turns out that their players didn't even have digital outputs.
The only workaround we saw was complex, you need to have an MD player with a digital output, another device like a DAT machine that has both a digital input and output, and a soundcard that has a digital input.
1. Connect the digital output of the MD player into the digital input of the DAT machine.
2. Connect the digital output of the DAT player into the digital input of the soundcard.
3. Hit record/pause on the DAT player to monitor the input to the output.
4. Hit record on your computer (Cool Edit, Sound Forge, whatever)
5. Hit play on the MD player.
Seems a little complex...here's why:
There is a copy-protection scheme on minidiscs called SCMS (Serial Copy Management System), it is designed to prevent people from making digital copies of digital recordings. The way it works is by placing 'copy protect' bits in the digital stream...recording hardware like soundcards are supposed to recognise these bits and not record anything when they see them.
In your case, it is designed to piss you off, it's ridiculous that you can't transfer your own audio digitally.
If you try to connect the digital output of your MD player directly into the digital input of a soundcard, the soundcard will see the SCMS bit in the digital stream and not record anything. Some 'pro' machines like DAT players are exempt from having to recognise these bits, and they ignore this protection. They then pass the digital stream free of any SCMS bits, and the soundcard records it as a wav file.
You can read more about it here:
http://www.minidisc.org/faq_sec_6.html#SCMS
Take care,
Nick
PS: BigD, are you saying that you can transfer files
from the MD
to the computer across USB, and save them as
wav files? My understanding was that you could only bring them into your computer as compressed ATRAC files, as far as I know there isn't any way to convert them to wav files. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
