Minidisc Newbie Questions!

[MrBond]

Ok, checked just about every other minidisc board on the net, and none seemed helpful (or as friendly) as Anandtech Forums. So I'll just bug you guys with my questions

Picked up a Minidisc recorder, should be here monday. I'm getting the optical cable with the unit, and was wondering if I could go directly from the optical out on a SB Live to the unit directly, or should I just try to get one of the nifty USB cables?

I guess thats it. I've RTFM already online, and it doesn;t mention anything like that, so I'm kinda confused. Someone on another forum said that the SB Live outputs a different kind of signal then the MD unit requires, but I thought it was all the same...TIA!

 

[konichiwa]

You most likely need to buy a Digital Daughtercard from HoonTech. That will let you plug the Optical cable from your MD to the SB Live!

 

[urbantechie]

Damnit...I wanted a MD player but I just got a "good" portable CD-Player. I'm pissed.....:|

 

[Destructor]

Thats wierd, i guess try the optical then try the usb because the SB live said it can handle the optical i/o. the minidisc is a rewriteable, right? What type of minidisc system do you have?

 

[dcdomain]

My friend purchased the Hoontech daughter card this past summer. Great experience. The installation was a snap, and the only thing you had to do after the installation was enable DSP output in the options under the Live! software. Your soundblaster card doesn't have an optical out.. unless you have a Live!Drive IR, or Live!Drive II (I'm pretty sure the II has optical out).

By the way, the optical cable included in your minidisc recorder package was probably a mini cable, to connect from cd player with optical out to a md recorder. With the Hoontech card or Live!Drives, you'll need another version of the optical cable called a TOSlink, and you'll need an adapter to change one end of the TOSlink to a miniplug, so you can connect it to your recorder.

Good luck, and welcome to the MD community. By the way, which model did you purchase? If you haven't done so, check out Minidisc.org

[update] Minidiscs are all rewriteable... and your soundblaster card can output digitally, not optically...

 

[loogie]

heh...the cable it comes with is toslink -> miniplug...the sb live uses minijack, so you'd need to get a minijack->miniplug...the frequency is different as well...like 48khz v 44 standard...or alternatively, find one of those aureal sq2500 w/ toslink output...should cost the same as a daughterboard...and you can adjust the output...or you could just go analog.

 

[AlphaIVT]

whats some minidisc sites that I could go to?

 

[Killbat]

I built this: Super-cheap TOSlink (the 7404 version)
It's been working like a dream thus far.

 

[flood]

frequency output isnt too much of a concern. The MD will downsample 48khz to 44.1khz
If you dont mind getting a new sound card, I recommend the Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo
It has TOSlink output (what you plug the other end of that optical cable into), and suports EAX and A3D... I got mine for $36 or so.

 

[Zucchini]

Hmm kinda related but i think sony is working on a usb version of a minidisk player.. dunno how thats gonna work Probably will have to use their software player or osmething funky. Good idea as long as sony doesn't cripple it with protection like they did to their mp3 players

 

[beat mania]

minidisc.org

A much better place to ask questions than this bbs.

 

[MrBond]

Hehe, loogie knows all about the unit (sony MZR-37SP) cause I bought it from him . I kinda figured that going with a daughtercard would be nessecary, I'll probably just look around and see if I can find one of those special USB cables that Sony bundles with some of their units. I guess you can get a plugin for winamp that outputs to the USB port, which would be much easier. Thanks guys!