[LAU] Recording from S/PDIF

David Kastrup dak at gnu.org
Wed Nov 22 16:40:31 UTC 2017


Len Ovens <len-ODU3Ot18rIYsV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org> writes:

> On Wed, 22 Nov 2017, David Kastrup wrote:
>
>>> David Kastrup wrote:
>>>> I have a Minidisc deck with various digital in- and outputs using
>>>> S/PDIF.  If you connect another MD deck or a CD player digitally and
>>>> record from it, it will faithfully reproduce the titling (not sure about
>>>> alphanumeric titles, but at least the starting points of the tracks will
>>>> be accurate and reliable and not just based on pauses like when
>>>> recording via the analog inputs).
>>
>> Huh.  Is that an ALSA shortcoming?  It would seem like something worth
>> unifying over several drivers capable of S/PDIF.  Oh, and what's the
>> deal with Dolby Surround via S/PDIF?  That would also need some sort of
>> access different to PCM, wouldn't it?
>
> I know on my ice1712 based D66 it is an interface shortcoming. From
> what I can see of s/pdif chip sets the user info is a separate stream
> that most interfaces just leave NC. The PCM stream itself does not
> have anymore info than an ADC would give (it is the same
> connection). So the first thing you need to do is make sure that the
> user info actually makes it to the computer with your card. The D66
> (and 1010) does deal with some of these extra bits (consumer/pro,
> emph, etc.) but not all... but then it is not a "profesional"
> interface. I know broadcast makes use of extra bits and so I would
> expect interfaces made for that world to pass them through. I would
> check with your card if there is any SW/drivers in the mac/win world
> that deals with extra info.

Well, I don't know.  I am not forced to use the RME Hammerfall Multiface
either: I do have a cheap CM106 based card somewhere as well.

The question is whether there is anything in the Linux world that would
be able to make use of this S/PDIF information for recording purposes if
I got it out.  I understand that most people just read out CDs without
reverting to S/PDIF (and that's obviously faster), but I don't even know
if you can then import toc+track labels into, say, Ardour.

But in my case, I have to work with minidisks, and I have no
computer-accessible drive, just S/PDIF.

-- 
David Kastrup


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