AWE64 SPDIF Out To Optical Input?

Peter Gogas asks something you MiniDisc owners might be interested in: "I was wondering if anybody out there in Slashdotland can tell me how I would connect the optical input of my MiniDisc player to the SPDIF out of my Creative Labs AWE64 Gold? What type of cables and/or equipment is needed to make the conversion?"

Comments

Philips DCC make a cheap DA / AD

[Anonymous Coward]

Philips made a DCC (digital compact cassette - dead format similar to minidisc or DAT) unit which had both optical and coax inputs and outputs. These can be had used for about $100.
The unit I have (the DCC 900) will do the trick. Supposedly it has fairly good converters to boot.

buy a format convertor

[mosch]

I've got a Fostex COP-1 (I think that's the model number) that ran about $80 or the Midiman CO2 which is an almost identically capable product though the Fostex has automatic switching and the Midiman has a mechanical switch.

For a mid-range solution the Midiman CO3 adds SCMS switching and reclocks the data. If your output is SCMS 10 or 11, you might want to spend the money on this (or just spend your money on something that can output SCMS 00 natively :)

Storm Platinum

[SteveX]

I'm using a Storm Platinum, from the Gamer's Pack by Xitel, and it's got an S/PDIF output that plugs right into my Sony minidisc recorder.

This works great! The Xitel is an awesome soundcard (it's got the 3D accelerated audio stuff.. I don't know if there are Linux drivers for that but it works well with EverQuest on Windows) and the optical output is perfect for downloading MP3s and burning them onto minidiscs so I can listen to them in the car without having to go analog anywhere through the process.

TINAR, YMMV, etc

- Steve

Digital Audio Converters

[yabHuj]

There are converters between digital coax (S/PDIF) and optical digital (TOSlink). Ask you local music(ian) equipment store - not the HiFi shop, but the one where you can get e-guitars, synthesizers and professional recording.

The only one which comes to mind (caution: I have no personal experience with digital cabeling myself) is the "Midiman CO3" (http://www.midiman.com/new.htm) which converts all digital audio (AES/EBU, S/PDIF Coax and TOSlink - any sampling rate) to any output (~) incl. setting/deleting SCMS bits - maybe overkill for your application and with about $250 (US) not the cheapest, but to give you an impression of the "high end" solution.

Re:Digital Audio Converters

[dcj]

I recently purchased a Fostex COP-2 SPDIF coax optical converter box. It works great. http://www.fostex.com/usa-index.html

Numerous digital i/o cards out there.

[Quickening]

Check out http://www.hoontech.com

Converter box/AWP

[Lycestra]

I have built one, but i cant find the page I used to make it. There are a few ways of doing it. mine requires only one chip for buffering, and an LED of the right peak frequency. Radio Shack has one, again, web pages out there have the RS catalog number. It requires a 5 volt power supply, which i tapped from somewhere on my board. I put a port on the front that supplies the signal, power, and ground. (digital's ground is common). i then hook up a blue box with an LED hanging off it, tape an optical cable to the led, and put the other end in the MD recorder.

The EMU chip drives this port, which is only used for midi, so all it is is a digital midi audio out. If you want to play MP3s, use mpg123 and the AWE Wave Player at http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/home/jwittema/awe/awe. html its not perfect (studders), but its free and prolly cant be done on windows.

Random schematics links

[Unbeliever]

Here are a few links for converters/strippers/buffers, etc.

http://feste.mae.cornell.edu/st reeter/md/elektor.html
http://www.stack.nl/~leon/spdif/
http://www.fet.uni-hannover.de/ purnhage/dat/spdif.txt
and
http://members.tripod.com/~Psych/co ax-ttl-md.html

all grabbed from http://minidisc.org