Prev: Can't boot from DVD drive
Next: Video Card Performance Characteristics Effecting Text Glyph Rendering?
From: Nil on 17 Jan 2010 19:00
On 17 Jan 2010, Grinder <grinder(a)no.spam.maam.com> wrote in
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:

> It seems unreasonable to me that one method would /inherently/ be
> better than the other. It all should depend on the quality of the
> A2D converter -- either in a sound card or standalone.

This is the correct answer.
From: Rob Morley on 17 Jan 2010 22:21
On Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:39:07 -0000
"Steve Walker" <spam-trap(a)beeb.net> wrote:

> If price is important, use method 1 - a 3.5mm to 3.5mm mini-phono
> cable

3.5mm is mini jack - phono is altogether different.

From: kony on 17 Jan 2010 23:09
On Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:15:47 GMT, Gav <invalid(a)nomail.com>
wrote:

>AIUI there are two main methds to convert an audio cassette to a PC:
>
>(1) line out on cassette player ---->
> (perhaps isolating transformer) --->
> line in on PC
>

No need for an isolating transformer.


>(2) line out on cassette player --->
> analog to digital convertor --->
> USB port on PC


That'll work too, but you don't want to do this if it
converts it to a lossy compressed format and you want to
edit it later.


>
>Does the USB way in method (2) inherently produce a higher (or lower)
>quality result?

No, all else being equal it is capable of the same quality.
However you are talking quality with conversion from an old
audio tape which starts as terrible quality relative to
digital.

However, you did not thoroughly describe the "line in on a
PC", you are trying to distinguish only the bus a device
uses and not the device itself. For example the very cheap
(under $10) PCI sound cards, or typical motherboard
integrated audio is often not very good, it can have poor
SNR ratio, poor rejection of system power rail noise, poor
shielding against system EMI emissions. "Often" doesn't
mean always though, it can be quite sufficient and
differences inaudible.



>
>Are there any basic convertors for method (2) you would recommend? Price
>is important.

Presuming you have the tape deck and computer with line-in
already, try it and see how it sounds. If you don't notice
any noise added, other than what was already coming out of
the tape deck of course, there is no need for new hardware
to do the job. I would tend to think the quality of the
tape deck used will matter more, and if the heads where
clean.

There's no one best audio input capable device/sound-card
for your needs, many to choose from although some of the USB
types are more convenient as they have a break out box with
input ports situated away from the back of the system... and
audio ports built into the front of a system case are seldom
as good as the rear, too often they use low quality
connectors & cables and unshielded PCBs to mount them.
From: Bernard Peek on 18 Jan 2010 16:50
On 17/01/10 21:15, Gav wrote:
> AIUI there are two main methds to convert an audio cassette to a PC:
>
> (1) line out on cassette player ---->
> (perhaps isolating transformer) --->
> line in on PC
>
> (2) line out on cassette player --->
> analog to digital convertor --->
> USB port on PC
>
> Does the USB way in method (2) inherently produce a higher (or lower)
> quality result?

No, because the limiting factor will be the quality of the recording on
the tape. Any additional errors are likely to be negligible in comparison.



--
Bernard Peek
First  |  Prev  | 
Pages: 1 2
Prev: Can't boot from DVD drive
Next: Video Card Performance Characteristics Effecting Text Glyph Rendering?