digital music capture

[Steelo]

Has anyone tried to capture the music from Directv's music channels on their pc? I have a cmedia sound card with a optical in connection and when I tried this the resulting sound file sounded terrible. I am in the process of trying different recording utilities to see if that makes a difference, but if anyone has done this before please let me know how you did it.

[cweb]

My experience with DVB is simple - you just record into an MPEG2 file
and then use DVD2AVI to get the mpa file with the audio at 48khz. If you record a radio station you'll get an mpa directly. Then you can use Besweet to convert to ogg etc.

There's no need to use a sound card actually.

[Steelo]

cweb....

Thanks for the response.....Pardon my ignorance but how would you get it into the computer as a pure digital transfer from the sat box? I assume your suggesting that I record to the pc using a tv capture card or something similar. The reason I thought of a sound card was for simplicity (I only want the audio - no video), and I want to keep the sound file in the digital realm (less conversions for better quality). If I absolutly have to go another route I'm at the point now that I will accept anything just to get this thing working.

[trbarry]

I've seen this question asked before and am curious about the answer. I don't think I've seen anyone make it work yet.

- Tom

[Steelo]

Tom...I've seen this question on several forums as well and I can't believe that nobody can answer this and/or has not tried this successfully. There are some very expensive sound cards that have spdif in and I would find it hard to believe that this capability is not being used. I hope someone can help find a solution to this seemingly simple dilemma.

[trbarry]

Actually I have a Herc GTXP which does have spdif input. But I've never know how to record from it and it was never quite important enough to find out. I got curious when I had HD digital cable for awhile, but never quite got around to solving it before I canceled that service.

- Tom

[SeeMoreDigital]

I've captured audio from my UK Sky Digibox (via optical output) to my PC loads of times.

It's quite straight forward if you have an Creative Labs sound card with 'Live Drive'. The Creative 'Recoder' application, makes it very easy to catch audio to a WAV file.

Before that I used a really neat 'analogue audio to digital audio' converter box (£35.00) between my old 'analogue output only' Sky Digibox's and Trust 5.1 sound card (£20.00) which had electrical and optical inputs.

Over here in the UK most of our major radio stations are available via the Sky Digibox (and now DAB reciever). Either way each method produced very good quality clean audio captures with excellent dynamic range and no distortion.

Hope this helps

Cheers

[Steelo]

creative labs huh?......hmmmmm. I think I've seen them for about $100 a pop and I was thinking that I would have to spring for an M-audio Delta DIO for about $300. I'll have to check this out from a B&M store just in case I have to return it if it doesn't work. Thanks for the suggestion.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Actually Steelo I was forgetting.

There is another way to both 'input and output' digital audio with a Creative Labs card.

Creative supply a device called an 'Optical Digital I/O Card2' which connects to any SBlive card (via supplied ribbon cable) and comes complete with an 'Digital I/O Module' that connects to the I/O card via 1.5 meter coax cable.

This is infact my prefered method of connection. As it does away with the 'Live Drive' unit altogether.

But like I say, the 'Creative Recorder' application makes it far too easy to grab audio (from any source for that matter) to a WAV file.

[Steelo]

SeeMoreDigital thanks for your help on this......

I was wondering if the 'Creative Recorder' application is like "Total Recorder" in which it records anything that comes through the sound card? I tried this utility in conjuntion with a C-Media sound card and it failed to capture a signal for whatever reason.

Is it the creative sound recording utility that enables it to work so well or is it due to the superior make of the creative card itself?

Sorry to ask so many questions.....I'm just desperate to get this working. Thanks!

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Steelo
Is it the creative sound recording utility that enables it to work so well or is it due to the superior make of the creative card itself?
I would say, it's a bit of both really.

The PC I use to capture audio (which is also my ISP/file server) has an 'SBlive' sound card that dates back to Aug98. So I guess technology wise, it's pretty old. I decided to buy the 'Optical Digital I/O Card2 c/w Digital I/O Module' in Nov00 because I just happened to buy a new 800MHz P2 PC in Nov00 as well, And then discovered that it too had an 'SBlive' sound card.

As the years have rolled by. I have found that I did'nt use the 'Live Drive Bay' as often as I used the 'Optical Digital I/O Card2 c/w Digital I/O Module' - so it's in a box somewhere and a removable hard drive is in its place.

The 'Creative Recorder' application has been upgraded many times over the years too. And I keep expecting that one of these days, some of the functionallity will be removed as Creative have made it far too easy to capture audio. 'I have even read somewhere that some people use it to transcode audio from ligitimate time limited source providers - such as Liquid Audio' But I would'nt know about things like that!

Now. I purchased an 'analogue to digital audio converter' because with it, I can capture directly from any old crappy analogue source. Cassette tape decks, VCR's, TV's, even from vinyl disk's (via preamp)! But my main thought was it may come in handy if ever those 'The Men in Black' start to encrypt/watermark via the digital audio output. As I (you and anybody else really) would be able to capture from the analogue side - This might be why your having a problems capturing audio from Directv's channels in the first place!

Infact I've just downloaded Creative's latest application (some 23.3MB) so I'll have to load it and see if it's still up to spec. I usually don't use all of it, just the 'Recorder'. But I hear you can capture audio direct to MP3 now if you use the 'Play Center 3'.

I prefer to capture as a WAV file!

Cheers

[Steelo]

SeeMoreDigital you have been a great help on this....

I'm going to start pricing the Creative cards right away so I can try this. I will be so glad to get this off the ground and running...I've wasted enogh time already trying to get past this roadblock. I'll post what happens when I get it working.

Thanks again

[SeeMoreDigital]

I'm glad to help. As I did'nt realize there was such a problem, over where you guys are, capturing audio.

Don't forget. If capturing directly from the digital output of your reciever fails. You can still use an 'analogue to digital' converter box!

I read every month in 'What Satellite And Digital TV' about people paying upto £350.00 in the UK for a second hand Sony Sky Digital box (with an optical digital out) when they could convert their own for about £35.00!

I don't know...........!

[TerraForce1]

Hi,

@Steelo
I use the Hauppauge Nova for capturing, and its fine. My soundcard is Nvidia Geforce2 and is capable processing 5.1 dolby digital sound.
My question is the following: when you capture video do you have good sound or not? If yes, than I wouldnt bother to spend money on anything. As SeeMoreDigital said in the beginning of this thread just split the audio file from the video file and you have exactly that what has been broadcasted.
There are also other methods, I also tried the digital out of my receiver to the PC and that works fine too. Or from my music set to the PC. The only thing to be aware of is to set the volume of the line in. I had to use very low volume because otherwhise my sound became distorted of the very high amplitude. In my opinion thats the source of your problem. My advice to you is to set the volume level of your line in in Windows Audio Management which can be found in the configuration menu. In my case lets say my volume meter scale has a max of 10, I have to set it to 0,5. If I dont use this very low volume recorded sound is clipping. And I think thats the distortion you are experiencing. You can set the volume level with windows sound management.

For your knowledge.
TerraForce1