Recording via optical-in

[hellokytty]

Hi,

I just wondered if the recording section on H 1** players is finished or if someone intends to add recording via optical-in.

I someone does it would be great knowing it's in progress. Otherwise I would like to say thank you all for the great recording features (e.g. the peakmeter) you gave to us.

[Mmmm]

The recording screen is nowhere near finished...Have a look HERE for a load of, as yet, uncommitted upgrades...

I don't know about the optical in though...I'm sure it will eventually get done although I personally cant think of any point in it...
Surely if you already have a digital source, you are better off re-encoding it using a computer instead of doing it real-time through the optical in? Or maybe there is something else you could use it for that I haven't thought of...?? :-)

[AGI]

Many tapers use external mic preamps/AD converters (for sound quality reasons, phantom power etc.) and feed a digital signal to the recorder.

I for one have a digimod Edirol UA5 that I'm currently using with a Nomad JB3 (which has a digital optical in).

I'd like better to use it with my Rockbox H120 ;-)

[Mmmm]

Many tapers use external mic preamps/AD converters (for sound quality reasons, phantom power etc.) and feed a digital signal to the recorder.

I for one have a digimod Edirol UA5 that I'm currently using with a Nomad JB3 (which has a digital optical in).

I'd like better to use it with my Rockbox H120 ;-)

Ahh I see.... so basically if you want to use an external a/d converter..
You learn something new every day! :-D

[mborus]

I don't know about the optical in though...I'm sure it will eventually get done although I personally cant think of any point in it...
Surely if you already have a digital source, you are better off re-encoding it using a computer instead of doing it real-time through the optical in? Or maybe there is something else you could use it for that I haven't thought of...?? :-)

Actually that's the one item missing from Rockbox to make me happy (OK - happier ).

I have a lot of digital sources (Satellite, hifi-system) in rooms without computers.
Also I'd like to be able to hook up my portable CD player with optical digital out to
copy CDs "in the field".
The Iriver records in WAV, so you can get the best quality possible. With this feature,
the Iriver plays in the same league as professional portable recorders.

The encoding - if necessary - will be done on a PC later, you're right about
that. That doesn't make a digital in pointless.

[sullen]

Yeah, if optical worked correctly, the Iriver would be the smallest optical digital recorder out there AFAIK.  Just like the above mentioned, I use a JB3 with an AD20 in front of it to record digital.  Analog ADC chips can be noisy, I have never used the JB3s ADC chip so I am not sure just how "bad" it is. 

[whatboutbob]

Yup...I'm eagerly waiting to bring my AD20 out of the cupboard too.

Digital recording is the only doable 'big' feature that's missing from rb, from my perspective. (I'm not counting wma playback & mp3 encoding as doable)

[Boswell]

The reason I bought an iRiver H140 was to record .wav files via optical input. I use a digital mixer as part of my PA rig at live gigs, and have to keep an accurate copy of what goes through the main stereo speakers. Because of the dropped samples in the iRiver firmware (even in the latest release), I still can't use the H140, and instead have to rely on a trusty old Denon minidisc deck. However, minidiscs are a lossy medium.

I've given up hope of iRiver fixing the missing samples bug, and so am waiting patiently for RockBox to add optical input to their otherwise excellent code.

[gcogger]

The reason I bought an iRiver H140 was to record .wav files via optical input. I use a digital mixer as part of my PA rig at live gigs, and have to keep an accurate copy of what goes through the main stereo speakers. Because of the dropped samples in the iRiver firmware (even in the latest release), I still can't use the H140, and instead have to rely on a trusty old Denon minidisc deck. However, minidiscs are a lossy medium.

I've given up hope of iRiver fixing the missing samples bug, and so am waiting patiently for RockBox to add optical input to their otherwise excellent code.

You could perhaps get a Hi-MD recorder - optical in and lossless recording ability.  You only get something like 90 mins to a disk, but that may be enough?

[IpaqMan]

I've given up hope of iRiver fixing the missing samples bug, and so am waiting patiently for RockBox to add optical input to their otherwise excellent code.

As far as I know and have tested, the missing samples problem was resolved in firmware 1.66.  I have tried tests that produced the clicks in previous versions and did not get the clicks in 1.66.

[whatboutbob]

Boswell: I believe there was a "fix" that worked with at least one of the iriver f/w versions. You just had to keep the joystick held in a direction whilst recording.  You *could* do this by jamming something beside it if you really want bit-perfect optical recordings until the rockbox guys get on the case anyways.  There was more info about all this over @ misticriver.

[vinylivo]

Yes the joystick jamming 'fix' works fine on the iriver firmware. I made alot of tests and the most recent version that recorded glitchfree with this trick was V1.63US, the recent ones introduced some new strange glitch behaviour.

[Boswell]

As far as I know and have tested, the missing samples problem was resolved in firmware 1.66. I have tried tests that produced the clicks in previous versions and did not get the clicks in 1.66.

No, sorry, 1.66 still drops samples. I posted some waveforms of it doing so in topic 2260 on 1st Jan 06.

I believe there was a "fix" that worked with at least one of the iriver f/w versions. You just had to keep the joystick held in a direction whilst recording.

Sorry again, joystick jamming appeared to make no difference, at least with firmwares 1.63E and 1.66E.

You could perhaps get a Hi-MD recorder - optical in and lossless recording ability. You only get something like 90 mins to a disk, but that may be enough?

I have considered Hi-MD, but there is no easy way of treating the recorder as a hard disk for retrieval of recordings. The software for uploading tracks is a pain to use for material recorded live.

[whatboutbob]

*scratches head* I'm 99% sure it was 1.63E I tested w/ a sine wave and there were no dropped samples w/ the jammed joystick.

[jaybeee]

It's perfectly possible to capture digital transport streams from digital sources like DAB/satellite etc in their transmitted format, i.e. mp2.  Thus attaining a perfect copy of the audio sent.

Is this a technical possibility via the optical line-in (from an optical line-out on a device that recieves said digital transport stream/signal) with the H1xx series? 
I suspect not, but then I'm unsure as to what is actually required to enable this kind of functionality, hence my question.

Thanks