Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Follow the instructions on the forum download page, and you can rip your BDs as if they were any other disc.
Some people have noticed that if you type
touch tmp/eula_accepted
before running the make procedure, you can install the software without having to read and agree with the EULA.
Once in MKV format, you are free to transcode into any other format. This may be necessary because HD video
requires an HD player, and some (older) media streaming boxes may not support it. Note, however, that an HD
video requires an HD transcoder, so you'll need the later tools (such as Handbrake) as many of the older workhorse
programs have not yet been upgraded to cope with it.
Cassette Tapes and Vinyl
Yes, really! There are many people with these beloved relics of technology who want to keep them alive electronically.
These are the slowest form of media to rip because they must be done in real time.
4
The obvious way to do this is to
connect the phono outputs from your deck (be it tape or record) into the line-in inputs of your sound card. You should
have as few components in the signal chain as possible, so if your turntable has a preamplifier, so much the better.
Otherwise, consider the relative merits of your sound card and deck, and let the higher-quality unit perform the
preamp stage. Vinyl particularly
requires
a preamp stage with RIAA equalization to avoid a tinny sound.
Once you have the deck connected, find the loudest section of music, and monitor the levels in an audio-recording
program, such as Audacity. It should be as loud as possible, without clipping. This ensures that you get the most out
of the 16-bit resolution, the maximum possible dynamic range. This volume, however, should come from the preamp
if possible, as a power amplifier will introduce noise.
To ensure maximum quality during recording, you need to take care of external hardware elements, too. So, don't
use the microwave while recording because this can introduce electrical noise that might affect it, don't fiddle with the
connectors, and so on. It is also a good idea to plug the deck into a high-quality UPS or power smoother to limit the
amount of wow and flutter caused by fluctuations in mains voltage.
The same approach also works for cassettes, although most tape players have a built-in preamp, so you have no
choice here.
There are currently some all-in-one units on the market that combine a tape or record deck with all the necessary
amplifiers and converters necessary to provide you with a digital input over a USB cable. These are ideal for casual
users, but because they are made to a price point, and not for quality, you won't get as good results as you will from
a manual setup.
Once you have the recording digitized, it is then a matter of extracting the individual tracks from the file called
side_1.wav
and encoding them accordingly. There are some tools to do this automatically. Audacity has its own
Silence Finder function (in the Analyze menu), which looks for suitably long gaps in the recording and places markers
by them. You can then adjust these markers if necessary and select Export Multiple to save the data between these
markers as individual files.
You can then encode them as appropriate. Here's an example:
#!/bin/bash
LIST="$(ls *.wav)"
for FILE in "$LIST"; do
flac $FILE
done
or with the following:
oggenc $FILE
)TISTECHNICALLYPOSSIBLETOPLAYTAPESANDRECORDSATHIGHERSPEEDSUSINGHIGHSPEEDDUBBINGTAPEPLAYERSORSWITCHINGTHERECORD
DECKTORPMANDCOMPENSATEBYPITCHSHIFTINGINSOFTWARE"UTISNȀTREALLYWORTHTHEEFFORTORLOSSINQUALITY
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