Jump to content

Tascam MD 350


cknapper

Recommended Posts

Hi all mt MD Tascam 350 is saying I can not copy it copys when I use the anouloge input but whan I swith to digital is says cannot copy. Do I need to reset my manchine or is there a way to activate this. I have 2 players and the other one is fine !!!

 

Carl

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not a lot of info, but at a guess you're falling foul of the dreaded copyright management system Basically, MD recorders won't make digital copies of an already-copied disk. Unfortunately, it doesn't discriminate if it's YOUR copyright or a commercial disk.

 

If this IS the problem, I know of no way round it....FYI my now-sold Sonys used to do the same.

 

Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Carl,

 

The SPDIF format is based on the AES/EBU format though slightly simplified and does have a couple of bits added (no pun intended)

 

Without going into too much detail both AES/EBU streams and SPDIF streams contain Chanel Status information.

 

With SPDIF two bits of the Chanel Status information refer to if the audio is an original work or not, and if the audio is a copy.

 

The interpretation of these two bits by a recorder dictates if you can record from the incoming audio stream or not.

 

The first bit describes if the audio is copy protected.

The second bit describes if the audio has been copied.

 

For example.

00 - Not copy protected - Hasn't been copied - Copying allowed

11 - Copy protected - hasn't been copied - 1 copy allowed.

10 - Copy protected - has been copied - no further copies allowed.

 

With this system, this restricts the number of digital copies you can make. Of course you could make as many copies as you like from a master (11) but not from a clone (10)

 

In theory, original works shouldn't be copy protected, if you are working from your own original work and have fallen foul of a piece of equipment incorrectly inserting a copy protection bit then you can get arround it if you realy want to make a digital clone of your original.

 

Behringer (for example) make a device for AES to SPDIF conversion, which will allow you to go SPDIF to SPDIF and it allows you to manualy set the copy protection bits.

 

http://www.behringer.com/SRC2496/index.cfm?lang=ENG

 

Of course if you are trying to copy somethign you do not own the copyright for you need to contact the MCPS (amoungst others) in order to get permission.

 

Hope this helps

 

(Of course as you have said this doesn't apply to analouge as you have no chanel status via analouge, and no other metadata, no track names, no track number etc...)

 

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there's no such thing as "generation loss" when copying digital audio.

 

Copying MDs via digital cable is lossy. MD is a compressed format (ATRAC) so it has to be uncompressed to be sent out via SPDIF and then compressed again to be recorded.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No copying is 100% perfect. There's always bit loss. AFAIK SPDIF has no error checking (could be wrong)

 

No, the error checking is done in the DAC (and the CRC bits are encoded in the ADC) - I won't begin to go into how it is done as whole books have been written about it. AES/EBU also has "no error checking" in much the same way, it is less prone to error as it is balanced.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.