Transferring my Mini-Disc collection to MP3 format...

[londonlad]

Hi...

I've got loads of albums on mini-discs, that I play through my separates sony mini-disc player. I want to transfer my collection of mini-discs in to MP3 format on my laptop so that I can do away with the MD separate and just use my i-pod / laptop.

Is there any way that I can link the two, and record them on to my laptop? I was hoping for a cheap option as this is a one-off exercise really.

Any advice would be much appreciated....

Thanks.

[thepassenger]

MD's Line-Out to PC Sound Card's Line-In. Perhaps use something like Sound Recorder to get them in as high quality WAV's and then grab a freebie MP3 encoder from sourceforge. It's the cheapest way as all you need is a stero 3.5mm to 3.5mm lead.

If your MD player has nifty functions (perhaps SP/DIF or TOSlink output) and the PC has the corresponding input you could get a higher quality recording rather than using anolouge input.

[victormeldrew]

There's a good chance that your Mindiscs have ATRAC compression already, and will sound pants when further compressed to MP3. IMHO.

[thepassenger]

victormeldrew said:

There's a good chance that your Mindiscs have ATRAC compression already, and will sound pants when further compressed to MP3. IMHO.

Forgot about Sony and their love of ATRAC. It would be worth checking the specifications of the MD and the album before starting out on this.