Topic: What everyone's take on internal DAT drives?

[Carter41]

I just got a D7 last week, and I was thinking that it might be easier to just buy a DAT drive for my computer to transfer. However, seeing that I have not used my D7, let alone converted anything from it, I was wondering what everyone's take was on it.

Just for reference, here's the one I was looking at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mitsumi-DK4-SS4001-DDS-TAPE-Drive_W0QQitemZ8707916368QQcategoryZ39977QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Anywho, if anyone could shed a little light on this topic, it would be greatly appreciated!

[flipp]

Use the search function. There are several threads on ts about using DDS drives for audio.

Most drives do not work for transferring audio data to the comp. A few do and they are listed in those threads. I don't think the one you are looking at is in the list. There are also links in those threads to other sites that have much more info on the topic. iirc even those drives that do work wih audio data either work at 2x or 4x max so you save a little time in the transfer but your big savings is on wear and tear on your recording deck.

[rustoleum]

I love mine... it was a pain in the ass to configure but once working it has been fantastic.  2.5x transfers.  That said, I wouldn't recommend one to you unless you're computer savy as it's 10+ year old technology and getting it to work in a current computer could take some major effort. 

Here's a good link with more info.  Joe H's site is also linked here and is an incredible source of info:

http://www.trygve.com/playaudiodat.html

[mhibbs]

I love and hate the 2 that I currently own.  When they work, they're great...emphasis on "when".  Some tapes work fine...others cause dat2wav to spit out continous errors (thousands of them).  Sometimes cleaning the deck fixes it, sometimes just starting the transfer over fixes it.  Very inconsistent.  Most likely it's due to my drives being worn out.  DDS drives that are capable of being flashed to support audio are all old.  You can pick them up cheap on ebay used out of servers, but they've typically seen their fair share of use.  If you can find a refurb or one w/out much use, it probably works great.

[Cooker]

what Mitch said. when they work they are great but sometimes they just don't work. Plus, i think when it comes time to replace my desktop, we'll be leaving SCSI behind for good.

if you are computer savvy (particularly SCSI and hardware savvy) you can pick one up for $20.  If you aren't much more advanced than a typical user, odds are low that you will ever get one to work.

and the drive you linked to isn't audio capable.

[Scooter]

I've had mixed results with the 4-5 that i tried.  Some times it worked awesome, some times not so much...

[NewHomebrew]

I'd love to have one but scared I can't make it work.

[tchoub]

I only have two (one Seagate CTD8000 and one Sony SDT9000) but I have been pleased with the results.
Never had any problems with the Seagate drive and it is "easy to use" (under linux).
The Sony is harder to use and, since mine has a 12.2 firmware, he doesn't work as well as the Seagate drive.
But I would like to find a SGI version of the Sony drive which seems to work well...

[Cooker]

tchoub, you can read audio dats under linux? i did not know that.

[Scooter]

Linux was the only way i was able to get my drives to work...

[tchoub]

tchoub, you can read audio dats under linux? i did not know that.

yes, sure.
You can use softwares like read_dat, wdat or dodat (only under IRIX for this one) to extract/write your DATs. They are probably not as user-friendly as the windows one but they work pretty well.

[rustoleum]

Just as a quick example about how finicky this old technology can be:  I'm running my ARCHIVE PYTHON under Windows '98 because the SCSI card I have doesn't have updated win2k drivers.  It works great, but it'd also be great if I didn't need a dual boot system.  As always, YMMV.