Topic: So ... recording with the iRiver. finally feasable?

[whatboutbob]

Well...it took preglow a little longer than he expected (and who's complaining?), but there's now a patch that enables optical recording on the h1x0. Wahoo!  There's still plenty of testing to be done, but early inspection looks promising. 

[rsimms3]

Oooooo...it worked.  More testing to be done.  Need to do some sine waves and see if anything is lost in the process, but I doubt it will be since regular recording works without issues.

[whatboutbob]

Please report back your findings when done. My soundcard doesn't do optical out.

[rsimms3]

I posted preliminary comments over at the Rockbox forum.  I was using my stereo and my AD20 which is how I record my vinyl, but had been using my JB3 before.  Looks good so far.

[dgodwin]

when I get mine (I bought it on ebay on Friday) I can do some DAT transfers and compare them to flac files I have on the computer all ready that were transfered either through a jb3 or a dio 2448 (both supposed to be bit perfect)   Now I guess I'll have to consider a cheap a-d option.  Wish that sbm-1 for $175 was still available.  Wish I hadn't sold mine 

[shaggy]

Yeah, I suspect the price of SBMs will go up as a result and the price for DATs to take yet another dive.

Edit:  I tried to get the newly compiled .iriver document to work. I could get the digital signal from a modSBM > ToddR 7pin TOSlink > POC-L5A > H120 no problem.  The problem for me was the RAM flushing the buffer to the drive when I approached 30MB (3min).  The HD light would go on and the recording continued but I no longer got a signal on the peak meter.  FWIW, I have had issues with analog recording and I know I have about 1GB of bad sectors on my HD (which I thought I had marked used in the file allocation table using chkdsk /r).  Anyhow, it looks good but I wished the new Toshiba MK4007GAL drives were out, I would buy on in a second to try to correct this buffer fluching issue (I am assuming it is the buffer trying to write to bad sectors on the drive).

[dgodwin]

I just got my iriver (fast auctioneer.  Won Friday night.. came today)   Anyways, I've installed rockbox, but I can't find "digital" in the source select.. just mic and line in.  Any suggestions.  Is there another build that someone compiled that I can try? 

[whatboutbob]

Its just a patch at the moment (not commited to cvs).

Here's a precompiled build:
http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0XCI8CJMJU58F0EGPLQZ01OCE4

You'll need to reset settings and enable optical out.

See the rockbox forum for more details:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=2575.45

[dgodwin]

Its just a patch at the moment (not commited to cvs).

Here's a precompiled build:
http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0XCI8CJMJU58F0EGPLQZ01OCE4

You'll need to reset settings and enable optical out.

See the rockbox forum for more details:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=2575.45

thanks!  +T

[sullen]

big thanx indeed!

[udovdh]

The HD light would go on and the recording continued but I no longer got a signal on the peak meter. 

That is normal.
During HD writes no metering, I read.

[whatboutbob]

Well...if you refer to my iriver tapers faq:  http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=64277.0 (hehehe)

...you'll see that DPA406x's can be powered by the H1xx but it only supplies 2.5v so, while it is possible, you won't get the best out of the mics.

[shaggy]

any concrete date yet on when the official rockbox firmware is going public, and if the optical patch is going to be stable enough (i.e bit perfect) to be included in it?

It is bit perfect, it just sometimes hangs and doesn't write the file header properly.  So, do not hold your breath for this to come through, it is only b/c of the kindness of preglow that anything is being done at all.  I sense he is growing tired of writing the code and will give up in a week or so.  Someone else with C experience and PCM stream experince needs to step up to the plate. 

The official firmware is public now but still in the beta form. 

http://www.rockbox.org/dl.cgi?bin=h120

If you want the latest bleeding edge build with all the recording patches compiled (AGC, fat remote meters, SPDIF) try pilot000's build...

http://homepage.sunrise.ch/mysunrise/remartinelli/html/rockbox.html

Also, it will not do 24bit.  Apparently it can do 20bit but there needs to be code rewritten in the body of the RB to make the Coldfire processor to be able to handle the 20bit stream.

As for the plug-in powering, 2.5V maybe enough for acoustic shows, anything louder will require at least 5V....the DPA batt boxes supply something like 8-10V depending on the power source (fresh 9V and phantom power respectively, I did the test myself with a MPS6010).  FYI, Chris Church is making a variable gain 9V batt box for the micro dot terminated 406X.....it will have a Burr Brown opamp at the heart of it.

[firmdragon]

Well...if you refer to my iriver tapers faq:  http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=64277.0 (hehehe)

...you'll see that DPA406x's can be powered by the H1xx but it only supplies 2.5v so, while it is possible, you won't get the best out of the mics.

thanks for the reply! +t

I guess I need to find another way to power the minis then. 

any concrete date yet on when the official rockbox firmware is going public, and if the optical patch is going to be stable enough (i.e bit perfect) to be included in it?

from my experiences it works fine w/o the battery box.  i haven't yet come across any experiences (mine or otherwise) where it doesn't perform as it should.

[whatboutbob]

any concrete date yet on when the official rockbox firmware is going public, and if the optical patch is going to be stable enough (i.e bit perfect) to be included in it?

It is bit perfect, it just sometimes hangs and doesn't write the file header properly.  So, do not hold your breath for this to come through, it is only b/c of the kindness of preglow that anything is being done at all.  I sense he is growing tired of writing the code and will give up in a week or so.  Someone else with C experience and PCM stream experince needs to step up to the plate. 

Good news: It looks like amiconn's getting into it, and they're making (edit) a lot of headway with the hanging (dma failure).