Receiver to PC recording

[granitedive]

I am just starting to get into the myriad of music available via my computer. I want to connect the PC to my home theater receiver 20' away.
I've also wanted to record music stuff from my satellite DVR (just the audio portion) onto CD. For that I figured I needed a CD recorder, and I was thinking of buying a Sony RCDW 500C. I'm not sure if that will work (connecting the DVR via HDMI to the recvr and the CD recorder to the rcvr via optical cable - again, just to record the audio portion only). My ultmate goal is to have music I can pop into the car CD player or where ever.
Now that I've started to look into it some, I see that there are sound cards that are supposed to be able to convert music such as cassette tapes, etc. into MP3, which I assume I could then burn to a CD. It would be nice to finally get rid of those cassettes too!
The sound card I was thinking of getting to do this is the Sound Blaster Digital Music SX. It doesn't seem to be available in the U.S., but maybe from overseas.
1) Has anyone used one of these? Does it seem like a good solution for recording music sent from my receiver? Would it be good for sending the streamed PC music to the receiver?
2) Why is this and some of the Audigy products not available in the U.S.?
By the way, I am running Vista if that is an issue (when isn't it).

 

[gus6464]

I am just starting to get into the myriad of music available via my computer. I want to connect the PC to my home theater receiver 20' away.
I've also wanted to record music stuff from my satellite DVR (just the audio portion) onto CD. For that I figured I needed a CD recorder, and I was thinking of buying a Sony RCDW 500C. I'm not sure if that will work (connecting the DVR via HDMI to the recvr and the CD recorder to the rcvr via optical cable - again, just to record the audio portion only). My ultmate goal is to have music I can pop into the car CD player or where ever.
Now that I've started to look into it some, I see that there are sound cards that are supposed to be able to convert music such as cassette tapes, etc. into MP3, which I assume I could then burn to a CD. It would be nice to finally get rid of those cassettes too!
The sound card I was thinking of getting to do this is the Sound Blaster Digital Music SX. It doesn't seem to be available in the U.S., but maybe from overseas.
1) Has anyone used one of these? Does it seem like a good solution for recording music sent from my receiver? Would it be good for sending the streamed PC music to the receiver?
2) Why is this and some of the Audigy products not available in the U.S.?
By the way, I am running Vista if that is an issue (when isn't it).

I don't think you can record the music from the satellite DVR to PC or whatever else because of content protection. But as far as getting music from PC to receiver via wireless you have 2 options.

$99 option - Apple Airport Express hooked up via mini toslink to receiver
$299 option - Slim Devices Squeezebox (can be controlled without using the PC)

 

[bandphan]

you can record just about anysthing audio to your pc(analog), just decide what program you want to use as the recorder( i use cooledit pro, which is now adobe audition) Just use a stereo rca>stereo mini into the sound card, and thats it. If you want to keep a "better" quality recording, looking into flac, ogg, or shn as the lossless compression fromat versus mp3. M audio makes som great sound cards for pc's.

 

[gus6464]

you can record just about anysthing audio to your pc(analog), just decide what program you want to use as the recorder( i use cooledit pro, which is now adobe audition) Just use a stereo rca>stereo mini into the sound card, and thats it. If you want to keep a "better" quality recording, looking into flac, ogg, or shn as the lossless compression fromat versus mp3. M audio makes som great sound cards for pc's.

Does that mean he has to run a 20' rca cable though?

 

[bandphan]

wired or wireless, id run cable, but thats just me. I was just refering to the ripping portion only

 

[granitedive]

Thanks bandphan and gus. I'm not really looking for a wireless solution; I like wires.
Is using a sound card for recording going to help quality-wise? That's why I wondered about the SB Digital Music SX.

 

[bandphan]

Thanks bandphan and gus. I'm not really looking for a wireless solution; I like wires.
Is using a sound card for recording going to help quality-wise? That's why I wondered about the SB Digital Music SX.

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=PCIinterfaces

 

[MDS]

A device like the Sound Blaster Digital Music SX is just an all-in-one recording device. It is a sound card with built-in audio editing software and there are other one component solutions like that as well. I personally wouldn't bother with it because I need more control over things.

Bandphan is right about what you need to do it. I've done it before too but I use Sound Forge. The catch is that when you use an audio editor on your computer it doesn't just happen in one shot. You will have the audio data in the editor (in PCM format) and then you can edit it or save it in any format that the editor supports. If you are recording from a cassette or LP it's best to record the entire side as one file and then use the editor to chop it up into tracks.

 

[granitedive]

Thanks again guys. From looking at the M-Audio site, the Audiophile 2496 seems reasonable for my needs.. Any comments? And the Sound Forge Audio Studio seems good too. The more advanced versions of both brands seem to be made for recording your own musical instruments, which I'm not interested in doing.
As for the inputs and ouputs to my receiver, I assume the digital cables would be best? The recvr is about 20' from the PC. Do I need to use analog cables from the recvr if the ultimate source I'm recording from is analog (like cassette or turntable)?
Thanks.

 

[MDS]

An analog only device like a cassette deck or turntable isn't going to have digital outputs so yes you'd use analog cables. The sound card will do the analog to digital conversion.

If you are looking at Sound Forge, you only need the Studio version. The professional version has a lot of cool features like spectrum analysis and the ability to record at greater than 16/48 but for most users it is not necessary and costs 4x as much.

 

[Polygon]

I bought a Media Gate. They aren't that expensive and they steam audio, video, and pictures over your network from your computer. Just search Newegg and Amazon. Once I get my new receiver I'll hook it up and let everyone know what it's like.