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Old 07-31-2007, 10:45 PM   #1
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As I move ever closer to the day when I cast of the shackles holding me to the land, I am trying to adapt systems to a waterborne existence. I have a CD player on board the boat, but many of my best albums are still on cassette tape.

I appreciate the onboard environment is not going to be good for tape, and I am keen to transfer many scores of hours of music onto CD. The trouble is that I do not speak 'pimple-faced-kid-at-the-electronic-store' language, and it seems when I ask about a programme, or how to adapt a tapedeck to USB, I am answered in a bewildering barrage of technical based gobbledygook which leaves me saying "maybe tomorrow" as I drive home.

How do I copy hours of tape to CD, or, to MP3 or to whichever medium is the best for music storage. I understand it will have to be done in real time, but for the sake of the 'Beatles at the Star Club in Hamburg', I feel it is well worthwhile.

Cheers

David.
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Old 07-31-2007, 11:26 PM   #2
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As somewhat of a non-techie myself I hope this explains in a little more plain English rather than Geek-speak.



http://www.wikihow.com/Transfer-Cass...pe-to-Computer
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Old 07-31-2007, 11:28 PM   #3
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Years ago, we had the same issue with transferring things from LP albums to digital form (CD). This is the same method we used 30 years ago to move our LP albums to tape for playing in the car--it is painful and not really a high quality method but works. If you're using tapes, you don't have the best sound quality anyway: Simply get out a good quality mike, a quiet place, and record directly to your computer's hard drive. We had a nice digital acquisition board that hubby used when he was doing his master's thesis in 1990 (a vocoder--and automatic voice recognition--algorithm). We've used the board from time to time to record things and we did record a few LP's this way back then. Your computer may have a nice set up for use of a microphone already? What we ended up doing around 1990 was just buying CD's of all the music we already owned on LP. Big investment but we love music and thought it was worthwhile. Then, you can save the CD's to your hard drive in whatever format you desire. You use a program that rips the data from the CD (we use something called G-rip), send it through an encoder to get to the file format you want. You should be able to purchase a program to assist you with this. Else, download open source software.Now, we purchase new CD's and automatically rip them and store the on the hard drive for playing. If you have a friend who owns the CD's that you own legal copies of tapes for, you might ask that friend to lend you the CD's to copy to your hard drive. Don't know if that was much help....
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As somewhat of a non-techie myself I hope this explains in a little more plain English rather than Geek-speak.http://www.wikihow.com/Transfer-Cass...pe-to-Computerhttp://www.wikihow.com/Transfer-Cass...pe-to-Computer
This is better! than my suggestion. But, it does assume that you have a decent tape deck to wire up properly. If not, then use the method I suggested.
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Old 07-31-2007, 11:46 PM   #4
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Thanks very much Steve and Redbopeep. I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Cheers.

David.
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Old 08-01-2007, 04:14 AM   #5
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What I have done David is to collect all my music digitally. It is all on a portable hard disk smaller than a cigarette packet. This is my master copy. I have then copied everything onto an Ipod which conects also to NAUSIKAA's stereo system.

I know this goes no way to solving the problem of converting from tape to digital but I find this a very practical sollution for music storage and playback. I also have it in two places just in case one of the units goes south. It also has the advantage tha I can take the Ipod with me wherever I go.

Aye,

Stephen
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Old 08-01-2007, 05:20 AM   #6
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David,

As a side note....we found that our CDs would start to develop little 'pinholes' in them after about five years of cruising. Not all of them, but too many as time wore on. This happened to originals and cheapo copies.

We've started out with 400 cds...maybe 25% were getting the holes so we dumped what was still good onto an iPod. The big cases of cds are a pain too as they're heavy, in the way too often and certainly a nuisance if you fly much and want to bring anything along.

We were careful to put the cds back in the case, keep the case under a bunk and not touch them with salty fingers. Still got those pesky holes! Felt REALLY good to give the cds away.

I've no idea how long the iPods or MP3 players last, but a friend has had one for years on a yacht and he most definately does not take care of it. A couple companies make waterproof housings for them. I wonder if the housings make them too hot though for full-time use??...or trap the salty air inside and make a little humidor??

- Jay
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Old 08-01-2007, 08:00 AM   #7
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David,

As a side note....we found that our CDs would start to develop little 'pinholes' in them after about five years of cruising. Not all of them, but too many as time wore on. This happened to originals and cheapo copies.

- Jay
Great, another worry. Pinholes in CDs

Our music is kept in mpeg format on our harddrive with a backup on our "backup" external harddrive. The original CD's are in our storage unit with the family pics, slides, etc. So moot point except:

What about DVD's? OR books on CD? Do you find the same pinholes showing up?
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Old 08-02-2007, 01:28 AM   #8
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Redbopeep,

Never had pinholes in a dvd.....but didn't start buying them till three years ago. Never had a book on dic either.

Now, we have had two portable dvd player go out in a year! Again, something else to worry about. ;-) First player that crapped the bed was over $200. Second one was a Walmart $60 job. That first unit got to the point where it wouldn't simply read the discs....I think the little laser eye carrier decided to retire. The second one just decided to not turn on at all. Both in the trash bin. We're living on land well away from the sea for a bit and yet another dvd player went screwy exactly five days after the 90 day warranty expired...maybe we're just cursed!

If anyone has insight on what a good quality dvd player is do tell, please. Other yachties have had the expensive ones go out too. So now I'm figuring on just getting the 'disposable' players under a 100 bucks and being happy if they make it through the year.

take care,

Jay
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Old 08-02-2007, 03:17 AM   #9
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Maybe installing an old fashioned car, stereo cassette deck is not such a bad idea after all!?

David.
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Old 08-02-2007, 04:07 AM   #10
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We made the mistake of buying one of those integrated LCD-DVD systems for the boat. The DVD player lasted a whopping week before we had to return the system. Luckily we got our money back then bought a cheap $35 DVD player assuming that it would die and be replaced. Time will tell how well the LCD-HD will last on the boat.

As far as music goes, we are trying to figure that one as well. Seems like I-pod will be the best format.
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Old 08-02-2007, 05:02 AM   #11
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Redbopeep,

Now, we have had two portable dvd player go out in a year! Again, something else to worry about. ;-)
It is the luck of the draw.

I have two DVD-players, both bought in Windhoek, Namibia. One of them was second hand. They survived the move from Windhoek to Cape Town where they lived for a couple of years before being suject to a sea transport to Sweden. One then went by air to Yemen and returned, again by air, to Sweden 18 months later.

The player which I bought new is now 6 or 7 years old. The other must be about the same. Both are working perfectly despite having lived in the desert / semi-desert in Yemen and Namibia and the salt air of Cape Town and here in Sweden as well as surviving the flights and sea journey.

Having praised them so loudly (one is a Sony and the othe an obscure "cheapy") they will probably go south any time now.

Aye

Stephen
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Old 08-02-2007, 05:59 AM   #12
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Our DVD players are in our computers. We don't have one that just plays DVD's hooked up to a TV. Now I'm worried about pinholes in all my data CD's and data DVD's and program install CD's that we own. We have 2 copies of everything but the extra copy is in our safety deposit box or storage unit (across the country from us...) depending on what kind of data it is. Always something.
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Old 08-02-2007, 04:50 PM   #13
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Bopeep,

I should've mentioned that the pinholes develop slowly...you can see 'em coming. Seems to effect the top-side/print side of the disc. A dab/swipe of a refelctive paint (fingernail polish/whatever) made a few discs work long enough to copy them.

In case anyone hasn't considered it, check out the car stereo cd/dvd/mp3 disc compatible units with in/out aux for mp3 players, video and subwoofers. In manila they were around $175usd. We bought one without the dvd playback and it was $140usd. Worked great...160 watt four channel. It was the biggest power load we had playng it all day/everyday, but well worth it! Next one will be have the dvd player...stupid of me not to get it (running that to a cheap LCD 12v computer monitor).

If you want cockpit speakers, but don't want to cut them into your boat try this - look for a sale on flush mount marine speakers and mount them in cheap yet good sealing tupperware containers. We cut out the bottom of the container and screwed the speaker into the heavier palstic there. Small hole for the wire to run out and sealed the lid with 5200. We used a 12 foot or so speaker wire that was in a heavy plastic coating and could put them inside or drag them out on the deck where ever we wanted the sound. Nice for music out of the cockpit, too. Zip tie the wire somewhere near the stereo to make sure someone doesn't yank on the inputs.

Yeah, looks goofy, but works great and takes about 15 minutes to make. And costs next to nothing. The tupperware adds great bass with the box and makes a worl of difference in the sound quality. Also, the containers sat perfectly on their side and were angled right to point the speaker up a little. Glue on a cheap non-skid on the bottom and they sit quite good.

The speakers last forever 'cause (even though 'marine' rated) you can get them out of the spray, rain etc when needed. I've seen other yachts with permanent outside speakers mounted in the cockpit and they seem to corrode/rot after awhile if not covered and/or taken care of.

Make a real box when you have time or the inclination to do so, but this gets you rockin' right off. My wife still laughs at them, but hey, works!

best - J
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Old 08-02-2007, 05:36 PM   #14
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best - J
Thanks for the pinhole info.

Regarding speakers--our plan is simply to use bluetooth headset with a portable player. Right now, I use my bluetooth headset with my palm treo 700p. I have mp3's loaded onto a 2 Gig ScanDisk SD card that goes back and forth from the computer to the palm. It works. The treo is in a soft waterproof "float bag" that hangs off the companionway so I can grab it if someone's calling. If you've got many people, well, then, you'd have to have a lot of bluetooth headsets and figure out how to use multiples. The sound quality is great on a headset vs speakers. We figure that we'll be looking into bluetooth headsets for onboard comm but just haven't done that yet.
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