I used to digitise my tape collection. Unfortunately my old Dell M5040 laptop died recently taking a large chunk of my
collection with it. I tried unsuccessfully to get it repaired - new hard drive and battery, but after I reassembled it, it wouldnt even switch on. So I looked around spoke to a guy in PC World who assured me the single jack sockets on the side of latest laptops was a dual use item for both line in and line out. So I bought a shiny new HP laptop.
Im still trying to figure it out as it dosent work with my current leads. I had got myself to a double ended 3.5 stereo jack lead. I reasoned that if I plugged it into the headphone socket of my tape machine and the other end into the dedicated 3.5 jack input
socket on my Dell then I could use audacity to record the results and this arrangement worked beautifully. At first I couldn't hear what I was recording with the tape machine muted because of the inserted jack so I bought a headphone splitter lead and headphones so I could then hear exactly when to stop audacity recording bingo!
However the new HP machine with its smartphone style single 3.5 jack socket will only output sound via my current leads and I cannot work out exactly what new leads I need to repeat what I could do on my Dell out of the box and in stereo too! Everything I have read or googled about this new smartphone socket tells me I may only input mono sound not stereo unlike the dell as the new socket is not designed to do this anymore. Then theres the issue of is it CITA is it OMPT is it TRRS is it TRS or TS standard I cannot work it out and noone can it seems tell me plus who records anything in mono these days its ridiculous they will be reverting to black and white screens next.
The most curious thing is I am able to use a feature on the HP called "stereo mix" to record anything I want off youtube etc in stereo too so the smartphone jack socket restriction seems stupidly petty. I thought I had it working on one occasion but noted Audacity was producing a mono signal only. When the recording continued past the end of the song I was playing on my android machine and I played back the resulting file it had actually recorded the sounds in my living room via an onboard microphone in the HP which I didnt know was there and not what I thought it was recording. Frankly this onboard mic is as much use as removing a hid light from a motorbike and replacing it with a candle.
Now I get to the XP bit as not to be beaten I came up with a solution which suits me. I spotted a 10" mini Emachines m250 laptop running Windows XP on gumtree. I could see it sported the requisite in/out 3.5" ports. I went saw and for £20 bought it. I installed Audacity and lame from a memory stick plugged it into my all bells and whistles HP played a song and used the mini to
record it in stereo Happy days! I had forgotten just how good XP actually was. Well now while my tapes are still working I can now restore my collection and use the HP to burn some CDs - it has a use after all apart from an expensive door stop.
If laptop makers spent more time actually listening to their paying customers rather than sucking up to the Simon Cowpats of this world it would suit them better
collection with it. I tried unsuccessfully to get it repaired - new hard drive and battery, but after I reassembled it, it wouldnt even switch on. So I looked around spoke to a guy in PC World who assured me the single jack sockets on the side of latest laptops was a dual use item for both line in and line out. So I bought a shiny new HP laptop.
Im still trying to figure it out as it dosent work with my current leads. I had got myself to a double ended 3.5 stereo jack lead. I reasoned that if I plugged it into the headphone socket of my tape machine and the other end into the dedicated 3.5 jack input
socket on my Dell then I could use audacity to record the results and this arrangement worked beautifully. At first I couldn't hear what I was recording with the tape machine muted because of the inserted jack so I bought a headphone splitter lead and headphones so I could then hear exactly when to stop audacity recording bingo!
However the new HP machine with its smartphone style single 3.5 jack socket will only output sound via my current leads and I cannot work out exactly what new leads I need to repeat what I could do on my Dell out of the box and in stereo too! Everything I have read or googled about this new smartphone socket tells me I may only input mono sound not stereo unlike the dell as the new socket is not designed to do this anymore. Then theres the issue of is it CITA is it OMPT is it TRRS is it TRS or TS standard I cannot work it out and noone can it seems tell me plus who records anything in mono these days its ridiculous they will be reverting to black and white screens next.
The most curious thing is I am able to use a feature on the HP called "stereo mix" to record anything I want off youtube etc in stereo too so the smartphone jack socket restriction seems stupidly petty. I thought I had it working on one occasion but noted Audacity was producing a mono signal only. When the recording continued past the end of the song I was playing on my android machine and I played back the resulting file it had actually recorded the sounds in my living room via an onboard microphone in the HP which I didnt know was there and not what I thought it was recording. Frankly this onboard mic is as much use as removing a hid light from a motorbike and replacing it with a candle.
Now I get to the XP bit as not to be beaten I came up with a solution which suits me. I spotted a 10" mini Emachines m250 laptop running Windows XP on gumtree. I could see it sported the requisite in/out 3.5" ports. I went saw and for £20 bought it. I installed Audacity and lame from a memory stick plugged it into my all bells and whistles HP played a song and used the mini to
record it in stereo Happy days! I had forgotten just how good XP actually was. Well now while my tapes are still working I can now restore my collection and use the HP to burn some CDs - it has a use after all apart from an expensive door stop.
If laptop makers spent more time actually listening to their paying customers rather than sucking up to the Simon Cowpats of this world it would suit them better
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