Downloading tracks from Sony Mini-Discs

[ffutures]

My brother-in-law has a lot of old audio recordings on Sony Mini-Discs in some sort of DRM-managed format which doesn't let him transfer them to any computer other than the one which recorded them. Needless to say that is now somewhat defunct - and he's gone Mac - and it seems to be impossible to do anything to transfer them to a more useful format.

I think it might be possible to record them using an SPDIF cable and suitable sound card, but that presumably means playing them all at normal speed, e.g. a very long job, and my computers don't have that sort of card, and the Mac doesn't have and SPDIF socket. Any suggestions for alternatives?

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think he's tried the mini-plug route but didn't think much of the quality. Fortunately it really isn't my problem - I luckily avoided the mini-disk debacle completely, since it's somewhat hard to listen to music riding a motorbike, and everywhere else I have computers with CD drives.