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

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

I'll also second the point that the quality of your copy depends almost entirely on the quality of your PC's audio input. I used to prepare my filk backing tracks on a CD-recorder, which of course used the annoying "only one generation of digital copying allowed" SCMS scheme, but I got excellent results doing analog transfers from the MiniDisc deck to the CD deck, avoiding any copy protection and also giving myself the opportunity to tweak the eq/balance/levels slightly (when required) by running it through the mixing desk.