Hi

I am transfering tracks from a music CD in my CD-ROM drive to WAV
files on my hard disk.

My CD-ROM drive has a "digital output" (which gets connected to
the sound card).

Questions:

1) The regular ribbon cable (IDE or SCSI) is already a
"digital output" , isn´t it?

2) And when I rip, I assume the data flows out through this ribbon cable to
the hard disk, not via the
special "digital output". Is that correct ?


3) Does the "digital output" offers any advantage on ripping?


Thanks

Edgler

( http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ide.htm ) go see here, you will find what you need to know and don't stop after one line or simply read that page, read all day if you have to, you will be all clear of questions after that and will actualy enjoy more your PC.And for the better ripping question, well let say its illigal to rip so you will never find that kind of info there.

Those who act make mistakes; and those who do nothing really blunder.

Theoretically speaking, you do not even need a sound to do what you are trying to do. You need a sound card to listen to the file (track) your converting, but not for the actual conversion. The only reason you would need a sound card is if you were trying to record the audio from an external source (i.e. cassette tape, vhs, etc.), then of course you would need to record the audio through your digital-in on your sound card.

Answer 1. IDE/SCSI is not a digital output; however, it does allow the transfer of digital data. Which in your case is what your trying to do.

Answer 2. Data flows from the CD-Rom cable through to the hard drive. There a file is created not recorded. That file must then be converted back to play on audio cd players. For instance, if you compress the digital audio into .mp3 or other types, you will need to convert them back to .wav before they can be played in audio cd-players. Most cd-r software will do that for you now. If you are capturing the file only to .wav, no conversion is necessary but it takes up much more space on your hard disk.

Answer 3. The digital output is "output". It is what you hear, not what you capture. The media is already digital unless you are recording from a cassette or something not already on digital media disks. Try not to confuse that output is what your hearing and input is what your creating.

Good luck!