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CD-ROM Drives that Can Be Used as Standalone Players?

Posted by Cliff on Wed Jan 08, 2003 07:42 PM
from the pieces-for-the-home-stereo dept.
Technology
An anonymous reader asks: "I am using an older, standalone CD-ROM drive as my audio CD player in my sound system. It is a NEC 4X SCSI in a small case with power supply. The case outputs very clean analog audio, great headphone output and a SPDIF coax link which plugs directly into my receiver. It works great standalone, it has a complete front panel, ie backlit LCD display, stop, play, pause, next and previous track buttons. But it doesn't read CD-RW, it uses a caddy and it heats up the CDs quite a bit. I know that all recent CD-ROM drives have only the eject button, not all of them output SPDIF (and with DRM who knows what the future holds) and who knows if they will work with only the power connected? Which CD-ROM drives, old or new, support being used standalone, have a decent set of front panel controls (at least a play and a skip button) and output SPDIF?" Generally for this type of purpose, I'd use a regular old portable CD player, but these generally do not output to SPDIF, either. Has anyone managed to find decent examples of either piece of hardware?
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CD-ROM Drives that Can Be Used as Standalone Players? 50 Comments More /

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  • Use a damn cd player! (Score:3)

    by Cyclone66 (217347) on Wednesday January 08 2003, @07:52PM (#5044009) Homepage Journal
    Get a CD Component piece for you system or at least look at some models of players, I know my Sony CD player had an optical output and that model was a few years old.
    • I agree. Why use a CD-ROM to play cds when you can get *gasp* a cd player? it's a new invention! They even have mp3 ones now. And they have some that hold multiple cds. Some even have two lasers so you can copy cds. Indeed, Sony does make quite a few quality ones.
      • I just use my DVD player (which does mp3 cd's fine, has digital out and cost less then $150 18 months ago). I was impressed by my parents new midi system - 5 CD changer, reads file names, file/directory navigation, etc. etc. For now I'm happy with my DVD player, but were I into music large scale, I'd definatly invest in a proper CD deck.

        Why anyone would spend $50+ on a high end CDROM drive is beyond belief!

  • Dear slashdot (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2003, @08:29PM (#5044186)
    Hello slashdot. I have a great vcr that takes beta tapes. It has Beta I-III speeds and works great. The problem is it doesn't play dvd's. I've looked and looked but can't find a beta player that plays dvd's. Does anyone know where I can get a beta vcr that plays dvds?

  • My experience... (Score:4, Informative)

    by BSDevil (301159) on Wednesday January 08 2003, @08:55PM (#5044303) Journal
    I've got this great little thngy I use to play my CDs. The case outputs very clean analog audio, great headphone output and a SPDIF coax link which plugs directly into my receiver. It works great standalone, it has a complete front panel, ie backlit LCD display, stop, play, pause, next and previous track buttons. It has a cabeled remote, plays CD-RWs wonderfully, and dosen't heat up. It can run directly with only a power supply, and can even run without the power supply if needed!

    Know what? It's a Sony D-EJ815 [sonystyle.com] Discman.

  • old rat shack RS-3400 has spdif (Score:3, Informative)

    by TheGratefulNet (143330) on Wednesday January 08 2003, @09:05PM (#5044356)
    the old portable 'clam-shell' has all you want for the audio end but spdif out, right?

    if you could find a used (ebay, maybe) radio shack cd3400 portable you might be happy. the line outs were supposed to be some wicked clean and accurate signal. and it had a 1/8" mono jack for coax spdif out.

    we (dat-heads, back in 1994 era) loved this deck, except for its clicking in the phones out. if you don't insist on perfect phones out and really care more about the line out and the spdif out, this is your deck.

    google cache search result [google.com]

    now go hunt one down.
  • Seeing as every other response to this question is satirical or doubtful, I'll try to go against the grain. =p While I've yet to own a drive with SPDIF, I can assure you that the CD-ROMs with only an eject button aren't the only thing on the market. My current ASUS 32x12x40x cd-burner has a play/next track button, and a stop/eject button on the face plate.. It also has a volume knob and a 1/8" jack. And, these features are the exact same on my parent's recently purchased cheapo CD-ROM. Also, they don't require anything but the power connector to work; I've checked them both.

    Of course, both of these drives lack SPDIF, and neither have the LCD screen. But then again, I didn't even try looking for 'em. o.O
  • I've seen a setup where they took a Creative Labs Infra CD-ROM drive (It includes a remote control) It was hooked to a 12V supply and they took the digital audio out and they plugged it directly into a sound receiver. I don't remembrer more details, sorry.

    • Re:Creative Infra (Score:4, Informative)

      by isorox (205688) on Wednesday January 08 2003, @10:01PM (#5044678) Homepage Journal
      Many moons ago, in the dark ages, I obtained a semi-broken iNFRA54 creative cd rom drive. It has
      1) Earphones output
      2) volume (up/down buttons)
      3) Remote with numbered buttons etc.
      4) play/next/rewind/prev buttons
      5) Stop/eject button
      6) Mode button (?)
      7) Windows software which enables the remote to be a mouse etc.

      On the back is a normal large 12V/5V/GND power socket, IDE port, master/slave jumper, analog audio out and didgatl audio out (2 pin cable thing).

      The thing the laser sits on and moves kept sticking whenthe case was on though, but worked ok with the case off.
      As mentioned elsewhere, a cheap AT power supply would work it great, I bet ebay as a few. Dunno if the digital out is the same as a coaxial digital out on DVD's and tuners etc.
      • The digital out on a CD-ROM drive is probably TTL level (0-5v). I believe SPDIF is 0-0.5v. You'd want to reduce the power of the signal before connecting it directly to a receiver.
    • How do you play a 16-bit PCM stream with a 1-bit DAC? It's not like SACD where you have a ~2.5MHz 1-bit stream. So what exactly does it mean to have a 1-bit DAC?

      Additionally, there is absolutely NO reason to ever buy anything but the cheapest digital audio cable. Why? It's DIGITAL! If there's degradation of any kind, you'd hear it extremly well. There aren't multiple levels degredation. It's either total signal loss/corruption, or perfect signal. Just buy the cheapest cable you can find that works. Heck, for coax digital, even a cheap composite video cable would work. An audio cable might work, but it might not have enough bandwidth. A composite video signal needs about the same bandwidth as a digital audio signal. For optical cables, you'll want to find something that isn't going to snap if you drop it while you're installing it. There's a new method for making plastic optical conduits, that have a smaller minimum bend radius than the current cables.
      • You are quite wrong of course, but pretty correct in your point; as long as the signal doesn't degrade to the point of uncertainty where the signal level is close to the data threshold such that noise will cause bits to be at the wrong side of the threshold; as long as the signal doesn't degrade THAT FAR, the signal will be fine. But once the signal does degrade that far you might find a better quality cable will reduce the degradation enough for it not to be an issue.

        Does this happen in real life with digital signals?

        Sure it does, why do people make sure they get good quality IDE cables (esp. for UDMA), why do we need good quality network cables and connections?

        It is true that the lower the data rate the signal will be less susceptable to cheaper cables; but don't be deceived into thinking it doesn't matter; especially in cases where impedance matching is important, or good sheilding is important (to protect the equipment as well as the signal; many a badly designed device has locked up in a damaging mode because of bad signals - this is what the FCC regulations regarding "must be able to accept ... interference' refers to I believe).

        Sam
        • Sure it does, why do people make sure they get good quality IDE cables (esp. for UDMA), why do we need good quality network cables and connections?

          I think you'll find that for one pretty well anything will work for 100base-T. Gig is different, but you'll get away with murder at 100Mbit. And secondly that SPDIF is a far lower data rate than either. You could send the signals over a coat hanger and still have no appreciable loss.

          Dave
          • yes, but only if its a 75ohm unbalanced coathanger with approved connectors.

            • Where are you getting 75 Ohm coathangers? All I can find locally are 50 Ohm. Of course if you can get 75 Ohm hangers they can be converted from single end driven unbalanced to both ends driven balanced 300 Ohm. But then you can't use an inline SWR meter to tune it.
          • No doubt many things will work for 100 Base T, but maybe you won't get the full data rate with the retransmissions that are likely to occur; and the number of errors and re-transmissions depends a lot on the environment and external interferance.

            If there are a lot of retransmissions you may find on a busy network that you get ethernet melt-down (due to data collisions cos of the amount of traffic) a lot sooner than you would have done with decent cable and connectors.

            Does spidf re-transmit on error? or do you have to hope the error wasn't so great it can't be corrected?

            Are you going to wait till your neighbour starts arc-welding before you replace the coat hanger with a decent spidf cable?

            Cables quality does matter, _even_if_ low quality cables work somewhat.

            Having said that, I don't buy monster cables either, I merely imagine what I may be losing.

            Sam
          • Try running 100Base-T over untwisted cables... If you screw up while making your own it's a pretty easy thing to end up doing, where each line pair should go isn't obvious, you need the proper wiring diagram. I've done this and while for short runs of 10-15 ft it still works your connect degrads pretty quickly if you do anything longer or have any source of noise. (like the large shortwave radio transmitter close to work...)
          • Speaking of which, I run SPDIF between my pc and my receiver over a 50 foot length of speaker wire that I terminated with el-cheapo radioshack rca plugs. You can tell when it loses sync, 'cause the receiver will cut out for a moment and display "PCM 48Khz" briefly. Otherwise, it works well.
  • But something I've been lusting after since I found out about them last year or so: an Apple PowerCD [applefritter.com]. I don't have any idea if it would be useful at all to you, but hey, I'm still geeked I moved up from a Quadra 840AV to a PowerMac 7600/132 (look 'em up on Apple History [apple-history.com] if you want links) :)

  • About the SDPIF (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TwistedKestrel (550054) <twistedkestrel@gmail.com> on Wednesday January 08 2003, @11:56PM (#5045113) Journal
    Actually, I've never owned a CD-ROM that *didn't* output SDPIF (sp?). The Creative 12x DVD and AOpen 20x10x40 both have it on my computer, the dead CDROM in my tiny server has it ... no, wait, I have a crazy old Panasonic drive that doesn't have it, but it doesn't support IDE either. It's one of dem crazy weird buses. ANYWAY, my point is that most CDROMs have a two pin "digital output" on the far left side, and that is a SDPIF output. With a little creative wiring, you should be able to hook it into a stereo. And I believe most IDE CDROMs work with only power. Of course, I'm talking internal drives here but you should be able to hammer something together.
    • What the hell is this "SDPIF" that you keep going on about?

      I've heard of SPDIF - Sony Philips Digital Interface - but I can't find any info online on this new-fangled interface that you've got on your Creative and AOpen drives.

      Could you please elaborate with some detailed technical information for the less enlightened amongst us?
    • Tell Comic Book Guy if he don't like it to read something else and leave it for those who do find it interesting, and who definitely find it more interesting than his whining.

  • Yay! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09 2003, @12:29AM (#5045231)
    I guess it's finally my turn to feel the thrill of seeing my 'ask slashdot' question posted, and feel the wrath of the kiddies slamming me! Yay! I feel like I'm part of the gang now!
    OK, let me clarify. I used to have a decent A/V system years ago, consisting of a stereo VCR, Laserdisc player with optical SPDIF, carousel CD player and Minidisc recorder. I got most of it stolen 6 years ago, leaving me with only CDs and my Minidisc recorder (MZ-1).
    This left me somewhat bitter and paranoid. Eventually I bought a Sony portable CD player with optical SPDIF output, the D-E805.
    It's a piece of crap, it skips randomly on my CDs, which all look like masters, ie there's not a scratch or speck of dust on them, and this even on a stable surface with the AC adapter. And we all know about how wall warts take up too much space on a power bar, right?
    One day I'm at a used computer store and spot a nice NEC external CD ROM case with internal power supply. I figure for 30$ canadian I can do something with this, thinking the 4X SCSI CD ROM is going to fly in the garbage. At home, I realize the headphone output on it sounds better than most Walkmans I've had, the analog line outs are dead quiet (except for the music, of course :) ) , as quiet as I'd want, really, and the coax SPDIF output went straight into the previously unused coax input on my receiver.
    Plus the CD ROM itself is unusual for the complete control panel and LCD display on it. Like I said, most CD-ROMS have an eject button, if that.
    All in all, I was so impressed with this thing, it became my main CD player. The fact that it's only 7 inches wide by 12 inches deep was pretty cool too. It's also a neat conversation piece as I discovered.
    I don't want a standard 19 inch wide CD player. Those things are flimsy, empty boxes. I don't see why this size still exists.
    I'd have thought that at /. the hacker mentality would prevail. I thought people would be happy that I'm recycling a useful, if old, CD-ROM player as a standalone CD player.
    The fact that it's smaller, uses a standard 120V power connection and only needs one cable to connect to the receiver are the reasons why I like it.
    It raises the question why CD-ROMs don't play back MP3's natively, most DVD players seem to do it. That would be even cooler.
    So no, I don't want to connect a portable CD player to my receiver. BTDT. I don't watch enough movies to justify a DVD player (another 19 inch empty box). I like the small form factor, OK? I want a newer CD-ROM that plays CD-RW and has enough buttons for standalone use, OK?
    Yes I called all the local big boys in Montreal for computer crap, there simply are NO CD-ROMs with anything more than an eject button, OK?

    And yes, I use my computer for ripping and playing MP3s and the occasional DVD, I just don't want to have to turn on the damn machine (at 200+ watts and fans) just to listen to some music. The NEC is quiet and fast.

    That's all I want for crying out loud. I just want CD-RW read capability with buttons... Waahhh!!!

    Oh and yes, I used to use my Hi-Fi stereo VCR to record 6 hours of music at a time, have you seen the specs of these machines lately?

    Thanks to isorox and malraid for some of the only relevant posts so far!

  • Another guy wants to recycle a CDROM player in his audio set. Seen on the debian-user list : http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2003/debian-us er-200301/msg00942.html Better get yourself a used CD player on Ebay !

  • The problem with computer CD drives is that they won't work with the current copy control methods, like Midbar (=desert in Hebrew) or Sony's vicious key2audio [key2audio.com] - unless someone writes a firmware upgrade for them.

    The upgrade should be very simple, and will consist of the following pseudo-code:

    IF (cd is printed) AND (cd has audio tracks) THEN read_only_the_first_session
  • I have tested many joe CD-ROM drives by just putting in an audio CD-R, power suply and listening thru SPDIF. I havent seen many drives without an SPDIF out and I believe about 90% will play audio off CDRs with no major problems.

    Now they should REALLY make CDROM drives with build in MP3 and Ogg decompression. These modular drives could then be inserted into car and home theatre players with no problems. I certainly wouldnt mind paying extra to have mp3 processing off my processor.
        • Well actually... you could theoretically have a distribution of software or an archive on a DVD.

          We don't see too much software distributed on DVD's YET, but once DVD players in the PC are as common as CD-ROM drives, we'll see them.

          For now, we can play movies on the PC. And when your favorite software is distributed on DVD, you'll be glad that you already have a DVD-ROM drive in your machine. In a few years, we may even be able to install RedHat from two DVD's instead of 15 CD's.
  • You could always just buy a cd player. If you want the nice hook ups you could buy one of the $39 DVD players. Things like this were intended to be plugged into stereos.

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