Hello
  Yes it isn't about the disk but rather about the drive.  The most recent
CD drive I've bought still has the well known 4-pin analogue connector with
which we're all famliar.  However even the cheapest DVD drive I own (I
checked after last post so it isn't only the SATA Plextor) has no audio
connector at all.  This struck me as odd since I recently bought a superb
little 2-bay external drive enclosure made for eSATA only, tested with my
Plextor SATA DVD drive, and besides the normal power supply, fan, and
internal SATA connectors it also has a set of LEDs with cables that
terminate in a "Y" with 2 different style connectors to monitor
drive activity AND a set of stereo phono jacks with internal cable and
adaptor for, I presume, audio.  The odd part is that I know of no sata, or
any other modern drive for that matter, that still features a term strip
for activity LEDs, that being handled at the controller of which there is
none in the external enclosure (dependant on embedded eSATA
 on mobo or pci controller card). The thing that applies here is that of
the audio connectors since I know of no SATA CD drives and only a very few
SATA DVD drives I can't imagine why the company went to the extra expense
for something(s) all but impossible to use.  I'm not complaining you
understand as I love this thing (it's more than twice as fast on average
read speed than USB 2.0 and even a hair faster than FireWire 800 on average
read and nearly four (4) times as fast as USB on burst speed.  But I guess
this shows how legacy hangs on when things change so quickly.
Jimmy

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Ed Durrant 
> OK, I think I see what is happening here. I over-simplified in my 
> earlier explanation - audio-CDs actually consist of WAV files on the 
> disk. CD & DVD drives have logic within them to decode these to analogue 
> audio and put this out to the audio cable that you would then need to 
> feed to your audio card.
> 
> If however the software you are using has the ability to automatically 
> "rip" the tracks via the digital interface (the IDE cable)
and then play 
> them, back out through the audio card, then that's what is probably 
> happening.
> 
> Some CD drives used to have play and track advance buttons on the face 
> panel, which, if you had the analogue cable in place you could select 
> and play the CDs tracks as long as you had power to the system - no 
> software required.
> 
> I guess as all can now be done via the digital interface and software, 
> the analogue cable is no longer required to be installed.
> 
> Cheers/2
> 
> Ed.
>big snip<



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 
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