[Trevor]

"Peter Larsen" wrote in message
k...
I have a number of old minidisks and want to convert the music on
them into mp3. MDs are digital, so it ought to be possible to retain
the digital form and "just" convert that, rather than go through the
analogue output when I play an MD, which causes some loss of
quality.

Good idea.

Can this be done, and how?

player with sp-dif output, soundcard or computer with sp-dif input.

Which of course still means converting from ATRAC to PCM/Wav to MP3.
You may lose a *little* less than going via an analog connection, but
"some loss of quality" is unavoidable if you want .MP3's from MD.

.wav or flac comes to mind as the usable household standards. MP3's sound
boring in comparison.


The OP asked for .MP3, *and* MD is already compressed with ATRAC.
Saving it as .wav or flac will save one more compression step of course, but
still begs the question how much more loss will you get from an analog
connection compared with what has already occured. Assuming a half way
decent soundcard, and also assuming the D-A section of the MD player is as
good as the A-D section was to begin with.
Frankly the damage has been done IMO, and I wouldn't waste too much time and
effort worrying about it further.

Trevor.