New iPod recording ability

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Does anybody have detailed information on this? I saw the Belkin voice recorder advertised, but I didn't find information on:



Recording format/bit rate... AND

Does this feature work with other (better quality) external microphones?



The reason I ask these questions is because it would be handy for recording my voice lessons and/or short demos. However, if the sound quality is low, it won't do me a bit of good. It would be much better than taking the laptop, recording AIFF (remembering to disable the sleep function on the computer), then importing into iTunes and splitting tracks/compressing it.



Matthew
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 34
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    All things iPod belong to Digital Hub. Moving there now?
  • Reply 2 of 34
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SuperMatt

    Does anybody have detailed information on this? I saw the Belkin voice recorder advertised, but I didn't find information on:



    Recording format/bit rate... AND

    Does this feature work with other (better quality) external microphones?







    Well, I read on the Heise newsticker (http://www.heise.de) that the belkin vr records in wav format, so this is probably uncompressed audio - this will drain the batteries quite fast, I suppose.



    Hopefully other companies will come up with other solutions - I want a combined headphone-microphone combo.



    And I want play-and-record at-once, this would be cool for layering music - a small recording studio in your pocket!



    -karsten
  • Reply 3 of 34
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Defiant

    All things iPod belong to Digital Hub. Moving there now?



    Temporary Moderator?!
  • Reply 4 of 34
    newnew Posts: 3,244member
    That Belikin thing looks like a piece of crap. What I want is a minijack-in plugg, so you can attach any mic you'd like. I Guess someone (please griffin?) will put this out pretty soon.
  • Reply 5 of 34
    tomktomk Posts: 13member
    i updated my ipod to vers 2.1 and activated voice notes. i am not able to record notes with a standard mic. there is probably a detection mechanism for the belkin equipment. :-(
  • Reply 6 of 34
    galengalen Posts: 46member
    I would bet that the sound signal is being recorded in through the remote plug. That port is designed to take signals in. The minijack only puts sound out, so plugging a mic in there wouldn't do anything, the only reason the belkin has it is to play through the little speaker. At least, that's what i think.
  • Reply 7 of 34
    wjmoorewjmoore Posts: 210member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Galen

    I would bet that the sound signal is being recorded in through the remote plug. That port is designed to take signals in. The minijack only puts sound out, so plugging a mic in there wouldn't do anything, the only reason the belkin has it is to play through the little speaker. At least, that's what i think.



    No the remote plug is a low-speed serial interface. The remote communicates commands to the iPod via it. The actual audio recording is done through the headphone port as proved by the fact that people could record audio in diagnostics mode (before Apple removed it) by talking into their one of headphones. However it is highly likely that the remote port is used for some kind of detection/communiaction between the two devices. For example to tell it when to turn the recording LED on and off. Give it time, it won't take long for someone to workout the commands being sent and document them.
  • Reply 8 of 34
    galengalen Posts: 46member
    Ahhh, I understand. Thanks for the real info.
  • Reply 9 of 34
    WJMoore is correct microhone is connected via the 1/8 jack.



    Damn shame that it appears u can only record with the belkin MIC.
  • Reply 10 of 34
    Quote:

    Originally posted by O and A

    Damn shame that it appears u can only record with the belkin MIC.



    Give it time, it wouldn't be hard for someone to analyse the commands being send an hack up a PIC microcontroller to fake it. I might even do it as soon as exams are over.



    The pinout and serial protocol are already documented

    http://www.maushammer.com/systems/ip...od-remote.html
  • Reply 11 of 34
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ast3r3x

    Temporary Moderator?!



    He found the Cat Daniels Penthouse photoshoot for alcimedes. So alcimedes gave him a week-long temporary moderator status.



  • Reply 12 of 34
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    Can't complain about porn now, can I?
  • Reply 13 of 34
    How do you activate he voice recording mode? I have updated my iPod but can not find voice mems anywhere.

    Also, the 1/8" jack has three connections instead of stereo which takes two. So quite possibly the recording takes place through the third connection (which no normal mic has).



    Macaddict16
  • Reply 14 of 34
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Macaddict16

    How do you activate he voice recording mode? I have updated my iPod but can not find voice mems anywhere.

    Also, the 1/8" jack has three connections instead of stereo which takes two. So quite possibly the recording takes place through the third connection (which no normal mic has).



    Macaddict16




    All stereo mini-plugs have 3 connections, Left, Right and Ground. The mic probably uses one or both of Left and Right to get an input signal. Possibly, the player is capable of recording in Stereo. That would be interesting.



    -Spyky
  • Reply 15 of 34
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Spyky

    All stereo mini-plugs have 3 connections, Left, Right and Ground. The mic probably uses one or both of Left and Right to get an input signal. Possibly, the player is capable of recording in Stereo. That would be interesting.



    -Spyky




    Stereo mini plugs do not all have t connections. Look at the iPod remote connector and the earbuds connector for example. ALL headphones with the mini jack have two connections. Very few stereo devices (if any, the only ones I have seen are on iPods or other devices with remotes) have the third connector. Some camcorders do because the third is used to carry video.



    Macaddict16
  • Reply 16 of 34
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Macaddict16

    Stereo mini plugs do not all have t connections. Look at the iPod remote connector and the earbuds connector for example. ALL headphones with the mini jack have two connections. Very few stereo devices (if any, the only ones I have seen are on iPods or other devices with remotes) have the third connector. Some camcorders do because the third is used to carry video.



    Macaddict16




    No, Spyky is right. They all have 3, the iPod one and ones you've seen on video cameras have 4. 3 is the minimum: left, right and ground. The recording feature makes use of the fact that one or both of the left or right connections can also be used for input.



  • Reply 17 of 34
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Spyky

    ..... The mic probably uses one or both of Left and Right to get an input signal. Possibly, the player is capable of recording in Stereo. That would be interesting.



    -Spyky




    The 'record' option is not available as any separate menu option. As soon as you plug-in the recorder into the socket, the record option pops up in the iPod [I saw this in the cnet video of Steve's presentation] 8)



    Also, belkin's website says that the recording is mono, not stereo and the format is mono, wave.



  • Reply 18 of 34
    I'm interested to know if Future iPods will have built in recording. Jobs might have slipped up during the keynote speech. If you listen as he is talking about the Belkin adapter he says..."The new iPods....I mean the DOCKABLE iPods will be able to record voice..." or something to that effect. Might just be me overanalyzing, but it would be better than carrying around another adapter.
  • Reply 19 of 34
    pesipesi Posts: 424member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by filmmaker2002

    I'm interested to know if Future iPods will have built in recording. Jobs might have slipped up during the keynote speech. If you listen as he is talking about the Belkin adapter he says..."The new iPods....I mean the DOCKABLE iPods will be able to record voice..." or something to that effect. Might just be me overanalyzing, but it would be better than carrying around another adapter.



    i believe the preferred marketing speak for all 3G iPods is now "with dock connector" instead of "new"



    by "new", steve could have been referring to the just the new models released a few weeks ago. by saying "dock connector" he makes it clear which ones he's referring to.
  • Reply 20 of 34
    rolandgrolandg Posts: 632member
    Hi all!



    How about we make this thread the official "new iPod peripherals" thread? Because I think that if I opened such a thread from scratch they would soon be merged.



    The thing I don't get is why they did not use the dock-connector to connect the recording device. Is this for powering reasons and the dock-connector is just for filesystem operations?



    Also, the voice recording thing looks kind of bulky and cheesy in design, but that's a question of personal preference.



    But the media card reader is really bulky. I hope that they develop a device that acts as plug between your camera's USB-cable and the connector so you can directly link both devices and ridding the neccessity of lugging around a additional bulky device.



    I hope that Apple will open these features to other developers so we will see a little bit of competiton in the market.
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