Play while recording from Aux?

[Bob McGee]

I just recently purchased a B2.  I have what may seem like a strange question - can the B2 record from the Aux input while playing music, either to the line/spdif out or speaker out?

Thanks,

Bob

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Bob,

The answer is no, that is not possible.

The reason is that, due to a strange design situation within the Raspberry Pi circuitry (and not the B2), if you wish to record through 'Aux-In', the B2 has to 'disconnect' the internal HDD (and also the CD) from itself, and then switch its 'source' to (micro)SD card.  The B2 then records the 'Aux-In' music/ data tracks to the (micro)SD card.  The 'Aux-In' input can be heard on the output channels.

When you have completed your recording, you switch 'Aux-In' off and the B2 will reboot itself again, and will reconnect the internal HDD and CD.  To move the recording from the (micro)SD card you go into 'Settings' --> 'Get Recordings' and this function will copy the recording to the HDD, under artist name 'Unknown', album name 'Unknown'.

Care needs to be exercised here, because if you can can only do one recording at a time, as each successive recording will overwrite the previous one.

Regards,

Peter.

[Bob McGee]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the quick reply.  That is a strange design indeed. How about a software approach then - can the B2 play a song (line/spdif or speakers) and through software (not through the Aux in) record it to a different format at the same time? I do actually have a possible suggestion so bare with me. :)

Bob

[Mark Fishman]

You mean can the B2 record what it is playing? No. Either you're playing something already recorded, or you're trying to record the Internet Radio -- which the B2 does not do.

Instead of teasing us, why not just tell us what you want to do?

[Bob McGee]

Hi Mark, how do you know  it can't be done? I was looking for the inside scoop from Brennan Support :)

M4P files contain embedded digital rights management (DRM) data.  After much investigating, I've found that the only legal workaround is to play the music and re-record it to a different format.  There are commercially available programs for your computer that do this but it thought it could be done in the B2 in a future enhancement.  I supposed the next question is why don't I just buy the program and do it in my computer.  As I mentioned I'm a new B2 owner and after reading many forum posts, I am a little shocked at how often users are told to do things on their computer, imho excessively so for the cost of the unit.

[Mark Fishman]

I hope that Paul (Brennan support guy) replies, it will be nice to have confirmation. I believe it can't be done because this sort of topic has come up previously.

M4P files are Apple's protected format -- iTunes is designed to let you play them and record them to a CD, which strips the DRM. Then you can rip the CD just like any other. In order to play an M4P file your device or software needs to have access to iTunes' authorization and decoding keys. The B2 doesn't have that access. (No Linux system has that access. The situation is the same for things like Audible's audiobooks, also DRM-crippled.) But burning those CDs is built-in to Apple's own software. You shouldn't need to buy anything else.

The B2 is sold as a hard-disk storage and playback system for music that you can load into it. It also plays Internet Radio. When people want to do other things that don't really fall under those headings, I'm not surprised that a general-purpose computer is a more flexible tool.

Cheers -- m.

[Bob McGee]

Ah , yes I forgot that the device (PC or Pi) needs to be logged into an iTunes account.  That is definitely the roadblock.

Thanks!

[PMB]

Hi Bob,

I suppose if you are playing the DRM tracks on your computer (running iTunes) and using the Line Out to the B2, you could record the tracks using Aux Mode.

However you'd end up with one long track on the B2 and not be able to split the tracks and/or rename them. So this would be better done on your computer and then copied across to the B2.

Paul

Brennan Support.