DAT2WAV Version 1.0 - This is the second public release of DAT2WAV
Homepage:  http://www.ncf.ca/~aa571/index.html
Email: aa571@ncf.ca

DAT2WAV - What is it?
----------------------

DAT2WAV is a simple little command line program to dump the digital
audio from a DAT tape to a wav file.  It runs only in a DOS window
under Win95/98/NT. It requires the ASPI drivers to be installed and
running.

In order for this software to work you have to have the ARCHIVE DAT
drives with the audio firmware.  The software doesn't check for the
firmware, but will fail if it isn't there. See notes at end of this
text file for more info on the drives.

Remember this is early code.  It produces wav files that sound ok
on our machines. We will be continuing to work on the program as 
time goes by.  One of the next things to work on is getting long 
play 32k working and then we start in on writing
to tape.  We plan on at the very least giving the ability to put
together a tape in much the same way you do a CDR, with a list of
wav files. Somewhere along the way, we plan to do some work with
a GUI, but that is less important than getting the main parts of
the program running.

The version being distributed is limited to extracting the audio for
only 5 minutes of the tape.  This should be enough for you
to decide if the software will work for you before ordering it.

How do I use this program?
--------------------------

It uses a simple command line for all the parameters
DAT2WAV adapter:id:lun [filename] [waveout] [rewind] [startid]

You have to specify the adapter number, the scsi id of the tape drive
and the lun of the drive in the form adapter:id:lun

FILENAME - specify a filename to use for the wav file
WAVEOUT  - specify to send the audio to the soundcard instead of a wave file
REWIND   - specify if you want the tape to be rewound before starting.
STARTID  - specify if you want the wav files created to be split when
           start id's are found on the tape - not specifying this option
           will only change wav files when a new sample rate is found
example:

DAT2WAV 1:5:0 dataud
 this will dump from tape drive at 1:5:0 to wav files called
 dataud1.wav, dataud2.wav, dataud3.wav etc, only changing wav files
 when a new sample rate is found

DAT2WAV 1:5:0 dataud rewind
 this will dump from tape drive at 1:5:0 to wav files called
 dataud1.wav, dataud2.wav, dataud3.wav etc - this will rewind the
 tape before extracting the audio - will change wav files only when
 a new sample rate is found

DAT2WAV 1:5:0 waveout
 this will it will play the audio to the sound card instead of writing
 to disk

DAT2WAV 1:5:0 dataud startid
 this will dump from tape drive at 1:5:0 to wav files called
 dataud1.wav, dataud2.wav, dataud3.wav etc - it will change wav files
 when either a new sample rate or a start id is found

What drives work with it?
-------------------------

The ARCHIVE/CONNER/SEAGATE drives from the 4320 family may be 
able to read audio.  You have to have the audio firmware installed
otherwise it will not work.  If your drive has either firmware
version 2.75-15 or 2.63-15 then you are all set.  If not then 
you will have to get different firmware.  You will need to get
from your dealer:
"CONNER/SEAGATE PART # 25601-006 : Audio Firmware PROM 2.75-15"
This is not an easy task.

So far the list of drive firmware versions known to work are:
labeled Archive 4320NT:
ARCHIVE Python 25601-XXX2.63
ARCHIVE Python 25601-XXX2.75

labeled Conner/Seagate CTD-8000/4326NT:
ARCHIVE Python 01931-XXX5.AC

labeled as Archive 4530:
ARCHIVE Python 25501-XXX (haven't actually had one in hand)

There is also a version of the Sony SDT-9000 that will work, but we've 
never seen one. SGI sells the drives under the part numbers: P9-DAT12-INT 
(internal) and P9-DAT7-EXT (external)


Where to buy a drive
--------------------
You can always buy one from SGI, but for most people it is much too 
expensive. We are presently working on ways to get audio capable drives. 
First of all we are actively searching for vendors who sell the drives.  
Secondly we are also trying to arrange a bulk purchase of drives as it 
seems we may have found a vendor who will sell us the drives, but only 
a case at a time.  Let us know if you are interested and we can let you 
know the latest information.


What's involved in registering the software?
--------------------------------------------

We've thought long and hard about what to do about registration.  We
know
that you can buy the $2500 drive from SGI and use their software for
who knows how much money, we also know you can spend $2500 and buy
the software/hardware solution for the MAC.  We think there is a
market for a much less expensive solution.  We will be working hard to
find distributors who have the necessary drives and we will be letting
everyone know what to do to order them.  We will also be looking into
doing bulk purchases of the drives to see if there are any price
improvements.

As for price, we think you don't have to spend thousands of dollars,
and as with all our software we price it reasonably.  The registration 
fee for DAT2WAV is $50 US.  We won't be asking for a fee every time a new 
version comes out. The fee will give you a lifetime (or as long as we 
bug fix and add features) of free updates via the Internet.  We will 
also notify registered users by email of any new versions for a year.

Through our sister company Wellesworth Publishing, we can also take
credit cards.  The online order form can be found at:
http://www.magma.ca/~aa571/online.htm

The mail address is:
      Jim McLaughlin
      PO Box 372444
      Satellite Beach, FL, USA
      32937-2444

If you have any questions, my email address is
aa571@ncf.ca,
but RTFM before you start sending me then questions.


Known problems
--------------

- it appears (at least on all the drives we've got) that the scms
bits aren't being passed on by the drives, so we have no way
of testing our scms code.

- the software doesn't interpret 32k lp mode properly

- the software doesn't make any use of the bit error information
yet so there may be bursts of noise when there are errors in the
data but the drive doesn't report them as scsi errors

