[PJ G4]

I just installed DirecTV in my home. There are quite a few digital audio channels available with all types of music. There are no commercials so it would be possible to record the music. My goal is to record the music and later transfer to an iPod. What would be the best way to do this. I have an 800 Mhz Quicksilver with a 120GB hard drive and am using OS X. Thanks

[Mark E]

sure, just run a cable from the audio output sockets on your direcTV box, to the audio input socket on your mac.

then you'll need some sort of recording software. you might have "sound studio" supplied with your mac - i had it pre-installed on my machine. if not there are tons of programs on versiontracker.com

all you need to do then is connect the cables up, open the recording software, and hit the "record" button in the software. it'll be recording in CD standard sound, which will take up approx. 10 MB per minute.

once you've recorded your audio stream, you can make any necessary edits, fade-ins, etc. then import the resulting AIFF files to iTunes and convert them to MP3 or AAC.

[PJ G4]

What are some good recording software to use with OS X. I forgot to mention that I have an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card. It has a line level input in the form of a mini-plug. Is this the best method to input the audio from the DirecTV box to my computer. Is the signal comming out of the DirecTV truly digital and what would be the bit and sample rates or does this not matter. Thanks for the reply Mark E

[Mark E]

i just checked the specs for your soundcard and it appears to only have analogue inputs, so you'll be stuck with analogue only, i'm afraid. but the quality difference here really is minimal.

i'm guessing directv's audio and video streams are transmitted in a compressed format anyway.

as for sound recording.. i always use "sound studio" which was supplied on my imac when i got it (check the applications folder). if you don't have that, i've heard good things about amadeus and peak. there's also a mac version of audacity, a free, open-source sound editor. http://audacity.sourceforge.net

-Mark