Sunday, April 21, 2013

Playback DRM recordings from the Newstar DR111 on your PC

The Newstar DR111 allows you to record DRM recordings on an SD card. It uses the Multiplex Distribution Interface (MDI) protocol. While I log reception (you can find out how to do that here) I also record the programs. This is particularly helpful overnight. For me this is nearly always RNZI. They have some great overnight music programs on the weekends. 

The Newstar DR111 allows you to replay these files on the receiver. This is nice, but the best part is that it allows you to archive the audio and convert it for other uses! Visit the CDNSE Newstar DR111 page for the how-to (choose the DR111 Blog tab) or look at this convenient PDF of the directions.

At the point you are setup to do this, you can go into DReaM's Evaluation Dialogue and "save audio as wav" if you want something to play on your portable audio player or mobile. It will make a WAV file which is quite large. It does so in real time as well. Perhaps someone will write a program to expedite this conversion and output in a format more conducive to mobiles.

Unrelated to this topic, but worth mentioning, I located a very nice Melchor Switching Regulator PSR-53-7. I am now running the Newstar DR111 from my always float-charged 12V back-up battery.
Voltage in to the regulator is about 14V and output is a cool 5.11V. I think this is overkill for my application, but it works well where other voltage regulators I have used have been problematic. I'll likely put a cigarette lighter plug on this one, for automobile use.