The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/boosterbear on 2024-06-20 08:35:24.
Hello all! I have been hunting for the right location to ask my many, many questions. This may not be technical enough for this subreddit, but it seemed like the right place to go.
I'm a big fan of physical media, likely casual to most here but to my friends I am perceived as intensely pro-physical media. As such, whenever people have spare tapes, CDs, DVDs, etc etc, I'm the man they throw them at.
Unfortunately, I am horribly unfamiliar with the digitization process for everything except for CDs and DVDs, and even then I occasionally have hiccups.
Recently I purchased the JVC RC-EZ38S CD Portable System (link to user manual) from a flea market to play some of my tapes and CDs, and realized I had a few tapes I'm unable to find anywhere online. Usually I wouldn't worry about my tapes growing old from wear because I can download songs and save them that way, but these tapes (mostly Halloween tracks) were impossible for me to find elsewhere, so I've been trying to preserve them.
The JVC product I purchased plays CDs, cassette tapes, and the radio. It has one single 3.5mm jack, a headphone output. I have done some googling, and found my best bet to save the audio is through a combination of cables and Audacity. Unfortunately, my computer only recognizes my aux cord as headphones, and I cannot treat my JVC product as a microphone when using Audacity. I have two cables - one aux with two 3.5mm ends, and one cable that has a male 3.5mm on one end and the other end has two male parts, white and yellow RCA jacks.
How, if at all, can I use my JVC player to preserve the tapes I have? Is there a special cord combination I may be able to put together that won't put me out of house and home (I'm unemployed and in a somewhat difficult spot financially, even a $20 purchase has me aghast sometimes) or would I be better off looking for a different product to record my tapes? A friend of mine is currently looking to rehome an old car radio with cassette player - Do those typically have RCA plugs, and would that be a way to go about this?
Anything helps, even just correcting my terms so I can communicate what I'm looking for a little better - I'm in a space where I truly don't know what it is that I don't know. I'd love to be a part of saving some lost media, even if it seems a little silly. People put work into those Halloween tapes, dammit!