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and if I could get IASCA to (a) watermark their files and (b) allow empeg to display the watermarks, then maybe, just maybe...

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My thoughts on this are: don't watermark. Leaving aside the issue of audibility, there's also the question of what the absence of a watermark means. It might very well be possible to obliterate a watermark by amplifying the audio outside the range of the microphone attempting to read the watermark, or changing the equalisation in a way which is still legitimate for IASCA competition.

I think MD5 or some other message digest 'signature' generation procedure should be used. How to verify that the track that you play is the same track that IASCA supply is the main question. My answer is: display the checksum immediately after playing the track, and the checksums don't get released. If the IASCA judge wanted to be satisfied they can give you a track off a CD you haven't seen and ask you to verify the signature of it. Only if you could duplicate the signature that the IASCA generated off the same song - a signature which you didn't know beforehand - would it prove that your signature generation procedure is not rigged.

What do you think of this solution? And, more importantly, what do people think IASCA would think?

Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.

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The EMPEG can control two IDE devices. If one of those happened to be a CD-ROM drive, you'd be in business. You'd have this awful IDE cable snaking out of the EMPEG box, plus you'd have to write device drivers and so forth.

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A great idea, but still most laptop or slimline cdroms do require extra power, the extra not supplied by the ide chain that the hard disks run off (extra 5 volts). I suppose if you were willing to do some soldering, and create the extra power unit on the outside of the empeg, it would be feasable to mount a slimline cdrom on the outside of the empeg, you would have to completely re-engineer your docking sled, but it is do-able. I dont really want to try this, but I would probably prefer to get a really big ide drive to replace my two current ones, and somehow pickup a slimline laptop cdrom, anyone have a laptop I can bastardise?

But to use this setup, one would have to muck with the kernel to auto mount cdroms on insert, and auto-umount them on eject button press. Not to mention the player would somehow have to be able to look to the cdrom, and play wav's (New in 1.1, eta unknown). I suppoes the kernel could mount the cdrom as drive2, and generate fids for the tracks on the cdrom, but then again, I dont know much about the player software, perhaps someone else could comment on the kernel and player requirements to play audio tracks off a cdrom.

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I know there are some empeg users who are using CD players in their cars in the manner I have described here.

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I am running just that setup, but my previous head unit was a Kenwood Radio/Cassette deck w/changer control, I still have that unit running into the aux of the empeg, other than the previously mention "warm, fuzzy" sound, the clarity is actually far better with the empegs EQ and my amp. if anything I can drive the speakers harder with the volume from the empeg, and fine tune the radio/cassette/changer unit.
I have noticed no ground loop, but I attibute that to good quality RCA cables, and an excellent Toyota electrical system.
I will post a pic if I can nab my digital camera back for a day or two, I meant to document the whole install procedure, but unfourtunatly that was lost by the wayside, when I began my install and simply just got too excited about the empeg!
I will be doing a new install in the spring with my new auto (another Toyota) and I will surely be documenting that install, as it will be all out.

But so far, no problems, just extra gain, and better quality audio with a decent quality aux head unit.

Edited by mcomb on 01/12/00 08:19 AM.