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Spectravideo SVI-328 program loading question


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Download the .cas files and convert them to .wav files using a utility (search for Samdal's SV328 page and you'll find it). Then hook up a tape player to your PC and record them to real tapes. The SV-328 and 318 use a special tape recorder so you can't hook anything else up to it unless you build some kind of adapter. Programs either load with CLOAD or BLOAD "cas:",r

 

I did this very thing last weekend and it works well.

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  • 4 years later...

I just got my SVI-328 running by converting an Billion power supply.  I also found my SVI-904 data cassette, and verified that it works.  However I don't have any original Spectravideo software.  I've found some software that will convert TSX to WAV files, but so far the SVI hasn't recognized any of them.  I'm thinking that perhaps it's not recording the correct frequency, however I can't seem to find documentation on what the correct frequency is.  Alternately,  I found an old program called cas2wav.exe that is supposed to create Spectravideo compatible files, however it won't work in Windows 10.  If anybody has any good ideas, I would appreciate it.

 

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My first four concerns would be:

 

1. Volume of the WAV when you record it to tape. High enough without clipping, but I don't know how much is "high enough".

2. Are you using a stereo recorder or mono? Does the Spectravideo use one or two channels?

3. Perhaps the sound needs to be inverted (turned upside down), which many sound programs can do.

4. Azimuth angle but as long as neither tape recorder was altered it probably isn't an issue here unlike e.g. on the Commodore where people used a screwdriver to adjust the angle back and forth.

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The Spectravideo seems to have a stereo tape head.  I haven't been able to find out anything about the tape format other than it's 1800baud.  I would look in the SV-328 user manual, but I haven't found one of them either. I guess I'll have to load a saved program into Audacity.

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Excellent suggestion, to save a small program to tape and view it in Audacity. It reminds me of when I tried to make WAV files for the VTech Laser 500 from MAME, and found that the generated files were faster (?) than the original file dumps so I had to adjust the WAV in speed for it to load on real hardware.

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Okay,  I loaded a saved program in to Audacity and found there were two tones peaking at approximately 792Hz and 1576Hz.  It look like they are using pulses or squarewaves, as there are a lot of odd harmonics and IM.  I was even able to find the SV-328 User Manual, however this proved to be unhelpful in regards to tape save data format.  There is a Spectravideo website which has a wealth of useful information that is well organized: http://www.samdal.com/svsoftware.htm  This, as well as several other websites, refer to another website: http://home.student.uu.se/jowi4905/svi/ which contains programs to convert Spectravideo .cas files to .wav and visa versa.  Unfortunately, this website does not appear to exist anymore.

 

However,  using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, I was able access the files that were once posted on the above website.  But it couldn't be that easy as these files do not work from Windows 10, even on the command line.  However,  I found that they will work from DOSBox so long as you include cwsdpmi.exe in the mounted directory, which is a DOS protected mode interface. The three programs that you need are SVICAS2WAV, SVIWAV2CAS, and SVICASMAN.  The last one is a CAS file manager which actually runs in Windows 10.  This will tell you which cassette files are CLOAD (BASIC) or BLOAD (Binary). 

 

Once the wave files were created I recorded them on to cassette using a stereo cassette deck set to a recording level between -6 and 0dB.  These were successfully loaded on the SVI-904 Data Cassette.  To make easier for anyone else in the same boat, the files are attached below.

 

sc2w1_0b.zipsw2c1_0.zipscm2_02b.zipcwsdpmi.exe

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