stereo to pc cable / lead - HELP please! :)

[terrorvicky]

i'm looking for a cable to connect my pc and my stereo. basically what i want to do is put my old cassettes and vinyl onto my pc, to put onto my ipod :)
anyway, i bought this cable http://www.bandridge.nl/index2.htm#products/audio/index
but in reality i have no idea how to use it.
i plugged one end into my stereo headphones jack, fine, then the other end has two male plugs, one with a red dot one with a white dot. the back of my pc has nothing like that...
but there are two vacant holes, one which says MIC the other says SPEAKERS.
i plugged the red one, then the white one, into the MIC hole, but nothing worked.
and the plugs seem a bit wobbly to me, so i don't think they're the right ones.
could someone point me in the right direction, even just tell me what to ask for in the shops so i don't look a fool!
Thanks in advance!
Vicky

[PunkDaddy]

It depends what output your stereo has. If it only has the minijack headphones output then you need a mini jack to mini jack. if at the back of your tape deck you have outputs that match the ones at the other end of that cable (they are called phono) then you have the right lead you just need to plug those into the back of your tapedeack, and then plug the mini jack into your PC's input. But whatever output your tapedeck has you need the minijack for the back of your PC.

[PunkDaddy]

When I say your PC's input, I mean MIC.

[terrorvicky]

oh! i understand! i was putting it round the wrong way haha! thank you so much! :D

[Headtime]

Punkdaddy is right, but Vicky, you don't really want to plug the mini-jack end into your computers 'mic' socket, it needs to go into the 'line-in' socket which is probably next to the 'mic' socket at the back of your computer.

[terrorvicky]

ah ok, well i'll have a little look see and see if i've got a line-in one. thanks!

[Tweed]

If your going to use the headphone socket as the output from the tape player, then make sure to have the volume low and gradually turn it up until the levels on the recording software are just below the red. You should really connect the line out of the tape player (the one that goes to the amp) to the line in of the soundcard. On the cheaper cards, this is usually a 15mm stereo jack. If you're not using hi-fi separates, you may not have this option.