HDX ripping observation plus DTC question

Posted by: BLee on 21 December 2009

Played a Hendrix track from the HDX and it sounded appalling...as if it was being played in a cocktail shaker full of sand. Put the cd from which it was ripped into my normal Naim player and it was virtually unplayable...gaps, loud crunching noises, skids...the works. Completely buggered cd. So, somehow, the HDX ripping process had managed to take something only useful as a coaster and turn it into recognisable (albeit flawed) music. I was more than a little impressed (though still in need of a new Hendrix disc).

And, can anyone help with the following DTC question (in fact, two):

1) Despite following the instructions to the letter, the DTC (running on Vista) just won't let me construct playlists. At the last point in the process (going to the 'now playing' view) all it shows is the track listing from the cd from which the last song came which was queued to the playlist. Also, using drag or putting in whole cds then deleting what I don't want, if I play the first track on a list, it then proceeds to play the whole cd from which that track came, rather than the rest of the list. Does anyone have any guidance on what might be going wrong? (Btw, the whole process works perfectly from the browser view.)

2) I only seem to be able to access the DTC if I turn off User Account control in Vista. Anyone unlucky enough to be using Vista will know that this then leads to multiple, ongoing irritation. Is there any way round this?

I have searched on the above, but couldn't find any answers. Any guidance gratefully received. Thanks.
Posted on: 21 December 2009 by AV@naim
Although I note that the manual does suggest DTC is compatible with Vista, it is not garuanteed to work 100% under Vista in it's 1.4B form.

Both issues rectified in 1.5
Posted on: 21 December 2009 by Stevesky
Hi BLee,

In regards to your ripping issue, the HDX ripping engine has logic in it to decide if the CD inserted is copy protected or not.

Average PC system - if it isn't exact to spec then the CD is typically rejected as the CD's error correction or structure is purposely broken. Ever since copy protected CD's were invented, it has meant that a percentage of CD's will no longer rip based on protection schemes that make the CD no longer a CD. The ability to rip them come down to a combination of CD protection scheme, CD Mech and ripping software used. Most secure PC ripping solutions use this and while it does give a good barrier of bad rips gets through, the user also end up with a pile of CD's that can play (due to carefully balanced scheme abusing traditional CD player error correction), but won't rip at all.

HDX - if the CD has the characteristics of a copy protected CD then it will allow various error types through that are used by protection schemes, but the resulting audio should construct if the CD is good. This gives a decent ratio of quality rips, but just now and then the odd CD will get through that comes out as corrupt due to misrecognition, or CD error correction is inherently broken due to the copy protection and CD is damaged. The ratios are extremely low though and unfortunately due to this, it is no longer an exact science - it's one of sensible compromise. Also, as you have observed it nearly always is a CD that was not fit for purpose and would never be usable in the first place.

Regards

Steve Harris (R&D)
Posted on: 22 December 2009 by BLee
Thanks both. Stevesky, hope you don't think it was a complaint, I was genuinely impressed at how it managed to salvage so much from a duff disc.