Ripping

Posted by: Kim240 on 05 May 2012

New to this - can anyone tell me why I shouldnt rip to WAV on the Windows Media Player as opposed to using say EAC or dbpoweramp?

Thank you

Kim

Posted on: 05 May 2012 by james n

Kim - EAC and DBpoweramp should produce better rips - especially if the discs are less than pristine.

James

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by McGhie

dBPoweramp uses Accuraterip to check a hash (a digital 'fingerprint') of each rip it makes against an online database of other people's rips of the same track. If there is a match then it tags it as Accurate you know that you have a bit-for-bit perfect rip (and it stops there). Not familiar with EAC but assume it does something similar. If it doesn't get an exact match (e.g. the track isn't in the online database because it is new/obscure, or because you can't get an exact rip due to a problem with the disk) then it will rerip and tag it as Secure if the second rip is the same. If there are differences then it can leave as is, keep trying with the problem areas or abort (configurable). There are lots of options for how it deals with errors. If you use it and your CDs have been well looked after then you'll probably get accurate rips from most of you CDs (and the corresponding peace of mind), and it can give you the best shot at getting accurate (or better) rips from damaged CDs. As an aside, I have two optical drives in my PC (a Samsung and a Teac) plus one in a laptop (Pioneer) - the Teac is better at getting accurate rips than the Samsung but the laptop's Pioneer drive is better still. If I can't get a good rip on my PC (I only use the Teac drive now) then I try again with the laptop and often get a perfect rip where I was unable to on the PC! Other advantages of dBpoweramp are tagging (it searches multiple metadata libraries and applies some logic to the tags it suggests, while letting you override the logic or overwrite the tags), album art (you get lots of choice), config options (there's all sorts of workflow you can set up if you wish - for instance, when I rip a CD it saves Wav to my server, FLAC to my PC as a backup, and MP3 to my PC for putting on portable devices), and the other tools that come with it (e.g. a batch converter). I suspect the EAC does some but not all of this. Either will be a great leap forward from WMP (or iTunes for that matter)! Cheers Ian

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Kim, McGie's response is a very good answer. In addition WAV files have a standardised tagging method that is part of the file format. Windows media player uses this. However WAV files standard tagging method does not incorporate album art within the file itself and includes only standard info such as track name, artist, album, genre etc which may be sufficient for you, but I find too restrictive for classical music.

However rippers like dBpoweramp additionally use an optional extension to WAV called id3 tags. These can be extremely varied in terms of fields and data and include album art. However because iId3 is not yet formally part of the WAV standard not all WAV readers understand them and therefore such wav readers (like Windows Media Player) are not able to extract this additional information.

Simon

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by HuwJ

I use a Samsung Blu-ray on my PC to rip via dBpoweramp, iTunes and JRiver.

CDs with even minor marks are unreadable and I have had to send recent 2nd hand CDs back to Amazon because they will not rip (even in to iTunes) correctly.

I'm sure I did not have this many issues when I had a DVD player in the PC and I'm beginning to think the Samsung is too sensative.

I ripped a load of CDs to WAV a while back and had them stored on my Mac. When I tried to move them to my PC it was a complete disaster. I think I used EAC to rip at the time. Just from a tagging point of view I would suggest using FLAC, IME life is a lot simpler that way.

I still make the odd WAV because I use JRiver Media Server - which seems excellent at dealing with tags on all types of rips and USB sticks in my NDX (n-stream seems to be OK with WAV too) - but I'm sure I will regret it if I ever move those files to my Mac.

Regards

Huw

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by Kim240

Thanks to you all for taking the time to reply; you have been really helpful. I will use dbpoweramp for my rips.

Kim

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Huw, it sounds like your CD rom drive is on the edge of its tolerance, it should have no problem reading discs with typical slight damage or scuffs. You might want to get it swapped. I have only ever had one secondhand disc from Amazon that I couldn't rip, but to be fair it looked like someone had ice skated on it.. The amazon seller swapped it for a new one....

BTW your point on FLAC tagging is well made, but again FLAC only allows a subset of id3 tags, and again I find a little restrictive, but unlike WAV, FLAC is locked down, so you you can't do anything about it.. Which is why I prefer WAV, but horses for courses... and yes FLAC tags are more universally readable currently.

Simon

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by HuwJ

Hi Simon. I had my BR player too long before realising it might be the issue, so I'm stuck with it now.

I think I'll get a CD or DVD player, maybe as a stand alone, so I can use that - they don't cost much these days.

Regards

Huw

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by Maxi Me

For me the biggest advantage of dBpoweramp is the control over metadata and album art.

My wife has some fairly obscure CD's that I'm ripping at the moment and even finding the album art can be a challenge, once found though DB makes it easy to add.

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by HuwJ

Hi Simon, I've just managed to install my wife's exrenal Macbook Air DVD/CD ROM on my PC. It looks cool and using the drivers off the Mac disc worked perfectly. next job - see if it works any better than my BR with scratched CDs.

Maxi, your right, it is very easy to use dBpoweramp with meta data and album art (I bought my copy so not sure if it's as easy with the free version).

Regards

Huw

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by Maxi Me

I believe the free version is just a time limited sample of the full version. Not sure, I purchased mine too! Lots still to rip.

Posted on: 06 May 2012 by Dungassin

Originally Posted by Maxi Me:

For me the biggest advantage of dBpoweramp is the control over metadata and album art.

My wife has some fairly obscure CD's that I'm ripping at the moment and even finding the album art be a challenge, once found though DB makes it easy to add.

That's where a scanner comes in handy, or just taking adigital photo and using that.

I am also guilty of saving album art from Amazon, although not exactly hires.

Posted on: 08 May 2012 by Pev

+1 on trouble ripping with a Samsung Blu Ray player. I thought a BR player would be made to tighter specs so opted for it in my self built entertainment PC, but I find the Optiarc drive in my laptop (also BR) is much better for ripping though still not as good as an old DVD drive I had. Maybe BR drives are not a good bet for ripping red book?