CD Ripping from DVD or Blu Ray drives

Posted by: Kev T on 18 March 2011

I started a thread over on the Music Room about the release or re-release of the Rush Moving Pictures album in Blu-Ray and DVD-A format. Apparently both DVD & Blu-ray formats are in 5.1 surround sound and stereo audio in 96kHz/24-bit "high-resolution audiophile playback." Tom Petty has done a similar thing with Damn The Torpedoes, as have other artists.

Now, my query is this...most computers these days come with at least a DVD drive as standard issue, a drive that only reads CD is less common. So most of us using a computer for ripping purposes are using DVD drives. Does this matter? I mean, is there any compromise in the way a CD is read by a DVD or Blu-Ray drive?

There was an earlier thread posted about compression on FLAC, and there has been many a debate abour FLAC versus WAV, but surely if we follow the source first principle, then what we use to rip the file in the first place is paramount? So should we all be rushing down to our dealers for a Unitiserve?

Posted on: 18 March 2011 by Mr Underhill

Hi Kevin,

There are diverse applications/methods of ripping from media.

As you will appreciate you need a drive that reads media to rip it, be that CD, DVD, DVD-A or Blu-Ray.

DVD, DVD-A and Blu-Ray include the possibility of cryptography within them, to prevent the ripping of the content.

There are still ways of overcoming these protections - but Naim would probably rather they were not detailed on their site.

Some are considered better than others, but your ears will need to judge.

For CD dbpoweramp has a large following on Windows, and I would recommend ruby-ripper on Linux. I'm sure others will chip in.

On Linux you can use mplayer, mencoder and handbrake amongst others for DVD.

Personally I have never looked at BluRay.

M

Posted on: 18 March 2011 by Kev T

Thanks M, but your response is not quite what I am getting at.

I'm more talking about the physical way the disc is read. Over on another forum, someone posted that the laser on a dvd drive is wider than on a cd drive, now, I don't know how significant this would be, but I'm guessing that there is some compromise when a dvd or a blu-ray drive reads a "lesser format", no?

Posted on: 18 March 2011 by Mr Underhill

Sorry Kev ...just back from the bar, should have read slower!

Some software, such as Ruby-ripper, allows you to set an offset to cope with different drives, to cope with their geometries.

To read a disc any drive has to comply with the standard if it wants to officially describe itself as a 'CD/DVD/BluRay' drive.

There is no doubt that some builds can be considered better than others - VDRS for instance - and have a following.

I was glad, in your music post, when you mentioned that Rush would be releasing DVD-a in addition to BluRay - know how to handle them!

M

Posted on: 19 March 2011 by Richard Lord

I have been told that a DVD mechanism makes for a superior ripping device than does a CD. Thus Naim use a CD for playing a disk, e.g. on the Unity, but a DVD device for ripping as with the UnityServe. So Naim deliberately separate the two actions for sound quality reasons.

As I say, this is what I was told. Maybe someone from Naim can confirm/deny/explain/expand this.

Richard