R13-beta CD Ripper feedback

[GiacomoGo]

So I'm testing the R13 CD Ripper component of MC, and guess this is the right place to comment:
1) AMG meta data service is way too aggressive ... especially since I've tried to disable it each place I find it (Meta menu, Options -> Meta Data). Is it really not possible to have dbPA 13 without AMG?!

I mean, it's really aggressive. I have to click [OK] or [CANCEL] twice every time the renewal nag screen pops up. Could AMG please be seriously less invisible for people not interested, or is there some contractual obligation for such aggressiveness?

2) MusicBrainz retrieves almost nothing for a common Bob Marley CD for which Jaikoz (http://www.jthink.net/jaikoz/jsp/startup.jsp), the gold-standard tagger, retrieves everything, including cover art.

3) PerfectMeta (Intelligent Lookup) does nothing whatsoever for this same CD, doesn't even bring up the AMG nag screen, which is a bit surprising. Judging by the PerfectMeta raves throughout the forum, this means I'm doing something completely wrong. Any advice? Is PerfectMeta only an AMG feature?

4) Rip as 1 -- nice to see it back, but it does not recognize the begin/end of track, and mouse clicks anywhere in the lower half, where the song-list is, is read as a start/end change. Song list is in min/sec, but from/to settings are in min/sec/frames. This is all very inconvenient, compared with the 11.5 implementation, which I prefer immensely.

[EliC]

You must have a valid AMG license to use PerfetMeta and/or MusicBrainz.

When AMG expires it should only pop up once to let you know it has expired. After that, you should not see it.

[GiacomoGo]

You must have a valid AMG license to use PerfetMeta and/or MusicBrainz.

Well at least it now makes sense why I can't appreciate PerfectMeta ;)

What about "rip as 1". Is this likely to come out of beta as-is, or is the implementation still open for change?

For example, given the track list in the lower window, why not have a tick box next to each which would automatically select exact tracks (down to the frame, even if they're not a continuous sequence) for ripping to a single file?

It still seems the 11.5-style slider bar, with option to lock onto start/end positions is best for continuous tracks, but ripping non-continuous tracks would also be very useful.

[Spoon]

The new version does lock on the start and end positions. The AMG expiry form will show if MusicBrainz, or GD3 is selected.

[Porcus]

GiacomoGo: Are you sure you haven't confused what is "checked" and what is "unchecked"? In more recent versions, a light blue colour means it is selected, black means unselected. Bad idea since light blue is so close to greyed out.

(Think this discussion should be in the thread http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=14159 , though ...)

[EliC]

The new version does lock on the start and end positions. The AMG expiry form will show if MusicBrainz, or GD3 is selected.

Maybe the popup should indicate that MusicBrainz and GD3 cannot be used without a valid AMG license.

[Spoon]

Indeed.

[GiacomoGo]

GiacomoGo: Are you sure you haven't confused what is "checked" and what is "unchecked"? In more recent versions, a light blue colour means it is selected, black means unselected. Bad idea since light blue is so close to greyed out.

Indeed, I may have ... but I did try to get that much right, at least :blush:
I did find the explicit check box in the actual dMC configuration utility (Meta Data & Tags?) and disabled AMG as a source. That didn't do the trick.

[EliC]

What trick? You cannot use MusicBrainz or GD3 without a subscription to AMG.

[GiacomoGo]

What trick? You cannot use MusicBrainz or GD3 without a subscription to AMG.

The "trick" is simply eliminating the constant reminders to renew AMG; that's my goal. Once I disable AMG as a meta-data source, I would hope to never be prompted again (until I decide to re-activate AMG as a source). I would hope to never see mention again of AMG, which does not interest me.

Honestly and respectfully, Jaikoz (http://www.jthink.net/jaikoz/jsp/startup.jsp) -- which I consider the heads-&-shoulders, unrivaled gold-standard for tagging -- does not require a subscription for retrieving MusicBrainz meta-data, and never mentions anything about the (unrelated?) AMG subscription service.

dBpoweramp R13 -- which I consider the heads-&-shoulders, unrivaled gold-standard for ripping & converting -- however insists on the AMG subscription to access MusicBrainz.

Neither app is freeware for me; I've bought licenses for both. So why does dBpoweramp R13 insist on me paying constantly for an AMG subscription that I don't want in order to access MusicBrainz meta-data, which is a free service for Jaikoz license owners?

I find this very confusing & a disappointing feature of R13.

At the very least, I'd like to permanently disable AMG & any AMG reminder, so that I can continue ripping & tagging in 2 steps -- dBpa, then Jaikoz -- without unnecessary subscription costs or associated nag/annoy screens.

[Spoon]

We are a commercial company, we are not allowed to access MusicBrainz metadata for free. I think you would also find that AMG + GD3 + MusicBrainz + freedb with perfectmeta is head and shoulders above MusicBrainz.

You can get rid of the amg reminder, uncheck 'perfectmeta data', uncheck amg, gd3, musicbrainz. You will not see any amg reminder.

I will look into the amg reminder, it should not popup for each cd.

[DazBYorks]

Hi,

This seems to handle single track CDs badly. Although it is to be expected that FreeDB will return many matches I maintain a local copy that only has my CDs in it, but Ripper won't find the CD and each one is matched to the same - so the cache will have the wrong CRC?

Daz

[Spoon]

You can retrieve manually from freedb and choose the freedb match.

[DazBYorks]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.
It will have to wait as I only have one more single track CD and it isn't really worth digging out.

Daz