Disappointed with CD Ripper

[apb1]

Hi. I've purchased the R13.1 version of dpPowerAmp and have started using the batch converter and CD ripper. So far, I've been amazingly impressed with the batch converter but the CD ripper leaves a lot to be desired. There are two main issues so far, either one of which, makes it entirely useless to me.

1. No support for CUE files. I see posts going back more than a year saying that CUE support is Right Around the Corner (TM) but still no sign of such support from what I've been able to tell.

2. When I rip WAV files and import them into the latest version of Media Monkey they play fine. However, often when I edit a tag the file gets truncated to 4kb and becomes unplayable. Not sure if this is due to a bug in MM or dbPA, but either way it's horrible. Given that I use MM *all* the time and do CD ripping fairly infrequently...its goodbye ripper and hello MM. Even if the issue is MM, adding something like a MM compatibility option may be a good idea. I don't get this behavior when I use EAC to rip my music.

A third issue which I find somewhat suspicious is that dbPowerAmp tries to modify somewhere between 6-12 Microsoft security trust registry entries like:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificate s\trust
What exactly is it doing here?

Other than the above issues, the ripper seems like it has the potential to be the ideal ripper and I would love to use it. However, those two issues are real biggies in my book.

[Spoon]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

>However, often when I edit a tag the file gets truncated to 4kb and becomes unplayable

100% without question a bug in MM, they are the ones doing the truncating. You can set dBpoweramp not to write ID tags to the wave file (dbpoweramp configuration >> Codecs >> Advanced).

>HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificat e s\trust

We do not touch those settings, your security software might do so (adding a new application). It is the first time I have heard of that reg string, on my Vista it is totally empty (despite running every version of dbpoweramp there was and is).

[apb1]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

>However, often when I edit a tag the file gets truncated to 4kb and becomes unplayable

100% without question a bug in MM, they are the ones doing the truncating. You can set dBpoweramp not to write ID tags to the wave file (dbpoweramp configuration >> Codecs >> Advanced).

I suspect as much too. I may eventually have to give up on MM but I really like the program in so many other ways that I find it hard to let go.

>HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificat es\trust

We do not touch those settings, your security software might do so (adding a new application). It is the first time I have heard of that reg string, on my Vista it is totally empty (despite running every version of dbpoweramp there was and is).

Hmm, this might be due something else as I was doing several things at the time when the warning about critical registry entry modifications came up...which just happened to be the time that I opened the CD ripper. I've never seen this warning before so I'm pretty sure its not the regular operation of my security software when installing new programs.

[EliC]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

I am sure cue sheets are on the way, however a very small percent of users use them or even know what they are (pretty small niche - most of whom don't use pay software would be my guess).

[apb1]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

I am sure cue sheets are on the way, however a very small percent of users use them or even know what they are (pretty small niche - most of whom don't use pay software would be my guess).

I guess I can live without the CUE sheets for the short term (just use EAC for that although that is a bit inconvenient). It looks like it will be an overall net gain with the very nice tagging features that db power amp provides.

This issue with MediaMonkey truncating the files is a killing me though. I've opened a bug at the MediaMonkey site. Any suggestions for possible work-arounds (other than turning off all tagging which would make dp power amp pretty useless)?

[apb1]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

A bit more information. Turning off ID tag generation does fix the truncation issue with MediaMonkey. I tried turning on tags and disabling all optional tags and truncation ensued. I tried turning on tags and disabling all optional tags, then using the DBPA tag editor to remove all the tags that can't be disabled from the CD ripper...still get truncation.

[DazBYorks]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

Hi,

Rip to FLAC and then use MM to convert them to WAV?

Daz

[apb1]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

For anyone that is interested, the corruption issue when tags are edited inside of MediaMonkey for dbPowerAmp ripped wav files should be fixed in the next version of MediaMonkey which should be version 3.1. This is the bug report:

http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/bug_view_advanced_page.php?bug_id=5156

[egd]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

For the life of me I cannot figure out why you would want to rip to WAV when you have lossless compression codec's that provide rich tagging capability and reduced storage use at your disposal.

To a lesser degree I also question your insistence on using CUEsheets - if you've ripped from your own CD recreating it isn't necessary and copying it would achieve the same result if you really felt you needed to duplicate it.

I've a few thousand albums ripped and stored in FLAC format (without CUEsheets) and I get to enjoy my music playback via a Squeezebox just as I would had I popped the actual CD into a transport. The only difference is I have my entire library available at any time without having to go anywhere near a physical CD.

[egd]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

I should also point out that if you're using MM for library management you might want to take a look at Muso. It's still in beta, but it's excellent if library management is what you're after. If you're looking for a tag editor then Muso is not going to do what you'd like.

[trainee]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

Just a quick 2.5 reasons you might like cuesheets:

1. Embedding cuesheet in single file FLAC rips.

2a. True archival of data (the OCD/fire/theft reason): provides information that you would not have otherwise. If you've already spent weeks and 10's-100's of gigabytes of storage on your music library its nice to spend a few extra K per CD for the complete information. Also if you were to experience a theft or catastrophic event in your life (assuming you have offsite backup), you could re-burn what was lost (possible legal implications not listed here).

2b. Ease-of (fair) use. Call me archaic but I still use a CD player in my car, or when I go to a friends house, etc. I leave a big case of CD's in my car and I'm only moderately careful with them. Plus slot load cd players ends up scratching cds after awhile. Honestly I've only had to reburn a few (one was sat upon, others scratched), but it makes it very easy to burn from my library if I have a cue laying around and its arguably more 'as original'.

I love the CD ripper, and now I love ripNAS but the lack of cuesheet support has always been my biggest complaint.

[BillytheFish]

Re: Disappointed with CD Ripper

Another vote here for CUEs! I'm holding off ripping my CD collection (and buying DBPoweramp) until DBPoweramp includes this. I keep checking back every now and again just in case though...

I'm looking to archive my CDs in a playable form; so the entire CD (as separate flacs) with any data or hidden/pre-gap tracks, in a directory with a cue sheet.

Cue sheet so that I can play the album with timings as intended and burn to CD should I ever want to. Either that or I'll rip to single flac/cue.