What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

[badelman]

Ok, I have a pile however small of discs that will not rip as they are pretty scratched (not horribly deep but many scratches from much use - in and out of players, moving to different vehicles, etc). Right now I'm archiving all of my cd's I've had for years and a lot are out of print. I've seen a lot of internet guides that come to some sort of consensus on using crest toothpaste in a swirly motion all over the disc after washing it with non abrasive soap and warm water and allowing to air dry (after wiping). Then re-trying the rip.

OK Question: What way of cleaning, polishing gives me the best chance of restoring an old cd to give it a shot at being ripped?! Is there a good demo somewhere??

Thx all!

[Spoon]

Re: What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

Try different CD drives first if you have them, then repairs.

[badelman]

Re: What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

Will do.

[bhoar]

Re: What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

There are some kinds of damage that cannot be fixed: cracks, "label-side" damage, deep gouges and so-called "pinholes" in the reflective surface.
a. if a CD is cracked, do yourself a favor and throw it out. If you try to use it in a computer-based optical drive, the high rotation speed will lead to it shattering which can both damage the drive as well as send high-speed shards out that will injure someone. Trust me, I know.
b. if there is damage to the label side of the CD, then it is almost certain that the reflective layer is also damaged, since the reflective layer is not mid-way through the CD but located just under the label, and damage there cannot be removed.
c. deep gouges on the play side of the CD can be slightly buffed out, but you're never going to be able to grind deep enough to remove them without grinding deep enough to change the focal point requirement of the laser significantly vs. the surrounding data.
d. if you look through a CD at a light source and see pinholes, this means that the reflective layer of the CD was either manufactured incorrectly at the outset or that, over time, the layer has started to decay. Some folks have indicated they are able to get a marginal, just marginal, improvement by using a smooth metallic paint on the label side behind some of the holes, but I remain skeptical.

With all that said...I've had some, just some, luck using products similar to the Aleratec CD/DVD Scratch Repair Plus aka the Memorex OPTIFIX Pro. Probably about the same effect as toothpaste, but more evenly done using an automated device. Usually takes several repair cycles.

If you can find a DVD rental place, they might have a pro machine available and charge a per-disc fee.

But, in the end, think about the time commitment and consider replacing the CDs.

Brendan

[badelman]

Re: What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

Thanks Brendan!

[badelman]

Re: What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

Spoon, ok different drives not working either. I'm thinking before I try repairs I may have to just make a new profile and change the settings. The reason: These discs still play just fine in a cd player. I followed the tutorial for the most secure rips. How can I step the settings down 1 at a time based on your setup tutorial still using flac to get the best results?

I have it set now to abandon the rip on error.. I guess this is usually when the re-rip status goes to a red rectangle and goes through counting down frames and cannot succeed for whatever reason.

Also, it's usually the 1st song or 1 - 2 songs on the disc. Most of them do ok.

[badelman]

Re: What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

Ok, I tried to take off the Ultra Secure setting (checkbox) on an old Pat Matheny CD that would not rip track 6 (last track) and DBP went from Pass 1,2 ripping straight to Re-Rip frame and taking forever. So I went ahead and changed it to Defective By Design and it worked! What does this mean? I don't know?? Is there any method to this that you can point me to in terms of getting the job done. By the way all other tracks on the CD were ripped with Secure Setting and Ultra Secure.

*I've also attempted rips with other discs and some of them.. just some: I'll take the one or two tracks that wont rip and change to DBDesign and they scan fine. I wanted to test and try!

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?? AM I GETTING A CRAPPY PRODUCT BY DOING THIS??

Thx Spoon!

[dbfan]

Re: What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

It you want to rip like a normal CD player lays, then switch to Burst ripping

[Porcus]

Re: What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

Badelman:

Burst mode will work like a normal CD player; if it encounters an error, it will just interpolate (i.e. smoothen out) and hope you do not notice. For a CD in an audio player, it is crucial to have the audio delivered in realtime, so you cannot wait for re-reads.

Ultra Secure will read a suspicious frame over and over again until it has ten identical results, and that could take long time (though with a user-specified cap). That is not "a crappy product", it is the reason why you want secure ripping: you want it right. Then, don't complain that it takes time.

The DbDesign mode is intended for those pesky "copy protected" CDs which contains fake errors, intended to keep the ripping software occupied with false alarms forever. dBpoweramp will then try to ignore some errors (don't ask me for the details).

Your CD is not DbDesign, as all tracks but one rip well. Track 6 is simply damaged, and that's why Ultra Secure takes forever. Normally, your best shot would be to leave it overnight (Ultra Secure will then correct those which can be corrected and guess the rest). Do not tick the Interpolate Unrecoverable Frames checkbox, as that would normally sound worse with most CD drives (but you can try and compare). There are, though, some cases where a CD is so damaged that Ultra Secure will abort with an LBA error message, while Burst at least gives a result.

The DbD mode is not made for non-DbD discs, but it could be worth a try in the latter case. It is not supposed to be used there, but once a CD is really damaged, then it may be worth just trying different methods and compare. For discs that are really destroyed beyond repair, the best you can do is to pick the rip with least annoying errors. Sometimes they aren't even audible.


Apart from that, read bhoar's reply.

[badelman]

Re: What to do with the pile of discs that wont rip?! Toothpaste!

You guys are awesome. Thank you so much.

Barry