What can DBPA do better than Plextools? I'm trying to decide which to use...

[Max Dread]

Hi all

I hope it is ok to ask such a question on this forum......

I am about start ripping my entire collection of over 2000 CDs. Will be ripping to FLAC and mp3, and will want to add metadata and all that kind of stuff.

I bought two drives for the job; both Plextor PX-716AL. They came bundled with Plextools. I have heard great things about DBPA (and have just downloaded the trial). But I have also heard great things about using Plextools with Plextor drives.

So I wondered if anyone would care to offer their general opinion on what their preference would be, but also on what DBPA can offer that Plextools can't (and vice versa if applicable).

Many thanks

Max

[garym]

Re: What can DBPA do better than Plextools? I'm trying to decide which to use...

Does plextools access ACCURATERIP for determining match to your CD rip? If it doesn't, then that reason alone is a reason to use dbpa. I could be wrong, but I thought that Plextools was a good tool many years ago, but other rippers have since surpassed it (dbpa, EAC, cuetools). It is key that you use a ripper that can compare your rips to ACCURATERIP. The three I mentioned all do this.

edit: the "perfectmeta" part of dbpa is also particularly good. It accesses 5 different metadata providers and uses the best match (or allows you to select which source for metadata).

[Spoon]

Re: What can DBPA do better than Plextools? I'm trying to decide which to use...

To list a few:

Better metadata (dbp uses 5 databases), Plextools uses just one
AccurateRip support - as good as Plextools works with Plextor drives, it will not be able to say with a certainty a rip is error free, because the CD drive on its own (every CD drive) cannot tell 100% of the time if the rip has errors or not.
Better codec support, rip to multiple formats at the same time
Album art support

[Max Dread]

Re: What can DBPA do better than Plextools? I'm trying to decide which to use...

Thanks for the replies chaps.

One thing I would be interested in would be to have a snout around the AccurateRip database. I have a lot of non-mainstream music. I suspect some of it will definitely not be in there. But just how much won't be there is tough to say. So is there anyway I can access and search within the database (without ripping or anything like that; I mean simply just take a look)?

[garym]

Re: What can DBPA do better than Plextools? I'm trying to decide which to use...

Thanks for the replies chaps.

One thing I would be interested in would be to have a snout around the AccurateRip database. I have a lot of non-mainstream music. I suspect some of it will definitely not be in there. But just how much won't be there is tough to say. So is there anyway I can access and search within the database (without ripping or anything like that; I mean simply just take a look)?

no, not possible (based on my understanding). It has millions of items in its database. I've see it find what I think are fairly obscure CDs in my collection (CDs that were released briefly in the mid 1980s and have been out of print ever since). And anyhow, even if it only 25% of your collection is in the database, that's still better (and the nonAccurrateRip rips you do are still done in a secure way).

EDIT: I can tell you that on the forums I frequent where people are very serious about secure, bit perfect ripping to lossless formats (here, hydrogenaudio.org, forums.slimdevices.com, etc.) no one would even think about using a ripper that did NOT use ACCURATERIP. I haven't seen plextools mentioned in years.