Ripping problems

[tombeck7]

I'm having 2 problems with ripping my CD's:

1) I ripped a CD to my C drive on my PC in MP3 format and it reported that it was an accurate rip. The file shows up in Windows Media Player but when I try to play a song on it, it says "Windows Media Player Encountered A Problem While Trying To Play The File". I'm on Win 8.1 and the latest version of Media Player. I ripped the same CD to my NAS in flac format and it also reported an accurate rip and it plays without any problems. In certain other cases, I ripped a different CD using the same profile/settings in MP3 and the songs play fine, so sometimes they play, sometimes the don't.

2) When I rip certain CD's, it reports that all tracks have ripped fine and are accurate, but when I go to either Windows Media Player (MP3 format) or to my NAS (flac format), I see that some tracks are missing. The same tracks are missing from both folders. The songs that are shown play fine.

It seems that dbPoweramp in both cases is telling me that the rips were fine, when in fact they were not - either the track is ripped but will not play in Windows Media Player in the case of the MP3 rips, or some of the tracks are missing altogether in both MP3 and flac. Any idea what could be happening?

Thank you
Tom Beck

[garym]

Re: Ripping problems

re the "missing" files from albums: I wouldn't be surprised if they are there but are listed under different album subdirectories. Do a search on your HDD and I suspect you'll find them. Perhaps these are albums that have differing artists on some tracks? You need to set your dbpa dynamic naming properly and use Album Artist properly for any of these type albums.

[Spoon]

Re: Ripping problems

Install foobar 2000 and see if it can play the file which is causing issues for Windows media player.

[tombeck7]

Re: Ripping problems

Thank you for your reply. I did a thorough search in Windows Explorer of all the music files on both the C Drive and the NAS. I did a variety of searches on different elements of the track just to be sure. I'm certain that the missing music files are not there.

The same tracks are missing in both destination folders - these tracks were on a CD that was ripped using the Multi-Encoder to two different destination folders. Other tracks from the same CD/ripping operation did get properly ripped and play fine. Why would dbPA indicate that these tracks were ripped with nothing on the ripping report to indicate otherwise, yet they in fact are not there?

This has occurred on more than one CD, so it is not an isolated case. I really appreciate any help with this!

[tombeck7]

Re: Ripping problems

Interesting. I did install foobar 2000 and the problem MP3 tracks that wouldn't play in Windows Media Player played just fine using foobar 2000. Thank you for the suggestion. I really appreciate it!

Can you shed some light on why this happens? Some of my MP3 albums play fine in Windows Media Player and others do not, even though they were all ripped using the same application (dbPA) and the same Profile settings. The results are the same for an entire CD, they do not vary from track to track - they either play in WMP or they do not.

[garym]

Re: Ripping problems

Thank you for your reply. I did a thorough search in Windows Explorer of all the music files on both the C Drive and the NAS. I did a variety of searches on different elements of the track just to be sure. I'm certain that the missing music files are not there.

The same tracks are missing in both destination folders - these tracks were on a CD that was ripped using the Multi-Encoder to two different destination folders. Other tracks from the same CD/ripping operation did get properly ripped and play fine. Why would dbPA indicate that these tracks were ripped with nothing on the ripping report to indicate otherwise, yet they in fact are not there?

This has occurred on more than one CD, so it is not an isolated case. I really appreciate any help with this!

very strange problem. Typically this is just a matter of dynamic naming and confusion about where the files end up being stored. What if you rerip one of these CDs? Same issue or all are there?

[Spoon]

Re: Ripping problems

Do you have any codec packs installed? some of these replace the default mp3 decoder in Windows Media Player, potentially with one which is not as good.

[tombeck7]

Re: Ripping problems

Yes, Media Player Codec Pack 4.3.5 is installed.

[tombeck7]

Re: Ripping problems

Yes, I've tried deleting them and re-ripping them using different CD drives and in each case, the same tracks are missing. I even purchased a brand new CD and I got the same missing tracks on the new one as I did on the old one.

[tombeck7]

Re: Ripping problems

Spoon, just wondering if you have any suggestions regarding the missing tracks I described in post *1?

[Spoon]

Re: Ripping problems

Insert one CD which has missing tracks again, and click rip, on the overwrite page, it will show the final filenames for all the tracks.

[garym]

Re: Ripping problems

Insert one CD which has missing tracks again, and click rip, on the overwrite page, it will show the final filenames for all the tracks.

I'm still convinced that the tracks are ripping but being stored in a place that you don't see (because of your dynamic naming settings and the CD having tracks with at least one artist different from overall album). Try this after spoon's recommendation. insert the CD to rip, but change the ARTIST name for all tracks to something like "ARTIST JUNK" and change the album name to "ALBUM JUNK". This is just a test to see that when the CD has same artist for each track and same album name, it all shows up under "ARTIST JUNK/ALBUM JUNK/tracks...."

[tombeck7]

Re: Ripping problems

It turns out the drive in my computer was not reliable and the external LG drive also - different problems ripping same disk in two different drives. I would like to get a better quality and reliable drive but it seems like most on the market today are cheap and low quality looking at reviews and from my own experience so far. Wondering if you can recommend a good external? My computer has USB 3.0 thankfully.

Do you have knowledge of the Pioneer - 8x External USB 3.0 Quad-Layer Blu-ray Disc DL DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive?

[tombeck7]

Re: Ripping problems

I did as you suggested and was able to get all tracks to rip, however, it took 4 attempts using 2 different drives. I was getting different results (errors) wth same CD in 2 diff drives. But, when it was all said and done all tracks got ripped. Now I'm looking to get a new external drive for my PC. Any recommendations?

Thank you for your help.

[tombeck7]

Re: Ripping problems

After getting a new DVD drive and re-ripping the problem CD's, I figured out that, in fact, the missing tracks were missing, even though dBp reported them as ripped with no errors. The reason this was happening is because the CD had 2 tracks named identically, so the second track with the same name overwrote the 1st one. I'm finding this to be a problem with some CD's, particularly classical ones. I've solved the problem now by carefully reviewing the track names before I rip, and adding a small edit to a duplicate track to make it unique. Hope this explains this phenomenon for future users who may encounter the same problem. Apparently, having different track numbers isn't enough to prevent the overwriting of identically titled tracks. This may also be a worthwhile change to incorporate in future dBp releases.