Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&ripping uncompressed

[currter]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&ripping uncompre

It is just I find Mac has been more reliable than Windows...
I am running Windows on the Mac... I probably just have too many
devices connected (remember 6 DVD/Blu ray drives) , some
USB3.0 hubs connected to either the thunderbolt port somehow or the
Express Card slot... and I am making use of the firewire port and I was
using a Belkin docking station (thunderbolt connected with 3 USB 3.0 ports,
firewire... ) so there are a lot of connections ... sometimes I have to
disable one CD drive to boot into Windows as it may hang while booting. <sigh>

I probably need to scale down some. Windows has not crashed that often but
it may at times when I am in the middle of doing something... then I have to start
that part over again.

I would much rather work under Mac OS
when it comes to something massive like this project of ripping CDs
I had all these devices connected under Mac and I had few issues and that
was why I was able to complete that task of ripping 1200+ CDs in less time
than I had expected. (6 or 7 CD rips going at a time under Mac/ iTunes ).

[currter]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

I meant to play DVDs ... one cannot watch DVDs if the parking brake is not engaged...
oh well. I had not problem with the Sony with this.

[garym]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

re: your problems with Windows. Seems like you have a problem with your hardware or software (most likely hardware??). I use dbpa on 2 different computers (a laptop and a desktop). Neither of these is anything special (Dell computers) and I never get blue screens of death or disconnected drives, etc.

[currter]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

My only worry with the Pioneer is now how to bypass the parking brake issue to play
DVDs without using a switch and connecting to ground then that blue remote wire...
and how to tidy up the mess of wires and connections in the back of the unit so I can
start cruising in the Honda with my moon roof open....

[currter]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

I only planned to use USB and / or (micro)SD for all files.
If I play a CD , I just play the CD (CDDA) , I do not play CD-Rs
with data on them.

My intent is to move from CDs to data forms such as USB and SD... that
is why I took a week (late March/early April to rip > 1200 CDs to .wav files but I used iTunes as
it was the simplest one to use and I used my Mac( a massive project which I may have
to repeat to rip them to flac now)... I was afraid of Windows
crashing more or not being as reliable.
I am beginning to see that (some blue screens and issues with drives being
suddenly disconnected affecting my data transfer time).
I am back on Mac...
The only thing is if I use dbpoweramp on Mac , the resulting .flac files,
I am not sure I will be able to see and verify the metadata associated with each
file. Windows it is easier to see that information to verify it.
I am using Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks... maybe Yosemite or El Capitan (issues with that OS)
can view the metadata.
I will go back to Windows but just work a little bit at a time to get this done.
I think I will purchase dbpoweramp for Windows instead.

Thank you for your warnings but I never intended to store .flac / .wav files on a CD
as data. I never do with intent to play in a CD player. or use a CD player as a data
reader. Only for audio.

[mville]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

Car units: Sony XAV-650BT which I have currently.
I recently tested out the Boss Audio BVNV9384RC? I think it was...
and tested out the Pioneer AVH-4200NEX which I think I will settle on
because it offers the most functionality and best lay out , directory
structure listing songs by Artist / Album / <songs>.
It seems to me the Pioneer model is the best and most well thought out when
comparing all those top of the line models.
The car (Honda Accord) I have has a double-din space if that helps.

Those are the DVD stereo models I have tested or used and all play .wav and .flac
audio files for my audiophile purposes.

Be aware that the Pioneer AVH-4200NEX specs state that wav and flac are only supported on SD and USB media and not CD and DVD.

[currter]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

Car units: Sony XAV-650BT which I have currently.
I recently tested out the Boss Audio BVNV9384RC? I think it was...
and tested out the Pioneer AVH-4200NEX which I think I will settle on
because it offers the most functionality and best lay out , directory
structure listing songs by Artist / Album / <songs>.
It seems to me the Pioneer model is the best and most well thought out when
comparing all those top of the line models.
The car (Honda Accord) I have has a double-din space if that helps.

Those are the DVD stereo models I have tested or used and all play .wav and .flac
audio files for my audiophile purposes.

[garym]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

Flac file size is largest at uncompressed and a little smaller at 1 and the smallest at 8. 5 is recommended because it is a good trade off between file size and effort in encoding (which is obviously done only one time, initially). Most of the "effort" is in the encoding *to* FLAC not the decoding part which is trivial even for a very low powered device.

By by the way, what car unit do you have that plays Flac. Most cars I'm aware of can't handle flac files.

[currter]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

So my question here is if I use level 1, would the file size be larger... why do they recommend levels 5 or 6?
Again, I do not care about space issues , the larger the file would be fine with me even if it is close to the
size of a .wav... again I am only using .flac for the metadata benefits... so if I can use a .wav file and get
the tagging and metadata information, that would be perfectly fine with me.
I am not using .aiff because those files are not always compatible with vehicle stereo systems.
They can recognize .wav and .flac (not even alac I think). I do not believe in .mp3 so that is out of the question.
I am perfectly fine with a flac file the same size or slightly greater than its corresponding .wav file
and thus I do not care about any compression levels flac may offer. Just want the tags and metadata, album art to
show up on the monitor.

[currter]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

understand, and makes sense. I can't help as I've never had the need to use command lines. I moved from EAC years ago to dbpa and have never looked back.

I guess I am "reinventing the wheel" with this... I am going through the same steps
and analysis you probably did years ago...



I am thinking dbpoweramp is using its own internal modification to the code
for that 9th "compression" method (outside the levels 1 to 8) for lossless compressed
and maybe there is no command line option to flac to do the same and EAC
cannot do this.
This may be dbpoweramp proprietary and that is fine... I will just have to buy
a 2nd copy for Windows (really want to get for Mac since Windows seems to be
better served as far as flac compatibility and ripping software). More choices for
Windows than Mac...
I guess this ends this... I will see what I can squeeze out of the Exact Audio Copy
team with this issue and if I cannot, I will move forward with my project using
dbpoweramp
Thank you

[garym]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

Well i want to balance using dbpoweramp on Mac and use EAC on Windows (if the truth be told).
I think I need to get this information from the flac software developers or EAC how to change the
command line.
I was trying to balance how I responded to this issue since using a competitor software and
was just wondering if dbpa is doing something special or using its own modification of the
flac software to implement the lossless compressed mode...
If so, then I am wasting my time asking this question or addressing it to the EAC forum.
EAC is free and I wanted to take advantage of that on Windows while getting the same benefit
of dbpa's special feature.

so anyone knows the command line arguments to the flac app?


Thank you.

understand, and makes sense. I can't help as I've never had the need to use command lines. I moved from EAC years ago to dbpa and have never looked back.

[garym]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

I assume you understand that any FLAC file is lossess, regardless of the "compression" level. And this can be easily shown by converting a file to FLAC -8 (high compression) and then reconverting that back to WAV. the CRCs of this file will match the WAV file and the two will be bit perfect. "compression" in a FLAC file only has to do with file size. It has absolutely ZERO to do with whether the audio is bit perfect back to the file that was ripped from the CD.

And why do you need command line. If you want FLAC uncompressed (for some reason *other* than you want bit perfect file), why not just use dbpa?

[currter]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

Well i want to balance using dbpoweramp on Mac and use EAC on Windows (if the truth be told).
I think I need to get this information from the flac software developers or EAC how to change the
command line.
I was trying to balance how I responded to this issue since using a competitor software and
was just wondering if dbpa is doing something special or using its own modification of the
flac software to implement the lossless compressed mode...
If so, then I am wasting my time asking this question or addressing it to the EAC forum.
EAC is free and I wanted to take advantage of that on Windows while getting the same benefit
of dbpa's special feature.

so anyone knows the command line arguments to the flac app?


Thank you.

[currter]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

I tried to add this to the thread yesterday and it was blocked or censored...
trying again .. maybe this helps with my goal...

How to add options flac command line for uncompressed lossless 16 bit audio?
How to add options flac command line to generate a .flac file that
contains uncompressed lossless 16 bit audio similar to how dbpoweramp works?
Dbpoweramp has about 8 to 9 levels of compression one of them being no compression
at all.
The resulting file is a .flac file with meta data but is the same size as the .wav
file and thus making me comfortable that no data is lost and yet having the
benefits of a file with tagging and meta data.
flac.exe - .... is it -br %1412 or --bps=16 --channels=2 --sample-rate=44100 ?
or is it
flac.exe --disable-constant-subframes --disable-fixed-subframes -l0 somefile.wav

Thank you.

Here is what dbpoweramp states

Being a lossless codec there are not many options to set when compressing to FLAC: Compression affects how much effort goes into compressing the audio, all compression modes give the same decoded audio (it is lossless after all), the higher compression levels will give a small % file size saving, but will require more time to compress and decompress. Compression Level 0 requires the least compression time, whilst Compression Level 8 the most. Uncompressed is a special compression mode with stores 16 bit audio in an uncompressed state.

[garym]

Re: Sorry, 2 Newbie questions: Purchase software for Mac and Windows&amp;ripping uncompre

So is it fair to say that this special mode (lossless uncompressed to get a resulting audio file
comparably sized with .wav and/or .aiff) is proprietary software within dbpoweramp software and
is independent to the flac command or program?
Is this a special case issue and one cannot duplicate it using flac or EAC by changing
the command line options and switches ?
If not, then is it possible to find out what the command line options should be
to not use the -6 or -8 level of compression and generate a larger file with the .flac benefits?
I do not know why this is so difficult to find out even EAC is giving me a hard time getting
this information. And this is supposed to be open source software? And I cannot find out what
the proper command line options are or should be? I guess I will have to download the source
and analyze the code to figure this out?

I had a difficult time replying to this...
this site does not seem to be friendly with replies being censored, blocked or whatever...

I've never seen posts censored, blocked, or whatever in all the years I've posted here. I suspect there is some issue with either your local network or your internet provider.

Not that it matters I suppose, but just curious: why the need to use command line. Why not use dbpa as designed and if you want to create uncompressed FLACS it can do it for you as part of the standard software.