Any tips to speed up re-rips on poor CDs?

[wallewek]

I have some CDs that are in rough shape. (Any suggestions on getting them to read better, even just once for ripping, would be great -- just cleaning doesn't always work.)

Right now I have one doing a re-rip on a skanky track (Secure Mode), and it's showing "Re-Rip [1542 frames]". At nearly a minute a frame, it's going to be at that track a loooog time. Is there anything that can be done about that?

--KW

[garym]

Re: Any tips to speed up re-rips on poor CDs?

Have you washed the CDs. I have washed with soap and water and gentle cloth and solved problems before.

[BOOTP]

Re: Any tips to speed up re-rips on poor CDs?

Using a different drive can often work wonders with stubborn CDs.

[wallewek]

Re: Any tips to speed up re-rips on poor CDs?

Thanks, yes, a different drive does seem to help, and if I'm cleaning a CD, I'll use alcohol screen/lens wipes. One thing that might surprise you is that Armor All "protectant" sometimes help on CDs, somewhat like the plastic polish in the CD repair kits.

But I was actually also looking for tips on using the CD Ripper settings. For example, it seems like the Burst mode usually produces a usable rip even if it says it's "inaccurate", but if I change the ripping method (WHY can't I select that on a per-track recovery basis?) to Secure and re-rip the track, and it overwrites the output, and the retry says it's going to take hours and probably still fail, then I've lost the previous better-than-nothing rip.

It's kinda a big waste of time when I'm ripping a lot of CDs. It's like I need to run them all in burst mode, than go back and switch to Secure only for the ones that fail, because if I pick Secure to start with and it's taking an hour on that track, and I abort the secure rip, I get bupkiss. There's gotta be a better way!

[garym]

Re: Any tips to speed up re-rips on poor CDs?

Thanks, yes, a different drive does seem to help, and if I'm cleaning a CD, I'll use alcohol screen/lens wipes. One thing that might surprise you is that Armor All "protectant" sometimes help on CDs, somewhat like the plastic polish in the CD repair kits.

But I was actually also looking for tips on using the CD Ripper settings. For example, it seems like the Burst mode usually produces a usable rip even if it says it's "inaccurate", but if I change the ripping method (WHY can't I select that on a per-track recovery basis?) to Secure and re-rip the track, and it overwrites the output, and the retry says it's going to take hours and probably still fail, then I've lost the previous better-than-nothing rip.

It's kinda a big waste of time when I'm ripping a lot of CDs. It's like I need to run them all in burst mode, than go back and switch to Secure only for the ones that fail, because if I pick Secure to start with and it's taking an hour on that track, and I abort the secure rip, I get bupkiss. There's gotta be a better way!

If you pick secure ripping option, dbpa FIRST does a burst rip and if it matches the AccurateRip database, you're done. It only does the extra secure passes when it does not get an AR match from the initial burst rip. I'm not sure why you are not seeing that as the outcome.

[wallewek]

Re: Any tips to speed up re-rips on poor CDs?

I DO see that as the outcome. I'm ripping a couple of CDs right now that are apparently in poor condition (and no, it's not the drives. They do just fine on good CDs).

One CD has been running for over 1 1/2 hours, and it still has 380 frames to go on re-rip of the last track. What happens if I cancel that rip or skip the track? Do I get to keep its best guess? And what do I do about the 7 tracks on that CD that are "Insecure"? The person whose CD it is probably won't care if it isn't perfect, but how bad would they be?

Same question for the other CD, which is even worse. It's working on track 13 of 18; 5 of the tracks so far are "Accurate", one is "Secure", 6 of the tracks are Insecure, and it's already been working on that CD for an hour and 45 minutes with another 6 tracks to go. It's on "Re-Rip (353 frames) now on track 13.

Wouldn't it be better to set a limit, say, and if it has to re-rip more than 64 frame, just call it insecure and be done with it? I really don't need to spend hours ripping crappy CDs that will never, ever be perfect anyway.

[garym]

Re: Any tips to speed up re-rips on poor CDs?

I DO see that as the outcome. I'm ripping a couple of CDs right now that are apparently in poor condition (and no, it's not the drives. They do just fine on good CDs).

One CD has been running for over 1 1/2 hours, and it still has 380 frames to go on re-rip of the last track. What happens if I cancel that rip or skip the track? Do I get to keep its best guess? And what do I do about the 7 tracks on that CD that are "Insecure"? The person whose CD it is probably won't care if it isn't perfect, but how bad would they be?

Same question for the other CD, which is even worse. It's working on track 13 of 18; 5 of the tracks so far are "Accurate", one is "Secure", 6 of the tracks are Insecure, and it's already been working on that CD for an hour and 45 minutes with another 6 tracks to go. It's on "Re-Rip (353 frames) now on track 13.

Wouldn't it be better to set a limit, say, and if it has to re-rip more than 64 frame, just call it insecure and be done with it? I really don't need to spend hours ripping crappy CDs that will never, ever be perfect anyway.

If you cancel or skip, you won't have any rip. If it is taking too long, just cancel then rip those tracks with burst ripping and live with whatever it gives you. (even insecure rips often have no audible problems). There is a setting in secure ripper settings that tells it how long to try before failure.

p.s. I've ripped 6 or 7 thousand CDs with dbpa and rarely had the issue you report. Then again, my CD collection was probably pretty pristine. Only played at home, not sitting in hot cars, and always put back in case after playing.

[GBrown]

Re: Any tips to speed up re-rips on poor CDs?

There is a setting in secure ripper settings that tells it how long to try before failure.

If you go this route, you will still have to go back and rip again with burst mode to try to get something. But no guarantees on any quality or error reporting in these cases.

[wallewek]

Re: Any tips to speed up re-rips on poor CDs?

Ah! Thanks! Well, it is what it is, so long as I know. Some CDs are just never going to get better.

I frankly think there should be a clear way to get a "best efforts" rip with configurable time limit.

It would also be very helpful if one had an option to, say, rip selected tracks in burst mode, without changing permanent settings.