Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

[IamNemo]

What is the best way to generate a bit-perfect / accurate / secure rip of an audio CD (or DVD) to create a perfect bin/cue file of the disc?

I do not want to encode it (mp3 or flac or...) at this point. Just want to archive the disc perfectly and encode it later.

A command line mode would be ideal as I plan to use robotics to do the job.

Thanks for your help!
iamnemo

[LtData]

Re: Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

Do note that dMC currently cannot generate/read bin/cue files. I have heard some users state that they use EAC to generate the bin/cue file and dMC to rip. However, as I have not done this myself, I cannot really assist further.

[IamNemo]

Re: Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

Thank you for your reply. Are there any plans to add accurate bin/cue (or any other open archive format) generation to dMC? Is it even imaginable? Maybe as a plug-in?

My dream system would be to have all my CDs (even Enhanced CDs, CD+G, etc.) securely archived in a bit-perfect compressed non-proprietary format and a virtual jukebox database player program to locate and play any track straight from the archives with no need to encode for PC-based playback.

Of course one could also batch-encode to lossless (e.g. FLAC) or lossy (e.g. mp3) formats or even to stream straight from the archive files.

I'm I dreaming? Is anyone here doing something like that? IamNemo

[LtData]

Re: Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

Yes, cue/bin support is being worked on as a DSP effect, but no timeframe has been stated for when it's due.

[IamNemo]

Re: Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

Wow, this is fantastic news!! :D Where can I learn more about this? Thanks! IamNemo

[LtData]

Re: Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

Right now, it's still in development. When it is released to beta, it should appear in the Beta section of this forum.

[Porcus]

Re: Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

What is the best way to generate a bit-perfect / accurate / secure rip of an audio CD (or DVD) to create a perfect bin/cue file of the disc?

I do not want to encode it (mp3 or flac or...) at this point. Just want to archive the disc perfectly and encode it later.

I did consider using images with cuesheets myself, but abandoned it because of
- Re-ripping issues -- I have bought so many second-hand doubtful CDs that need to be re-ripped for one track or so. Much more convenient to rip as single tracks then.
- Issues with Hidden Track One.
- Issues with EnhancedCDs and such. How to embed data?
- Not supported by dBpoweramp, which offers superior metadata quality (I use a changer and batchripping, see my signature) -- I realise now that I could have hacked together something which would use EAC to rip to images and dBpoweramp to retrieve metadata and then transfer, but that didn't happen when I started and now I only have a few hundred left.
- I can convert to images with cuesheets later if I want. Indeed, I think Spoon has mentioned that this is how he intends to implement images/cuesheets in dBpoweramp.

If you still want images -- before dBpoweramp supports it -- then you can either use a tool that converts (EAC or foobar2000 I think, but beware of HTOA issues) or use EAC directly, which can also encode to FLAC images. FLAC images with cuesheets are -- qua lossless -- just as good as wav images with cuesheets, plus they offer better metadata capabilities and save you ~1/3 of the space.

[IamNemo]

Re: Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

Thank you so much Porcus for this very valuable information! Nice to see that someone has already gone down that path and identified all the obstacles

May I ask what you meant by I could have hacked together something which would use EAC to rip to images and dBpoweramp to retrieve metadata and then transfer ? How would you go about it?

I also have a Sony VGP-XL1B(3) and a Powerfile C200 changer so I'm also interested in your dBoink script :D Where can I find the latest version? So far I have experimented a bit with dBPowerAmp 's Batch Ripper which worked pretty well to create FLAC files but, today, does not create image files.

Thank you for your help! Regards, Iam Nemo

[IamNemo]

Re: Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

Thank you Lt. ! Regards, Nemo (the captain, not the fish!) ;-)

Right now, it's still in development. When it is released to beta, it should appear in the Beta section of this forum.

[Porcus]

Re: Bit-perfect bin/cue files: possible??

May I ask what you meant by I could have hacked together something which would use EAC to rip to images and dBpoweramp to retrieve metadata and then transfer ? How would you go about it?

Oh, sorry I didn't see this. Know it's been a month.

-> There was an application which did the same thing for EAC; it was a mod of the REACT script (the self-explanatory name "Run EAC Task"), which I didn't get to work properly (I believe that if you just turn off freedb interaction in EAC, you save yourself a great deal of user interaction).

-> Among other things, it can by a single keystroke rip to image -- then EAC will rip and then invoke the FLAC encoder (assuming that this is what you wish); for an image, post-rip encoding takes some time. I think you can monitor the EAC statusbar to see when it is finished.

-> You could in principle have EAC and dBpoweramp both up; (1) invoke EAC's "rip to image"; (2) when done ripping with EAC, do one rip with dBpoweramp (for your purposes, a burst rip with fastest FLAC encoding would do -- you are not interested in the files!), (3) wait until both EAC is done encoding and dBpoweramp done ripping, (4) move the EAC image "untitled.flac" (or whatever) to the most-recently-written-to dBpoweramp folder and change its name to <foldername>.flac. Then post-batch, or immediately, (5) use metaflac to extract dBpoweramp's written tags. (Actually I don't know how image tags looks like -- maybe that's what cuesheets are good for? Cuesheets are text files, so they are easily created.)


As for my application, see my signature.