New User Experiencing Huge Time Differences in Rips

[ChisChas]

Have you read this: CD Ripper Secure Ripping Setup Guide and is your drive configured for AccurateRip?



That's because your Windows PC is configured to automatically play CDs in WMP. It has nothing to do with CDRipper. Turn off the Windows Autoplay feature.



Of the 300 CDs you own, are any of them HDCDs?

Thank you for being so helpful. 1) Yes, I read the Set Up Guide before starting 2) I got an onscreen message to say my drive was configured for AccurateRip 3) Re blank CD/triangle, thank you for this advice, I will disable Autoplay in Windows (no mention of this in the Setup Guide) 4) I own a lot more than 300 CD's, I just want to convert my favourite 300 to dBpa but no, none is a HDCD so as someone else has kindly advised I will untick the HDCD option. I do own a number of hybrid and single layer SACD's and will wish to convert hybrid SACD's like Wish You Were Here & Dark Side Of The Moon. I have been actioning specific advice and that's what I was hoping for by starting this thread.

[ChisChas]

Hi ChisChas.

To be honest, I did not have to set anything in order for dBpa to keep ripping the CDs, whether that be if I left the system running all night, or if it chose to rip in 'frames'. And so no, I am not able to point you towards any such postings in my threads I am afraid.

Not that this would make much difference now - as it would be after the fact - but did you not test out Illustrate via the (free of charge) 28 x day TRIAL s/w version? Many people take advantage of this facility, and then post questions regarding their experiences (all good, bad and the ugly) as they go along. And then, based upon their experience, make their decision as to whether or not to purchase come time-bomb moment.

Yes, I fully agree that I have invested much time into trying to learn and configure Illustrate to suit my personal needs. It has not been easy, but then I am possibly older than yourself and also I am new to computers - for what it's worth.

In my experience, I ripped something like 400+ CDs at the time (circa 2011) using WMP. At least 10% did not play correctly afterwards. And - as I continued to discover until finally deciding to switch over to Illustrate - I would say that 1-10 CDs has at least 1 x track with some kind of glitch. WMP may well 'appear' to rip your collection correctly, but I believe - based upon first hand experience - that this can be far from the truth. Besides, it offers no such 'verification', and similar, as does Illustrate.

Thanks,

Paul

Tbh, it's not about the £36 and I had no idea I would run into these problems from the off (that's why I purchased dBpa and didn't use the Trial). With hindsight, the Trial might have been a good idea but that's ok. As I've said on this thread, I feel that the Setup Guide could be expanded to provide more advice but I've come across other Setup Guides where they also seemed to be written by very clever & brainy people who are intimately involved with a product and are seemingly unable to understand that others have other skills and capabilities outside the computer programming and all things connected with computers but not anything like the same amount of skills in this area.

[ChisChas]

The problems you've noted are often a result of:
1. bad CD (or CD with copy protection)
2. C2 error being ticked in setup when drive doesn't truly support C2.
3. Simply something about the combination of the CD and the drive that doesn't work well.

You've tried *2, so nothing much left to test until after you've tried the new drive you have coming as a test of *3. And keep in mind that you need to test with other CDs as well. One can always find a troublesome CD that creates problems, but I wouldn't make my decisons based on one or two problem CDs out of hundreds or thousands one might rip.

Thank you, the Arena album wasn't the first I had a problem with within the first 24 hours of using dBpa. I think the 'clever' thing for me to do is to put aside any mares thereby avoiding getting stuck (after a few tries) and if they really don't want to play ball then I'll use the WMP rip for that particular album.

Gary, could you recommend the best settings within Secure Rip so my drive(s) keep trying much longer and I don't have to keep mouse clicking to repeat the attempt to rip an intially unco-operative CD?

And the Arena album rips perfectly well using the inferior WMP btw so it's not an obvious drive or CD issue but I was perfectly happy to buy one more drive but the idea of buying several more + the £36 for dBpa started to feel a bit extreme when I'm happy with the SQ of the WMP rips, it's the metadata and album cover problem that I'm unhappy with.

[monsterjazzlick]

Tbh, it's not about the £36 and I had no idea I would run into these problems from the off (that's why I purchased dBpa and didn't use the Trial). With hindsight, the Trial might have been a good idea but that's ok. As I've said on this thread, I feel that the Setup Guide could be expanded to provide more advice but I've come across other Setup Guides where they also seemed to be written by very clever & brainy people who are intimately involved with a product and are seemingly unable to understand that others have other skills and capabilities outside the computer programming and all things connected with computers but not anything like the same amount of skills in this area.

Hi ChisChas,

I used the TRIAL version and I think I made the purchase after 2 weeks. I then bought a second license (so I have one copy on my work PC and one on my home).

I too have found the manual to be quite difficult and I certainly do not come from a computer background. The learning curve is, I have found, to be quite steep. But, as you can see, I have persevered and also received a lot of help on this forum.

Paul

[mville]

So if the Arena album 'Contagion' has ripped the first 14 tracks just fine but the last 2 tracks refuse to rip, what can you advise?

Exactly what does the last 2 tracks refuse to rip mean i.e. does CDRipper stop ripping and provide any error message(s) or do you manually cancel the rip?

Also, I just want to confirm a few things:
1. Your drive is configured for AccurateRip?
2. CDRipper Options >> Secure Settings >> C2 Error Pointers for Error Detection is NOT ticked?
3. You are not using any DSPs, when ripping?
4. CD is not copy protected?

[ChisChas]

Ok, I've just had a look at one of my earlier posts to remind myself! The first 14 tracks rip without any problem or drama (blueish orb and (9) after each of those 14 tracks. Tracks 15 & 16 have red crosses and error messages after them and more to the point, neither track 15 & 16 appear in my dBpa folder so can't be played because they ain't there. Track 16 did rip once but imperfectly and when I listened to it, there were minute gaps/stumbles so I deleted it. I've had a break from dBpa but within the next 24 hours I will retry using the Samsung drive (and note the exact error details down) and then get the new Asus drive into action (hopefully this one will rip tracks unrippable by the Samsung drive).

In answer to your 4 questions:

1. Yes, I believe the Samsung drive is configured for AccurateRip, a window appeared to state that.
2. Someone else advised I should untick C2 Error Pointers, I immediately unticked it.
3. I've had to Google DSP, what do you mean by DSP's? Demand Side Platform? Digital Sound P..........?
4. The CD allows tracks 1-14 to rip just fine using dBpa so it cannot be copy protected.

Look forward to learning what DSP's are!

[Dat Ei]

Digital Signal / Sound Processor


Dat Ei

[mville]

within the next 24 hours I will retry using the Samsung drive (and note the exact error details down) and then get the new Asus drive into action (hopefully this one will rip tracks unrippable by the Samsung drive).

In CD Ripper Options >> After Ripping, make sure Display Error Log and Display Information Log are ticked. This will report the full error status for all tracks, when ripping is complete.

1. Yes, I believe the Samsung drive is configured for AccurateRip, a window appeared to state that.

Go to CD Ripper Options >> Secure Settings. Does it say AccurateRip Verified under Pass 1?

2. Someone else advised I should untick C2 Error Pointers, I immediately unticked it.

OK.

3. I've had to Google DSP, what do you mean by DSP's? Demand Side Platform? Digital Sound P..........?

Although you find the Online Help a difficult read, there are several references to the DSPs which you can add in CDRipper. The DSP tab is found bottom/centre of the main CDRipper window.

4. The CD allows tracks 1-14 to rip just fine using dBpa so it cannot be copy protected.

If your CD is copy protected, there will be a Copy Controlled logo somewhere on the CD case/artwork.

[ChisChas]

Hi ChisChas,

I used the TRIAL version and I think I made the purchase after 2 weeks. I then bought a second license (so I have one copy on my work PC and one on my home).

I too have found the manual to be quite difficult and I certainly do not come from a computer background. The learning curve is, I have found, to be quite steep. But, as you can see, I have persevered and also received a lot of help on this forum.

Paul

Thank you for coming out and saying you 'found the manual (Setup Guide) quite difficult), clearly I did too. I am encouraged (now there's a more positive approach towards me) by the help provided within this thread and hope to continue with the dBpa journey although I'm now to the wiser re future potential problems with hopefully a small % of my CD's. Personally I haven't experienced problems with my CD's or hybrid SACD's (single layer uber SACD's will only play in a SACD player and not in an optical drive) using a number of computers over the years with WMP but as I've already said, I bought dBpa for its much better metadata and album cover capability.
Would you be able/willing/available to compile a list of fairly essential amendments/additions for the Setup Guide and put them forward to the programme owner(s)/administrators?

[Dat Ei]

Personally I haven't experienced problems with my CD's or hybrid SACD's (single layer uber SACD's will only play in a SACD player and not in an optical drive) using a number of computers over the years with WMP...

The only reason for this is, that WMP doesn't report problems or errors on that level and produces faulty files. Thoses errors are sometimes hearable, sometimes not. But never the less: those copies are not bitperfect an dthat is the aim of dBpa.

Would you be able/willing/available to compile a list of fairly essential amendments/additions for the Setup Guide and put them forward to the programme owner(s)/administrators?

You better read the original postings which are the base for Paul's knwoledge.


Dat Ei

[mville]

Thank you for coming out and saying you 'found the manual (Setup Guide) quite difficult), clearly I did too.

I didn't. I said YOU found it a difficult read.

For any new product that I have no experience with, on the initial read of the manual there are always concepts and technologies that I am unfamiliar with. I think that is to be expected. I mean, if I new all about the product I wouldn't be reading the manual. So, I tend to read the manual twice to get an initial idea of what is going on, before proceeding with the product.

[mville]

Personally I haven't experienced problems with my CD's or hybrid SACD's (single layer uber SACD's will only play in a SACD player and not in an optical drive) using a number of computers over the years with WMP but as I've already said, I bought dBpa for its much better metadata and album cover capability.

Those WMP rips will contain errors, but as Dat Ei says, you are not hearing them.

[ChisChas]

In CD Ripper Options >> After Ripping, make sure Display Error Log and Display Information Log are ticked. This will report the full error status for all tracks, when ripping is complete.



Go to CD Ripper Options >> Secure Settings. Does it say AccurateRip Verified under Pass 1?



OK.



Although you find the Online Help a difficult read, there are several references to the DSPs which you can add in CDRipper. The DSP tab is found bottom/centre of the main CDRipper window.



If your CD is copy protected, there will be a Copy Controlled logo somewhere on the CD case/artwork.

Ha ha, DSP's, yes I now remember the tab! I've been taking in lots of information recently (new DAP, new Chord Hugo 2 desktop amp/dac, VLC Media Player to use with dBpa, dBpa, my brain is fatigued). I'll answer your questions in order:

1. Will do, thanks
2. Yes, just checked, it defo says 'Verified under Pass 1'
3. Ok, DSP choices (3 were there) all removed/deleted).
4. I'm aware that Copy Protect was used in the past, thanks for link to Wikipedia article, no sign of this logo anywhere re Arena's 'Contagion' album (it has fully ripped to two laptops using WMP, the older laptop has an optical drive built-in, the newer one uses an external Samsung OD). The first 14 tracks have successfully ripped using dBpa, the problems happen with the last 2. Interestingly, I bought 4 The Doors CD's, none of which would rip using WMP and the older laptop. I assumed they were all Copy Protected but no sign of the logo on their cases or within the booklets. The 4 Doors CD's play fine on CD players so I will be trying them with the new Asus drive. I found an offer for all 8 Doors albums (the last 3 without Jim Morrison are terrible imho) on one of the High Res music sites and so I do have 24/96 versions on my previous DAP.

Can I thank you again for helping me, much appreciated.

[ChisChas]

I didn't. I said YOU found it a difficult read.

For any new product that I have no experience with, on the initial read of the manual there are always concepts and technologies that I am unfamiliar with. I think that is to be expected. I mean, if I new all about the product I wouldn't be reading the manual. So, I tend to read the manual twice to get an initial idea of what is going on, before proceeding with the product.

Sorry, I meant this to be a reply to Paul (monsterjazzlik), not you. He has stated on 8 October that he found the manual 'quite difficult'. I read the Setup Guide but if there is perhaps not as much advice/tips/hints/suggestions in it, then they won't be there however many times you read it, as those same things are not within my new DAP's manual either. I think Paul's suggestion of trying dBpa using the Trial period is great advice but I'd already purchased it (my decision, no problem).

[mville]

Sorry, I meant this to be a reply to Paul (monsterjazzlik), not you. He has stated on 8 October that he found the manual 'quite difficult'.

No sorry, it is me that should apologize as I clearly didn't read your post correctly as I missed the quote completely.