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Topic: AudioCD checking station for thrift shop (Read 2514 times) previous topic - next topic
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AudioCD checking station for thrift shop

Hi!

As a part of my spare time I help a local non-profit thrift shop in Sweden with their IT and other technical stuff. They are gifted a lot of CDs and vinyl from people. Some of them especially vinyls are quiet valuable and some CD boxes are collectibles.

Now, the shop have a tendency to trash CDs that are perfectly well, but have minute scratches hardly visible to the eye. Scratches that is taken care of by the normal CIRC error correction. When these CDs are collectibles it’s sad to see them get trashed.
I grabbed a €150/SEK1500 Springsteen box heading for the trash since one of the discs had some very small scratches. EAC ripped it perfectly well, but of course with a CIRC error correction notice. I also ran it through cdparanoia with the same perfect result. Case closed. The box was put up for sale.

A solution for this would be to have a simple ”checking station” for the less computer savvy personell. A PC with some software that automates the process of just reading the CD. No conversion or any saved audio files. Like ARM/Automated Ripping Machine but only for reading (not converting) AudioCDs. I suppose people who sell CDs on ebay run this sort of test when they claim ”no errors”?

- put a disc in the CD reader
- let it read the whole CD. Log the result
- eject the CD and show the result on the screen. Include a notice in the jewel case with the result.
- repeat

Any suggestions on how to build this? Windows, Linux or macOS. I have some old PCs and Macs to run it on. I’ve started tinkering with abcde on a Debian machine.

Re: AudioCD checking station for thrift shop

Reply #1 –
Quote from: gunverth on
I suppose people who sell CDs on ebay run this sort of test when they claim ”no errors”?
Cynical perhaps, but I doubt it.  More likely they let the customer do the test and complain, which would result in a lower reject rate.

Why bother?  A lot of manufacturing these days has only perfunctory testing and treat the user as the final test station.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: AudioCD checking station for thrift shop

Reply #2 –
Quote from: fooball on
Quote from: gunverth on
I suppose people who sell CDs on ebay run this sort of test when they claim ”no errors”?
…
Why bother? …
Well…getting it sold with a proof the disc is 100% OK is better than trashing it. This is for collectibles, not €1\10SEK discs. Customers always check for scratches and some of them starts haggling at PoS. This Sweden so a verbal promise is a written contract. ;-)

Re: AudioCD checking station for thrift shop

Reply #3 –
IIRC, CUETools once configured to do so, will retain the settings necessary to produce such a report. Users simply insert the CD and click "Go". A bit of training would be necessary to read the report, but the information is all there.

Re: AudioCD checking station for thrift shop

Reply #4 –
I don't know if there is any perfect check because sometimes a disc is OK on one reader but fails on another.    Audio CD players seem to be better at error correction and error hiding than CD drives and software.

That said, CueRipper or EAC, either with AccurateRip should be a reasonable check.

As a quick check after burning a CD or DVD I run Nero DiscSpeed (which  you can find free on the Internet) and it hasn't failed me yet.    It's pretty fast and it shows a graph of reading speed.   It will show a "glitch" in the graph when it gets an error and has to re-try.   (I don't use it routinely on commercial discs.)

Checking visually isn't very reliable.  The data-layer is on the top and they are read through the full-thickness of the disc.    They can be easily damaged from the label side and it can be harder to see.    And you can't polish-out scratches on the top...  It just does more damage.

Re: AudioCD checking station for thrift shop

Reply #5 –
Find a cheap 2nd hand robot loader from this list:

https://dbpoweramp.com/batch-ripper.htm

and use batch ripper, it can be set to reject a disc if not verified by accuraterip, you would end with a pile of good disc and a pile of bad.
 

Re: AudioCD checking station for thrift shop

Reply #7 –
Does Swedish law allow user to get help ripping their CDs and selling the CD with an AccurateRip verified file?
(Though I can only imagine the malware vandalism if you allow them to plug stuff into your computer.)

Re: AudioCD checking station for thrift shop

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Porcus on
Does Swedish law allow user to get help ripping their CDs and selling the CD with an AccurateRip verified file?
(Though I can only imagine the malware vandalism if you allow them to plug stuff into your computer.)
That would be EU law. Not sure about that and it’s not my purpose anyway. This project is only for QC personell doing a quick check for data integrity of some valuable but scratched discs. I think I have found a ”recipe” with cdparanoia on debian that just reads, checks and logs: ’cdparanoia -qpXL 1- /dev/null’

AccuriteRip hasn’t been helpful for anyone I know. The pressings sold here very often doesnt match the database, so it’s more or less ”worthless”.