Three Odd CDs - Ripping Failures and Successes?

2012-01-01 01:25:32

I'm new to ripping CDs with a secure ripper and have run across three problematic CDs. It's not a huge deal that the CDs are difficult/won't rip, but curiosity has gotten the better of me and I haven't been able to dig up anything through googling, so here I am. Apologies if I'm just being dense about the whole thing. Just to make this clear, all discs are retail CDs that were bought new years ago. Depending on how problematic the disc is, I use EAC first, followed by XLD and use the test and copy methods with verification by AccurateRip. I'll list the discs from what I feel is the best outcome to worst outcome.

Disc 1: I like to rip my CDs to flac using EAC on my Win7 desktop (Asus DVD burner). So away I went ripping Disc 1. While watching, the little error correction bar in EAC showed the first row completely lighting up for every second the disc was ripped. Confused, I popped open windows media player and found that while the disc was recognized and could be "played" no sound was produced. Further confused, I placed the disc in a Win XP laptop (Dell? DVD burner). Same thing as with the desktop, the CD would "play" in media player, but wouldn't actually produce any sound. I really liked the CD, so I gave it one last shot on a white, unibody MacBook (Matsushita DVD burner) and to my surprise, iTunes (ugh, not my fav) popped open immediately and asked if I wanted to rip the CD. The CD ripped and played fine. So, I used XLD to rip/AccurateRip verify the disc and it worked like a charm. I later tried the same disk on a different Win XP desktop and an ancient PowerPC MacBook. The desktop failed again and the MacBook could rip the CD just fine. So what exactly happened here? Why was the disk only playable/rippable on Matsushita drives? I took a look at the disc using IsoBuster and the disc showed a session 00 and a session 01 with the session 00 having a size of 3TB and some unreachable LBA. The disc was purchased at least in the early 90s (if not earlier) so it couldn't be some type of copy protection could it?

Disc 2: So along comes Disc 2. Everything that happened with Disc 1 happened with Disc 2, with the exception that I haven't had a chance to verify problems on as many computers or use IsoBuster yet. The only problem is that after ripping the disc with XLD, the first track was reported as being unidentifiable in the AccurateRip DB and is also unplayable in foobar2000, with a decoding failure. All the other tracks from the rip are completely fine. The only oddity that I noticed (beyond not recognizing the track in the AccurateRip DB) is that the pregap length for the first track is detected as -1.00. From my limited experience with XLD, the length is usually reported as 00:00. Is this what the problem is? Is there a way to rip the first track correctly with XLD?

Disc 3: This is a disc that I bought years ago and never opened until I went to rip it, so the disc is perfectly new. However, the ripping process fails on both XLD and EAC on the exact same track at (I think) the exact same spot. I know from searching for the album online to see if there was copy protection/some sort of defect that there are complete AccurateRip verified versions of the disc around. Is this just a case of getting a one in a million disc that has some unobservable manufacturing defect that prevents "accurately" ripping the disc? The track in question still plays (and sounds fine) and the disc isn't warped, scratched, or smudged on either side, so I'm assuming it must somehow be a single bad/defective pressing. Is that possible?

Please let me know if more information is needed.

Three Odd CDs - Ripping Failures and Successes?

Reply #1 – 2012-01-01 01:48:58

Discs 1 & 2: Sony label?  It sounds a lot like Sony copy protection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy...rootkit_scandal or maybe another type of copy protection.  Copy protection should be explicitly described on the CD cover (possibly in type so small that only a lawyer can read it) but record companies aren't always the most honest and forthright people out there.  And the CD standard doesn't allow for copy protection so any disc using it shouldn't carry the CD logo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CDlogo.svg ... but it might.

Disc 3: Possibly a manufacturing defect, it does happen.  Many CDs are issued in different versions at different times and/or in different markets, so it's not unusual to find your CD isn't identical to other CDs of the same title.  It could also be copy protection.  I had a CD that had copy protection applied only on a single track so that if it was ripped a portion of the track was replaced by a voice saying "Illegal Copy".  The ways and means that record companies find to be complete assholes are seemingly unlimited.

Three Odd CDs - Ripping Failures and Successes?

Reply #2 – 2012-01-02 05:11:51

Thanks for the ideas.

I take it back about Disc 1, I thought it was AccurateRip verified, but I only verified the CRCs on two different Matsushita drives. Without really knowing what I'm talking about, I think I thought I bought it so long ago that it was probably a pressing that wasn't in the database. It's a very popular duo and it's a greatest hits album, so I can't believe it hasn't been ripped before.

I thought Discs 1 and 2 were some type of copy protection at first, but I think they were purchased in the early 90s, well before burners could be purchased by the average joe. Plus, I know for sure Disc 2 isn't a Sony label. Not sure about Disc 1 as I already put it away, but it might be a Sony label. Maybe I'm just not clearly remembering when I bought the CDs, but I think they were both purchased before 2005 at least. What I don't get is I was able to rip Disc 1 just fine (after finding a drive that would read it) and Disc 2 ripped fine except for track 1 (it only has a file size of 5KB?). I still don't understand why only Matsushita drives could read/play them on a computer.

I'll have to rerip Disc 3, I think I listened to the track in question, but I don't remember any voice saying "illegal copy". It has the compact disc logo and I don't see anything that states it is copy protected. I know for sure I bought this one in 1998.

I know it's probably OC and not necessary but I was going for a perfect rip or no rip at all. I might have to revise that line of thought.

Anyone have any other thoughts? I'd really like to get track 1 cleanly ripped off of Disc 2. I'm tempted to re-buy Disc 3; I doubt it would cost very much to find a new copy and I'd want to see if another copy will rip.

Three Odd CDs - Ripping Failures and Successes?

Reply #3 – 2012-01-04 04:24:17

I had time to take a look at Disc 2 with IsoBuster. It's similar to Disc 1 in that it appears to have a false Track 00 (rather than a false Session 00). The size of the track is reported as being 8TB (!?) and extends from LBA 0 to 4294967221 while track 01 starts at 4294967221 to 15497 (?).

Does this mean that there is some type of copy protection? I feel like a dimwit now. I really thought I purchased this disc in the early 90s.

Is there some way around this so that I can rip track 01?

Thanks again.