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[JulesPitt]

Hi everyone!

I am new to the forum, but have used JRiver many years back on a windows setup. I have now returned and am starting to use it on a MacBook pro retina from 2013, and unfortunately I am experiencing a lot of problems. Today I wanted to rip a new cd (this is the first time on the new setup), but apparently JRiver cannot see any files on my cd. I am using the USB CD-drive as there is no built-in CD-Rom drive in my Macbook. There is no problem reading the cd in Apple Music or accessing it through finder, so apparently it is just JRiver's problem. I have found topics on similar issues on earlier versions of Media Center on this forum, but I haven't found one for Media Center 26.

Can anyone help?

Best wishes
Bjørn

[HaWi]

I am having a similar issue. I can no longer rip CD's, even though in earlier versions of MC I could. MC doesn't find any tracks on the CD. Any fix would be high;y appreciated.
many thanks,
Hans

[JimH]

It's a Windows problem:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,24031.msg866883.html#msg866883

[HaWi]

I'm on MacOS, though. In the meantime, I tried again and after a few attempts I was eventually able to rip a CD. My guess is, in my case it is a performance issue. The system gets very sluggish and when one presses a button to soon the procedure is not completed. It also seemed to matter by which way I initiated the rip. Top menu versus Action window and such. I don't know if anyone can reproduce this.

[dhampny]

It's a Windows problem:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,24031.msg866883.html#msg866883

But this is happening on Macs.  In my case MC 26 for Mac is seeing my CDs just fine on my external drive but doesn't see any DVD movies when I insert them.

David

[blgentry]

Way, way back around MC20 or so I tried ripping CDs with MC for Mac.  It didn't work very well.  I did a lot of weird things that made it hard to use.  Several versions later, (maybe MC 23 or so?) I tested it again and it seemed to work fairly well in my limited testing.

But, by then (3 years later) I had been using another ripping tool for Mac, which always worked exactly the same, and always gave me the results I wanted.  So I never embraced MC's CD ripping functionality.  It was broken, then fixed, and apparently now is broken again?

I would recommend a different tool for CD ripping on Mac.  MC for Mac does many things very well.  It does several things not so well.

Brian.

[HaWi]

Thanks Brian!
Can you recommend an up-to-date tool for ripping audio CDs on MacOS?
many thanks,

Hans

[JimH]

Way, way back around MC20 or so I tried ripping CDs with MC for Mac.  It didn't work very well.  I did a lot of weird things that made it hard to use.  Several versions later, (maybe MC 23 or so?) I tested it again and it seemed to work fairly well in my limited testing.

But, by then (3 years later) I had been using another ripping tool for Mac, which always worked exactly the same, and always gave me the results I wanted.  So I never embraced MC's CD ripping functionality.  It was broken, then fixed, and apparently now is broken again?

I would recommend a different tool for CD ripping on Mac.  MC for Mac does many things very well.  It does several things not so well.

Brian.

Could you test MC26 to see whether it's working?

[dhampny]

Could you test MC26 to see whether it's working?

I don't mean to impose on the OP's issue anymore than I already have, or on JimH's request of blgentry, but I wanted to let you know that I just ripped a CD into MC using MC and it worked fine.  I haven't previously done this since purchasing MC 26 for Mac.  I've been using dBpoweramp for CD ripping and it has worked flawlessly for hundreds of CDs on my Mac.

As an add to what I posted earlier, I seem to be able to do whatever I want with a CD but I can't get MC to do anything with a DVD movie.

David

[HaWi]

... but I can't get MC to do anything with a DVD movie.

David

DVD ripping is not supported on MacOS

[Awesome Donkey]

Use MakeMKV on macOS to rip DVDs and Blu-rays.

If you absolutely can't get CD ripping in MC working on macOS no matter what, XLD would be a good alternative.

[dhampny]

DVD ripping is not supported on MacOS

Thanks.  I don't want to rip movies.  But I can't even play movies with MC.  MC doesn't "see" the movie I've inserted.

David

[Awesome Donkey]

DVD/Blu-ray disc reading isn't supported in MC for Mac either, not sure if it can ever be either. Your only option with that unfortunately is ripping the discs with MakeMKV.

[blgentry]

Could you test MC26 to see whether it's working?

I do not own an MC26 license so I can't test it there.  Though David, at least, has had success with ripping CDs with MC26.  Not sure why Hawi (Hans) is having trouble...

Brian.

[dhampny]

DVD/Blu-ray disc reading isn't supported in MC for Mac either, not sure if it can ever be either. Your only option with that unfortunately is ripping the discs with MakeMKV.

I wish that had been documented someplace.  Or maybe I missed it?  Not that I want to play or rip DVD movies (really just want to catalog my small collection in MC) but I wouldn't have spent so much time trying to figure out why I couldn't get MC to even see my movies.  At least I learned my way around the forums and MC a bit more, and that's a good thing.

JimH:  Will DVD/Blu-ray reading/ripping ever be added as a function of MC for Mac?

David

[blgentry]

I've downloaded and installed MC 26.0.82 for Mac and have ripped 2 CDs with it.

It's a little awkward, as sometimes no tracks show up.  But in the lower left dialog it shows "11 tracks" (or however many there are).  If you then press "details" it sometimes shows the tracks then.  It does not seem to look up metadata automatically.  If you press "lookup from online database" it gets the metadata just fine.  Ripping seems to work fine; about the same speed (give or take) as XLD. 

If you press the Rip CD button (in the Action Window) before you insert a disc, you get a cryptic message informing you that "ripping is unavailable".  This could be improved, as this is only a symptom of there being no CD in the drive, as opposed to there being a major problem.  Ideally it would show the ripping window with a message to "insert a CD" or similar.

All the basic functionality is there.  It's more manual (than my other tool) and requires just a bit of fiddling (clicking buttons multiple times, etc).  But it all works.

This was all done on an iMac with an external CD/DVD/BD drive, which has ripped many hundreds of CDs, DVDs, and BDs (with other tools).

Brian.

[blgentry]

...and just as a fun note:

I'm listening to The Dire Straits self titled album, which was the first disc I ripped with MC26.

Damn does this album sound incredible for a 1978 recording.  The 70s had far better recording technology (and music!) than many people realize.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/dire-straits-mw0000193588

Brian.

[Awesome Donkey]

JimH:  Will DVD/Blu-ray reading/ripping ever be added as a function of MC for Mac?

I think on Windows, JRiver Media Center relies on Windows' system components to playback DVD/BD discs (and playback ISOs)... but there's the other elephant in the room, the copy protection on the majority of commercial DVD/BD discs. Even on Windows JRiver Media Center can't playback copy protected DVD/BD discs unless you use a third-party tool like AnyDVD, DVDFab or MakeMKV to remove the copy protection on-the-fly. Other than MakeMKV, I'm not sure if there's any tools like this available for macOS or Linux and I'm not sure if MakeMKV on those platforms even has the disc decryption feature the Windows version recently gained.

I'm also going to assume here that adding DVD/BD disc reading support (writing support I wouldn't ever hold my breath on, in my opinion) in MC on macOS/Linux would require an implementation from scratch, which if it's even on the to-do list, I would have to guess isn't likely going to happen anytime soon, in my opinion. However, if there's no third-party tools like AnyDVD available for macOS and Linux, it's kinda pointless to add DVD/BD support, since MC won't be able to read the discs and there'd be no way to decrypt them.

[HaWi]

...and just as a fun note:

I'm listening to The Dire Straits self titled album, which was the first disc I ripped with MC26.

Damn does this album sound incredible for a 1978 recording.  The 70s had far better recording technology (and music!) than many people realize.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/dire-straits-mw0000193588

Brian.

Indeed, a great album. I'm a Knopfler fan as well.
cheers,
Hans

[aliciaviola]

I can rip CDs (Newest build and newest MC version) but always with the second try. I open MC, load the CD on my Mac (not the original but one from Pioneer) and MC shows the CD information. The next two seconds the information disappears and MC informs me that no CD has been loaded. After some patience or a double-click the CD shows up again and I can rip it. iTunes or XLD have no such problem. But using MC has the great advantage that I can use the database of all files that are in the library.
Frank

[JimH]

Thanks, Brian.

[blgentry]

I can rip CDs (Newest build and newest MC version) but always with the second try. I open MC, load the CD on my Mac (not the original but one from Pioneer) and MC shows the CD information. The next two seconds the information disappears and MC informs me that no CD has been loaded. After some patience or a double-click the CD shows up again and I can rip it.

Frank, this is a really good description of what I experienced.

Brian.

[dhampny]

I can rip CDs (Newest build and newest MC version) but always with the second try. I open MC, load the CD on my Mac (not the original but one from Pioneer) and MC shows the CD information. The next two seconds the information disappears and MC informs me that no CD has been loaded. After some patience or a double-click the CD shows up again and I can rip it.
Frank

Just to relate my experience:  I loaded two CDs and was able to rip each in MC immediately after loading.  I didn't have to reload, or double-click.  But I had problems with a 3rd CD.  So I tried this and it seems to have fixed the problem:  each time I inserted a CD the Music app also opened (I'm running Mac OS Catalina and this is the new iTunes.). I had System Preferences set to Ignore but in the Music app you can't choose Ignore and it always overrode System Preferences and opened.  I wondered if this might be causing a problem with MC so I set System Preferences to open MC when a CD was inserted, instead of Ignore.  Now Music doesn't open automatically and that seems to have solved my problem.  The next time I inserted a disc it opened MC and I was able to rip without any issues.  When I inserted another disc with MC already open I was also able to rip without delay.  And as I said above, Music doesn't open automatically now.

David

[JimH]

Thanks for posting that.

[aliciaviola]

I am not on Catalina but on Maverick (because some of my 32 bit programs that would't work under Catalina). So I don't know how is the procedure with Apple's newer music app. But in the iTunes preferences you simply can turn off that the app shall rip CDs. Since I did that iTunes only reads the CD when it's open.
Frank

[kkinnon]

I'm using a Mac with Catalina and having the same problem. When I insert a disc with JR26 open, it does see the disc but Apple Music comes up as well. At one time I could close iTunes after it fired up when a disc was inserted and finally JR25 would see the disc and I could import it. But now NOTHING!! Very frustrating as their DSD/DSF conversion is great. Hope the administrator sees this and has a good answer. I've tried to stop Music from coming up automatically but there appears to be no way.

[Awesome Donkey]

If there's no way to prevent the Apple Music app from opening when a CD is inserted, there may be no workaround for it.

[dhampny]

If there's no way to prevent the Apple Music app from opening when a CD is inserted, there may be no workaround for it.

Please read my post a couple before this one.  I related how I keep it from opening.

David

[Awesome Donkey]

Groovy, I misread and assumed it was iTunes.

[HaWi]

So I tried to rip another CD. The tracks show up in 'Details' (see attached screenshot). When I press 'Rip' I get an error message that disk could not be opened (see attached screenshot).
Many thanks for any help!
Hans
EDIT: Right after posting this I tried again and it ripped just fine. Only difference to my previous experience was that it ripped only one track at a time (versus two previously) and at a lower speed (~5.5-6.5x versus up to 12x previously)
cheers
Hans