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[Dervishing]

Trying to RIP CDs... first one went fine, good speed, converted to FLAC fine, found cover art fine. No problem

Removed 1st CD from Drive, inserted next CD... could NOT get rid of first CD no matter what I did. Even unplugging the USB drive didn't get rid of the first CD. Quitting MC15 and re-starting didn't get rid of the first CD.

EVENTUALLY, I got the 1st CD out of the main window and the small RIP window also had the right info. Second CD ripped fine. But this took maybe 20 minutes.

Ejected CD, inserted 3rd CD and now the first CD is back in the large window (all 11 tracks plus the tiled of the artist and album) and the RIP window also has the first CD artist/title info. ANOTHER 20 minutes of trying all sorts of random things and EVENTULLY I get the RIP window and the main window to see the 3rd CD.

Eject the 3rd CD, insert the 4th CD and now the main window lists "Multiple Artists" and all the tracks from the firs CD and the RIP window says "multiple CDs" or something like that.

Doing a DVD in the middle of this didn't bother anything... the CD info went away and the DVD rip was fine. (DVD RIP was done after second CD). But when I inserted the 3rd CD, the 1st CD info reappeared in the main window and the RIP window.

Surely this has to be working better than this?

[Dervishing]

And MORE problems...

MC15 will generate names containing illegal characters like the colon character, then the RIP will fail because C15 can't create the folder (because of the illegal character. So I have to hope if I change to Artist name instead of using Album name that the Artist Name won't contain any illegal characters.

Also... now the recently ripped "playlist" in the large window has FINALLY come up with a "clear" option that was never there for the first 5 or 6 rip attempts... only the first artist/title would be there even after ripping several CDs.

And for some reason, MC15 is seeing CDs change now... or has for the last 4 or 5 titles. I've changed no settings, it just stopped being "stuck" on the first ripped CD.

[Frobozz]

Do you have another CD ripping program, like EAC, open at the same time you're trying to rip using MC?

The other ripping program may be locking the drive to prevent you from accidentally ejecting the CD in the middle of a rip or burn process.  Unfortunately that locking also prevents MC from being able to read the CD, detect when the CD is inserted, or control the CD drive.  So if the other program manages to detect the CD first and lock the drive then MC will never see the CD and won't be able to do anything about it.  It becomes a race condition.  The program that locks the drive first wins.

[Dervishing]

I have Internet Explorer open along with Microsoft WORD, Media Center 15 and the destination hard disk. Nothing else.

Now MC15 is stuck on a DVD RIP. I've opened and closed the RIP window several times, closed MC15 twice, re-opened it, and then opened the RIP window again and the previous disc is there and I can't make the next DVD RIP appear. Unplugging the USB drive makes the Playing Now entry for the previous disc disappear, but when I reconnect the drive, the previous DVD returns to the big window (now named Devices & Drives since switching to DVD Ripping). The first DVD never disappears from the RIP window.

So I just went ahead and clicked RIP even though the Big window and the small RIP window both had the wrong title for the disc in the drive (and I could do nothing to get it to update to the new disc name). It did RIP the disc and it was indeed the new disc, improperly named, but it was the new disc. So MC15 can access the drive fine, it just can't flush the previous disc info reliably.

Running Windows 7 with all current updates on a Toshiba laptop, about 2-3 years old (dual core processor), USB 2.0 DVD drive and USB 2.0 ports on the laptop. 3 external USB hard disks connected along with USB DVD drive.

[Dervishing]

I forgot to mention that I have the "eject after ripping" option selected (it refers to CD but not specifically DVD) and MC15, when it is working OK, does eject CDs after ripping, but it does not eject DVDs after ripping. I don't see an option that refers specifically to ejecting DVDs after ripping.

[Listener]

Trying to RIP CDs... first one went fine, good speed, converted to FLAC fine, found cover art fine. No problem

Removed 1st CD from Drive, inserted next CD... could NOT get rid of first CD no matter what I did. Even unplugging the USB drive didn't get rid of the first CD. Quitting MC15 and re-starting didn't get rid of the first CD.

EVENTUALLY, I got the 1st CD out of the main window and the small RIP window also had the right info. Second CD ripped fine. But this took maybe 20 minutes.

Ejected CD, inserted 3rd CD and now the first CD is back in the large window (all 11 tracks plus the tiled of the artist and album) and the RIP window also has the first CD artist/title info. ANOTHER 20 minutes of trying all sorts of random things and EVENTULLY I get the RIP window and the main window to see the 3rd CD.

Eject the 3rd CD, insert the 4th CD and now the main window lists "Multiple Artists" and all the tracks from the firs CD and the RIP window says "multiple CDs" or something like that.

> Surely this has to be working better than this?

Yes.  I use MC 15 to rip CDs every few days.  It works as I expect without any problems.  Hang on while we work through your problem.


A couple of possibilities:

1. If you are ripping in secure mode, a small dialog window appears when the ripping process ends.  You need to click the Ok button to dismiss this window before you can rip the next CD.

2. MC 15 has an option on the Tools/Options/CD&DVD dialog to control what is displayed when you finish ripping a CD. If "Show recently ripped playlist after ripping" is checked, MC 15 displays a view listing recently ripped  files.  This may be what you are seeing.  If this checkbox is not checked, MC 15 will continue to display the view that was visible before the ripping process ended.

If these possibilities don't explain the behavior you see, I can ask some questions to troubleshoot your problem.

> So I just went ahead and clicked RIP even though the Big window and the small RIP window

two questions:

1. When you say the "small RIP window", do you mean the Rip progress window at the bottom left corner of the MC 15 window?
(This window displays status information about the rip in progress or the one just finished.  It does not change when you insert a new CD until you begin a new ripping operation.)

2. What view was selected in the "Big window"?  Did you see buttons labeled "Play", "Shuffle", "Update Order" and more?  Or did you see a button labels "Refresh"?  Or buttons labeled "Play" "Edit disc information" and "Rip tracks"?

I'll be able to respond when you answer these questions.

> MC15 will generate names containing illegal characters like the colon character,
> then the RIP will fail because C15 can't create the folder (because of the illegal character.

Colons are not illegal in a tag.  The question is what MC 15 does when it assembles a file name from tags and finds a character that is not allowed in a file name.

Did you try ripping a file with an illegal character in an Artist, Album or Name tag and see an error message?  I just tried to duplicate this problem by adding a ":" (colon) character to a tag that would be part of the file name.  As I expected, MC 15 changed the colon to an underscore character in the ripped file name.  No problem.  (This behavior is common to several CD ripping programs that I have tried.)

Bill

[rjm]

Wonder if the fact that his optical drive is USB has something to do with it?

[Listener]

Wonder if the fact that his optical drive is USB has something to do with it?

Perhaps.  I used a USB DVD drive to rip a lot of CDs in the past.  Ripping was pretty much the same as with an internal DVD drive.

The locked CD idea was a possibility until Dervishing said that no other program was using the DVD drive at the same time.

There are two quite different approaches to solving problems like Dervishing's:

1. Promise solutions based on the information already provided by Dervishing.  This can be quite quick and painless for some problems.  For less obvious problems, it can become a series of wild guesses that are not fruitful.

2. Ask some questions to get more information.  Ask Dervishing to perform a few experiemnts.  Then provide an explanation of what is happening and how to fix it.  This sort of troubleshooting process may be necessary for hard problems and may be quicker and more efficient than approach 1. for un-obvious but not difficult problems.  Many people don't have much patience for the process but it does work.  Both the person presenting the problem and the people helping him can learn as they work through the problem.

I think that approach 2. is warranted in this case so that what I'm doing.  others can try approach 1.

Bill

[Frobozz]

The locked CD idea was a possibility until Dervishing said that no other program was using the DVD drive at the same time.

There is still the possibility that AV software or other security software is aggressively locking a file or aggressively making sure it has first access to the drive and getting in the way.  AV and security software is getting more aggressive about scanning or restricting USB connected drives given recent trends.  Perhaps a DRM protected video game has installed some extra CD/DVD drivers to monitor the drive (similar to the old Sony rootkit) and is causing problems.  Maybe a firmware update for the CD/DVD drive needs to be applied to fix a hardware bug. 

[Dervishing]

Hmmm, Even though I subscribed to this thread expecting to get Emails indicating there were repiles, I never got any Emails... thought I was getting no replies. Thanks for the info and questions.

I don't have any games installed. I am running AVG Anti-Virus and have Windows Defender running along with Ad Aware. I have not tried disabling any of these - ripping with applications other than MC15 is not problematic in any way with AVG/Defender/AdAware running. I've used Exact Audio Copy for many discs - but MC15 appears to give the same results and I can rip and convert to FLAC all in one easy step with most tagging correct. So I'd like to use MC15 for this if possible. But I haven't ripped anything in the last week or so... plenty to rip though, so I will do some more and see what happens and get back with answers to the questions. I've not had any problems with the external USB drive when rippin with Exact Audio Copy. The laptop does have an internal drive, but I have the laptop on a "lift" so it sits on the theater seat next to me and that makes the drive on the front edge hard to get to... the external drive is simpler for access.

Inserted first CD in external USB DVD drive. Music is playing in MC15 right now... didn't click "Stop" fast enough after inserting CD. Information window pops up with "Media Center has detected a new CD in Drive E:\ but can't get the correct volume information. Please try ejecting and reinserting the CD."

So with C15 still running and playing music, I ejected the disc and reinserted it after dismissing the information window. Same message returned. I then went to Computer, selected the drive letter, doubleclicked the drive letter and Windows acted like there was no disc inserted even though the drive had identified it as a CD-ROM. I then dismissed MC15 (quit it completely) and now Windows sees the disc and the tracks fine (that did not happen while MC15 was running).

Now I have re-started MC15 with no music playing.
CD is recognized fine. Accept title and track names, click RIP button on small RIP winndow in lower left of MC15 window. RIP starts

I m opening a new post window... for some reason, I cannot leave a very long message here... the window keeps scrolling backwards so I cannot see what I am typing. Please excuse any typos!

[Dervishing]

-1st RIP stops, drawer opens.
-Small RIP Progress window says "Complete. Insert another CD or click Close"
-The large MC15 window has nothing in it.
-RIPed CD tracks/folder appears in correct "New Albums" folder on external Hard Disk as intended/expected.
?How do I tell if I'm using Secure Mode for RIPPING? I don't see it in Tools-Options?
-Inserted second CD, nothing happened automatically. Click "Click Here to restart ripping". Get "No tracks available to rip. Please ensure an audio CD is in the drive and that the tracks are selected." Using Windows 7 Computer - DVD-RW (Drive Letter) opens the disc and shows Track directory, so Windows can see the tracks, but MC15 cannot. MC15 fails to see tracks after clicking Retry in Info window. Click Close in small RIP window in lower left corner. Secure RIP Report window opens and reports no re-tries for all tracks of 1st CD. Click OK to dismiss Secure RIP report. Small Rip window closes and is replaced wih Action Window. Click Rip Disc (Action). Get small Rip Disc window... only choices are: Insert a disc and click here, Details, and Options. Clicking "Insert a disc and click here" does nothing. Clicking Details does nothing. Clicking Options opens an Options window. Post RIP Options are all off except: eject disc after ripping and get cover art. Expert Options - Analyze audio during ripping is on, Encode concurrently (to FLAC) with ripping is on also. Max RIP processes is 1, max encode processes is 4, max combined processes is 1. Copy mode is Secure. Auto Play was set to Nothing, I changed it to RIP to see if that would let me start another RIP somehow... but right now... I don't see a way to start a second rip.
The message window is starting to backup again as I type - going to submit this post and start a new message window.

[Dervishing]

This is Part 3 of the follow up on the problems I'm having with RIPPING.  I haven't been able to do anything in MC15 to get the second RIP to start. I tried the Tools Menu - RIP Disc... that makes the links in the small Rip Disc window (lower left) flash several times, but no Ripping starts. If I open the CD with Windows, I can play tracks from the CD. So Windows and Windows Media Player can see the CD fine. The server function for WMP is disabled in Windows Processes just in case you were wondering. The CD to be ripped is an every-day 16 bit/44.1kHz CD, nothing unusual. Using the Quick Play option in the Files menu, it tells me there are no files to play in the E: drive (the drive with the CD to be Ripped).
-Unplug the USB DVD drive and reconnect it. No change.
-The first time the small Rip Disc window opened, it had a progress bar at the top... that disappeared after the first rip and has not returned. That Rip Disc window now has only 3 text links in 2 lines plus the title of the window (Insert a disc and click here - does nothing), Details - does nothing, Options - opens Options window.
- Quit MC15 using File-Exit. Restart MC15. Click Rip Disc in Action window. List of tracks comes up. Accept track list. This time the Tracks appear in the large MC15 window (this did not happen for the first ripped CD). Rip Disc window now has a "Rip" button (not there when I was trying to rip the 2nd disc).
-Click RIP button, Rip process starts, progress bar appears. Rip progress shows in small Rip Progress window (was Rip Disc window before Rip started). Rip progress also shows in large MC15 window with small progress bar next to each track as the track is ripped. Saving this entry and opening another window... window is again backing up with every keystroke so I can't see what I am typing.

[Dervishing]

I did a check for new versions from the Help window and received a message that there were no new versions. Have done this several times. But I note scanning through the Forum posts that there are actually several newer versions than the one I am using (15.0.95). I will update to the newest version I see listed in the forum and try rippin again to see if there is any change.
-But before I update to a newer version... the second RIP completed OK after restarting MC15 (so this was the first rip after restarting).
-This time text appeared in the large MC15 window saying that there was no disc, double click here to refresh (or something like that) so I double-clicked in the large window and the new Rip started fine... the tracks from the previous rip disappeared but there was no "Secure RIP Report" window after the rip this time. It's not hidden behind any other windows either. When I got stuck after the first-first rip, there was no text in the large MC15 window (There is No Disc. Doubleclick here to refresh.)
- Second RIP for this session completed OK anf the No disc, doubleclick here text appeared again. This time I just waited to see what would happen. I put in a new disc to rip, closed the drawer on the DVD drive, the Windows AutoPlay window opened after a few seconds, and the RIP started all by itself - I didn't have to do anything. First time it has done that on it's own. The previous disc's tracks disappeared and this disc's tracks. This time there was no window to approve the track list (perhaps there was only 1 match in the database for this particular disc... the previous discs each had 2 matches in the database.  Text window is backing up with each keystroke again... will followup after updating to the latest version of MC15.

[Dervishing]

I updated to 15.0.125
No change in symptoms. I get stuck after the first rip... cannot get MC15 to move on to the next rip without quitting and re-starting. Sometimes the re-start gets stuck after the first rip, but sometimes, it DOESN'T get stuck and MC15 sees the new disc and will start ripping it without me having to do anything. If MC15 doesn't see the new disc, Windows 7 does see it fine if I manually open the disc in a window. If I quit MC15 and start it again, it sees the disc inthe DVD drive (external USB) with no problem.

When I get stuck after a rip, tracks do not appear in the large MC15 window and the tab at he top of that window says "Drives & Devices"... there is a Play button there and below that, a count of the number of files on the disc... that says "0" when MC15 is stuck. It's like Win 7 and MC15 aren't communicating the disc change properly.

[Dervishing]

I should add that once MC15 sees the second rip OK and starts it automatically (I don't have to click anything, just remove the previous disc, close the drawer, and wait for Windows and MC15 to see the new disc... the track list appears in the large window in MC15 and the little Rip Disc/Rip Progress window show the RIP progress as you'd expect. I have done as many as 15 RIPS in a row once MC15 is recognizing disc changes OK.

Occasionally, MC15 doesn't load one of the discs immediately (and there is no AutoPlay window like there is every time MC15 sees the disc change automatically). If that happens, and I double click in the large window (it still has the text that says something like, there is no disc, insert a disc and doubleclick here... since the disc is already inserted, I just doubleclick and the rip starts.

Seems like this could/should be a little smoother. Any ideas what might be preventing Win7 and MC15 from communicating properly when there's a disc change?

[Listener]

Dervishing,

I asked you some questions to establish the context of your problems.  You did not answer those questions and your recent posts don't provide enough context either.

I have provided a gallery of screenshots and explanations to document how MC's ripping process with a particular set of options.  The options are specified in the first image.

http://naturelover.smugmug.com/gallery/14155242_zpNLh/1/1044373019_Q3VLb#1044373019_Q3VLb

You can view this series of images in several ways.  If you have plenty of network bandwidth, choose "Journal" mode from the style control above the images.  This displays a series of images at full size with descriptive text.  Use the "Prev" and "Next" controls to move between the two pages.  

If you have less bandwidth, choose the "SmugMug" style which displays thumbnail sized images on the left and a single medium sized image on the right.  Click on a thumbnail to display a larger version on the right.  Click on the medium sized image displayed on the right to get a full sized image.  Use the "Prev" and "Next" controls to move from one image to another in sequence.
 
Try following this process with the option settings I specified and see if ripping multiple CDs works on your system.  if not, tell me how your experience differed from the step-by-step process I documented.

---
Click on "Profile" and then "Notifications and email" to turn on email notificatiosn of messages posted to a thread you contributed to.

Bill

[Dervishing]

The procedude in the slide show changed some of the default settings that I'd never touched before. That changed the main widow a little. I had set Secure mode and max read speed earlier, but not the settings after those.

Thanks for the help - will do more discs tomorrow. Did 6 in a row just now using the procedure in the slide show with no glitches.

To prevent others from falling into the trap I fell into... perhaps removing the "Rip Disc" option from the Action Window would be approprite since that does not produce the desired workflow for Ripping. You have to follow the workflow in the slide show to not have issues.