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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 27 for Windows => Topic started by: newsposter on March 04, 2021, 04:12:50 pm

Title: Analyze flac for skipping/bad rip?
Post by: newsposter on March 04, 2021, 04:12:50 pm
Is it possible to perform an analysis on flac files to detect a 'bad' rip, one that is missing data and will result in skips/jumps during playback?
Title: Re: Analyze flac for skipping/bad rip?
Post by: wer on March 04, 2021, 05:53:46 pm
Google says yes: https://www.blisshq.com/music-library-management-blog/2015/03/31/test-flacs-corruption/
Title: Re: Analyze flac for skipping/bad rip?
Post by: newsposter on March 04, 2021, 07:44:25 pm
Been there, have the flac tools on board.

the analysis mentioned seems to look at the digital integrity of the file rather than the integrity of the audio stream.  The base assumption is that the audio within the flac is intact.
Title: Re: Analyze flac for skipping/bad rip?
Post by: wer on March 04, 2021, 07:58:29 pm
If you want to know the rip is good, that's a comparison between the CD and the ripped audio.  That comparison can be done at rip time. Afterwards, you would need the CD.

If you rip with dbPoweramp, it actually writes a tag telling you the status of the rip.  So you can look at the tags in the file, if it was originally ripped with DBPA.

You can't even always reliably compare your file to a file someone else ripped, because different CD pressings of the same track can have different audio checksums.  So a difference might mean a bad rip, or it might not. But an exact match would be a good result.

I always rip with DBPA.
Title: Re: Analyze flac for skipping/bad rip?
Post by: JimH on March 04, 2021, 09:41:29 pm
Ripping errors are extremely rare these days unless the disc is badly damaged.
Title: Re: Analyze flac for skipping/bad rip?
Post by: wer on March 04, 2021, 09:51:48 pm
"Badly damaged" may not mean apparent.

I've seen discs that were visually pristine that would rip correctly in some drives and not others.  Even aside from obvious physical damage that penetrates through the overcoat into data layer, there are tolerances in the manufacturing process, and if a disc is on the edge of those tolerances, the physical characteristics of the reading drive come into play. I have multiple drives, of different brands, for exactly that reason.

And "rare" is subjective.  I would say problematic CDs are rare, but I mean in the single digit percentages.  Meaning a couple or so out of a hundred, not 1 out of a thousand.  DVDs and BluRays are generally worse in this regard, because the tolerances are tighter (shorter wavelength).