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[MarSies]

Hi MC guys,

I have a lot of things that do not work properly considering CD ripping or I have questions about. Things seems to get worse with the latest versions. I made a big list and here we go:

Filling in CD info does not always accept the last track. The default name e.g. "track12" is submitted. Reenter the name and resubmit;
I have 3 CD drives. When the fill in CD info screen is given I can't see for which CD I am filling in info;
MC just crashes now and then and I can't reproduce it;
It takes VERY long to find info from the YADB server, if it finds the info at all;
I get the message "Failed to connect to YADB server" regularly and especially when the CD info is not in the database;
CD info is not always found the first time. Retrying a few times might result in getting the CD info;
The screen for filling in CD info is not always displayed. Why can't I force this. Off course the system needs to check first if the info is in the YADB server;
The "next track" button on my Logitech keyboard stops working after having much of the problems described here. Restarting MC is the solution;
My screen visualizations still freez when getting CD info;
Using 3D visualizations make my whole system CRASH within 2 minutes ;
Dragging the MC screen over other programs does not always give the correct view. Especially when getting CD info this goes wrong;
CD images are apperently not always downloaded. Either you see the system trying to download them and they are mostly not there. Or the system does not try it all, even if it got the CD info from YADB;
Where can I find the exact information about the copy modes which can be set in "Advanced ripping settings";
When opening a CD drive the info is not always updated, for instance a message like "CD drive is open". The former inserted CD name is stil there;
Why isn't the opening of a CD drive detected and the name of the CD refreshed automatically. I need to do this manually, why ??
The speed of ripping CD's differs VERY much from CD to CD. I understand that scratches can increase ripping time, but why the big difference in apparently good CD's.

Okay I think this is enough for now. I hope things can be solved or explained! JohnT, you helped me last time, hope you can do it again.

MarSies .....




My info is:

Media Center Registered 9.1.283 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2804 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 492 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.60 (1021) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1999 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.60 (1021)

Ripping /   Drive X:   Copy mode:ModeSecure   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Drive Y:   Copy mode:ModeSecure   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Drive Z:   Copy mode:ModeSecure   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Digital playback: No /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: No /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: No  

Burning /  Drive Y: PLEXTOR  CD-R   PREMIUM     Addr: 2:1:0  Speed:52  MaxSpeed:52  BurnProof:Yes
  Drive Z: PLEXTOR  DVDR   PX-504A     Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:2  MaxSpeed:16  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[jleerigby]

Wow - that's a very long list.  I doubt that one person will have time to answer them all.  I'll just chip in with this:

Where can I find the exact information about the copy modes which can be set in "Advanced ripping settings"

This is explained very nicely in the help file.

Using 3D visualizations make my whole system CRASH within 2 minutes

You should look at your system hardware / software configuration as the cause of this - not MC.  Do you have up to date drivers for your graphics card?  Correct BIOS settings for AGP etc.  Try changing the display quality (right click on visualisation) and see if that makes a difference.  

The speed of ripping CD's differs VERY much from CD to CD. I understand that scratches can increase ripping time, but why the big difference in apparently good CD's.

This was discussed and explained recently in the forum.  Try doing a search.  I think it was sauzee and possibly CMagic that was involved in the discussion but I can't be sure.

[LonWar]

From the Help File.. Reguarding Advanced Ripping:

Advanced Ripping Settings
·      CD Drive.  If you have more than one CD drive, select the one you want to view/edit options for.

·      Copy mode. Choose between digital ripping modes or analog ripping.

o  Digital Large Buffer. This is the default and fastest mode - use it unless you are having problems. Multiple sectors are read from the CD at once to improve performance.

o  Digital Small Buffer. Try this first if you are getting "Aspi" errors. Some CD-ROM drives can’t handle a large buffer.

o  Digital Unbuffered. This is the slowest digital method and should only be selected if you are having problems with the buffered methods. It reads one sector at a time from the CD and may work better on older systems that have slower CPU’s.

o  Digital Error Correcting. Use this method if your recorded tracks have clicks or pops in them. This indicates that your CD-ROM drive does not position itself accurately during digital ripping leading to a defect called "jitter". In error correcting mode, the software reads overlapping sectors and then synchronizes the data before writing to disk.

o  Digital Secure. This method does multiple read passes to ensure the extracted data is correct. It will generally be half the speed of other methods and possibly much slower than that if the media is damaged or the computer is very busy doing other tasks.

o  Analog.  If none of the digital modes work for you, you may have a CD-ROM drive that is not capable of digital ripping. In this case you can choose analog mode and set the recording volume as described below. This is the slowest ripping method and will take the same amount of time to rip a track as it would to play it. Note that analog ripping only works if your CD-ROM drive is connected to your sound card. If you can listen to audio CDs on your computer then analog ripping should work.

Analog Settings. If you choose analog mode for CD copying, Media Center will play the tracks and record them with your sound card. The recording volume should be adjusted to get adequate volume without distortion - too low and the background noise will mask the signal, too high and there will be unpleasant clipping distortion. If it’s adjusted correctly, the sound may be just as good as on a digital copy. Put an audio CD in your drive and press the "Settings" button. Press the "Start Test" button and in about 90 seconds Media Center will automatically select the best volume. Or you can set the volume level yourself.

·      Read Speed. This is the drive speed during ripping. Normally you should leave this at Max, but if you experience problems during ripping try lowering the speed. This has no effect on some CD drive models.

·      Auto Rip CD Database lookup options.  This is used in conjuction with Media Center’s auto-rip feature.  It establishes how Media Center looks for the CD information from YADB.

·      File Management.  You can have Media Center automatically overwrite existing files that have the same name.  If this is unchecked (default), Media Center will append a number at the end of the file name, when it encounters duplicates.

 

 

[jleerigby]

I was actually trying to encourage MarSies to press the button him/herself.  You never know he/she might just find answers to some of the other questions.

I'm not saying he/she won't get help here - clearly he/she will, but posting a list like that in a very unstructured way may put people off replying.  Hopefully we've started the ball rolling....

[MarSies]

Hi Jlee,

You encouraged me to look AGAIN in the help file. I must have looked with my nose last time I looked there. Imjustagamer thanks for putting in the tekst. If everything was so easy to find there wouldn't be any questions on the forum, right.  

Sorry for not putting more structure in the report. That is mainly because I wrote everything down and I tried to use bullets like in Word. My text was gone. I used a few nast words and decided that it would be more annoying if I would not report my things.  



My things are devidable in missing things in MC, bad lookup of CD info and something with the screen output. If there are things that I missed in the manual sorry for that. I have gone through it but a lot of things I reported I don't expect to be there.


I have the latest drivers for my RADEON 9700 and every other 3D program works fine. I use the highest quality setting in MC. I will search for the discussion on CD ripping speeds, thanks. And to answer your last question, I am a male user of MC.

I am curious if other users recognize any off the things that i wrote down!!

MarSies .....

[jleerigby]

If you are having problems with your CD drives its possible that other programs are taking control of them.  You could try uninstalling other CD burning programs to see if this helps.

Good luck and sorry I can't be more help.