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[bungalow bill]

1) Duplicate album art appearing on double and compilation CDs. I have read several threads on messing about with the file name,which I really don't want to be doing, is there no way to make the prog do this automatically? The much maligned itunes appears to have this issue nailed perfectly, so it must be possible?
2) In the event of a CD rip failing, MC crashes and I need to use task manager to close it- sometimes even this does not work and I need to power down the laptop as it won't shut down normally. Not good. Is this to be expected? (laptop is i5 ultrabook so should be more than up to the job)
3) On re starting JRiver, a caption appears telling me that the media centre and media server are both on  startup or some similar comment, (I've no idea what this refers to, it's installed as per the installshield process), also I should reinstall MC19 and revert to default views etc etc. Again, is this expected behavior of this software?

[MrC]

One thing at a time.

For #1, set your Album tag the same for all tracks.  Set the Disc # appropriately for each disc's tracks.

[JimH]

1.  Try control u several times.

2.  Not normal.   Antivirus?

[bungalow bill]

thanks for your replies guys, I also apologise for the terse tone of my post yesterday-the result of a day of getting nowhere with this software..

Jim H-thanks for your suggestions-I'll try control U next time MC crashes. Coincidental with my post, I saw the post from Glynor re MC19 hanging etc, and have checked a few of the recommended issues out, the laptop appears to be OK. I'm already using MS security essentials exclusively as per the recommendation, so there should be no interaction with MC19. Also, I've ordered a new Lenovo i7 laptop which I'm hoping will arrive today so any possible hardware issues will be eliminated. Let's hope the hanging/crashing stops......

Mr C- thanks for your reply, I have found this post http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MC14/MC14_Compilations.htm
Is this what you are recommending? If so, thanks and I'll give it a go, but surely a line of code within mC19 would correct this? Come on you JRiver programmers!!!!
thanks
Bill

[MrC]

Ctrl-U cycles through the view's List Styles.  It is related to your #1.

You have what you call "duplicate album art" because MC is designed to allow you to group your files the way you want, and it has some default behaviors.  One of its defaults, along with its stock Views, is to present each Album as a unique entry.  That the cover art happens to be the same in your case is entirely incidental.  For example, I have several multi-disc "albums", where each has its own cover art, and those albums *should* be shown as separate, unique thumbnail entries, all the while, Pink Floyd's The Wall should appear as one.

If you don't want to modify your Album tag (which takes all of 2 seconds) to accommodate your needs with the stock views, you can instead modify the view to do what you want given your album names.  Feel free to ask for help on this, but to expedite the help, share also your Album names for each of the discs.

but surely a line of code within mC19 would correct this? Come on you JRiver programmers!!!!

I'm just a user like you.  But please share that magic line of code that you and so many non-programmers seem to possess.  I've been looking for it with no success since 1978.

[bungalow bill]

Mr. C
Thanks so much for the guidance. I have now managed to fix the multiple entry problem on compilations and double CDs.
I'm now left with  problems during ripping CDs to FLAC, please allow me to explain the circumstance and issues:
1) Some CDs rip without issue, in which case all is OK
2) Some CDs fail to rip, even those which appear absolutely perfect. In this event, MC rip speed reduces then stops and advises that the rip has failed, the prog then hangs for about 4~5 minutes before recovery. I have tried two alternate optical drives, but the issue is reproduced exactly with both drives. I tunes appears to have no problem ripping the same CDs to apple lossless, using the same optical drives, rip speed is upto 6x, so I assume the disc is actually OK
3) MC will not even start analysis on some CDs, however again Itunes rips OK, same as above.
As an aside, if I cancel a rip partway through, it takes around 2 minutes to cancel, is this normal for MC?
It's very frustrating, any comments/fixes/direction will be appreciated!!
thanks
Bill

[glynor]

I tunes appears to have no problem ripping the same CDs to apple lossless, using the same optical drives, rip speed is upto 6x, so I assume the disc is actually OK

That is, unfortunately, not a valid assumption.

MC uses Secure Mode to rip discs.  This means that it verifies that the data being received is identical to the data originally encoded on the disc (via CRC error checking and other mechanisms).  If MC detects unrecoverable errors, it slows down the ripping process and tries to get it right.  This means that, by default, MC ensures that the rip is 100% bit-for-bit identical to the data that was originally written to the disc.

This mode can be disabled, but that is not recommended, unless the source cannot be replaced and there is no other option.

iTunes does none of this.  It does not care, at all, if the content it extracts from the disc is full of skips, blips, and garbled data.  It can tell if the drive itself is reporting errors (and will then, also, slow the ripping speed down to compensate), but if the drive just can't properly read the disc, or the source data is damaged, iTunes will happily encode the damaged audio.

So... The behavior you described is not unexpected at all with a damaged source disc.

Another application that has similar Secure Ripping features, if you want to do an apples-to-apples comparison, is EAC.

As far as the potential causes?  There are a few possibilities:

1. Damaged disc.  This is the most common cause, of course.
2. Faulty data cable connecting the optical drive to the computer.  This is probably the second most common cause. This is especially true of the old parallel style ribbon cables, though SATA cables fail (or get loose) fairly often as well.
3. A faulty (or misbehaving) SATA port on your motherboard.  If those optical drives are connected to an "alternate" SATA port on your motherboard, as opposed to the ones "supplied by" the Intel CPU, these are often finicky about optical drives.  For example, there is a common Marvell chip used to support extra SATA ports on many motherboards that doesn't work properly with any ATAPI device (all optical drives, tape drives, etc) at all.  Make sure, assuming those disc drives are internal, that they're not connected to a non-standard SATA port inside your computer.
4. Damaged disc drive.  This is less likely, but still possible.  It is also possible (though exceedingly remote, unless the drive is a very old one) that it doesn't support some of the ATAPI functions required for Secure Ripping.
5. A much less likely, but still possible, culprit is software issues.  These could include bad or missing drivers (the motherboard's storage drivers are the ones relevant), malware, DRM crapware (Sony's old rootkit junk), etc.

In any case, the fact that iTunes "succeeds" tells us nothing about compatibility, or the quality of the disc.  I could probably run a disc over with my car and iTunes would "succeed" in ripping it.

[glynor]

I should add... The fact that MC is hanging so thoroughly that you have to reboot the computer to unstick it is also a nearly fool-proof indicator of a hardware or driver issue.

User programs (non privileged code, like MC) cannot crash the entire OS under modern versions of Windows.

Reading from optical discs can be "dangerous" in some cases, but this kind of thing almost always indicates a hardware issue, driver problem, or malware activity.

[bungalow bill]

Thanks for the informative feedback, I've just bought a new Lenovo i7 laptop which I will run MC on, so watch this space!
I did say that the CDs which have the issue look absolutely perfect, so should read OK, also itunes slows down when reading damage discs, but did not do so in this instance, however let's see how the new laptop performs, will post later today
thanks
Bill