[OT] CD Changing Robot?

[Todd Lipcon]

A little OT, but I figure this group is generally resourceful about all things audio:

I'm looking for a robot of sorts which can take in a large stack of CDs and sequentially access them on a computer. Basically, I have a very large library of physical audio CDs and need to automatically rip them to disk with as little human intervention as possible. I can easily take care of scripting the ripping if I can get some hardware that does the physical CD changing. All the devices I've found so far are automatic duplicators rather than just changers.

A device that's linux-compatible or has a well-documented protocol is preferable. IDE, SATA, USB, 1394, etc are all fine.

Any ideas? Budget shouldn't be a big problem.

Thanks
-Todd

[Charlie Richmond]

On Fri, 3 Oct 2008, Todd Lipcon wrote:

> Any ideas? Budget shouldn't be a big problem.

We would be pleased to quote you on just such a unit, custom made for your exact
purposes. How many CDs do you want to manage? The number is not a 'big
problem'

;-)

C-)

| - Charlie Richmond - Richmond Sound Design - Skype: charlierichmond - |
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[b-archer]

Sony has a device for their "Digital Living System" that is basically
a 200 disc DVD/CD changer with a firewire connection.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=11040179

Unfortunately, the systems seem to be no longer in production, but
you may be able to find one online somewhere. It would be perfect
for what you want to do. Someone even wrote a review about doing
exactly that using one of the units.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3BV4FALNUZG24/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Good luck,

Bevan

[John Leonard]

I think I know the device you want – it’s called an ‘intern’

Regards,

John

On 03/10/2008 20:00, "Todd Lipcon" <tli...@gmail.com> wrote:

[John Harrop]

Hi,

 

A service like Riptopia may be a better investment unless you are looking to /become/ a service like Riptopia. 

 http://www.amazon.com/Riptopia-CD-Ripping-Service-Loading-Digital/dp/B000UKAX2A

 

When I worked in residential electronics, we used a commercial CD Jukebox mechanism somewhat like

 http://www.amazon.com/Sony-CDPCX455-Disc-MegaStorage-Changer/dp/B000069JWX

hooked directly to a computer to step through a customers' collection to do just what you want to do.  Whole house audio servers were taking off.  Loading and unloading the thing took a bunch of time, but at least it would run rip-step-rip overnight without supervision or coffee.

 

I suspect you would like an autoloader that would work with a spindle of CDs.  We didn't find such a thing.  If determined, I would look into the home theater industry for either ideas or a service.  Think CEDIA conference (just past) or members or some similarly exposed manufacturers. 

 

Here is one of those autoloader duplicators targeted to ripping that looks really cool... http://www.mfdigital.com/baxterRip.html

 

Cheers,

John

[Heath Roberts]

How many CDs do you have?

I set up a mac mini on my desk with the smallest monitor I could find and went through about 700 CDs in a week. iTunes set to automatically rip any newly mounted CD and eject it when it was done.

Getting them out of and back into cases was the biggest pain--did those a couple hundred at a time onto spindles. 

If you've got a lot of discs (more than a couple thousand), I'd second either the intern, which is really just another name for a cheap general-purpose human-language-programmable robot, or the service, but unless you have huge volume (15,000) or need to do it over and over, "rolling your own" just isn't worth it.

--
Heath Roberts
htro...@gmail.com

[Kh9...@aol.com]

This might get you on the right track (no pun intended)

 

http://www.kintronics.com/nsm.html

 

 

 

Kurt Hansen - kh9...@aol.com


"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it."
  -- H. L. Mencken

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[Lindsay Jones]

I've done the service route of this, as I had about 15,000 CD's to
convert and it was so worth it. I tried doing it myself several times
and it nearly killed me.

I used Awaken, who were really great, but I can't seem to tell if
they're still in business or not.

Good luck
Lindsay Jones

[Jeff Knapp]

Kh9...@aol.com wrote:
> This might get you on the right track (no pun intended)
>
> http://www.kintronics.com/nsm.html

I've had an NSM 400 CD jukebox and a couple of Sony 100 CD jukeboxes,
and the hardware has been pretty great... However, I don't think any of
them offered audio ripping... the software that managed them just
virtualized them so they just look like shared folders as I recall I
don't think they offered drive-letter access; you needed the management
software to work the robotics.. (We used them for near-line storage of
scanned legal documents -- but this is about 7 years ago... still have
them, tho.)

The NSMs were nice to load since they had caddies that you could pull
out and load 50 CDs at a time into them. The Sony's were miserable
since you HAD to use the slot to load them, and that was just the very
definition of tedious.

Given that, I've ripped my two 400 CD jukeboxes and then some by hand,
and it wasn't as awful as you might thing, every time you see the drawer
open, you drop in another CD and go about your business... excellent
work for an intern or temp. You could probably hire an office temp for
$100 per day to sit there and plot CDs into drives... gotta be cheaper
than one of the NSM units...

[Alf Sauve]

What you're looking for is called a "juke box". You might check the
companies making large scale computer storage solutions. The problem is
that disk drives are so cheap (per gigabyte) that the demand for optical
juke boxes has problem fallen.

Here's one company's link, you're on your own to find similar ones.

http://www.kintronics.com/jukebox.html

BTW: If you want to share some of your unlimited budget, let me know. I
could put it to use.

Alf

[Charlie Richmond]

On Sun, 5 Oct 2008, Alf Sauve wrote:

> BTW: If you want to share some of your unlimited budget, let me know. I
> could put it to use.

Hey! I was first....

c-)

[Mike Glasspool]

No problem with a budget there.. just need lots of coffee and speak softly to them ;)

 

From: theatre-s...@googlegroups.com [mailto:theatre-s...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Leonard

Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 5:50 PM
To: theatre-s...@googlegroups.com

[Jeff Davies]

Todd,

We have a Primera Bravo Pro here for CD duplicating and printing.
Primera has a free application called PTRip that lets you put in a
stack of 50 discs and auto-rip them. The Bravo series is available in
many different configurations, with and without a disc printer and 20
or 50 disc capacity. Prices are reasonable too.
http://www.primera.com/news_primera_PTRip_software_iTunes.html

If you are just going to do this once, they have a rental program to
borrow a machine and get your ripping project done.
http://www.primera.com/bravorental.html

Jeff

On Oct 3, 12:00 pm, "Todd Lipcon" <tlip...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Steven Devino]

I had a Primera Bravo II. Over the two years I had it, it worked
trouble free about 3 or four times. When it did work it need constant
baby sitting to deal with rejects and prinitng failures.

It went back to Primera 1x for repair and update. The driver support
for Macs was very slow and the you had to pay for all forms of contact
other than email I had problems.

Eventually it lost its ability to recognize that there was a cartridge
in place and would not print. I took all recommended measures
including cleaning the sensor , getting new cartridges etc etc.

I finally decided to try to sell the $2000 unit for $200 with notes to
prospective buyers that it needed an estimated $200 to $500 in repair
work.
No buyers.

In the end I probably only got about 1000 CD's printed on this thing.
I never could run it unattended and I never got anything close to what
I would consider good support either on the phone, via email or in
terms well maintained drivers. The unit went to the recycling heap. I
will not purchase anything from Primera again.

YMMV but that was my experience.

Steve Devino
http://graniterockslive.com
603-867-6843
ichat/aim: groc...@mac.com
skype: sdevino
APB Dynasonics Consoles
Countryman and Associates

[nbsproduct...@att.net]

If it's truly unlimited (ie infinite) then there's more than enough for all of us (how many even numbers are there?)

 

-------------- Original message from Charlie Richmond <char...@RichmondSoundDesign.com>: --------------

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[Todd Lipcon]

Just wanted to say thanks to all for the hints and tips.

Note I said "budget shouldn't be a big problem" - not the same as unlimited. If only! :)

Will let everyone know what we end up using.

-Todd

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 3:00 PM, Todd Lipcon <tli...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Steve Mayo]

What was the best solution for what you wanted? :o)

-----Original Message-----
From: theatre-s...@googlegroups.com on behalf of Todd Lipcon
Sent: Tue 10/7/2008 7:43 PM
To: theatre-s...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [theatre-sound-list] Re: [OT] CD Changing Robot?

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