BB1 CD ripping question

[Trevor Lambert]

Hi all

I'm new to Brennan and I have a shiny BB1 from a recent birthday.

I want to rip a few hundred CDs onto it and my naive attempts are failing me.

I've plugged an external CD drive into the USB port and used the web interface via my laptop to fire up the ripping process.

This seems to only work intermittently - the CD drive sometimes sparks off and the CD is recognised and copied, but mainly the CD drive hesitates, has a go at powering up but dies after a second or two without anything appearing on the display. The CD drive itself has no power supply so is drawing what it needs from the Brennan (which has batteries plus the mains lead connected). After a few hours I have 5 CDs ripped!

There must be a better way and I apologise if the solution is obvious!

I've tried a few keyword searches on this forum but I haven't found anything directly relevant.

I'd appreciate advice as to the best way to proceed. 

Trev

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Trev,

It sounds like the BB1's USB port is on a knife edge in terms of delivering enough power to the CD drive and this is causing the 'dropouts'.  CD drives do require quite a lot of power (when compared to USB sticks or USB SSD devices.  I use an externally powered CD drive myself and this works perfectly on my BB1.

I reckon that you have a couple of options here.

1.  Use an externally powered CD drive; this means that the CD drive won't require any power from the BB1.

2.  Plug the CD drive into your PC/Mac and rip the CDs on there, and then transfer the ripped/compressed files to the BB1 using either a USB stick or via NAS if you have that set up.

Regards,

Peter.

[Rob Harriman]

Hi Trev,

Further to Peter's suggestion: and I hope I'm not teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here:

If you go to the the Brennan web site  you'll see in the top left corner a link to the new Baby Brennan, which takes you to the web site for the BB1, which details all your options for how to load your music to it. The guides highlight the potential for CD drive power issues and your options.  I would advise caution and only load a few CDs at a time if you're going to load all by your external drive. Also never try to rename or play albums whilst loading.  The mantra to remember is "only try and do one thing at a time".  

Most folks on here have tended to prefer using computer based software such as dbpoweramp to rip their CDs before loading them to their Brennans. It might be an option worth considering in your situation.

Regards,

Rob

 

[Daniel Taylor]

Hi Trev,

Make your life easier:  Rip on your computer (that's what I do).  There, you will have much greater control of how the tracks are named.  You can also see to it that the meta-data tags are populated in case you need them in the future (the BB1 and B2 do not use the tags).  Then copy to folders to a USB disk and Import them onto the BB1.  At the same time, you could copy the files to a backup disk.  Always good to safeguard all your work.

[Rob Harriman]

Hi Trev,

I am not disagreeing with anything Daniel is saying, but it is perhaps not clear that you can also do everything he suggests, with the exception of the meta-data tags on the BB1 as well.  Going a computer s/w route such as dbpoweramp adds additional expenditure, which it is up to you whether you feel the costs are worth taking on. Meta-data tags are not needed for using any of the Brennans and whether you desire them is an individual choice.  That being said the internal cd drive mechanism on the BB1 is probably not as quick as one you could attach to most computers these days, but again that depends on your kit specifications and is also potentially another additional expense.  Some people also find that the Brennan systems aren't the best at finding their CD names when ripping, but that seems to be more of an issue for Classical than popular genres.  I guess it depends on how esoteric your music tastes are.

However I agree whole-heartedly with the message to backup your music - it's key, but may also involve the additional expense of an external drive of some sort.

As always, one-size doesn't necessarily fit all -  There is no right or wrong here. It all depends on your kit and financial constraints.

Rob

[Daniel Taylor]

Thanks Rob.  I appreciate your expanding commets.

[Mark Fishman]

a couple of comments...

On Sunday, July 4, 2021 at 11:55:09 AM UTC-4 robhar...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Trev,

I am not disagreeing with anything Daniel is saying, but it is perhaps not clear that you can also do everything he suggests, with the exception of the meta-data tags on the BB1 as well.  Going a computer s/w route such as dbpoweramp adds additional expenditure,

dbpoweramp, does have a monetary cost, but there is other software that does not, e.g., foobar2000, Exact Audio Copy, XLD (on Mac), WinAmp (yes it still exists), or even Windows Media Player.

 

which it is up to you whether you feel the costs are worth taking on. Meta-data tags are not needed for using any of the Brennans and whether you desire them is an individual choice.  That being said the internal cd drive mechanism on the BB1

The BB1 does not have an internal CD drive.

[PMB]

Hi Trev,

As Peter says the external CD Drive is drawing more power than the BB1can supply continually. Inserting a powered USB Hub between the CD Drive and the BB1 - so the Hub powers the CD Drive - should fix this issue and allow you to rip directly to the BB1.

Do remember the Brennan's rip your CDs and then compress them later, so give the BB1 (and B2) time to compress between batches of loading CDs.

Please let us know the Brand and Model of the CD Drive you are trying to use.

I use an ASUS SDRW-08D2S-U which work fine with the BB1.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[J Rathbone]

Hi Trev

I use a 12 year old Samsung “External DVD Writer Model SE-S084” that works very well. The pic (below) shows the USB connector which goes into a mains adaptor plug and there is a second short cable that goes into the BB1. I’m guessing Paul’s powered USB hub would achieve the same result and feed the DVD signal through to the BB1?

Regards

Jim

[J Rathbone]

Hi Trev

Update… seems you can buy “two cable” connectors for very little - you just need to check the plug type for your existing CD drive or if it’s hard wired you’ll need a USB to USB connector also. May be cheaper than buying the USB hub

https://www.euroffice.co.uk/product/startechcom-usb-y-cable-for-external-hard-drive-usb-a-to-mini-b-183m/afm057

[Trevor Lambert]

Thanks everyone, I'm very appreciative of your help.

The CD drive I've used is this one, if that helps:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08TC6J7XP/ref=vp_d_pb_TIER4_trans_lp_B07F8N69ZB_pd?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B08TC6J7XP&pd_rd_w=P8NaI&pf_rd_p=a5181cc2-2759-4854-b0ca-328b7b655681&pf_rd_r=VC97QZDN93B3SV4B7RT3&pd_rd_r=caee17e0-d142-4ff7-9799-0a08391ce820&pd_rd_wg=f94Pc 

Model name appears to be ECD819-SU on the rear.

However, my 6 year old Acer laptop has a CD drive so it looks like the best solution is to rip using that and save as MP3, then copy to a USB stick for transfer to the Brennan.

Last night I left the BB1 compressing the 80 tracks I've read and it took several hours, so that's obviously not the way to go!

Trev