Dvd Ripping Service

[Verbena Reynoso]

Theaudio contained on music CDs is a full-range pristine audio source. Our process can extract perfect audio conversions from this pristine source. The quality of our conversions match or exceed that found at online music stores. In fact, we've done the ripping for many online music retailers!

I found one about a year ago that would take my CDs and for about .75 each would put them onto a portable drive which I would provide, claiming to preserve high definition and metadata of some kind, at least the album title.

I second using dBpoweramp, I have ripped over 1000 CDs, and it does take time. However, dBpoweramp supports multiple drives for ripping CDs which can drastically reduce the amount of time you spend sitting at the computer.

It does take some effort to remove each CD from its jewel case and place it on the provided spindle and then do the reverse when then returned. So farming this out is not an effortless solution.

I also run the provided files through software that validates the accuracy of the rip. Sometimes, though rarely, a service has errors in the rip; almost always due to blemishes on the discs, that require extra cleaning, GIGO.

But whatever service you use, the meta-tagging that they provide are primarily designed for standard pop/rock/country albums that fit nicely into the artist/albums/track hierarchy and are easily categorized.

The meta-tagging of Classical music albums and musicals (original cast vs soundtrack) are generally not handled properly (imho).

As a result, if you have the service rip these more difficult categories, you can expect to do a bit of re-tagging yourself with the software of your choice for these albums.

If these are a smaller subset of your collection, you may wish to rip them yourself using a premium ripping software package and not pay a service to rip them. Just have the service rip the more standard part of your collection.

On the other hand, if you are pleased with the Roon metadata labeling (allow it it to override the tagging on the provided digital music files) then the ripping service tagging errors are of less concern.

I would hope that the person offering this service, then DELETES all ripped SACDs from his own HDDs that he doesn't personally own. It could be a great way to build up one's own collection, but it's morally and legally wrong.

How a Digital Audio file sounds, or a Digital Video file looks, is governed to a large extent by the Power Supply area. All that Identical Checksums gives is the possibility of REGENERATING the file to close to that of the original file.

In other words, the person offering this service gets to build up a great collection for himself, at no cost to him other than his time. I hope for his sake that the R.I.A.A. doesn't get wind of his service. I would hope at the very least, that he requests proof of ownership from the person contacting him ,for those SACDs that he has already ripped and saved .

Have I downloaded material that the record companies are no longer willing to sell to me ? Of course, I have, just as many others do. However some SACDs are still readily available if you look hard enough. DVD-As on the other hand are extremely difficult to obtain, other than 2nd hand or via price gouging ebay suppliers.

On the SACDs that I own, it is stated that copying is not permitted. You are circumventing a copy protection method if you do so. I agree though, that you should have the right to make a single backup copy of your SACD in case it becomes damaged.

Regardless of what it may say on the SACD, it is still open to interpretation. To copy for someone else to use the content is not permitted. The existence of copy protection is not proof, per se, of illegality. As I have said elsewhere, I doubt that anyone would be found liable for ripping an SACD using a PS3 for their own use for playback from a hard drive, as long as they owned the SACD. Your point about making a copy for personal backup would be another exception.

If someone, with your permission, were to copy an SACD and provide you with that copy, thereafter destroying the image, the copier would be unlikely to face any liability. Arguably, he is merely providing the means for you to make your own copy. OTOH, if he were retain the image, that is a very different matter.

I would also like to have DSD copy of my SACDs, but it seems that we are once again destined to pay yet again for the same material that we already own, in order to have a backup copy as permitted for CDs in many countries.

We can blame Sony for this mess, as well as not permitting us to legally listen to the material other than via analogue out from a SACD player. It all seems so restrictive now that we have new generation DSD capable DACs.

The question in the end is always either a moral one, or one of fear of the authorities and the punishment they might mete out. After all, we humans make up the rules, whatever they might be, i.e. murder, sacd theft and speeding are bad; so the ultimate authority is always..., oops there isn't any.

If you read an earlier post you would have seen my comment about material that the record companies refuse to let me buy anymore. It's one thing to create a backup copy for yourself, and take the risk, even if it is negligible, but to get a 3rd party to do it for you, where you no longer have control of the original material, and have no idea how many other people then receive copies is an entirely different matter. You could be in deep doo da if a pile of other copies were traced back to your original copy. Your original copy may possibly be identifiable by normally masked errors etc. DVD-As for example are often Watermarked, and there may also be a serial number encoded in that LF data.

Once you have installed the custom firmware and the SACD ripper program on the PS3, it is not really a lot of 'work' but it is very time consuming. It can take an hour to create the iso image of a single SACD on a USB 2.0 flash drive. Most of the iso images created are between 3GB and 4GB in size. Thereafter, you have the time it takes to transfer the iso images from the USB 2.0 flash drive to the appropriate folder on the hard drive of your computer. Finally, there is the extraction of the individual tracks from the iso image which takes very little time - of the order of a minute for stereo files.

PS3's are known to overheat, so it is wise to rip no more than two or three SACDs before giving the unit time to completely cool down. Otherwise, you may be faced with a repair bill of the order of $150.

There has been talk of an easier method to rip SACDs for some time, but nothing has ever appeared. With Sony releasing its SACD catalog to companies like Acoustic Sounds for DSD downloads...you can figure out the rest.

I no longer can play my SACD's other than as Redbooks because my Sony player died and cannot be fixed. On the Internet, I have been able to "borrow" iso's for all but two double-SACD albums and, thanks to ISO2DSD, have been playing the files as dsf's. I still would like to have access to the two SACD's that I can't listen to in hi-res, i.e., "Yo Miles!" and "Sky Garden," both by Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith.

I am aware of a company called Golden Ear, but I recall seeing there is a minimum charge that would not make it economical to use this service. I don't want to pay more to rip these albums than I did to acquire them.

If you have a good number of SACDs, then it might be advantageous to buy a player that can rip your SACDs. I've seen compatible players priced in the $100.00 - $1000.00 (or more range). Here is a list of compatible players from the very long thread that discusses the topic:

@jazznut @Carousel and @stevensegal it is indeed reasonable to consider why I would bother to digitize my CD collection at all, recognizing that the majority probably are available for streaming on Qobuz or Tidal. Indeed I should think more about that. But off the cuff, aside from being a Luddite, several reasons:

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