# Problem ripping certain CDs



## jtbell

I recently got the Warner reissue of Karajan's 1970s-80s Sibelius recordings:

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Warner+Classics/2564633619

I can't rip any of the 4 discs on my Mac, using two different programs (Max and XLD) and a straight Finder file copy. The process simply "hangs" at the beginning of the disc, or partway through it. I wonder if this is some kind of copy protection, or just an incompatibility with the optical drive in my Mac Pro? I've had this happen on a couple of discs before, one of which was a BBC Music cover disc that I doubt was copy-protected, because I've ripped several other BBC Music discs without problems.

To get this stuff into iTunes, I resorted to connecting the analog outputs of my Oppo Blu-ray player to an analog-to-digital converter, playing the CDs and re-digitizing them as if I were digitizing LPs.

In the same order, I also got the Warner reissue of the Kempe Strauss box set. All 9 CDs ripped OK. Go figure...


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## Triplets

jtbell said:


> I recently got the Warner reissue of Karajan's 1970s-80s Sibelius recordings:
> 
> http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Warner+Classics/2564633619
> 
> I can't rip any of the 4 discs on my Mac, using two different programs (Max and XLD) and a straight Finder file copy. The process simply "hangs" at the beginning of the disc, or partway through it. I wonder if this is some kind of copy protection, or just an incompatibility with the optical drive in my Mac Pro? I've had this happen on a couple of discs before, one of which was a BBC Music cover disc that I doubt was copy-protected, because I've ripped several other BBC Music discs without problems.
> 
> To get this stuff into iTunes, I resorted to connecting the analog outputs of my Oppo Blu-ray player to an analog-to-digital converter, playing the CDs and re-digitizing them as if I were digitizing LPs.
> 
> In the same order, I also got the Warner reissue of the Kempe Strauss box set. All 9 CDs ripped OK. Go figure...


 I've had that happen a fewtimes with my MacBook Pro, although not for a while, and I never did figure it out. It sounds disc specific to me in the Karajan wouldn't rip and the Kempe would. Maybe your MacBook doesn't like Karajan


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## quack

Yes it is likely a copy protection issue Warner has been known to be a frequent user of the technology. Although it can be simply a badly pressed CD.

There are various ways to implement copy protection and they are mostly all sorts of non-standard 'hacks'. They mess with things such as the error correction. It means the results are inconsistent, sometimes the copy protection works as planned, sometimes it simply doesn't have any effect, other times it breaks the CD making it unplayable on most equipment. Because of this, their read and rip-ability is often dependant on how various CD reader manufacturers build their drives. You may get it to work rip on another drive, especially if it is a cheap old drive with greater tolerances.

Creating discs like this breaks the well established Redbook standards for CDs so Warner and others are usually pretty cagey about admitting they use copy protection although you might find a reference on the packaging. You could always buy a second copy through iTunes for listening on your computer, i'm sure Warner would think that was the most moral solution. ;~)


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## Albert7

Can you rip this with iTunes? If so, then it's a copy protection issue. I always rip using iTunes and never had an issue whatsoever.


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## bigshot

The Sibelius symphonies in the 70s symphonies box rip just fine.


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## shadowdancer

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago with a TELDEC CD. This is related to copy protection and can be even hardware related. 

Try with a different CD Drive is my first tip. I used a cheap external CD drive with my Mac (iTunes) and the process hanged. 
Tried again with an old Dell with the internal running Windows + EAC and ripped smoothly. 
Hope you get lucky.
Please let us know how you solved.


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## jtbell

albertfallickwang said:


> Can you rip this with iTunes?


D'oh! I didn't think at first to try it with iTunes itself, because I've used XLD for so long. I like XLD's feature of creating a checksum for each track and comparing it with an online database to make sure the rip is accurate.

Late last night I tried disc 1 with iTunes. It paused at the point where XLD had gotten stuck before, but I let it keep trying. After a while it started creeping forward through the track. It took about 13 minutes to rip the first track (about 10 minutes long). Then about 10 minutes to rip the next track (10 minutes long again). Then it sailed through the other tracks quickly.

That made me think it might be the optical drive. So today I took the set to work and tried it in my iMac there. Both iTunes and XLD ripped all four discs at their normal rates. XLD reported one track as possibly not accurately ripped, so I cleaned that disc, tried that track again, and was successful.

So the problem is definitely with the optical drive in my 6.5-year-old Mac Pro. It's probably just getting old and creaky. This will give me another incentive to replace it... I've also been wanting to burn Blu-ray discs of opera broadcasts on TV that I've been archiving off my TiVo. macsales.com has internal optical drives for the Mac Pro that can do that.


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## Albert7

My optical drive on my MacBook has been wearing out too. My HP laptop works exceptionally well. You can replace those.


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## SixFootScowl

Anybody know what is a good external CD/DVD drive to get for ripping and burning disks? My existing 10-year-old drive works for most stuff, but occasionally I have a CD or DVD it won't recognize or won't rip. I have USB 2.0 on my computer.

My son has a brand new Asus 24x DVD-RW Serial-ATA Internal OEM Optical Drive and it rips anything my drive can't rip. But my computer does not have the correct connector plug for that drive. Also, I would rather get an external drive and use it as a back up and leave the existing drive in the tower.


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## KenOC

Florestan, here's a very popular USB2 one with good reviews for about $25.

https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electroni...3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1501973695&sr=1-3

I see others down to $15! But read carefully: Some don't record at all or only record CD's, others may require two USB cables for extra power, and so forth. The one I linked to looks nice.


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## bigshot

I use an external Samsung blu-ray drive. It rips CDs faster than any DVD or CD drive I've ever had. Not the cheapest option, but if you rip a lot of CDs it's worth it.


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## MatthewWeflen

I just came here because I was having issues with the very same Warner Karajan Sibelius set. The option that ultimately worked for me was to use an external USB Blu-Ray drive, the Buffalo BRXL-PT6U2V. I was able to use it with EAC, when the internal Dell CR drive would not work (it returned distortion on the rips). I'm listening to the FLAC right now, it's a perfect rip.


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## gardibolt

Yeah I have this problem pretty frequently with Warner discs. I can usually rip them using an external drive, so whatever they're doing it's not hard to defeat.


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