Windows Media Player question

[Stonewall15]

I use Windows Media Player to rip CDs and burn CDRs on my HP Vista PC. Does any compression or other alteration of the music take place during ripping? Do I lose or alter any music as a result when I burn a CDR? If so, is there any way I can avoid this within Media Player? Do I need to use another program? Recommendations please.

I also copy CDs using a Sony RCD-W500C CD recorder. The CD recorder copies at 1x or 4x speed. Does any compression/alteration take place? Do I lose/alter any music? Is it prefersble to use the 1x copy speed?

[Quincy]

I don't think any compression takes place with Windows Media Player. *(This is wrong. For the record I've only used this program as a player and not often, and that was years ago. Therefore I shouldn't have commented on that part.*) A bigger issue with rippers is how they react to scratched discs. Years ago some programs used extract without compensating and produce CDRs with digital glitches and white noise where the scratch was. A program that has not had this problem and continues to be the gold standard on PCs is Exact Audio Copy. Take time to read the tutorials on how to set it up. Thankfully it's much more user friendly than it was 8-10 years ago.

I haven't read the tech articles about burning speed in a long time, but from what I recall slower is not necessarily better. However it's been at least 5 years since I've read any of these kind of studies. I can't imagine burning a CD at 1x though, although that's a good way to prevent having to build CD storage shelves all the time.

*edit added a couple of days later.

Edited January 18, 2010 by Quincy

[Shrdlu]

Windows Media Player always causes questions, my son. (That's my imitation of whoever Alec Guinness played in that stupid Star Wars movie.)

You have to learn not to ask.

[Jim Alfredson]

Isn't the default format in Windows Media Player a .wmv file? That means you're ripping your CDs to a lossy compression format then burning them as CDs again. Not good.

[Use3D]

Yes Jim is right. Unless you're ripping as .wav files even on highest setting .wma are a lossy format. There is a codec for .wma that produces lossless audio, but few devices are compatible with it, as .wma itself since it's owned by Micro$oft. I personaly don't care for .wma or Media Player, and find it's bloated and missing features similar programs have had since 2000, then again I haven't bothered using it since version 9.

[Stonewall15]

I checked my Windows Media Player- I am ripping to a WAV file. Is there any compression or other losses in a WAV file?

[Use3D]

No, .wav files are usually an exact reproduction of the source material. Just make sure not to fill up your harddrive, as they are typically 10x bigger in filesize than mp3 or wma.

[Shrdlu]

I don't like W.M.P. a lot, though it's not all that bad for playing vids and music on the computer. Winamp and VLC are a lot better. All three will play virtually any format, and I have software to convert the format if a file won't play.

[CJ Shearn]

I've been using it to play CD's, but I have different players too.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Unless another player has added it, Windows Media Player is the only media player with a graphic equalizer. While some might not care for this or feel that they have to listen to their music flat, I find a lot of today's rock CDs sound like crap without rolling off some of the highs. I use it for almost all playback situations. I would NEVER use it as a ripper. Shudder. wma files suck.

I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) for all of my ripping. Unfortunately, I have been told that it is not supported on Vista (another reason why I never upgraded).

Kevin

[Stonewall15]

Unless another player has added it, Windows Media Player is the only media player with a graphic equalizer. While some might not care for this or feel that they have to listen to their music flat, I find a lot of today's rock CDs sound like crap without rolling off some of the highs. I use it for almost all playback situations. I would NEVER use it as a ripper. Shudder. wma files suck.

I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) for all of my ripping. Unfortunately, I have been told that it is not supported on Vista (another reason why I never upgraded).

Kevin

Would you use Windows Media Player if you could rip WAV files? My WMP does rip WAV files.

[CJ Shearn]

yes you can really see how much discs are compressed using the graphic EQ on WMP too. BTW Kevin, I have Vista and EAC does work. Had to use it to extract the data off the Joe Henderson "State of the Tenor" discs which got damaged terribly years ago that the scratches couldn't be repaired by refinishing.

Edited January 20, 2010 by CJ Shearn

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Would you use Windows Media Player if you could rip WAV files? My WMP does rip WAV files.

No. Exact Audio Copy does what it says - it makes exact audio copies. Windows Media Player does not make that claim because it doesn't. It'll rip right through read errors and let the error correction worry about it. As CJ mentions above, this is especially important with damaged discs.

BTW, copying HDCD encoded discs is even trickier. I have had a lot of trouble, even with EAC. I get some high frequency distortion with some HDCD encoded CDs.

Quite frankly, EAC can be daunting for someone who just wants to copy a CD. If you want a nice easy ripper, try CDex.

Kevin

Edited January 20, 2010 by Kevin Bresnahan

[CJ Shearn]

yes, all the, well almost SF Jazz Collective sets are HDCD but they aren't hard to rip for some reason.

[Guest Bill Barton]

Unless another player has added it, Windows Media Player is the only media player with a graphic equalizer. While some might not care for this or feel that they have to listen to their music flat, I find a lot of today's rock CDs sound like crap without rolling off some of the highs. I use it for almost all playback situations. I would NEVER use it as a ripper. Shudder. wma files suck.

I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) for all of my ripping. Unfortunately, I have been told that it is not supported on Vista (another reason why I never upgraded).

Kevin

On your rec I recently installed EAC, Kevin, and it was lightning-fast ripping a CD on my laptop which has Windows Vista Home Premium as the O.S., so that info appears to be specious.

I never use WMP for anything, personally, it sucks. A graphic equalizer is very low on my list of required or preferred features.

Thanks for hipping me to EAC!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

yes, all the, well almost SF Jazz Collective sets are HDCD but they aren't hard to rip for some reason.

Oh, don't get me wrong, HDCD discs rip fine. The problem I have had is that sometimes, the resulting audio files sound like there's some extra high frequency info that can sound like fingernails on chalkboard to me. The worst case was a private recording of my niece's choir. I was asked to make a dupe. The CD was HDCD encoded. The only way I could get a good-sounding dupe was in my audio replicator (that works in analog). Every digital dupe I ripped sounded terrible. Sibilance dominated the vocals.