Can no longer rip cd's with Windows Media Player. (1 Viewer)

[Diallo B]

Hello Folks,

I have an old PII computer that I am using as a digital jukebox and I ripped 20 gigs of music to it already with Windows Media Player 9.

Recently I attempted to rip a cd and the option is greyed out and can not be activated. I have tried removing WMP9 and reinstalling and that failed to help. I don't recall changing any options or anything so I am completely lost about how this happened.

Does anyone have any idea what went wrong and how I can remedy the situation?

Thanks.

djb

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Yes.

Give up using that crappy piece of Microsoft software and use a nice, FREEWARE utility from the internet, like CDEx.

www.cdex.n3.net

Why even bother with that buggy WMP 9 software and get entangled in DRM issues?

 

[JohanD]

Windows media player would be one of the last utlities I would use to Rip audio.. especially since they are attempting to integrate DRM into it..

I have used several rippers.. EAC (exact audio copy) and audiograbber are ones I like.. both are free.. except audiograbber free version has limited functionality..

you can go to google or download.com and type in audio ripper.. you will get back tons of hits.. try a few out and pick one that you like Most of them are free.

 

[Ben.K]

EAC and LAME used together are generally thought to give the cleanest rips.

 

[Diallo B]

Folks,

Thanks for the suggestions. The problem is that I already have backed up 20 gigs worth of WMA's. So in order to remain consistent I want to continue to use WMP9.

Does anyone else have any suggestions about what the problem is?

djb

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Can you not rip using EAC or CDEX and then let WMP9 convert them?

 

[AnitaPeterson]

yeah, use CDEx or EAC, or the free version of Audiograbber, or dbpoweramp (which is an excellent file converter, too!) and just encode to WMA, either "on the fly" or in two steps...

These programs are way better than Microsoft's offerings, and can use any codec you want, not just MP3... ever heard FLAC, MPC, OGG or APE?

...you don't have to use the stupid WMA 9 at all, not even as a plyer, that thing is evil!