CD security/copy protection (1 Viewer)

[Wayde_R]

I like to use my PC to play CDs sometimes, it's especially handy at work. Some of my newer CDs won't let me play in the CD rom drive of my PC. What gives? Is there a program that will allow me to do so?

However the advent of sharing Mp3s (among private dedicated music groups) has nothing but rekindled my interest in music. I use online www.allmusic.com to research bands and learn about their influences and followers and hence sample more music. This leads me to buy CDs. If I like it I buy the CD, I'm too old and too busy and too fusy about audio quality to download Mp3s of an entire album of anything. I'll drop 15$ CND on any CD out there $25 is too much, I'll wait.

Any advice out there?

 

[Sean^M]

if you're using the PC for music playback, audio quality already isn't that great most likely (the noise floor of a PC is horrid compared to a higher end good stand alone CD player as I'm sure you're aware already) so why not convert to mp3 for PC playback and keep the CD for the stand alone player?
EAC should allow this easily enough, using the LAME codecs for encoding, and you'll get pretty good quality at a bitrate of 320.
www.exactaudiocopy.de
it's a free program and free codec.
I'm not condoning any sharing of the files mind you, strictly personal use. Also handy for those mp3 players that are replacing the walkman now.

 

[Paul.Little]

Many of the new Cds that are coming out are digital copy protected. They will play in CD-ROM drives, but only if you install the included player. They will not play on any other media players, and you cannot copy them. The only way I can think of to make a copy of these discs is to use an Audio CD-Recorder, and make an analogue copy of the disc, then rip the mp3s from that. Won't sound as good, but that's the idea.

 

[Sean^M]

while *any* copying of a digitally protected CD will violate the DMCA laws, and thus you cannot legally back any of them up, I will note that my Jewel CDs are of the above mentioned format, where no *.CDA tracks show up when looking at the disc contents.. however, EAC was quite capable of converting the entire CD to MP3 without a single hitch.
Using a PC as an mp3 jukebox via a decent sound card and a digital coax cable is kind of nice when you're more concerned about play length than pure quality aspects...
example: when I have a date over, it's nice to have 3 or 4 hours of music of my choosing to play that I don't ahve to swap CDs every song or two.. haha

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Those are probably not CD's that you are trying to burn. Real CD's have the CD logo on them.

No, I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, but that is what some labels have done to prevent copying.

Glenn

 

[John Watson]

What is a real cd? It has "Compact disk" printed on it, right?

Is there any chance a disk that says it is an "enhanced cd" is also not a real cd?

 

[Glenn Overholt]

It is a small rectangle with 'compact' above 'CD'. There is more on this somewhere in the music section, but if you can't find the logo, they are copy protected, somewhat.

Glenn

 

[Paul.Little]

Those are probably not CD's that you are trying to burn. Real CD's have the CD logo on them.

No, I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, but that is what some labels have done to prevent copying.

You are absolutely right, Glenn. The Cds in question do not carry the Compact Disc Digital Audio logo, and do carry a warning that they may not work in some players.

I do think that the recording industry is being a little blind here. They seem to think that copying and distributing songs via internet file sharing is taking a big bite out of their sales. I think they are wrong. CD sales in general are down, but sales of new releases are strong. It's the sale of old catalogue titles that are down. People that have been replacing old albums on CD are just about finished, and those titles are languishing on store shelves. I think the recording industry could do a lot with a little bit of education, both of the public, and within the industry. Encourage recording producers and engineers to make the best sounding CDs they can, and educate the public about the huge difference in quality between a well recorded Cd and any digital copy of that Cd. Reduce the price of new Cds by just a couple of bucks. Instead of condemning people for doing the wrong thing, encourage them to do the right thing. And for God's sake, record some more talented artists for a change.

OK, I'll stop ranting now.

 

[Tekara]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/1...otection.reut/

give it a shot and see what happens.

 

[Wayde_R]

Thanks for all the info you've given me some good perspectives here. I'll try the linked program you gave me Sean M, not sure if its purpose was to give me the CDA files I'm not seeing but I'm gonna try.

About CD sales and copy protection. Back in early 2000s when Napster became the rage, I admit to downloading material. I spent a lot of time reading about groups I used to listen to a long time ago, finding out who is relavent in their line of music today, etc. This lead me to endless searches on Napster where I downloaded one or two songs from a band. If I liked them I bought the CD.

All this came along at a time when I hadn't walked into a record store in years, literally. And now I was buying CDs again and having HMV order me CDs they didn't have in stock. To this day you can't find a lot of indie stuff online, and the quality of MP3s really sucks. CD sales are safe from filesharing so I don't see what the big deal is. What the recording insudtry could do to sink MP3 share competition is to drop the price of their CDs. You can't pass up a 10$ CD that you intend to download/burn. The process of collecting all the songs on an album from fileshare programs takes time, especially if you care about the bitrate.

 

[Wayde_R]

http://www.hifi-writer.com/he/copyprot/copyprot.htm

found this link reading on the topci, it's very informative.