Copying and burning CDs with Windows Media Player 9?

[markl]

I have temporary access to a nice new Dell computer that has Windows Media 9 installed on it for copying and burning discs, I have some questions for people who might know. My concerns are with getting the best possible copies fidelity-wise from this software (if that's possible).

1. Is it essential to save the music to the hard drive before copying, or is OK to just load the CD into one drive and burn it straight to the CD-R drive? WMP 9 seems to want to make you save the files first, then burn them from the hard drive, not straight from the CD-Rom drive. IIRC, you are better off burning from the hard drive, but that brings up question #2, as there seem to be different formats for saving the music, I'm hoping to save it without use of compression.

2. There are a few different formats you can save the CD files in on the hard drive, one of them is called "Windows Media Audio Lossless" allegedly for "audiophiles". Is this really lossless, if not, how does one save it to disk in a truly lossless manner? Can you burn the CD directly from the disc drive to the burner, by-passing storing the data to the hard-drive, in a lossless manner?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Yes I know about burning at 2X instead of 48X, slower the better.

P.P.S. It's not my computer, so I can't install any new software or radically change any settings, I think I'm stuck with WMP 9.

 

[minya]

Quote:

Originally posted by markl P.S. Yes I know about burning at 2X instead of 48X, slower the better. P.P.S. It's not my computer, so I can't install any new software or radically change any settings, I think I'm stuck with WMP 9.

Convince whomever owns the computer to let you install some real ripping software!

(i.e. ExactAudioCopy)

BTW, burning at faster speeds shouldn't present any problem at all, especially if the burner has buffer underrun protection (and any modern burner does) - of course, if you want to believe audiophile mumbo-jumbo, you should use black CD-Rs, too (and draw on your CDs with a green marker afterwards, to boost sound quality even further!)

- Chris

 

[davei]

I would really, really, REALLY ask nicely and try to use EAC. You don't even have to install it, just unzip it into a directory and run it. You will be much happier when the copies do not have skips in them.

Copying CD>CD is definitely a no-no, and dodgy at best. You certainly won't save any time doing it this way.

Forget the lossless audio codec, just rip as WAV (if possible) and burn as WAV.

Burning at high speed is usually fine, just be careful with the media you use. I have burned high speed copies for friends (um, I mean, they're personal backups

) and with some media, burning at 24x results in pops, ticks, and/or distortion. Other people on this board have encountered this as well. For my personal use I burn CD audio on Kodak or Mitsui silvers at 4x and have never had any issues.

The short of it is, if you want good copies, there are no shortcuts. You need to use good software, good media, and burn at a reasonable speed.

 

[Geek]

windows media audio is infamous for churning out crap. The previous version, one which I owned until I upgraded (perhaps version seven or eight) defined "audiophile" and "CD quality" as 32kbps .mp3. For refernce, most audiophiles consider 128k mp3s fairly unlistenable.

ouch.

Cheers,
Geek

 

[Jasper994]

what version of EAC is everyone using? Is there only a beta version or am I on the wrong page?

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

No there are only betas so far, I'm using the latest, 0.95.

 

[davei]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jasper994 what version of EAC is everyone using? Is there only a beta version or am I on the wrong page?

Latest is not the greatest. I stick with .9b4, other versions have bugs with tags.

 

[Welly Wu]

MarkL:

Check this computer to see if it has some kind of software package with a CD / DVD burning program installed. Use that instead of WMP 9. Rip the original to the HDD in .WAV format and copy from the HDD -> blank CD-R. Do so at 4X speed because burning at higher speeds does introduce pops, cracking, and static. I know because I've got some empirical evidence of my own (i.e., bad copies). DON'T buy cheap blank CD-Rs; get Fuji Film blank CD-Rs which can be had on the cheap and in plentiful supplies at your local Best Buy. If you have any questions, then PM me. I got oodles of nice software / options.

 

[Jasper994]

okay, now it wants a LAME encoder, which one do I use?

 

[markl]

I'm told there is another program on the machine for burning CDs, tomorrow I'll have to take a look and see what it is. I'll post here when i know.

P.S. I got a stack of Memorex black CD-Rs. (you know the double special audiophile voodoo approved kind).

 

[tmesis]

Quote:

Originally posted by Welly Wu DON'T buy cheap blank CD-Rs; get Fuji Film blank CD-Rs which can be had on the cheap and in plentiful supplies at your local Best Buy. If you have any questions, then PM me. I got oodles of nice software / options.

Welly Wu,

It's my understanding that although ALL Fuji CDR media used to be high quality, that is no longer the case. Fuji CDRs used to be uniformly manufactured by Taiyo Yuden, an OEM company that uses a high-quality azo dye, but I have heard that Fuji has since outsourced it to lesser companies like CMC and Ritek. There are software programs out there that identify the manufacturers of blank CDR media.

In any case, it's my experience that Imation and Memorex are best avoided.

 

[Welly Wu]

Tmesis:

You are correct sir!

MarkL:

Yeah, I got those Memorex black CD-Rs. Believe it or not, they are very good for these specific reasons:

1. You should be able to prevent or cut down on the number of coasters or bad burns

2. They should be more scratch resistent than green, silver, or purple dye blank CD-Rs

3. They should last longer than extremely cheap & no name branded blank CD-Rs.

So, yes, they are a worthwhile investment but don't think they will yield better sound.

Do check to see if there is a 3rd party CD / DVD burning software program installed on this computer. Usually, there is. By the way, the ABSOLUTE BEST is Ahead NERO 6 Ultra Edition. With earlier versions, you can indeed copy tracks from the original CD to the HDD and from the HDD -> blank CD-R. Do check!

 

[lindrone]

Windows Media Lossless is a new implementation in Windows Media 9... it is in fact, really lossless. Just like FLAC, APE, and SHN. However, this format is not compatible with previous generation of WMA players. Most players on the market today only play back WMA8, not the WMA Lossless...

The advantage is.. it's a supported format by Microsoft, so it will gain some sort of ground and marketability... of course, it's not open source like FLAC.

The disadvantges are, besides the obvious Microsoft affiliation, it is not as efficient of a compression compared to APE, not sure how it compares up against FLAC.

 

[blessingx]

Mem Black CDR are very good and all I use now (because of burning failures, longevity, not really audiophile reasons). EAC is a good ripper/front end encoder. If your CDs are is decent shape, it is far less necessary and copying from CD to CD without a HD rip can save time. Not sure what the burning software will be (Roxio, Nero?), but if its one of the majors it should do a decent job. Even iTunes does a very good job (and about as easy as it gets).

 

[markl]

OK, so the other program the computer has is something called Sonic Record Now! Looks very basic and not uber-professional. Is this a better option than Windows Media Player? Thanks.