Showing audio as .wav using altered CDFS

[Deft]

On another board asking about audio ripping someone mentioned they use an altered cdfs.vxd file to show audio cd's as a collection of .wavs in the file browser window to allow direct use rather than ripping from a stream.
Sounds like a good way to transfer. Does this really work better / properly and if so why doesn't everyone use it to encode mp3's etc. rather than ripping and converting.
Can someone run through the technical aspects of this as i'm getting confused?

[Duracell]

it's definitively not "Advanced Audio"
it works only under W95, 98, ME; rippings speed is max. DAE drive speed and this is always not recommended for best quality;

Greetings from
Duracell

[scarecrow]

Virtual filesystems like the one created by the old cdfs.vxd (which indeed works only under 9X platforms) are also feasible under NT platforms, but are supported only by certain hardware-specific drivers- and up to date very few hardware vendors issued such things- I think rightly, as many known programs can do a "perfect" audio rip. Lets say the ever infamous Exact Audio Copy, or all programs that use the (ported from unix) cdparanoia ripping code.

[Deft]

So what is the actual difference? How exactly does it work? Is it just a quick 1 step basic ripping method, so more like an illusion?

[roadworker]

Originally posted by Deft
So what is the actual difference? How exactly does it work? Is it just a quick 1 step basic ripping method, so more like an illusion?

It handles audio as datafiles....It was one of the 1st ways to rip copyprotected audio to your harddisk with unsupported hardware......didn't work for all protected audiocd's...

[Deft]

What advantages/disadvantages are there by treating them as datafiles? Is quality better/worse/the same?

[roadworker]

The quality is the same.....at least for my ears..
The advantage is described in my earlier post:
copying audioprotected music that your reader can't handle because of incompatibilty with the protection...

[jasmin]

When you use an altered cdfs.vxd file you can drag & drop audio files from CD to HD what is impossible with original cdfs.vxd file from Windows

Usefull for some tipes of audio copyprotection, for some not

[Fox Mulder]

And it's like "burst copy"; so if you want error correction use EAC or CDex.