correct EAC settings for good copy from scrached cds

trueboyz · Sep 22, 2002

I have a Liteon LTD163D. I bought it because I thought i was a good ripper and good dvd-rom in general. But I heard people said that the LTD163 (without D) model is better? Are those two the same or what? What's the difference? Is mine a good ripper?

I have several music cds that I took with me on a trip this summer and it scratched really bad. I was wondering can I still make a good backup copy of it? Can someone please help me setup EAC with the right settings so I can rip my scratched cd correctly? I'm currently using EAC beta 4. Also, is CDex anygood with scratched cd? Thanks a lot!

Ps. I have the Liteon 24102B burner, and i was wondering does EAC currently have any bugs concerning burning with that particular burner such as CD-TEXT problem that I should be aware of?

trueboyz · Sep 23, 2002

what about the settings under the drive tab and gap detection?

trueboyz · Sep 23, 2002

Thnx very much.

Ps. What would be good setting for the lame encoder under EAC? I don't know much about those settings with the lame encoder.

trueboyz · Sep 23, 2002

Thanks for help very much. The settings works pretty well. I ripped 2 scratched cds and it seems pretty good. I get suspucious errors now and there, but it's ok. Does the glitch removal thing works? The "--alt-preset" thing, can i enter in the compression options under EAC under addtional command line options or what? Currently i'm using the EAC default setting

%l--alt-preset 128%l%h--alt-preset standard%h %s %d

Is that the same as your --alt-preset ? What about the --r3mix option, is that anygood? What is the LAME DLL tab there for? Is it like an addon for the LAME encoder or something?

Sorry for so many questions. I just want to start learning how to use this EAC correctly. Thanks again!

trueboyz · Sep 23, 2002

Did u checked those suspusious position? I checked mines and it seems to have a little pops in the background. So i used the glitch removal to fix it. But i still wonder if it actually works? What would be an excellent tool to do some fixing like that working with mp3/music files ?

Since we are covering audio, i was wondering what would be a good program if I'm interesting in remaster or fixing up some audio music from karaoke vcd i have?

big_gie · Feb 24, 2003

Hi trueboyz

My "Additionnal command line option" of the "External compression tag" is set as follow:

-h %l-b 128%l%h-v -b 112%h --add-id3v2 --space-id3v1 --pad-id3v2 --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

"-h" for high quality
Between the two %l is when "low quality" is checked. It encode at Constat Bit Rate (CBR) at 128 kbps. It should be enough for a simple use. If CBR 128 isnt enough for you, check "high quality".
Between the two % h is when you set to "high quality".It will encode at VBR with a minimum of 112kbps.

Whats nice about this config is that it will add BOTH ID3 v1 and v2. I couldn get EAC to do this. So you'll have to disable the "Use *** tags..." options in EAC (in "ID3 Tag")

For the ID3 flags, heres what they do (took from EAC FAQ website http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/eac11.html)

Q:

Which flags can I use in the external compression scheme "User Defined MP3 Encoder"?

A:

In the field "Additional command line options" you could use replacements for the selectable options :
%s

Source filename

%d

Destination filename

%h...%h

Text "..." only when "High quality" selected

%l...%l

Text "..." only when "Low quality" selected

%c...%c

Text "..." only when "CRC checksum" selected

%r

Bitrate ("32".."320")

%a

CD artist

%g

CD title

%t

Track title

%y

Year

%n

Track number

%m

MP3 music genre

So a command line would look like (for l3enc)
__%s %d -br %r000 %h-hq%h %c-crc%c
The extension can also be selected for this setting.

If EAC glitch removal does not work for you, you could try Cool Edit 2000. A really nice program to edit your music. It's not free (69$) but you can try it. Worth it.
http://www.syntrillium.com/cooledit/

Hope it will help!

Fox Mulder · Feb 24, 2003

Sometimes when "Secure" mode ripping fails I had excellent results with "Burst" copy mode, depending on drive. My LG recorder is not that good skipping errors with "Burst" but with my Pioneer DVD-117 I use this mode with scratched CD's and usually get no noticeable pops/clicks. Only downside is that you have to listen carefully to the copied tracks because there is no more error detection/correction.

LTR12101B · Feb 24, 2003

My own findings with EAC...

1. Use a CD cleaning kit - the more good data that can be recovered, the faster it will be!
2. Try setting to 1x speed - a significant reduction in errors usually results, presumably due to better handling of marginal conditions, or better servo recovery.
3. Be wary of increasing the retry level above minimum - the extra time taken for 3x or 5x cylces of 16 reads is rarely worth it, especially if the errors tend to be hard errors and not responsive to repeated retry.
4. Degitching seems to work pretty well, so always audition the the questionable areas, and deglitch them - and since the degclitching relies on a significant hard step, it is not possible after any form of compression, as the edge characteristics are destroyed.

scarecrow · Feb 24, 2003

A CD cleaning kit is the worst piece of advice one can give. The best you can achieve with that is misalign your CD lens.
If you use EAC for reading, simply use maximum speed, and tick the "allow speed reduction during extraction" box. If quite unluckily your drive does not return accurate C2 error information, then simply use burst mode, as Fox Mulder suggested.

LTR12101B · Feb 24, 2003

I meant to clean the CD, not the drive - anything from a simple spray and wipe, to the advanced mechanicals like the Skip Doctor/Game Doctor range.

And of course, you wipe radially, centre to edge, as an accidental radial scratch while cleaning is better handled than one along the track path.

I'll leave "anti reflection pens" open to debate, some say the magic green marker around the edge minimises internal reflection, but the solvent could attack the edge sealing.

zver · Feb 25, 2003

As the guy said above--but also with dirty cds---i wash them in a warm water with soap---and leave standing up to dry!!!!You can put speed max--but chech option to reduce speed extraction as needed---so proggy will slow down if ita any problem!!!!Btw i had better results for scratchy cds with cdex and feurio then eac!!!But who knows maght your drive works better with eac!!????