[fajimr]

Maybe this is an easy question... i've searched and seen no reference to this particular issue though.

I am going to be heading off to canada for 6 months and won't be bringing my system with me.  I'd like to rip some of my CD collection to my PC so I have some music.. not really looking to replace my system (at this time at least).  Problem is I don't have internet at home at the moment  .  I've got foobar installed and installed EAC (but wasn't able to connect to their database).  When i try to rip with EAC (or Itunes, for that matter) there is no disc info- no titles or song names.  Foobar reads this info perfectly. 

Are there any decent ripping utilities that can read this info off the CD so my collection isn't simply track 1 track 2, etc..  or do I need to have a connection?

thanks
jim

[low.pfile]

Hi jim

It is very rare that commercial CDs have artist, title, song information on them. So regardless of the media player used , a connection to the internet is needed. The player reads the Disc ID # and then a query goes out to the online database (CDDB/Gracenote, etc) to retrieve all the song, album, year, etc data which is then displayed on your player.

It is possible that your experience where Foobar provides the information could be because that CD was played on your PC at an earlier time and the disc information is stored in a datafile on your PC for that CD.

[fajimr]

It is possible that your experience where Foobar provides the information could be because that CD was played on your PC at an earlier time and the disc information is stored in a datafile on your PC for that CD.

thanks low.phile but it was a new CD which had never been in my PC????  I'll try with a couple of other CDs though- i am curious now. jim

[Scott F.]

Actually with EAC you can rip without an internet connection. What you'll need to do is drag your PC to someplace that has a free wireless conection like say a Starbucks. Log onto the EAC website and download the database. Not quite sure where it is on their website but I know its there because I downloaded it a while back.

It's a pretty sizable file, 75+ meg zipped up. Might be even bigger now since I downloaded mine a couple of years ago. Just place it in a subdirectory under the EAC file structure on your hard drive. Unzip the file then start EAC. In the menu tab you can point EAC to read the metadata from their online database, one of their mirror sites OR a specific location on your hard drive. Just point it to your hard drive and Bingo, there you have it!

I did this myself a couple of years ago because their server kept getting hammered and I could never connect and get the data. I think they've upgraded their pipe in recent times...or something. I still use it as a backup on occasion.

Hope you can find a place log on and download the file. 

[fajimr]

Hope you can find a place log on and download the file. 

perfect- thanks Scott.  I'll bring it up to my office and use the wireless here.  Luckily it's one of the compact lenovos so it is pretty small  
jim

I guess this means that you do have to have a connection to a database to access the titles, etc

[low.pfile]

I see where Scott F is going.....just download the EAC database file to your local computer HDD, after which you can rip without any internet connections. CDDB also used to offer the master DB file for download but no longer has that option. Of course, you will be limited to a static DB, therefore any album released after the DB publish date will not show up-but depending on your music collection you may be fine with an older DB file. Good luck.

[Scott F.]

I see where Scott F is going.....just download the EAC database file to your local computer HDD, after which you can rip without any internet connections.

Yep  Just download the DB to your hard drive and rip away...no connection necessary 

MINOR CORRECTION

EAC doesn't have the DB, it's at freedb.org. Here is the link. It's the same DB I use, I just forgot this is where I got it from.

http://www.freedb.org/en/download__server_software.4.html

[fajimr]

thanks!  much appreciated 

by the way- i did go home last night and threw 4 CDs into the computer (none of which had been in there previously).  2 showed track and artist information on Foobar and 2 didn't.  Seems like some CDs do have the info on the CD.

jim

[MerlinWerks]

thanks!  much appreciated 

by the way- i did go home last night and threw 4 CDs into the computer (none of which had been in there previously).  2 showed track and artist information on Foobar and 2 didn't.  Seems like some CDs do have the info on the CD.

jim

It is most likely reading the CDTEXT info available on some CDs...