Backing up CD library

[Trekkie313]

Originally Posted by LexInHD

In case anyone missed it, the new Windows Media Player - simply referred to as "Media Player" in Windows 10/11 - has CD playback and ripping functionality and can encode in MP3, among other formats.

Was it missing for awhile? My Windows 7 has MP3 and WMV ripping abilities...

[LexInHD]

Originally Posted by Trekkie313

Was it missing for awhile? My Windows 7 has MP3 and WMV ripping abilities...

You have the old WMP, which is 12. The software that I speak of is it's successor and is for Windows 10, 11, and beyond. It has replaced WMP 12, Groove Music, and a variety of other short-lived Microsoft media player apps. Unlike the old WMP and Groove, there was no CD sub-menu or configuration for CD audio in the settings, so most people would miss the feature entirely, unless they happened to have had an audio CD in a connected drive.

[D00mM4r1n3]

Rip 100 CD's an hour:

YouTube

[chip75]

Originally Posted by LexInHD

You have the old WMP, which is 12. The software that I speak of is it's successor and is for Windows 10, 11, and beyond. It has replaced WMP 12, Groove Music, and a variety of other short-lived Microsoft media player apps. Unlike the old WMP and Groove, there was no CD sub-menu or configuration for CD audio in the settings, so most people would miss the feature entirely, unless they happened to have had an audio CD in a connected drive.

I noticed it the other day, I had it open when I went to rip a CD with WMP and the tab opened up. I still get issues with covers not appearing even after adding them manually.

[figrin_dan]

I have about 1000 CDs on an Unraid server. I use MusicBee to rip CDs to 320 MP3 and FLAC and also make a 128 MP3 copy for the car/phone/internet radio.
I use Makemkv for audio DVDs and Blu-rays - this gives me a single mka file with chapters/tracklist. These are only played on a media player in the lounge.

[Kedrix]

Originally Posted by D00mM4r1n3

Rip 100 CD's an hour:

The minute I started that, I was thinking how old is this? From 13 years ago, lol.

Man, this whole discussion makes me feel like a freaking fossil.

[pjb3]

I would recommend you look at software name dbpoweramp. Dbpoweramp uses the Accuraterip database to make sure it get a good copy and re-rips any errors. I believe there is a 30 day free trial period. I'm not sure all features are available during the free trial such as the ability to rip to both FLAC and 320mbps MP3 files at the same time.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by benricci

As someone with an insanely large CD collection myself, the best solution is to simply get an Apple Music subscription, add all the albums you want to your library and stream them in hi-res for like 9 bucks a month.

All this ripping and storage nonsense is just not worth the effort anymore, to be honest. Unless you have REALLY obscure albums not on streaming, in which case you can just rip those individually using a lossless format and then upload them right to your Apple Music Library where they've live alongside any you've added from the vast Apple Music catalog.

Even then I only had to upload a handful of albums from my CD collection because the services these days have just about everything under the sun (even stuff I would have sworn was REALLY obscure, like one-off 70's Italian prog-rock albums no-one's ever heard of).

So yeah...SKIP THE RIP.

That's my advice. Life's far too short and hi-res streaming sounds phenomenal. Plus it's dirt cheap nowadays and they've likely got most of your albums on there anyway.

Best advice for sure. Apple music has almost everything in lossless format or high res or ATMOS. They are not perfect and what bothers me most is when they get the artist incorrect for some things.

Whatever you do -> I recommend keeping the original discs !!! Unless you are homeless they are worth the space they consume.

[Doomhunter]

Personally I am sticking with iTunes as my ripping and organization program. iPods can always be fixed if they break down, besides, my first iPod, the classic, is still doing fine after about twenty years. Plus I have a smaller iPod for travel and another larger iPod in case my classic ever breaks down and can’t be repaired. There are repair shops all over the place. Typically ripping into Apple Lossless would completely maintain the file, but ripping to mp3 would mean less storage space required and you may not notice the difference anyhow. Streaming is no good for me as I couldn’t edit songs and iTunes makes album creating / organization so much easier

[bigkid43]

I went with a Bluesound Vault 2i and back it up with an external drive. All files are FLAC. I have other Bluesound products so I can listen anywhere in the house.
Just be aware that CD's don't always have the correct information, e.g. album art, track order, and you may spend some time fixing things after ripping everything. I use MP3tag.

https://www.bluesound.com/products/vault/

[Afriendofours]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Whatever you do -> I recommend keeping the original discs !!! Unless you are homeless they are worth the space they consume.

So true, you could put some CDs down there on the bottom

[Show spoiler]

[stonesfan129]

I did all mine a few years back with a program called dBpoweramp CD Ripper. I added in my own artwork from Album Art Exchange and the Ben Dodson iTunes Artwork database, but it's nice because it goes through, tags everything for you (pulls metadata from multiple sources), and is faster than EAC. It costs $38 but I think that is for a lifetime license. My parents also used it on their Mac to rip all of their CDs after their 300-disc Sony CD changer died a couple years back. I liked that setup was far easier than EAC and it does a burst pass first so doesn't take as long.