Quote:
Originally Posted by deepstang /forum/post/20966721


Sorry for the desperate title. I am really going crazy spending hours and days trying to figure out if I am properly using EAC to copy a standard CD to .flac.


I followed all the on-line steps and still no true luck. I have everything set-up as the flac and eac site recommends. When I copy a CD "uncompressed", it copys as a .wav. I was hesitant to use the "compressed" setting because I could see that the "Compr. Size" field yields a number smaller than the "Size" field.


Anyways, after "uncompressed" yielded a .wav file I tried using the "compressed" copy. I let it copy 1 song, and I noticed that it was still in ".wav". Arggg! What am i doing wrong??


If any one can post or maybe even PM me with a phone number, I would greatly appreciate it!

Copy Uncompressed produces waves.

Copy Compressed produces whatever you have set up for compresion options. In your case that should be FLAC.

I would guess you don't have your compression options set up correctly or at all.


I'll PM you my EAC settings for flac.

 

God bless you glorspd! I appreciate your help. Those settings you gave me is exactly what I already had (except under "check for external program return code", I had the box checked off....also, I did not enable "use CRC check").


I initially pretty much followed the set-up from:

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index....e=EAC_and_FLAC


(except I did not use their specific "additional command line-options")


Currently my lack of understanding is with why .flac does not retain the original size of the CD. If FLAC is supposed to be pure and "lossless", I would assume that the "Compr. Size" column should match the "Size". I will post a print screen showing what I am talking about:

I guess it makes sense that if any type of "compression" is being used that the original file size will not be maintained ("Size" vs "Compr. Size"). The other thing that does not make sense is that it seems the original file size can be maintained if the box "use external program for compression" is NOT checked (the "Compr. Size" goes to the same # as the original "size"). It is than burned as a .wav file though.


Last question (and I have asked a ton). The way to actually copy the CD is by doing:

Thanks again for helping out an audio brother!

 

FLAC (and other lossless compression, such as ZIP) is just that. Lossless. The stored file is smaller than the original, but the original file information can be 100% recovered.

 



Quote:
Originally Posted by deepstang /forum/post/20968280


I guess it makes sense that if any type of "compression" is being used that the original file size will not be maintained ("Size" vs "Compr. Size"). The other thing that does not make sense is that it seems the original file size can be maintained if the box "use external program for compression" is NOT checked (the "Compr. Size" goes to the same # as the original "size"). It is than burned as a .wav file though.

"Size" shows you how big the wav file would be if created (EAC knows this exactly from the length of the track). "Compr. Size" is just an estimate of how big the file will be based on what type of compression you have set. Clearly if you have no compression set, "Size" and "Compr. Size" would be the same but as already pointed out if you do have lossless compression selected the resulting FLAC file will be smaller than the wave, which is the goal of using it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by deepstang /forum/post/20968280


Last question (and I have asked a ton). The way to actually copy the CD is by doing:

Action->Copy Sel Tracks->Compressed will produce FLAC files (as will simply clicking on the "CMP" button to the far left edge of the main program window). However EAC has different ways of ripping tracks. If you are ripping in "Secure Mode" then this choice will be fine and should almost always produce error free results. If you are ripping in Burst mode then you have a better chance of getting error free results if you choose Action->Test & Copy Sel Tracks->Compressed.


EAC has multiple ways to rip, also including using AccurateRip to compare the results of your rip with those others have gotten for the same CD. It can be a rather complex program to set up and use correctly but it does almost always produce accurate rips once you have done that.

 

Thank you again for all the help. After I made that post last night, I went ahead and used the steps given: Action -> Copy Sel Tracks -> Compressed


When I checked this morning, the only music tracks of the CD I saw in my PC was .wav files

.


I am very sorry for all the trouble. I am assuming I am still doing something wrong. Also, does EAC have to create a WAV file first and than create FLAC? Or, does it just directly rip to FLAC?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepstang Thank you again for all the help. After I made that post last night, I went ahead and used the steps given: Action -> Copy Sel Tracks -> Compressed When I checked this morning, the only music tracks of the CD I saw in my PC was .wav files . I am very sorry for all the trouble. I am assuming I am still doing something wrong. Also, does EAC have to create a WAV file first and than create FLAC? Or, does it just directly rip to FLAC?

Try these options, you're missing something obvious.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=30959

 

For each track, EAC rips the track to wave on hdd and then if you have 'use external program for compression' selected it runs the external compressor as a separate external process based on the compression option settings you have set. That process creates the .flac file and (optionally) deletes the wave afterwards. If you don't get .flac files, 99% of the time it's because the set up for the external compressor is wrong and it fails leaving the waves untouched. The usual trouble is that your path to flac.exe is wrong or the additional command line options are wrong or mistyped. Most of the rest of the settings won't cause it to fail completely although you do need to use the 'user defined encoder' paramater passing scheme. Make sure your path to flac.exe contains flac.exe (i.e., C:\\Mypath\\flac.exe). Double check the values for command line options I gave you in the PM as even a small typo in that string can be the cause.


A good test would be to change the additional command line options to only:

-6 %source%


That should be easier to troubleshoot. You can add other switches and tagging options back in slowly once that works.


Also, what version EAC are you using? I gave you settings for V1.0beta2 which is the most recent and the one I use. IIRC Andre changed the way paramaters are passed between the last version and this one. Before 1.0b2 additional command line options would have had the format:

-6 %s

More also, in the current EAC version, the external compression options page has a "Test Encoder" button at the bottom. Use that and see what results you get

 

Reviving this thread


I'm hoping EAC is allot easier to use in 20-14 than what it was 3 years ago...I'm looking to start ripping my 600 plus cd to flac, and would love to do it as painless and error free as possible. But if it's too complicated as some of the issues I've read above and some other threads, I'll reconsider EAC and end up paying for something like dBpoweramp.


If someone can tell me what works, with minimum setting up and as few clicking boxes that would be super awesome.


Too many headache with all things htpc, looking for it to work.


Thanks


DJoel

 

Take a look at the HA Wiki page on EAC configuration . It explains the options and provides recommended settings. If you want to configure EAC for multiple profiles or drives (e.g. fast vs secure ripping), you can export settings to profile files to allow instant reconfiguration.

 

Thanks I'll take a look and see if I can make heads or tail out of it.



Djoel

 

You could try CDEx. Much simpler to configure and also has error and jitter correction. Here's a Wiki: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=CDex_and_FLAC

 

Thanks I'll check it out.



Djoel

 

CDex uses an outdated version of libparanoia. It isn't a secure ripper and doesn't have access to the AccurateRip database, but it's easy to configure and does what it's supposed to do. I used it for many years prior to discovering EAC.