[CD + iTunes] Weird behavior I've never seen re: track times, Gracenote DB & copy protection?

[clay]

using iTunes 11.0.2 on ML 10.8.2, having a strange issue I've never seen before. Just bought a new CD, came today. Was going to rip it in iTunes. Insert CD, gracenote database is queried automatically, but it doesn't retrieve any track names. Track times look OK, except for the final 2 tracks:



Ok, so I know it's not technically possible for tracks to be that long, so them showing up as that is a result of some read error on the computer. The final track plays like a single track version of the entire CD, I can skip through it using the playback status bar at the top of itunes. Track 19 does not allow that, so not sure what's going on there. The CD plays fine in a standalone CD player, both track 19 and 20 play like I'd expect them to.

I assume this is some sort of copy protection scheme designed to prevent folks from ripping/copying the CD? Haven't seen this type of issue for several years...I assumed CD sales were headed into the crapper enough that record companies wouldn't try to pull this crap on people anymore. Maybe I'll just return the CD to indicate my displeasure. Don't know what else I can really do.

[clay]

per decay's suggestion (not directly to this issue, but other times I've seen him post about this), I just tried using XLD to rip the disk as well. Track 19 resulted in a 330 byte file that doesn't contain anything, and Track 20 is a 790 MB file (i.e. the entire CD's audio in a single track).

[deckeda]

Standard music CD? Tracks 19 and 20 do seem messed up.

Scratched?

What happens when you play it, not import it?

[clay]

It was sold/marketed as a standard music CD. Playback behavior depends on whether it's played in my computer or in a standard CD player/boombox. CD looks physically perfect, no scratches.

In my computer:
track 19 - plays track 19 audio content, then plays track 20 audio content (but still shows as playing track 19). Then, playback stalls and iTunes hangs (i.e. it does not advance to track 20 as I would expect).
track 20 - plays fine...if by 'fine' you mean playing the entire CD audio back to back as if it were a single track, including audio from tracks 19 and 20. Hence the 1 hour and 14 minute track length on that track.

In a CD boombox:
track 19 - plays fine
track 20 - plays normally (i.e. just track 20 audio, not the entire CD audio like it does in the computer)

[deckeda]

Not sure what to suggest. Just brainstorming here.

(Copy protection has occurred in the past on some titles but once discovered stopped happening, because it always affects the sound. The CD's RedBook standard doesn't permit a copy protect scheme independent of the content like DVD and Blu-Ray do.)

You could try another computer but the issue doesn't seem like an optical drive having trouble reading the disk, at least not as we're normally familiar with.

You might Google the title to see if others have had trouble ripping it.

[clay]

deckeda wrote:
(Copy protection has occurred in the past on some titles but once discovered stopped happening, because it always affects the sound. The CD's RedBook standard doesn't permit a copy protect scheme independent of the content like DVD and Blu-Ray do.)

That's what I thought, too. This was seeming more and more like some sort of copy protection scheme, but I simply haven't heard of any recent cases where copy protection was in use, so it kind of surprised me.

deckeda wrote:
You could try another computer but the issue doesn't seem like an optical drive having trouble reading the disk, at least not as we're normally familiar with.

I will do that later tonight, good idea.

deckeda wrote:
You might Google the title to see if others have had trouble ripping it.

I have done that, but haven't come up with any hits yet. I guess it's possible that the disc has some sort of manufacturing issue, but I know that's not very common and I'd be surprised if mine was the only disc out there affected. No bad reviews on Amazon related to the quality of the pressing, and this is a CD that has gone platinum, so it's not as though the sample size is so small.

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll try another computer tonight and see if that helps.

[deckeda]

I'm stumped.

But keep in mind that if the Amazon reviews are for another, similar disk (earlier version, non-deluxe version etc.) what you have is a different animal.

Double-click the CD's desktop icon. The Finder should identify the songs as AIFFs. Drag one to another folder or desktop perhaps and that will copy (and therefore, rip) the song as an AIFF unless the disk is defective or non-standard in some way.

[clay]

issue is solved for now. Some things I've done since my last post:

1. tried ripping on a 2011 iMac running 10.8.2 and itunes 11.0.1. Ripped to AIFF just fine. Not sure whether it was due to the different optical drive or the slightly older version of iTunes. I tend to think it is related to the optical drive, because....

2. I tried copying files from the CD in the finder, as deckeda recommended. When I open up the CD in the finder, it just shows tracks 1-19, no 20. But, 19 copies successfully as a file. Just can't get to the final track that way. Since I already have the tracks from the iMac, I'm not going to spend a ton of time worrying about this. Just kind of strange.

thanks for all your help in troubleshooting this, deckeda, I really appreciate it!