I just got the 30STM cd and it's "content protected" meaning basically they altered the cd's software. I understand the good intention, but there's an option to copy the songs on to my hard disk (which is only what I wanted to do in the first place), and it doesn't work! It comes up with an error of some sort and the songs aren't copied. I had the same problem with another cd just recently and had to go get the songs off Limewire if I wanted them. They need to improve this software. The concept of it all is bullshit and achieves nothing, please don't buy anything "content protected" from these idiots.
The whole point of "content protection" is to prevent people from making copies of it, so of course you aren't gonna be able to copy the songs. Quite frankly, it's stupid. The only way to prevent people from copying CDs via computer is to make CDs that won't work on a computer, period. If the songs will play on your computer, there's a way to copy them.
The CD Ripper with A Beautiful Lie works for me. Yes it is copy protected, but it plays on my MP3 player fine. It doesn't let me rip with other programs so if I get pissed at the copy protection, I'll just record what comes out of my speakers in realtime and split up the songs but for now it is fine.
so basically putting copy protection on cd's is pointless, records comapanies just do it to make themselves feel good but it's also a warning to those who file share, don't say that they didn't warn you.
Nothing is copy proof. If you can make the music play in a stereophonic audio device, you can rip it.
There is something wrong with it if I can't copy it and say play it on my IPod. That option is listed as available but I got the error, that is what's wrong with it...kind of like false advertising. Not looking to bring down Virgin records here, just trying to listen to the damn thing for myself on my IPod This discourages me from purchasing my music legally from now on or at least I'm not buying anything with a "content protected label"
Find a friend who has a Mac. I'm pretty sure most of this copy protection bullshit only works on Windows. Macs can rip it without a problem.
Find a friend who has a Mac. I'm pretty sure most of this copy protection bullshit only works on Windows. Macs can rip it without a problem. [/b][/quote]
1) Download and install Exact Audio Copy v0.95b3 (other versions may work but this was the one I tested). When installing this you can ignore the LAME section of the setup if you are using WiMP, iTunes, etc. 2) Insert ABL while holding down the shift key (this prevents the autorun from running). Once it mounts launch EAC. 3) Go to the "Action" menu item, go to "TOC Alterations" and select "Retrieve Native TOC" 4) Press the WAV button on the left hand side of the window to start the rip. 5) Drop the resulting *.wav files into your application of choice (iTunes, etc) and encode them into whatever codec you'd like! The end result will be much higher quality than the WMA->CDDA->MP3 method above because the WMAs are fairly low quality to begin with and going to MP3 directly from that format causes more quality to be lost (both are non-lossless codecs). The only downside is that this method is SLOW. It rips at about 0.5-0.7x on my drive so a full rip of the CD will take a good 90 minutes or so. It makes me made that some people can't listen to a CD they legally bought on their iPods or whatnot.