Error while ripping CDs in Media Player

[Musicman6425]

I am trying to us the RIP function in Windows Media player. However, I keep getting the same error: Windows Media Player cannot rip the track because a compatible MP3 encoder is not installed on your computer. Install a compatible MP3 encoder or choose a different format to rip to (such as Windows Media Audio).

On MS support site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window...ayer/webhelp/default.aspx?&id=C00D0FAA, I followed the instructions and deleted the reg entry. I still receive the same error.

What else can I do to fix MP? I have tried other free MP3 programs. I haven't liked any.

Thank you

 

[Musicman6425]

If you have any better free MP3 software to recommend, I would like to hear. I would like it to pull the CD information so I don't have to type it for each track.

 

[Evander]

cdex is my favorite mp3 ripper, it's been around for a long time and works great w/o bloat. i recommend the unofficial 1.60 version available at rarewares.org

it does check automatically for your cd info in free cddb. when a cd isn't recocnized, i usually open up real player and try their "gracenote cddb" which seems to have better success, and then i import that into cdex (from cdplayer.ini)

another good choice is eac but it's probably more complicated than most people need.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Evander
cdex is my favorite mp3 ripper, it's been around for a long time and works great w/o bloat. i recommend the unofficial 1.60 version available at rarewares.org

it does check automatically for your cd info in free cddb. when a cd isn't recocnized, i usually open up real player and try their "gracenote cddb" which seems to have better success, and then i import that into cdex (from cdplayer.ini)

another good choice is eac but it's probably more complicated than most people need.

I didn't know that there was a new version of CDex. Even if it is someone else picking up the project, it's better than letting it die.
Very good program, good at naming files from CDDB information (which is occasionally incorrect though). Tip - when encoding to MP3, set it to "very high quality (q=0)." It'll take longer to encode, but it does a better job of squeezing the most quality into the given bitspace. It's an encoding time vs quality tradeoff, that's all, without any effect on filesize, which is dictated by the bitrate.

Or, with lame.exe handy, set it to External encoder and give this a shot:
-m s --replaygain-accurate -q 0 -b 160 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%b" --ty "%y" --tn "%tn" --tg "%g" --id3v2-only --pad-id3v2 %1 %2


-m s : sets it to stereo
--replaygain-accurate : Enables ReplayGain, which should help to keep the volume of your music relatively constant, album to album. I don't actually have much experience with this in MP3 though, only with FLAC. I've used MP3Gain, a separate program, to change the volume of my MP3's. But it won't hurt anything, and can only provide a gain.
-q 0 : highest quality, but slow
-b 160 : 160kbps bitrate
The rest of the arguments have to do with tagging the files in the ID3 v2 tag.

 

[Evander]

Interesting, i just checked the official homepage at soundforge and it seems a new beta was just released last week

 

[toolfan]

OP you could check out Media Monkey. It's the only ripper I have found, aside from WMP, that automatically fills in the Album Artist tag which is needed for Windows Media Center. Older versions of CDex didn't do that, I haven't checked EAC though. Anyway, the free version of Media Monkey comes with 30 days of MP3 ripping, but you can easily convert that to unlimited by just replacing the LAME .dll that is installed with the program with the normal version.

 

[Musicman6425]

Anything I can do to Media Player to fix this problem?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Evander
Interesting, i just checked the official homepage at soundforge and it seems a new beta was just released last week

Excellent. CDex lives again!

Changes:
// Version 1.70 beta 1
Updated to GNU based winamp plugins
Support conversion of WAV files > 2 Gig
Updated Lame encoder
Updated Ogg encoder libraries
Add patches CDex 1.60++ (cue sheet generation)
Updated several language files
UTF-8 support for CDDB
Flac Support

Originally posted by: Musicman6425
Anything I can do to Media Player to fix this problem?

Install the LAME ACM perhaps? I've never used Windows Media Player for anything other than playing media though.

 

[wirelessenabled]

EAC plus LAME works for me. All free!