Several questions:

1. If I get a positive offset value from the AccurateRip database (where most of the drives have positive offset values), should I enter a positive or negative value into EAC in the "read offset" field?

2. Am I understand this correctly, that a positive offset value means that the drive reads further into the CD than it is supposed to, and that to correct for this it would need to be able to read into the "leadin"? Of course it is not really the leadin but the drive thinks it's reading the leadin? And if the drive has a negative offset, it needs to be able to read into the "leadout" to make a perfect copy?

Thanks.

1. It is recommended that the user let AccurateRip configure itself. If you cannot find three key discs and want to use the offset value from the database, enter it exactly as it appears in the database.

2. My understanding is that no ability to read into lead-in/lead-out is required for the offset correction to take effect. The corresponding checkbox should be left clear because not all drives can do that, IMO.

If you have a positive value your drive needs to be able to read into leadout not leadin.


Wrong.

Right, overreading is not needed for the offset correction to take effect.
Wrong, I don't see any problem with lefting it checked even if the drive doesn't support it, exept of course, if you get an error message, for example something like "ASPI ERROR #458741873492574467" or "Index out of range"...

I'm not sure what your trying to say here pio but the drive must support overreading into the corresponding offset value & overreading must be ticked for EAC to attempt overreading. Otherwise EAC will 1. leave out the missing samples or 2. fill up missing samples with silence which is not offset correction. So yes, overreading is needed for offset correction to work.

Edit: And of course you will get an error on the first (-) or last track (+) if you select overreading on an drive which doesn't support it so leaving it checked is a huge problem .

Still not quite understanding: if the drive has a positive offset value, does that mean that it in facts reads that many samples further (later) in the disc than called for, OR does it mean just the opposite and the positive offset value is a correction for a drive that starts reading earlier than called for?

When you view the wave file ina wave editor.

If you have a positive offset, the waveform is shifted to the right, if your offset is negative, to the left.

To know if the offset correction is working or not, use the compare wave tool.

If you enable overreading into lead-in/lead-out, your CRCs for the first/last tracks are not going to match those submitted by someone whose drive does not support overreading. Yet you won't be able to tell which it is:

• your rip is not accurate
• the other guy's rip is not accurate
• the other user's drive doesn't support overreading

This negates the confidence premise AccurateRip is buillt upon.

The same if you don't enable it.

The probabililty of #3 would be then very low; overreading capability is not a common feature.