Hi All,

I just started ripping my Music CD's to lossless format but with so many Lossless
Codecs available its hard to decide so a little help from the experts (You) would
help me select the best .

Not much technically but in simple man's language so every one could make the best use of it.

Note:- LAF = Lossless Audio Format

1.> Which lossless audio codec do you use & Why ?

2.> Which software do you use to "Rip Audio Cd's" to LAF of ur choice?
(Does it directly rip the audio the audio to your LAF

OR

First it converts to WAV and then to your LAF - is WAV file lossy - is the final
LAF lossy or lossless by this method.)

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First 2 Questions were related to Stereo or 2.0 Audio
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3.> But as now 5.1 Audio is becomming the standard and Audio Industries are
thinking of releasing Audio in 5.1 Dolby Format are there any LAF for extracting
AC3 or DTS Audio and maintaining them lossless.

4.> Is AC3 , DTS Audio lossless or lossy? (I dont know)

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Plz answer them in following format
Ans 1 -
Ans 2 -
Ans 3 -
Ans 4 -

Thankyou in advance for going through this.

Wating for your Replies
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Edited Later :- Sorry for using shortform language and Violating Rules
I have best edited my post and will not create this mistakes further.
I am not able to edit the Topic heading.

1. Use FLAC because it kicks ass.

2. EAC (Exact Audio Copy) is the standard for ripping in my opinion.

3. ?

4. ?

1. I don't think there is a "best" lossless codec; lossless is lossless.
I use FLAC - free, easy, fast, well-supported, good compression... works for me.

2. EAC - extracts to WAV, then converts to FLAC. (WAV is uncompressed lossless; FLAC is compressed lossless.)

3. ?

4. ?

1. I use Monkey's Audio (APE) because it's fast and efficient, not FLAC.

2. EAC in secure mode.

3. What do you mean?

4. AC3 is definitely lossy, DTS Audio -- i don't know.

1. http://members.home.nl/w.speek/comparison.htm
there are at least two other comparisons out there, search.

2. search the forum. EAC comes to my mind.

nice argument... use LiteWave because it kicks ass.

1. LA and optimfrog has best compression but slow decoding and encoding.
FLAC is open source, widely used and widely supported.
Monkey's audio is for me a good solution as it has better compression than FLAC and since I only use windows.
Lossless codec compared: http://web.inter.nl.net/users/hvdh/lossless/lossless.htm

2. WAV is actually a container format like avi and can contain many things. However wav normally means a wav file with PCM data in side which is lossless and what all lossless formats are decoded to before the data is send to the soundcard.
lossless --> lossless = lossless -->
wav --> LAF = lossless.

And yes. All rippers will rip PCM/wav data first then use the compressor.
You should use EAC to rip and set it up to encode to the format of your choice.

4. lossy

I use FLAC because it's free, open source, supported on Windows and Linux (<- one never knows), good compression and fast decompression (nice when I create a CD with mp3).

I rip with Plextools because I have a Plextor and that rips fast. Sometimes I rip with EAC in Secure Mode.

First I rip to wav and then with Flac Frontend I encode, tag and apply replaygain in one step.

I mean all LAF are supporting 2Channel is there any LAF
for 5.1 Channel Audio (AC3 , DTS) lossless backup.

DTS is lossy.

Lossless formats supporting multichannel are WavPack, FLAC and MLP. WMA lossless and Real Audio lossless might also support it, but I don't know for sure. Other lossless formats (Monkey's, LPAC, OptimFrog, LA...) dont'support multichannel.

1. I like FLAC. It is easier to work with because it encodes and decodes so much faster. You can get some more compression using one of the other alternatives, such as Monkey's or LA, but since hard drives are cheap these days I stick with what is the easiest. Plus, my Rio Karma player can handle FLAC files. A very very close runner up would be Monkey's Audio. I really like them both.

2. I like EAC. If I'm in a hurry, I use Easy CD-DA Extractor from Poikosoft. It's one of the few pieces of shareware that I've actually liked enough to buy.

Can you suggest the method to extract AC3 DTS Audio from DVD to
Multichannel FLAC Lossless Format and where can we play Multichannel FLAC.
same goes for WavPack , MLP.

But info on Multichannel FLAC only would also do.

You can decode AC3 with BeSweet and DTS with dtsdec (check RareWares). Several other methods apply.

Then encode using the standard encoders, and play back on your favourite player.

I guess you can do everything on foobar (decode, encode and play back), but I am not sure. Is there a DTS component for foobar?

Edit: Forget about MLP. It's absurdly expensive and only used for DVD-Audio.

Well Foobar 2000 is working great for Flac Multichannel Thanks
But No Compression in size both AC3 and Flac are having the same size it seems.

DTS has a lossless codec but I have not seen it implemented anywhere but the cinema.

DTS has been chosen as a mandatory format for both upcoming Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, including options for Lossless encoding, higher bitrates, and additional channels under the name DTS-HD. As far as I know, this is the first time Lossless DTS encoding will be available in the home, and the DTS that we are familiar with is lossy.

more here: http://www.homecinemachoice.com/cgi-bin/shownews.php?id=7086

Split.

1. Apple Lossless. Because it integrates nicelly into Apple iTunes, iPod and AirTunes!
2. Usually I use iTunes, but have also been experimenting with ccda2wav (iTunes rips directly to Apple Lossless, while ccda2wav rips to wav or aiff).

1 - Wavpack because :
* Better compression than Flac
* Ape V2 tags
* Speedy encoding/decoding

2 - EAC or Plextools. I rip first, then encode.

1. FLAC for its fast in encoding, faster in decoding, use very little CPU compared
to other LAF

2. EAC - secure
EAC - burst, it depends

3. FLAC supports 5.1

4. lossy

........its better to leave ac3 or dts as it is, wrap it in another
container like matroska if u want to make backup?