Just incase some of you dont already know,a new version of EAC is soon to be released but the developer (Andre Wiethoff) needs several 'Experienced' EAC users to test out this new version beforehand.

This is very exciting and the sooner it is thoroughly tested the sooner it can be released.

Click Here,send an email to Andre from the HomePage and get testing.

Thanks.

Good news that a new version is coming out, but to be honest, I expected some more after playing around with dBpowerAMP.

What's the next target when EAC can perfectly rip CD.

Something similar to dBpowerAMP. It should use C2 pointers in a more efficient way, it should finally offer "official" FUA support for Plextor units and be able to set that as feature for each drive separately (I need two shortcuts at the moment and start two different instances of EAC depending on what drive I want to use for ripping), some automatization like burst ripping first and automatically switching to secure if AR results / T&C CRC results don't match.

He's got enough beta testers now.

Any details on what's in the new version?

Are we allowed to say?

It's a Closed Beta. The testers aren't allowed to say anything about it.

It seems like it's still a long way from dbpoweramp; the addition of good C2 use improves the ripping, so the secure rip capabilities might reach parity if that's the only function one wants, but then, in general ease of use (UI), EAC is still far behind dbpoweramp. On top of that, there's the built-in support for format conversions, dsp effects, album art, and everything else you get with dbpoweramp. (But EAC is free, and dbpoweramp is not free, but cheap.)

Andre made it perfectly clear that he won't be rewriting EAC's core which is what he feels would be required to improve the way the program uses C2 pointers.

But in defense of EAC, dBpowerAMP does not detect gaps, create CUE sheets, rip images or extract HTOA.

...at least not yet.

Good point, they're important features. Those features are planned for dbpoweramp R13--I'm not confident of the EAC implementation of them, since it has had bugs as of May that dbpoweramp catches. (I hasten to add I haven't had time yet to compare both programs thoroughly, and of course both have their bugs.)
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=12883

I ain't gonna support any free software that does not have a native linux version.

@TechVsLife:
You're putting too much faith in that thread. Calestyo had an offset problem related to people who do did not configure an offset correction prior to intalling AccurateRip. This was the reason for the difference. It had nothing to do with bugs in the way EAC rips images, detects gaps or extracts HTOA from a mechanical standpoint.

I brought this bug and another similar one to Andre's attention a while ago and he assured me they would be fixed in the next release.

I have done a thorough comparison of both dbpa and EAC, btw.

EDIT: Actually, I was wrong about the problem, it had to do with the fact that EAC isn't able to overread non-null samples from the lead-out when there is a data track and he didn't have EAC set up to fill up missing offset samples with silence.

Here is the thread:
http://www.digital-inn.de/exact-audio-copy...datatracks.html

Anyway, the dBpowerAMP forum isn't exactly the most reliable place to go to find out about bugs with EAC!

So, does anyone know if dBpowerAMP is able to overread non-null samples from the lead-out when there's a data track?
I don't have a disc like this handy at the moment.

OK

You're joking, right?

It's FREE and closed-souced, you couldn't support it even if you tried. Andre could care less if you used it or not. He makes no money from it.

...well I'm not sure if Andre would turn down a donation, of course.

That said, my experience with dBpowerAMP is that it sometimes are slower to rip a secure track than a CRC matched track in EAC.

Depending on your drive and how you configure and use both programs, speed differences might not be all that profound, but as Sebastian already said, dBpowerAMP has an automated process to deliver a secure rip as quickly as possible regardless of your drive's features.

Just as an example, if you have a chaching drive that won't accept the FUA command and can't provide good C2 pointer information, there's no question that dBpowerAMP is the faster solution for secure results.

With my Plextor, however, I can get burst speeds and the ability to perform error correction in the very first pass. With a track that requires re-reads to be ripped correctly and can be verified by AccurateRip, this can go twice as fast as (EDIT: sorry! ) the speed is comprable to dBpowerAMP.

But then there are cases where the use of C2 pointers during re-reads can make a difference in getting a good rip in which case EAC won't be able to get the job done. I think the configuration of dBpowerAMP secure settings still has much to be desired, but Spoon hasn't expressed any interest in my suggestions.

Anyway, there are still lots of other things dBpowerAMP has implemented to improve the ripping process over EAC such as cross-checking and attpemting to detect if interpolation has resulted in a consistent error, though I have never personally expienced a benefit with these.

Odyssey, can you tell me the circumstances (drive features and relative settings in both programs) where you've seen EAC rip more quickly than dBpowerAMP?

Does EAC write anything to the registry, or can it be made portable? This would be an awesome portable app if it could work as one.

Thanks for letting us know.

Okay, I agree it was not worth mentioning, though I have to say I've sometimes learned about Microsoft bugs from Linux sites and vice-versa, though not usually.



There is an option in dbPowerAmp to read into the lead-out, but I haven't tried it.

native support to lossless FLAC, Wavpack CUE sheets are really needed, stuffs like REACT are never perfect

So far it does -> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AWSoftware\EAC

You can do it via command line and it works like a charm. What I'd like to see would be encoding to multiple formats in one run without MAREO or rEACt. Keep in mind that EAC is meant for advanced users (or so I think).