I've never had any problem getting a CD to rip...until today.

I purchased Massive Attack's new CD 100th Window and it's got me beat. I've tried ripping it with WMP 9, Media Center, CDex & EAC. All of these rippers either crash or stall when they attempt to extract the CD audio.

Worse, I can't play this CD on my PC without using the playback software stored on the CD. MusicMatch, WMP 9, and Media Center can't even "see" the tracks on the disc. The built-in playback software works fine but I doubt I'll be buying another CD from Virgin if they're going to force me to use their software.

Any ideas on how to rip this CD?? What can I do to extract the tracks?

seems you have grabbed a cd with a copy protection...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/dance/reviews/m...ve_window.shtml (search for sony copy)

http://www.australianmusic.info/forums/sho...tid=581#post581

I ripped massive attack - 100th window with eac without any problem. Lots of error correction happening with a result of 97.2% quality. But i listen the albums numerous times and didn't hear any error.

Just be prepared to take 1 hour to rip the cd

Soren

I´ve the same CD and had the same problems. Finally I used Burnatonce with DiscDump and could create a valid image of the CD!

Regards,

The Link

Here it's said that the copy protection is Cactus Data Shield 200. Some drives have big problems with it, others small. If the cd is clean and unscratched you could use burst mode in EAC (after detecting TOC manually if necessary) or try CloneCD and extract the tracks from the image file with WinISO. If nothing works try another drive.

Another useful link [1]
Another useful link [2]: The marker pen / sticky tape trick to make the 2nd (3rd ...) (data) session(s) that confuse CD-drives unrecognizable

At one point Philips (holder of the CD trademark) said they would withold permission to
call it a CD if copy protection made it violate the standards. Note that Philips is a major maker
of standalone CD recorders.

Does this cd have the usual CD logo on the package or disk?

well, my copy protected one has a logo on the inner side of the case. btw the player software on the cd does not work on my win xp system, freezes. "copy protection" is a wrong term, it should be called "play protection". (original will not play everywhere, but a copy will do)

You may like to read this.

Plextor drives are the best for defeating this crap. Plextools allows you to make the drive only read the first session which is where the audio is, the multi-session crap is all that copy BS.

No problems with the US version...ripped & ogged in about 30 minutes using EAC in Secure mode.

xen-uno

CDFreaks did a review of the Plextor 48x CDRW, it includes the methods used for defeating the copy protections
See it Here

Next time Siligoose please specify the drive and firmware you're using, Lite-On at least has added the ability to rip most copy protections with their latest firmwares...hopefully other manufacturers will follow suit.

I actually own a Lite-On 16X, which is why I didn't mention which Plextor :-)

Same here. No problems with EAC secure - 99.9 - 100.0% quality (Acer/BenQ 16x DVD-ROM). Strange that the US version wouldn't be copy protected while other countries get it.

Take the damn thing right back where you got it from. I would never tolerate that kind of crap from an $18 piece of plastic.

Either we can start now with the cat and mouse (record company finds a new copy protection, someone finds some long and ridiculous way to beat it, record company finds a a new copy protection...) or we can just refuse to play. I like the second option.

sounds interesting, this means plextools can defeat virtualy ANY cd protection right?

Guys...thanks a ton for all your help.

I feel bad typing this...but I failed. I spent 2 hours reading your posts, the links you gave me and info from my own searches. I tried all sorts of things in EAC and a few other rippers. I finally tried the marker trick and, let's just say I don't have the most accurate hands on the planet.
I can wash the marker off the CD but it's not worth it to me. I'm f'n mad as hell at the record company. I will simply NOT buy any CD with copy protection anymore.

Until someone writes an all purpose program that defeats copy protection I'm afraid only the very few (you guys) will be equipped to beat the system. I get the feeling this CD is rippable (just not by me) but it's more than the average person (me) is willing to spend. We need a tool to hack this scheme automatically. Without such a tool, the record companies will win.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I did manage to learn a whole lot.