how to start ripping

[melomania]

Hi

I'm concidering buying a Squeezebox.
I think I understand how things work.

One thing however is not clear to me.
How do I get all my CDs on the NAS complete with cover art, song names, genre info, etc.

Currently I have all CDs ripped into iTunes (on a iMAc). But I want to quit with iTunes. Do I have to rip all CDs again. Which application do I need?

Thanks.

[tcutting]

As far as having to re-rip, you probably don't HAVE to re-rip, but you may still want to. It depends.

First off, SqueezeCenter and Squeezeboxes can access iTunes library, so they should play OK. Should also be able so get to album art already stored in iTunes. Information like song titles, genre, etc, are stored in tags which should also be picked up by Squeezecenter.

HOWEVER, what format did you rip to originally? If your CD's are in a "lossy" format (mp3 or AAC), you may want to re-rip into a lossless format (lossless meaning that all the "bits" on the original CD are able to be completely re-created - whereas "lossy" formats "throw away" some of the information to allow the files to be compressed down much smaller).

As far as ripping, I'm not familiar with Mac applications - dbpoweramp and EAC (exact audio copy) are popular here because they ensure "accurate rips", that is, they have ways of checking to be sure that the information is captured correctly from the CD without errors.

[davep]

As far as ripping, I'm not familiar with Mac applications - dbpoweramp and EAC (exact audio copy) are popular here because they ensure "accurate rips", that is, they have ways of checking to be sure that the information is captured correctly from the CD without errors.

I recommend XLD for Mac-based ripping http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html. Does accurate rips and replay gain to Flac and other formats.

davep

[DanH]

When I bought my squeezebox I did nearly all of my rips with dbpoweramp. It tags your tracks and pulls cover art automatically. You will still need to manually edit things like the album name on multi-disk albums. I do not think any software does them they way squeeze center wants them.

[fillmore]

if audio quality is the priority, use eac. everything you need to know:

http://xs.vc/eac/index.html

[ilovemysqueezebox]

[QUOTE=fillmore;433902]if audio quality is the priority, use eac. everything you need to know:



EAC is indeed the reference ripping software. It's really CD-quality!

[radish]

dbPoweramp produces rips of equal quality to EAC, as evidenced by the fact they both use AccurateRip. But yes, using one of those two is highly recommended!