MPC-HC and enhanced CDs?

[thrawnrulz68]

I am having trouble getting mpc-hc to playback enhanced CDs. I have tried with the internal CDDA source filter enabled and without it enabled and I always get the error message "File not found" when I click File > Open Disc > Discname. Is there any way to get these discs to play?

[thrawnrulz68]

It seems as though the audio tracks on enhanced CDs are located in the first of two sessions on the disc. Perhaps MPC is just looking for .cda tracks in the second session since that is the one recognized by windows explorer?

[Sharktooth]

try with File->Open Disk.
if it doesnt work, throw away the enhanced CD and get a normal audio CD coz it (the enhanced CD) is nothing different than an Audio CD + some data tracks.
usually it is used to protect the audio tracks from PC playback/ripping.
afterall the enhanced CD standard (AKA CD Extra) was proposed and supported by the RIAA (you never learn, do you?).

[thrawnrulz68]

File then Open Disc doesn't work unfortunately. Still gives the error "file not found." I suppose because its looking for .cda files. Maybe there is another way to do this in MPC? I know that enhanced CDs suck but a lot of bands did put them out in the late 1990s (maybe just to screw with PC CD players/rippers/burners like you said)...

[Sharktooth]

no. the disk was authored to be unplayable from usual media players on PC.

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Are these the CDs that contain the silly copy protection that SONY paid millions of dollars for - only to have someone, on the very first day of release, discover and show that all you have to do to bypass it is to cover the innermost track (Track 0, if I remember correctly) with a marking pen?

[thrawnrulz68]

The CD that I'm using (Limp Bizkit Significant Other) is not a Sony disc as far as I know. There was a bunch of these CDs made in the late-90s and early-2000s using "multi-session discs". Most of them even say "enhanced CD" on the front of the case somewhere. They might be copyrighted also but I'm not sure. This one works in Windows Media Player and RealPlayer, though.

[Sharktooth]

@setarip: no it's something different.

you can rip/save the audio session and re-burn it as a normal audio CD...
bye bye protection.
If RIAA conside that a circumvention of a protection, they can suck my @@s coz CD Extra is not meant to be a protection but a certification mark.

[Leak]

I'm pretty sure MPC-HC plays audio CDs by evaluating the .cda files you get in Windows for audio CDs.

With such an "enhanced CD" (which often contains stuff like music videos and such, not copy protection) in a second session there are no such files since Windows only returns the data session. So there's nothing for MPC-HC to add to the playlist...

If you wanted MPC-HC to play such CDs it would need to list and play the tracks directly using Windows' CD audio functions, which it probably doesn't - but I'd honestly recommend a separate audio playing app (i.e. not MPC and certainly not WMP) for CDs, MP3s, FLACs and what else there is...

[Sharktooth]

some Enhanced CDs have an empty data session (that's not necessary at all...) just to dont let WMP and other players/rippers that do not rely on SPTI or ASPI (but on windows filesystem) access the audio session.
that's a basic protection to dont let you play or rip the audio tracks on a PC without advanced softwares and a bit of knowledge.

[foxyshadis]

One trick that works in MPC, winamp, and so on, is to load a regular CD's .cda files into the playlist, then load the cd-extra cd, and start playing. Kind of a pain, save the playlist.

[G_M_C]

I'd make it easy for myself, and just rip the .cda's and burn 'em to an new regular CD.

I own a few "CD-Extra's"; And it was only worth while to look at the "extra's" once (not interesting enough). After all; It's about the music-part of the CD, not about the extra's.

[Sharktooth]

that's exactly what should you do. screw the enhanced CDs.