A peculiar CD audio listening / copy protection

Burning Software Copy Protection
#1

I have an audio CD that contains PC-listening blocking. This is what I discovered how it works:

The CD contains two sessions. The 1st one is composed of 12 audio tracks. The 2nd one contains some audio player, probably designed to listen properly to the CD. Every track is “stamped” with some unreadable data during the passage between 8th and 9th second. Under Windows, every player stops as it reaches 8th second. Manually passing through this stamp works well.

I want to rip the CD so I can listen to it via my netbook that doesn’t have any CD drive. So far I tried several approaches in order to obtain impeccable quality.

  1. Just used Foobar2000 without any tweaks. The PC almost crashed, but the program never passed through the 8th second.

  2. Used Linux (like VLC or Foobar2000 via Wine) to listen and to rip the CD. Any program easily passes through the 8th second, but produces a click. This click is kept in ripped files as well.

  3. Used my PlayStation2 to listen to the CD. There are no stops or clicks, but I cannot rip the CD.

  4. Used ISO buster (Windows) to export the Session 1. The application detected the above mentioned corrupt data stamps at the beginning of each song. I chose to ignore them. The result: a working CUE/BIN image, but those annoying cliks still are present while listening.

Maybe there are other people here who know what kind of copy protection this is and what to do about it.

#2

Try EAC .

If it doesn’t rip the CD correctly then download the trial of AnyDVD unless you already have it.
Run it while EAC rips the CD.

#3

Thanks for your answer.

I made a little research. It appears that my CD is copy-controlled using SAFEAUDIO method. I found a detailed description about how it works. In the end the author suggests using EAC as well.

But it doesn’t work. With AnyDVD or without it. As with 2nd and 4th method I described in my previous post, the final result contains a pause passing from the 8th to 9th second which is not present listening to the same tracks via the built-in player or Playstation2.

EAC has many options. Are there any I should try?

#4

@UTF-16
Do you have only one optical drive to test with ? Some drives perform better than others.

Which extraction method is set in EAC/Drive Options… ?

Would you please tell us artist & album title ?

P.S.: don’t know whether it matters in this case, but (as also mentioned in your link) better do not allow the CD to autorun before ripping

#5

EAC has some learning curve.
There was a good guide on the internet but it seems that it is no longer available.I have a .pdf copy but it it too large to post.

Terramex is correct about not letting the CD autostart.
If you start AnyDVD before inserting the CD it will prevent autostart.
I haven’t read the link you posted but I will try to today & see if I have other suggestions.

#6

Do you have only one optical drive to test with ? Some drives perform better than others.

I have antoher one, thanks for the tip, I’ll try to plug it in.

Which extraction method is set in EAC/Drive Options… ?

I tried all of them – Secure (C2 error info on and off), Fast and Burst – except for Paranoid.

Would you please tell us artist & album title ?

Prāta Vētra. Dienās, kad lilauks pārāk tāls

Terramex is correct about not letting the CD autostart.

My CD autostart function is disabled since Windows installation using TweakUI.

#7

Did you try the Examine C2 Feature with a scratched CD to see if your drive supports the C2 feature ?

Since it seems that the SAFEAUDIO method uses C2 for the protection.

#8

Did you try the Examine C2 Feature with a scratched CD to see if your drive supports the C2 feature ?

Actually I did, and the result was positive.

Do you have only one optical drive to test with ? Some drives perform better than others.

OK, I have absolutely no idea why, but my old LiteON seemed to be very useful. I stopped using it since it works terribly loudly and produces very weird sounds when CD is spinning. But it completely ignored any errors found on disk. So much for the “advanced” copy protection…