Exact Audio Copy (EAC) Setup & Ripping Guide MP3 & Flac

This is a basic guide to configure Exact Audio Copy (EAC) with preset profiles that will allow the choice of ripping Cd's and compressing the output to MP3 (190 VBR (APS), 245 VBR (APX) 256 CBR & 320 CBR (API)) and FLAC.

What You Need.

1.Download and install Exact Audio Copy, the version used here is eac-0.95b4. Do not start EAC just yet.

2.Download and install FLAC, version used FLAC 1.1.2.(IF YOU HAVE TO ENCODE IT TO FLAC)

3.Download LAME MP3 Encoder, unpack to a folder and move the folder to your Program Files folder, version used LAME MP3 Encoder 3.97 beta 2 do not use the alpha versions these are for test purposes only.

4.A clean unscratched audio CD, do not insert just yet.

Initial Setup.

This should take no more than a few minutes and only needs to be done once.

Configuration Wizard.

A: When you open EAC for the first time the Configuration Wizard window should pop up if not click EAC (Next to Edit) and select the Configuration Wizard.



Click Next, you can pretty much click next for each step with the exception of the steps below where some input may be required.

B:Extraction Preferences window.



1: Your drive model should be indicated here.

2: Make sure that I prefer to have accurate results is checked.

3: Click next.


C: Encoder Configuration window.



1: Make sure this is checked.

2: Click next.

Note: The Configuration Wizard will now search for Lame.exe

D: LAME Configuration window.



1: If the Configuration Wizard failed to find Lame.exe you can browse for the location.

2: If all settings are as shown here click next.

E: freedb Configuration window. freedb is a free database service to look up CD information which will allow EAC to automatically label your rips, EAC will need access to the internet to use this so you may need to set permissions with firewall etc..



1: You will need to enter an email address here for access to the freedb database, the address does not have to be genuine but should have the format of a real email address.

2:Click Next.

F: Configuration Wizard Done window.



1: Check the expert option as this will give you access to additional settings.

2: Click Finish.

EAC Options.


Press F9 to bring up EAC Options. Note: No modification is required for the Catalog, Write and Interface so the are skipped.

A: Extraction Tab.

Only two options need to be checked here.



1: Check Fill Up Missing Offset Samples With Silence.

2: Check Synchronize Between Tracks.

3: Change Error Recovery Quality to High.

B: General Tab.

For the most part these settings have no part in accurate ripping and are more for personal preference, there are a couple that should be checked for automatic CD information.



1: Check On Unknown Cd's.

2: Check Automatically Access On line freedb Database.

C: Tools Tab.

Just check that your settings match this image.



D: Normalize Tab.

The Normalize function should be unchecked. Note: Lossless ripping is not possible with this enabled.



E: Filename Tab.

This is where you set up your chosen file naming convention.

%D\%C\%N - %T
This will extract tracks to folder Artist\CdTitle\ 01 - TrackTitle.Format

%D - %C\%N - %T
This will extract tracks to folder Artist - CdTitle\ 01 - TrackTitle.Format
If a .torrent file were created from this folder the name would include Artist and CD titles.



F: Directories Tab.

Use this option only if you want to extract files to a default directory, most people prefer to choose the extraction location and leave this option set to Ask Every Time.

Note: C:\Music\ is just an example and does not normally exist unless created by the user.



1: Select for default directory.

2: Browse for chosen directory.

Click OK


Drive Options.

Press F10 to bring up the Drive Options you will see an information window uncheck the Show this information next time box an click OK. This stage is just a tab at a time.

A: Extraction Method Tab.



1: Detect Read Features, you can manually configure your chosen drive if it is not listed in the EAC internal database or you think that the settings are incorrect. Insert a clean unscratched CD into the drive a click Detect Read Features, how long this will take depends on the drive, during the analysis you will see a window similar to the one below when finished click Apply.



2: It is very important that Secure Mode is enabled.

3: Quite alot of drives support C2 error retrieval however the vast majority are not truly accurate, if you are unsure about the accuracy of your drive with respect to C2 error retrieval make sure it is unchecked.

B: Drive Tab.



Still with the disc in the drive click Autodetect Read Command Now, the read command that it finds is the one we are going to use. Move on to the next tab.

C: Offset / Speed Tab.

The Read Offset Correction Value (+48) shown in point 2 is for an NEC - DVD_RW ND-2500A this is not the same value for all makes and model of drive.



1: Check Use Read Sample Offset Correction.

2: Type offset value.

3: Check Allow Speed Reduction During Extraction.

Move to next Tab
E: Gap Detection Tab.



1: Detection Method A should be fine but if you drive cannot detect gaps then try B or C.

2: Set Detection Accuracy to Secure.

Click OK.

Profiles, (Encoder Configurations).

By configuring a few profiles and saving them it is quite simple to load the desired profile prior to ripping.

MP3, Lame.

These steps are repeated for each mp3 profile created.

Press F11 to bring up Compression Options.

A: External Compression Tab.



1: Check Use External Program for Compression.

2: Change Use file extension to .mp3 (including the dot).

3: Browse to find Lame.exe.

4: Additional command line options is where the the quality of the out put is set here are some suggested settings...


Equivalent to Alt Preset Standard (APS), variable bitrate (VBR) with a target of 190kbps, reasonable size for quality trade off.

-V 2 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

Equivalent to Alt Preset Extreme (APX), variable bitrate (VBR) with a target of 245kbps, greater quality than above, slightly larger size and gaining popularity.

-V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

Constant bitrate (CBR) at 256kbps.

-b 256 --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

Equivalent to Alt Preset Insane (API), constant bitrate (CBR) at 320kbps, the best quality with a larger filesize.

-b 320 --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

5: Bit Rate can be ignored, the command line makes it redundant.

6: High Quality.

B: ID3 Tag Tab.

Check that the options are the same as this screen shot, click OK and save the profile as shown below.



Saving Current Profile.





1: Click New.

2: Choose a name for the profile, a descriptive name will be useful when you have multiple profiles.

3: Make sure All EAC Options is checked and click OK.

4: Click Save

Flac Profile.

Press F11 again.



1: Change the used file extension to .flac

2: Browse for flac.exe which is the external compression program being used.

3: Change the Additional command line options to read..

-8 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

4: Selected bitrate has no impact here.

5: Click OK and save the profile as shown above.

C: Offset / Speed Tab.

The Read Offset Correction Value (+48) shown in point 2 is for an NEC - DVD_RW ND-2500A this is not the same value for all makes and model of drive.



1: Check Use Read Sample Offset Correction.

2: Type offset value.

3: Check Allow Speed Reduction During Extraction.

Move to next Tab
E: Gap Detection Tab.



1: Detection Method A should be fine but if you drive cannot detect gaps then try B or C.

2: Set Detection Accuracy to Secure.

Click OK.

Profiles, (Encoder Configurations).

By configuring a few profiles and saving them it is quite simple to load the desired profile prior to ripping.

MP3, Lame.

These steps are repeated for each mp3 profile created.

Press F11 to bring up Compression Options.

A: External Compression Tab.



1: Check Use External Program for Compression.

2: Change Use file extension to .mp3 (including the dot).

3: Browse to find Lame.exe.

4: Additional command line options is where the the quality of the out put is set here are some suggested settings...


Equivalent to Alt Preset Standard (APS), variable bitrate (VBR) with a target of 190kbps, reasonable size for quality trade off.

-V 2 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

Equivalent to Alt Preset Extreme (APX), variable bitrate (VBR) with a target of 245kbps, greater quality than above, slightly larger size and gaining popularity.

-V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

Constant bitrate (CBR) at 256kbps.

-b 256 --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

Equivalent to Alt Preset Insane (API), constant bitrate (CBR) at 320kbps, the best quality with a larger filesize.

-b 320 --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

5: Bit Rate can be ignored, the command line makes it redundant.

6: High Quality.

B: ID3 Tag Tab.

Check that the options are the same as this screen shot, click OK and save the profile as shown below.



Saving Current Profile.





1: Click New.

2: Choose a name for the profile, a descriptive name will be useful when you have multiple profiles.

3: Make sure All EAC Options is checked and click OK.

4: Click Save

Flac Profile.

Press F11 again.



1: Change the used file extension to .flac

2: Browse for flac.exe which is the external compression program being used.

3: Change the Additional command line options to read..

-8 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

4: Selected bitrate has no impact here.

5: Click OK and save the profile as shown above.

Ripping

1: Open EAC, insert CD and load your preferred ripping profile.

Note: a FLAC profile is being used in this example however if you just want the output as WAV files any of the preconfigured profiles can be used.




2: Click Action and Detect Gaps (or F4).



3: Click Action, Create Cue Sheet and Multiple WAV Files With Gaps (Noncompliant).

Note: This is a good point to check that Append Gaps To Previous Track is checked, it should be set as default.





4: Click CTRL + A to select all tracks, Action, Test And Copy Selected Tracks and Compressed (Shift + F6).

Note: For WAV files select Uncompressed (F6).




5: During the extraction process you will see this window, when you see the Audio Extraction Complete message click OK and you are done.:icon_chee



Note: Remember to check the .log file for any errors.

Complete DVD Ripping Guide Using Handbrake(Easy to Use n Rip)

We've certainly discussed Handbrake in the past, but we've neglected to actually show you how to use it to rip a DVD. If you haven't gotten into Handbrake because you've found it a little confusing or intimidating, here's how to get started.

The video above will walk you through the entire process and provide some additional information, so you're best off watching it if you really need to know how Handbrake works. Nonetheless, here are the general steps you'll need to take to get ripping with Handbrake.

Step One: Select a Source

Open Handbrake and you'll be asked to locate a source. Choose a DVD, DVD image, or a VIDEO_TS folder. You can also choose pretty much any video file, too, as Handbrake will convert standard video files as well. If you're ripping a DVD with copy protection, you'll also need to have VLC installed. Once you have your source selected, open it up.

Step Two: Choose the Title You Want to Rip

Once Handbrake has loaded your source file, in the upper left-hand corner you'll find the Title drop-down menu. Select that and you'll see a list of all the tracks Handbrake can rip. You're really only getting track numbers and lengths here, so choosing the right one involves a little bit of guess work. Fortunately this is pretty easy to figure out. If you're ripping the movie, the track will be the length of the running time of the movie. It'll also be the longest of any of the tracks in most circumstances. The same goes for TV episodes. Just select the track you want and you can move on to choosing your settings.

Step Three: Choose Your Video and Audio Settings

Next you need to decide how high (or low) you want the quality of your ripped content to be. In the video panel, you can drag the Constant Quality slider from left to right to adjust the quality. (Right is higher, left is lower.) Alternatively you can set an average bit rate (we've created a calculator to help you find the perfect bit rate) or use a Handbrake preset for a specific device. Once you've chosen your video settings, click the audio tab and make your audio choices. For the most part you can leave this alone, but this section is where you'll set things like the audio language of your ripped content. You can also change the audio bit rate here, but note that if you're ripping content for an Apple device you cannot set that bit rate above 160kbps.

Step Four: Start Ripping!

Now that you've got all your settings in Handbrake you can go ahead and rip that DVD. If you're only ripping a single file, press the Start button up top. If you want to batch-rip more content, click the Add to Queue button (also up top) and repeat this process for the addition content. Once you've got it all in your queue, go ahead and press the Start button.
That's it! Happy ripping!

Convert HDTV H264 Transport Stream (TS) to H264 in MKV

Tools used
MeGUI

Lately I changed my HTPC setting in order to get the full experience of HDTV. Because of that I installed Windows 7 and MediaPortal 1.1 RC1 instead of the Microsoft Media Center.

Well, MediaPortal is able to record SDTV and HDTV. The recordings are stored in a Transport Stream file *.ts and because of that those files are merely a dump of the TV signal and rather big. A movie that lasts 2 hours takes about 12 GB (1 Video Stream, 2 MPEG Audio Streams, 1 AC3 Stream, Teletext)

I needed a solution to compress and convert those files somehow. The problem is that there are not many applications out there that can handle Transport Streams with H264 content so far. Most people suggest ProjectX, however ProjectX does NOT SUPPORT Transport Streams with H264 (07.04.2010) and is unable to demux or repair the video of such TS files.

With TS Files you usually can’t use normal video editing tools because a TS file most likely contains errors. In fact, the purpose of Transport Stream files is to transport information that may get corrupted on its way. At the other end, the recipient (TV, HTPC, Player,..) has to work out a way to fix the errors or at least don’t crash while decoding the streams. Most video editing tools and players however work with “Program Streams” and assume that the video and audio data contains no errors.

After some try & error I found a way to convert those TS files using MeGUI.

STEP 1 – Unmux the Streams

Open MeGUI and select TOOLS -> HD STREAMS EXTRACTOR. Check the radio box that you will use a file as input and select your TS file. Mark all Streams in the “Streams(s)” section in order to extract them. The video should be extracted as MKV. Select an output folder and hit Queue.
In the main MeGUI window switch to the queue and start the job.





After the job is finished you should see several files in the output directory you specified. In my example:

T1_Video – .mkv
T2_Audio – German.mp2
T3_Audio – German.mp2
T4_Audio – German.ac3
T1_Video – - Log.txt (don’t delete this file, we need it later)

This step demuxes and muxes the video stream of the TS file in a MKV file and somehow fixes small errors on the way. I guess the video stream still contains some errors (you cannot fix what’s missing) but the container and seeking functionality get fixed [critication needed]. MeGUI most times displays several errors when you try to create a AVS file with the TS file, however it seems to work with the MKV file created in this step.

STEP 2 – Create a AviSynth Script + Cropping
After the extraction process 2 new windows should appear automatically.
If no windows appear check if you have started the job specified in Step 1 or open it manually with TOOLS -> AVS SCRIPT CREATOR and select the mkv file you created in step 1, not the TS file.
One is the preview window and the other one is a settings window. Most likely your recorded video has some black bars on top, left, right or bottom. If you want to crop the video to remove the black bars you should select “Clever (TM) anamorphic encoding” -> “Overcrop to achieve mod16″ and specify the crop parameters in the Crop & Resize section. Hit “Save” after you entered your prefered settings.

If you don’t want to crop anything, just hit “Save” immediately. This Action will create a Avi Synth script *.avs.



You can also resize the video in this dialog. If you want to resize it you can choose “resize to mod16″ instead of “Overcrop to achieve mod16″.
If you want to cut some parts of the video you can do that afterwards by editing the AVS file with TOOLS -> AVS CUTTER. However I recommend to cut the file after the encoding and muxing everything together simply because if you cut the video file now you have to cut the audio files later manually.

STEP 3 – Encode Video
After you saved the AVS Script a new preview window should appear because MeGui loads the new script right away. If that’s not the case you have to select the script in the input tab of the main MeGUI window. You can close the video preview window.

Choose a place and a filename where the new video file should be created in “Video Output” and the file format should be MKV.

In this step you can also calculate and set a desired filesize using TOOLS -> BITRATE CALCULATOR. However I skip that part and just use the default settings.

Select your prefered encoder settings from the dropdown. hit “Enqueue” and start the job.



In my example I use “x264: DXVA-HD-HQ” as encoder setting. That profile ensures that the file that will be created is DXVA compatible and because the input source is HDTV I choosed a HD profile. If the source contains SD Content you should use one of the “x264: DXVA-SD-*” profiles. What kind of profile you use, “Anime_Toons Fast”, “Anime_Toons HQ”, “Balanced”, “Extra Quality”, “Fast”, “HQ” or “Insane” depends on your content. There’s no real guideline for that, just try the different profiles and see what looks best.

STEP 4 – Mux the Streams
After some minutes/hours/days MeGUI has finished the encoding of the video. The last step is the muxing of all the streams (Audio+Video) in a single MKV Container. Select TOOLS -> MUXER -> MKV MUXER from the MeGUI main window.

“Video Input” is the file that MeGUI just created for you.
In the Audio Section of the muxer, add the audio tracks you want to include with your video file. In my case there were 3 audio streams that were broadcasted. Most times *.MP2 files contain Mono or Stereo Audio and *.AC3 files contain Stereo or 5.1 Audio.

We open the small *.txt file that was created in Step 1 with a text editor and see what audio streams we got. In my case I found those sections in my *.txt file:

TS, 1 video track, 3 audio tracks, 200, 50p
1: h264/AVC, 720p50 (16:9)
2: MP2, German, 2.0 channels, 256kbps, 48khz, -1349ms
3: MP2, German, 2.0 channels, 256kbps, 48khz, -1351ms
4: AC3, German, 2.0 channels, 448kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -22dB, -1391ms

As you see, all my 3 audio files are Stereo (2.0 channels). A very important information in this file is the delay of each audio track, marked bold.

Back to the muxer. Select the audio file(s) you want to include in your Video. You have to enter the right delay of the audio file you selected. If you don’t enter the right delay, the audio will be ahead or after the video.



Choose a path and a filename for the file in “Muxed Output”, hit “Queue” and start the job. This should only take a few seconds/minutes.

Done!

How to create HQ VBR CD Rips

For this, two files are required to be downloaded.

CDEX – A FREE CD ripping utility based on LAME MP3 codec.
LAME MP3 dll file.

Download the CDEX program from here… CDEX Download

After downloading, install the program.

Now, download the LAME MP3 codec (again FREE) from here


Download page - Click -=HERE=-

After downloading the ZIP file, extract the zip into a temp folder (Ex. C:\TEMP\Lame_Codec\) and find the Lame_enc.dll file from the extracted folder (C:\TEMP\Lame_Codec\). Copy that DLL file to CDEX installation folder (just overwrite the existing one in that folder). (Normally it should be C:\Program Files\CDex_150 with default installation)

Now installation part is complete.

Next step is to configure the parameters to get the best VBR quality.

Now, run the CDEX program and select Options-> Settings from the main menu.

Change the encoder parameters to look like the following picture and click on OK button.
(Please note that the Encoder parameter should look like exactly same as shown in the picture. If it is showing differently, then either you selected a wrong option from the list or your DLL file is not the version I described earlier).

That’s it. Now it’s configured for the HQ VBR and you can RIP the CDs or convert the
.wav files (already copied from the CDs in the uncompressed format) to HQ – VBR.

You can configure the other tabs Generic, Filenames etc to suit your requirements.


If any one has a better way of ripping, please do post here.


Happy ripping !!!