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How to break the copy protection???
30 replies
Mfan28179-Jason said on March 29, 2003 07:08:
A few of you out there claim to be able to happily play both ’The Ballad Hits’ and ’The Pop Hits’ on your computer like any normal CD. How so?
PietROxette, I downloaded CDex, the software you suggested to try to rip MP3s or Wav viles from the discs but have had no such luck. Today I received my ’Pop Hits’ CD in the mail. It works more or less the same way as ’The Ballad Hits.’
I have the CDex software open as I type this. It appears like this:
DataTrack01 01 0:10.00 1.68 MB
.....(all the way down to)
DataTrack15 15 2:20.00 56:19.45 568.54 MB
DataTrack16 16 58:39.45 15:38.30 154.50 MB
So they are data tracks. I try to “rip” the tracks and the program says it can’t rip them because they are not audio files. When I play track 15, it starts at 2:20 with ’Opportunity Nox’ playing, 2:20 into the song. ’ON’ finishes and ’The Look’ starts playing but at 0:00 again, yet still track 15. Then it stops at 10:00.
Hmmm.
I guess I’ll just have to wait for the Canadian release and hope for no copy protection. Or maybe the U.S. will get lucky and get ’The Pop Hits’ later this year with no copy protection.
Also, let me add that the material on ’The Pop Hits’ sounds much richer being remastered. When I listen to ’Dangerous’ it really stands out more than on ’Look Sharp!’ Even the overall sound of ’Run To You’ seems to be lifted and improved. Very cool. Too bad I can’t rip perfect copies of these at the moment.
In any case, anybody have any suggestions on what I could/should do?
Thanks.
JoyRidErno said on March 29, 2003 12:46:
I used CDex and it worked fine. You can try to close everything in windows (ctrl + atl + del and close program...) and then try encoding...
I guess the main problem is your cd-rom drive...
colinvdbel (moderator) said on March 29, 2003 21:32:
I ripped it with Nero to Wav...then made CD...no problems at all...
Jud (moderator) said on March 29, 2003 22:20:
i just put the cd in the cd-player and used Nero to grab the songs..
per_electric said on March 29, 2003 22:45:
Your computer is probably a bit too old for this kind of task. I had the same problems with my old computer playing singles including videos. It just didn’t want to play the tracks. Have you checked the system requirements on the back? Might give you a little hint...
Mfan28179-Jason said on March 30, 2003 03:45:
Hmmm...the CD does play in my drive, but only with the pop-up player that Capitol provided with the sh*tty sound quality. Bla!
And my computer is old, but it does meet the requirements, but I’m not sure if that has anything to do with ripping the songs. Like a few of you mentioned, it probably has to do with the CD-Rom drive.
Maybe I’ll try Nero. I’ll be getting a new computer in a month or so, so maybe it will work then. If not, there’s always hope for the Canadian release. :)
Mfan28179-Jason said on March 30, 2003 22:40:
“AudioCatalyst it goes perfect for me.
ernes”
Thanks for the info. I tried AudioCatalyst as well. In fact, it brings up basically the same thing it does on CDEx, with the exception of some of the tracks actually being audio tracks rather than data tracks. I guess that must officially mean that it has more to do with my CD-Rom drive than the actual software? Hmmm. Well, I plan to get a new computer in about a month.
Vixzter said on March 31, 2003 00:12:
I have cdex software, I’ve managed to mp3 the trax from pop hits and they sound fine. If I was gonna burn them to cd I’d just use nero burning software and select audio cd and it would change it from an mp3 to a wav file automaticaly.
Both pop hits and ballad hits play fine on my pc, they just like to use their own playing software, in which case....i stop the cd....open windows media player and play it thru that.
ditroia said on March 31, 2003 01:23:
Turn Off Auto Play For the Cd Drive or when youInsert the CD Hold the Shit Key Until the Cd Light stops flashing then try.
To Turn off Suto Play Go to Device Mnagager Cd ROM Properties.
Dave
pietROxette said on March 31, 2003 07:15:
Jason, which release of TPH & TBH do you have? When you insert the CD and open CDEX, do you only see data tracks and no audio tracks with both CDs?
twenty7twenty said on March 31, 2003 12:38:
depends on which cd drive you use. some don’t care about “cactus data shield” (the name of the copy protection used on tph), others do though.
pietROxette said on March 31, 2003 18:04:
It’s more or less true that CD-RW drives might have some problems playing back the CD as a normal audio CD, thus, difficulties might occur while ripping.
Don’t use AudioCatalyst, it’s a very poor software and it’s using a very very bad mp3 encoder, which results in big, but low quality audio files (even if you set the bitrate high, the mp3 you create with AudioCatalyst sound cheap).
[edited a typo]
Mfan28179-Jason said on April 1, 2003 02:54:
OMG! I broke it!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is all about the CD drive you are using after all!
What I did is use my Sony CD-RW player/recorder instead of the regular CD-Rom drive on my computer (I have 2 drives)! I completely forgot about using it to play/rip songs. I have never used it for this purpose before. I always used the CD-Rom on my computer before.
So what I did is bring up my Sony Spressa Play & Record and switched drives to the Sony CD-RW one. It popped up with all 15 tracks as audio ones. However, they wouldn’t play sound (maybe I have to change something with the volume settings). So I ripped Opportunity Nox as a wav file and it ripped! So I played it in Winamp and IT PLAYED with sound! AHHHHH! :)
In any case, thanks for your help everyone! Finally, remastered sound quality for me!
Also, may I ask exactly what is wrong with Audiocatalyst? I’ve been using it for a while now and have noticed absolutely nothing wrong with the quality of the Mp3s I’ve made. I play them in my car and they sound perfect.
Now that I have broke the copy protection, I think I’ll finally go order my copy of the “Opportunity Nox” maxi-single. ;)
-Jason
Mfan28179-Jason said on April 1, 2003 03:16:
More good news! I just tried my ’Da Capo’ Ace Of Base CD in the drive as well! It almost froze my computer, but after about 2 minutes, it finally showed the audio tracks. The computer is very slow when the disc is in, but I just happily ripped “Unspeakable.” I’ve been wanting to rip these tracks since October! Finally!
pietROxette said on April 1, 2003 07:54:
There is a significant difference in mp3 encoders available. CDEX is using one of the best quality eoncoder, called LAME. While AudioCatalyst is using the Xing encoder, that’s, erm, well, quite shitty... It’s like both dot matrix printers and laser jet ones can be used to print a document, however, the result is way different.
Mfan28179-Jason said on April 2, 2003 05:32:
Interesting. In that case, I guess I’ll stick to the CDEX one! Thanks. :)
arnie said on April 2, 2003 15:04:
I couldn’t....
I used CDex and it did convert the audio tracks to wav files but when I listen to them carefuly I noticed a noise during the whole song... It happened to me several times, not only using CDex but also in Goldwave... and this is the first time. The cd is in mint condition as well as the cd-room and it plays perfectly on the convencional music center...
tcooh said on April 2, 2003 20:46:
Simply use RealPlayer - I could easily make mp3s of all the songs on TBH and TPH using the lastest version. Some problems only with the last track on each, so album and artist info isn’t included in the mp3 file.
arnie said on April 3, 2003 13:46:
WHat I mean ....
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61914
kewlaid said on August 5, 2003 15:37:
what you have been talking about is fun and all. But what I want to know is how to break the copy protection off of a PC GAME. I am trying to find out how the break the copy protect off of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Can anyone help me with that one?
AntiMario said on August 5, 2003 16:11:
Change your CD-ROM to ASUS - kix ass! Will read you anything. My TEAC gave up on Mazarin (showing only data trax), ASUS fixed that trouble away, heh.
And for grabbing I do insist on Audiograbber + Lame Encoder (or you can use any attached).
LittleSpooky said on August 5, 2003 20:49:
Jas: One of the things I’ve discovered about computers “meeting the requirement” is sometimes that’s not the case. I had a pen cam that said: “Minimum system requirements: Operating System Windows95, Windows98, etc.”
I had 95 on my computer and guess what?! THINK AGAIN!!! I actually had to upgrade to 98 just to get that to work. And you and I both know that your computer is from the times of the Abacus ;o)
Vixzter said on August 6, 2003 11:50:
I found that with cdex....its easier (on copy protected discs) to mp3 trax one at a time than it is all at once, I didn’t have any errors when I did that.
Denstandigaresan said on August 6, 2003 12:15:
My PC doesn’t like it at all, and it’s a brand new pc... The CD drive might be the problem I guess. It like stutters when I put the disc in. It took about 5 minutes to get it to open! Arg!
Mfan28179-Jason said on August 7, 2003 05:40:
LOL @ Littlespooky. I’m surprised to see this topic surface again. A little old I guess. Anyhow, yeah, those problems were on my old computer. I’ve had the laptop now for a few months - and so far, no problems.
GTiG said on March 29, 2003 07:44:
Welll I’m no expert in this subject, but I had absolutely NO problem playing the CD in my computer... all that was different from a not copy protected CD, was that I got a message saying I had to update some files on my computer to play the tracks. So I clicked “OK” to do that, and then the first song on the album started to play.
So no trouble with that.