Last Tracks On Various Cds

[DashingDave]

Hi there! While importing my entire collection of CDs into the iTunes library, I come across random ones where the last 1 or 2 tracks cannot be read by the computer. However, these same tracks can be read by my $500 stereo system. The fact that most of my CDs have no trouble signals to me that it's an issue with the CDs, but that gets thrown out of whack when the stereo CD player *can* read them. I've tried just copying those audio files onto my hard drive, thinking it might be an iTunes importing problem, but the files are apparently unreadable.
How can I determine what is the true culprit--damaged CDs or a partially-defective optical drive? I have a PowerMac G4 450MHz tower with an internal DVD-ROM optical drive.

[karly]

DD

I was about to say that it sounds like a combination of damaged CD and error recovery not as good on the Powermac CD, but then I realized you say it's always the last 1 or 2 tracks. Are the CDs that give you problems by any chance the ones with _the most_ music? So, if there is a mechanical problem with the CD drive, maybe it starts screwing up when it reaches the inner tracks. Just a thought.

If not, try ripping the suspect CDs on a different computer. It's not that unusual for a CD to be flaky on one drive and fine on another.

-karl

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Originally Posted by karly

...when it reaches the inner tracks.

Minor nitpick: outer tracks... CDs are written from the inside-out, with the first tracks being in the center and the last tracks being outermost

Your stereo reading the audio tracks and your computer processing (ripping or copying) the tracks are not exactly the same thing. Your stereo CD player is probably a lot less sensitive to errors, defects or damage to the CD, making it happily play through where the computer might choke.

Will iTunes play the CD tracks, just not copy/rip them? Or does iTunes neither play the tracks directly from the CD nor copy/rip them? Have you tried turning on "Use error correction when reading Audio CDs" in the "Importing" pane of the preferences?

[DashingDave]

In response to the questions asked so far,

(1) it's not specific to "longer" CDs; I'd thought of that, but I have ones that seem to filled to the 74-min capacity and have no problems.

(2) If iTunes *can* play the songs through, they've usually got lots of gaps and hiccups in them.

(3) "Error correction" is able to rescue about 1 of every 3 songs that falls victim to this problem. I have been able to get one CD's "missing" songs to import using "E.C." and AIFF formating (converted later to Apple Loseless) with an external CD-R drive, but it wasn't perfect. That was a CD I'd just purchased, too, so there shouldn't have been anything wrong with the disc unless it was a manufacturing defect. Another CD clogs up the external drive with track 27 but not 28 when I try this.

I just don't see how my discs can have these glaring defects when they've never been scratched--I'm OCD about keeping discs in their cases and taking care of things. So much so that I'd hate to attempt to use my motorized disc repairer, since it slices up the plastic shielding in order to attempt to remove the defect that is causing the laser to not read those odd tracks. Plus, why is it always the last 1 or 2 tracks on a disc that are "damaged?" It's never been any earlier on a disc than the 3rd-to-last track--you'd think if these were disc defect problems, probabilities would have it that tracks from all over the place would be suspect, not just the ones nearest the outer edge.

Thanks for your comments so far! I apologize for not responding sooner--quite frankly, I didn't think anyone would be posting to my thread, so I didn't bother checking it.