I have a soundchoice karaoke CD+G disc 8185 (Christmas Favorites) which I cannot back up. In fact, I cannot even play it in my computer using WinCDG Pro.

This is the only disc I have run across which has given me problems. Generally I use CDRWin or CloneCD to backup my discs. I use a Plextor 16/10/40 as my main CD+G capable drive.

Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks.

I take it that you have played this disk in a regular karaoke machine and it plays fine. I also figure that you can play the audio from the disk on your computer. You might be able to use WinCD and just do a backup of the disk. Then try to play it in a karaoke machine. Otherwise, you're probably sol since you can't even play it in your pc. Plextor is the best burner and is all I ever use. I've never come across a cdg that I couldn't play.

Yes you're right it will play fine in a standalone CD+G player but not in the computer. And as you mentioned, the Plextor is basically the Rolls-Royce of CD drives and it cannot handle this disc except for the audio, unlike other CD+Gs which play fine. I haven't heard of WinCD before, but this disc seems to have 2 sessions on it -- a bootable data session which has a bunch of useless advertising files, and another one with all the CD+G tracks. It makes both of my drives (Lite-On LTD-163 DVD-ROM and the Plextor) spin like crazy -- it doesn't sound good.

I take it this is some kind of copy protection scheme, but shouldn't we be able to backup our own purchased discs?!?!

So I guess I am sol because I haven't been able to find any software which can even read this thing properly.

This information came from the CAVS message board http://www.cavsusa.com

My HP 9300i burner was successful using the following instructions and CDRwin 3.8d

If you print the TOC to a file, you can cut and paste the LBA values

My 24X IDE Plextor burner, 40X SCSI Ultraplex reader, HP IDE 9100i burner, or IDE HP8210i burner did not work.


> If you have experienced diffculties with backing up your "purchased copy of SC8700" , then follow these steps. This process will use "Sector by Sector" copying each track one at a time. I am using a "Ultraplex 32X SCSI Reader only" for copying(I tried a writer and it would not copy).
>
> Using Golden Hawk CDRwin ver 4.0a Note: Older ver will should also work. If you don't have CDRwin, go to www.Goldenhawk.com to purchase and download program.
> 1. Open : CDRwin.
> 2. Open : "Table of Contents" and print page for LBA info for reference.
> Example of printout:
> Track 01 LBA(000000) Note: The first LBA number will be "Sector Selection Start" will be track 01
> Track 02 LBA(023148)and so on!
> 3. Open : "Extract Disc/Tracks/Sectors
> 4. Extract Mode: "Select Sectors"
> 5. Image Filename: "SC8700-01" (Important to put -01, next track -02 and so on)
> 6. File Format: "Automatic"
> 7. Data Type: "Audio with CD+G (2448)
> 8. Sector Selection Start: 000000
> 9. Sector Selection End: 023148
> 10. Hit: Start
> Note: After track copies file name will be SC8700-01.bin. Copy all remaining tracks except last track.
> 11. Copying the last track:
> Apply the same procedure as above except as "Sector Selection End." The last track "Sector Selection End" must be a large number. (You will not know how large the ending track will be). The "Sector Selection Start" will be track 14 LBA # 301236.
> Example: The "Sector Selection End" (You will not know the ending LBA #)
> will be 501236 for example. This number is large in order to find out what the actual ending LBA number is. When copying "Sector by Sector" you will not know what the ending LBA number will be. By using a large number as above you can find out what the ending number should be. After beginning the copying of the final track you should receive an error stating: "Unable to read AUDIO sectors ###### to ######." Write the first set of numbers down. At this point click "OK" and change "Sector Selection Ending #" and replace 501236 with the first set of numbers given from the error message. The first set of numbers on the error message will be the "Sector Selection Ending number."
> Note: After replacing the "Ending number" with the specified number from the error message you may receive another error message. You will need to reduce the "Ending number" last two digits of the number smaller.
>
> Now you need to copy back to CD.
> 1. Insert blank CD into writer
> 2. Open "Record Disk"
> 3. Select "Load Tracks"
> 4. Select "Disk Type:" CD+G
> 5. Select "Add": Go to the folder that you chose to save SC8700- file in.
> 6. Highlite all SC8700 files and select open. After opening the folder where you saved the files hitting "Open" will bring you back to the CDRwin "Load Tracks" page. You will now see the chosen files show in the large box under the add button
>
> Note: The files may not appear in numerical sequence. It is important that they are in "numerical sequence" for this will be how they are copyied to CD.
>
> 7. Click "OK." A message will appear saying "Compiling Queue sheet...please wait."
> 8. Click on "Start Recording." This will copy all the chosen tracks onto the CD.
]

Only my HP9300i burner works with this method.

I thought my 24X Plex burner or my 40X Plex SCSI reader would also, but they didn't.

If you don't have the right drive,
then this method will only leave you frustrated.
Fortunately for me, I have one that does.

if you edit the "multimedia" selection to read the first session only on CLONE CD4 this will take care of multisession discs. If the disk is protected by mediacloq then the TOC is hacked and the disk will only play on regular cd and karaoke players because they just read where the tracks are. A PC, however, has to be told where to get the information. A hacked TOC will tell the computer to look somewhere for the start of the track and it won't be there so the computer looks and looks and looks.

The cdrwin method always works for me!
by simply selecting the sector numbers for the cdg tracks and leave the "data" track alone!

and i have done this with a "whole" disk in the past, rather than track by track, but you then have to create a "cue" file for burning.

justpastit

well justpastit that's a great idea for a cd that can tell you where the sectors start for each track. If you'll notice the mediacloq will have 15 gray numbers and one yellow data track at the end. The 15 songs are grayed out because it knows there's 15 tracks on the disk but it doesn't know where each one begins or ends.

If you find a way to identify the sectors of these tracks without you computer even knowing where they're at then let me know please

CompTech

A computer is like a blond....you don't appreciate either one till they go down on you.........

You could then try "Blindread"/"Blindwrite"?....No?

But to be honest Comp in all the years i have been "ripping"etc, i have never had a disk with "greyed out" tracks............ ever?
So i cant comment on that.
But, i have had disks (music cd's) where they are not supposed to play on a pc. and wont. But I can still rip/encode them!!

The alternative is to look on someones server for a pre-ripped version? maybe?

justpastit

Incidentally..........The disk in question sc8185, i can get a pre-ripped version and put it on Will's server for you if it is not on!!

Comptech...........
If you're there, what disk in particular are you having bother with m8?

(e-mail me if you prefer)


justpastit

email
db.jaki@ntlworld.com

Send me an e-mail and I'll see if I can help.