# CDs skipping & not ripping on Windows Media Player 12



## PapawPuff (Feb 5, 2012)

When I play certain CDs on Windows Media Player 12 the sound skips and when I try to rip some CDs it takes over an hour & won't rip all the tracks. I can play & rip the same CDs on VLC no problem, but ripping with VLC is a pain as you have to set up & rip each track individually. I've already ran the Microsoft Fixit tool to no avail. I also noticed that the same CDs giving me problems in WMP are squirrely in iTunes too.
Here's my system info;

OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 250 Processor, AMD64 Family 16 Model 6 
Stepping 3
Processor Count: 2
RAM: 16381 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS, 1024 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 1430696 MB, Free - 1236443 MB;
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., GA-970A-D3
Antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials, Updated and Enabled

The CD/DVD driver is a TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-222AB ATA & the player is a Samsung Super Writemaster. I checked a list Microsoft has posted of drivers with known issues with WMP 12 and it's not on it.


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## Oddba11 (May 13, 2011)

Sounds like those discs have some sort of copy protection. MS tools hardly ever work well when trying to bypass copy protection schemes.


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## PapawPuff (Feb 5, 2012)

Could be, but they all played perfectly on my old Windows XP computer with Windows Media Player 11. I'm still ripping with VLC, but it's labor intensive. Actually, the ease of ripping was about the only thing I liked about WMP.


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## stantley (May 22, 2005)

Get CDex to rip your CD's, it works much better than WMP.

You should get version CDex 1.70 (Beta 4 2009).


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## PapawPuff (Feb 5, 2012)

Thanks, I'll try that & post the results.


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## Oddba11 (May 13, 2011)

There is a difference between playing and ripping. Even WMP should play without any issues. Copy protection (as stated in it's name), only invokes when trying to RIP (ie: copy).

You have pretty much proven the point already. It worked in WMP11, it works in VLC, and it doesn't in WMP12. As the PC is the same, the only difference is WMP12.


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## PapawPuff (Feb 5, 2012)

Yes, I understand the difference. I would prefer to fix the issue with WMP as it's easier to rip with and then I could get rid of the other programs, but if the CDEX program suggested by stantley is as easy to rip with then I'll use it and just continue playing CDs with VLC until Microsoft admits there's an issue with WMP 12 & corrects it. I've already searched several forums & tried everything Microsoft has to offer and there's just not much out there on this at this time.


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## Oddba11 (May 13, 2011)

I understand. I'm just saying there likely isn't a fix. Assuming it is a byproduct of DRM, then it's working as intended.


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## PapawPuff (Feb 5, 2012)

Just a quick update here. I've found that changing the rip file format to mp3 that WMP 12 will rip (very slowly) the CDs that it won't play, and I can then play that file perfectly well on WMP. The best info I could get from Microsoft is that they're old CDs compressed using 32 bit codecs and therefore won't play well on WMP for Windows 7 64 bit.


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## stantley (May 22, 2005)

Did you try CDex?

Another free ripping program you could try is Exact Audio Copy.


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