Richard & Linda Thompson-Hard Luck Stories:Playing/Ripping Problems or Not?

Sigh.................... I'd like to see a penalty assessed on these b@$t@rd$, for all of the purchaser's time that Universal has wasted.

 

Biggest pain with ImportCDs is that their customer service is slow to respond. Apparently, they're better over the phone, but I hate that crap, so usually I wait a few extra days for an email response. Unlike Amazon, they don't reimburse return fees. That's on you. On the plus side, they're based in the US, so it's not like you're incurring huge fees to ship back to them.

Honestly, with word coming that the label is aware, I'd take delivery of your copy, note the issues, and wait for whatever resolution UMG is going to offer. Just my take - and also what I plan to do.

 

Every CD plays without problem and sounds great
Played on Denon DCD 50
Bought from Amazon.de
Made in Czech
Cover on the book slightly bended
Some sort of blur on page 37

 

If you have a defective item, and contact them to arrange a return (via their website contact form), they will reach out to you from their help address ([email protected]), and you can request a prepaid return label. It may take a couple of back-and-forths as they ask for more details, but that has always worked for me.

 

I think I will give this another week and then return to Amazon for a refund and maybe get the digital version. Or make do with the partial set that I have ended up with by ripping the songs that I have been able to. I am surprised there has not been a response of any kind yet from UMG.

 

Received my set today from JPC. Great services and fast shipping from them, so no complaints there.

I wish I could report that my set was faring better than others, but having all sorts of ripping issues... despite trying three different CD-ROM drives. (I rarely play CDs straight from the player, instead usually ripping them to my hard drive and portable music player.) Disc 1 ripped okay, with a few timing issues. But starting with Disc 2, problems really ensued.

One thing I noticed that I don't recall others mentioning is that most of the discs in my set are actually warped (including Disc 1). I could tell as soon as I put a disc in my portable Blu Ray drive, as I heard the edge of the disc rubbing against the tray as it spun up. It's one of those drives where the spindle and laser as part of the tray that ejects. I confirmed that the disc was securely on the spindle. After spinning the disc by hand I could see a very visible warp. I tried this on multiple discs and saw the same thing to various degrees. (I know it's not the player, as other discs from other sets spin level and smooth.)

I tried to capture it in the video below. If you listen closely on headphones, you can even hear the disc scrape against the tray. The other noise in the background is another of my CD-ROM drives grinding away at another disc in the set. (Also, please disregard the large amount of dust which has gathered near my drive. Clearly, it's time for a cleaning!)



I don't know if this warp is common to all of the sets or is responsible for the problems people are reporting. But I've never noticed warp like this on CDs I've purchased in the past. I've had discs that weren't perfectly balanced, but have never seen a visible warp before. Granted, I usually never looked for it either, especially if the discs had no playback or ripping issues.

This disc warp could also explain why the tracks towards the end of the disc are more problematic. The effects of the warp would most likely be greater towards the edges of the discs, as they will be moving around more, making it harder for the laser to get a good read. Anyway, some food for thought...

 

Just following up my previous post... Disc 5 is so warped I cannot even spin it on the spindle with a flick of my finger. It scrapes so badly against the tray that is stops after a partial revolution. The motor on the drive can spin the disc, with considerable scraping noise. It's also not surprising that this disc has also given me the most trouble during ripping. While I could get most of the other discs to to rip 75-95% of the tracks, Disc 5 only gave me a few usable tracks at the beginning of the disc. None of the tracks on the second half of the disc were successful.

Again, I'm not sure if disc warping is to blame for everyone's problems. But I wanted to bring it up, in case this is information Andy can use when reporting the problems to Universal.

 

Sounds like your neighbour is mowing the lawn in that video. I had the same noises from my external drive.

 

IMO, UK (EEC??) residents such as yourself are much better off with the files. Significantly lower price & 2 very minor glitches in the whole set. I do suggest scanning anything you want visuals of; the dl comes with no art of any kind.

 

I may go this route. Shame. I still like boxed sets...

 

This is interesting. It would explain why discs are noisy while spinning, why the problems are worse at the end of discs, why some discs are worse than others, why some people are having more problems than others, and why people are having problems even though the discs look flawless.

 

This theory concerns me as I also have box sets with a similar design - Bobbie Gentry and Ronnie Lane. Going to take a look.

 

If the disk is physically scraping the tray that would lend credence to my scuffing idea that was poo-pooed earlier

Having read around a bit, it seems that "unbalanced" CDs are the cause of many ripping problems. Actual players tend to have fewer issues because they play in real time rather than rippers which work at 10x or more. There are stories of people improving playback by smoothing the edge with a sander and rotary device ... I don't recommend it as risk of the plastic disintegrating and bits flying everywhere including perhaps your eyes! But interesting from a technical point of view.

Tim

 

This has to be it, no? @Trashman for the win.

First thing I do when my set arrives is check for warpage. Tracking tells me it's left Germany (I think?).

 

Interesting. Thanks for the research. This definitely makes sense, as it accounts for the noise that people have reported and, as you said, the fact that the discs tend to fail on the later tracks.

 

This is a great analysis, potentially very helpful

I remember at some point in the past a lot of ripping software had a way to configure the ripping speed, eg 4x, 8x, etc. Though I haven’t noticed that option in the last several years. I wonder if reducing the ripping speed might increase the ripping success rate for warped discs

 

I said that the CDs might have been slightly bent out of shape by the packaging a week ago. There has to be some reason why these CDs are so duff.

 

Just “forensically” listening to my copy (from Badlands UK) now.
Didn’t notice first time around that Disc 1 Track 4 (When Will I Be Loved) stutters at 1:44
Only picked up as I’ve started listening on headphones as it concentrates the mind more I think.
Disc 5 music seems ok..but disc has continual loud “click” noise from my CD player.
The investigation goes on...takes the enjoyment away TBH!
I will vote when I’m done!
Ps my D4 T14 Calvary Cross plays fine!!

 

My external Blu Ray drive rips at a much slower speed than my other two drives and had far more success in ripping the discs from Hard Luck Stories. It didn't work on all of the tracks, but it achieved good rips on many of the tracks that the other drives couldn't read. So the slower speed may indeed be helping. I doubt it's the drive build quality, as it's probably the cheapest drive I own.

 

Report back from the recipient of the set I gifted as it is his birthday today. He had only just started listening but could not get disc 1 to play in one player and although it was playing in another, it was making a knocking sound. The disc warp theory continues to look likely.

 

Yikes. It certainly would explain why the sets I've had these issues with in the past all use that cardboard slot storage method.

Question is: how much force is required to deform a disc? Did this happen because they were pressed into an uneven surface over time, or were they inserted into the packaging "fresh from the oven," so to speak and more prone to warp as a result?

 

I didn't fill out the survey because I didn't listen to all the discs yet. But I was able to securely rip all the discs with XLD except disc #5, which had tons of errors.

 

Received my set along with signed poster from Universal.
Discs 1, 2 & 4 so far played flawlessly and discs are scuff free.

The packaging is pretty poor the slots in cardboard are a recipe for disaster much better if this had been packed like the RT BBC set

 

CDs 5 & 6 played last night - all ok

 

Agree that the packaging must have some impact on the warping.
It should be mandatory for box sets to have each CD in its own jewel case - like the ones in my photograph.