Cddb

[Foolonthehill]

Sometimes when I stick a CD in, it doesn't even query the site, even though my internet isn't on. I figured that this meant the didn't have the CD documented. But just now I put one in and it said specifically that it didn't have it. Whats going on here?

[DJ Egg]

"it doesn't even query the site"?

it? What is "it"? Winamp 5.04 Full?


"even though my internet isn't on"

Typo? "isn't" = "is"?

[Foolonthehill]

yes, "it"=winamp full.

and yes, typo. Also, put this in wrong section. If someone could move it to help, that would be greatly appreciated.

[ujay]

code:


Using CDDB

----------



1. Prefs(Ctrl+P) > Gen Prefs > set your internet connection.



2. Check your firewall allows Winamp full access to all ports.



3. Prefs > Plugins > Input > Nullsoft CD/Linein .. > Config > Set 'Use CDDB'.

   NOTE. This setting only controls whether Winamp automatically looks online 

         when a disc is inserted.

         Winamp's local database will always be tried first(see 4).

         Manual lookups are always available on demand(see 9).



When you open a CD in Winamp the following happens :



4. A discID is created and Winamp looks in it's own local database(in_cdda.cdb)

   to see if it already has a record. If it does, then that is what is used for

   the track titles.



5. If it isn't in Winamp's local database then Winamp will try to contact Gracenote

   CDDB online database and get it from there. If you connect OK the online info

   is written into Winamp's datbase and that is what is used.



6. If the info isn't in the online database then you will be asked to submit the

   Track titles. This is when you will need to type stuff in. Whatever you enter

   is also written into Winamp's database and that is what is used.



7. If you fail to connect for whatever reason or you don't want to submit then

   'Unknown Artist' etc. is written into Winamp's database and that is what is

   used.



8. Once you have started a CD for the first time and SOMETHING has been written

   into Winamp's database that is what will be used from then on. Winamp will

   always get the Track titles from it's own database if there is anything there

   already.

   i.e. Winamp will not look online again unless you tell it to as follows :



9. Press (Alt+3) (or otherwise bring up the 'CD/Track titles' dialogue box).



EITHER

10. Click [Remove titles] i.e. Removes the record from Winamp's local database.

11. Restart the CD. (back to 4 above)



OR

12. Click [CDDB] (back to 5 above) i.e. Ignores Winamp's database.

13. If successful, exit with [Save].

14. If not, type in the Track titles yourself and exit with [Save].



NOTE. The Gracenote GUI doesn't seem to return any error messages and will always

      show 'Success' regardless.





For CDDB to work, the following files MUST be present in the Winamp\Plugins dir:



CDDBControlWinamp.dll

CDDBUIWinamp.dll

in_cdda.dll

in_cdda.cdb

UJ

[marieb]

Thank You sooooo much! Now I can listen to my Prince Cd's
and see what song I'm listening to, because some of them,
I don't know the title off hand!!!

Much Appreciated,
Marie

[human-0-id]

Why is winamp so stupid as not to use the audio CD data stored in cdplayer.ini in the windows folder?
How can this be fixed?

[ujay]

Annoying isn't it? A simple import facility, cdplayer.ini => in_cdda.cdb, would be so handy.
It's the price you pay for using proprietary formats (see the recent WMA debacle for another example).
That being said, cdplayer.ini is far from perfect, it has a very limited capacity for the size of modern day collections and you run the risk of other software crapping all over it.

You can use the CDReader plugin instead, which accesses freedb and the global cdplayer.ini. Unfortunately this was broken in Winamp 5 and can now only access CDs at the file/folder level.
Access at the device level, for the Media Library, enhanced CDs and ripping/burning must be done with in_cdda.dll.

You can try installing Winamp's own CD plugin (in_cdda.dll) and CDReader (in_CDReader.dll) together but no guarantees they won't conflict. I've never had a bother using both but others have reported problems.

There is a potential work around involving other software but it is probably more trouble than it's worth.

UJ

[human-0-id]

ujay
It's the price you pay for using proprietary formats..[/B]

Is the format of in_cdda.cdb proprietary?
How about getting in_cdda.dll to work with a local cddb database? E.g. EAC can read cdplayer.ini and export it to a local cddb.. Any luck here?

[ujay]

Winamp uses Gracenote CDDB2 format and this restricts what developers can do with it. The older CDDB1 format is open source, the CDDB2 format must be licensed from Gracenote.
So no matter where or in what form the CDDB1 data is held it cannot be imported into a CDDB2 database unless Gracenote release the necessary coding.

Programs such as EAC and the cdplayer.ini file use the original CDDB1/freedb format.

I assume you have a lot of self burnt compilations and want to save yourself the task of typing all the info in again?
This can be 'kind of' achieved but is longwinded and it's probably best to just bite the bullet and type it directly into in_cdda.cdb via the 'CD/Track titles' box <Alt+3>

UJ

[human-0-id]

ujay
the CDDB2 format must be licensed from Gracenote.

Aha-a. If it is licensed then it must be awfully advanced and innovative, otherwise the Winamp crew would have stuck with the outdated CDDB1.

ujay
I assume you have a lot of self burnt compilations and want to save yourself the task of typing all the info in again?

No, I just wanted to see how good Winamp is a as cd-ripper; normally I only use it for playing MP3/WMA/WAV/OGG/RA/RM files.
Ripping tracks with Winamp does not sound like a good idea to me at all, but I admit that it is of course a clever marketing decision.
For audio CDs I will continue using CDRun (simple and fast) and EAC/CDex for cd-ripping. I tried Winamp in these roles only to overcome my own bigotry. I thought it would balance my right/left hemispheres. And it did.

[ujay]

EAC is very good.
CDex is a little non-standard when it comes to the cdplayer.ini file and may cause problems with other programs. It's easy to fix should you need to though.

UJ

[simonjudge]

Re the 'Remove Title' fix... Please, please, either:
- document this in the help
- have an option to not save unknown CDs (so it looks up each time)...

If your internet connection regularly drops, then it is really annoying for Winamp to not look up tracks.

Also- is it possible to lookup/rename tracks _after_ winamp has ripped them? Please say yes!

[ujay]

Originally posted by simonjudge
... Also- is it possible to lookup/rename tracks _after_ winamp has ripped them? Please say yes!

Yes to both.

First you must have the CD in the drive and play a track.

Then use step 9 followed by 12 to look up the titles on CDDB again, obviously you must be connected to the internet for this.

Or use step 9 followed by 14 to edit what is already there, you don't need to be connected for this. Select each of the tracks you want to change and edit it in the box under the track list.

Don't forget to exit with 'Save'

[edit} Ahhh ... or are you wanting to rename the tracks that you have already ripped to mp3 files (or whatever).
In which case you will need to go through this process before ripping I'm afraid, i.e re-rip them.

UJ

[shepard]

Originally posted by ujay

CDex is a little non-standard when it comes to the cdplayer.ini file and may cause problems with other programs. It's easy to fix should you need to though.

UJ

What sorts of problems? I use CDex and have been happy with how it works, but have had some other easily fixed(temporarily, they come back), problems with cd player related issues.

[ujay]

It's to do with the 'numtracks' field

Don't know if there's any strict specification for it, but the convention is to always use lower case for the various field names.
CDex sticks to this except in the case of numtracks where for whatever reason it uses numTracks instead.

Most apps don't care, but a few will screw up when they try to read it.

An obvious fix is to load cdplayer.ini into Notepad and use 'Replace all' to change those entries to lower case.

UJ

[shepard]

Thanks!

[bonwarrior]

is there any way of setting up Winamp to allow CDDB access via html rather than proprietary ports? my f/w at work is blocking

[StupidForumSw]

I just came up to the problem that a Gracenote entry contains errors. On http://www.gracenote.com/company_info/FAQ/FAQs/ they tell you to "send a copy of the incorrect entry to us from the application."

How the hell am I supposed to that with winamp?

[Sforzando]

I just did a complete uninstall/reinstall to version 5.531 to see if a persistent problem with MusicID would go away - it didn't. The error is that whenever I try to access Gracenote, I see:

Accessing Gracenote CDDB(R)...
connecting... [seconds pass, overwrite]
No matches found
Reason: Unknown error

Not terribly illuminating. I'm using a Thinkpad T42P with a Matsushita UJDA755YDVD/CDRW drive, running XP Pro SP2. AnyDVD is installed, but enabling/disabling it makes no difference. I'm currently at home, with only a D-Link DIR-655 between me and my ADSL. I've tried with the laptop both inside and outside the D-Link's firewall, to no avail. McAffee firewall software is also running on the laptop itself, which has never interfered with any of my apps before.

(This problem also happens at work, when I fill in my standard HTTP proxy info into Prefs.)

My in_cdda.dll says "Nullsoft CD Plug-in (MusicID 2.5) v3.6". Reading farther up in the tutorial, I see there's supposed to be an in_cdda.cdb file, which I can't seem to find anywhere - then again, maybe it simply hasn't been created? This particular error's been going on for a long time now, and I'm wondering what I could possibly be doing wrong... Can anyone help?

[tetsuro]

Originally posted by Sforzando
(...)
Accessing Gracenote CDDB(R)...
connecting... [seconds pass, overwrite]
No matches found
Reason: Unknown error
(...)
My in_cdda.dll says "Nullsoft CD Plug-in (MusicID 2.5) v3.6". Reading farther up in the tutorial, I see there's supposed to be an in_cdda.cdb file, which I can't seem to find anywhere - then again, maybe it simply hasn't been created? This particular error's been going on for a long time now, and I'm wondering what I could possibly be doing wrong... Can anyone help?

The same happens here, this is very annoying... though I have the in_cdda.cdb in the plugins/Gracenote dir. Cannot rip CDs for two weeks now, it worked bad before I installed 5.53, but before it helped to change proxies or close and restart Winamp and it worked. Now it's even worse, nothing helps

[antdos]

To anyone who has this problem with the latest version (5.572), I've just fixed it on my computer by renaming a key in the registry.

**Don't do this if you aren't comfortable with the registry. In fact, don't do it at all, because the registry is a fragile beast, and breaking it can mess up your entire computer.**

If you're still here, rename the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CDDB\Control\2.5

Winamp will recreate it next time it queries the CDDB, and for me at least, it all started working again. Huzzah!

[OlyDLG]

Thanks, antdos, worked for me, too! (But I had to quit and restart Winamp also.) This information needs to be made easier to find (e.g., added to the FAQ); or, better, it should be considered a "bug" in the installer and fixed ('cause, like you say, it's dangerous for a live user to be mucking around in the registry!) Lemme see if I can find the bug tracker...

OlyDLG

[OlyDLG]

Oh, BTW, antdos: what made you think to try this fix? Seems a little out-of-the-blue...

[antdos]

I wish I knew what made me think of it. Desperation? Glad it helped you though. And very good idea reporting it!

[DJ Egg]

At a guess, it'll be the known "proxy" issue to blame,
where if you configure Winamp to use a proxy connection (in Prefs -> General Preferences),
this then gets written to the "UserInfo" string under that Registry key (when you use cddb),
but when you clear the proxy field in Winamp prefs, it doesn't get cleared from the registry...

Alas, as far as I know, it's a bug in the Gracenote library (CddbControlWinamp.dll)
which we don't have the source code for, therefore we can't fix it.
Maybe Gracenote will fix it for the next release they give us
(well, they've already provided us with a newer version for the next release of Winamp, but I haven't been able to confirm whether this particular bug is fixed yet).

[antdos]

Ah that sounds very likely. Shame I didn't know about that before