(This is an ASCII version of the first homepage of EAC)


                      EAC - Exact Audio Copy V0.1 beta




Introduction

EAC is a new audio grabber for CD-ROM drives. The main differences towards
most other audio grabbers :

   * Low registration costs (just a postcard and a stamp)
   * It works with a new technology, reading audio CDs almost perfect. If
     there are any errors that can't be corrected, it will tell you on
     which time position the (possible) distortion occurred, so you could
     easily control it with e.g. the media player

I am writing this software, because I am fed up with these other audio
grabbers. I always had to listen to all grabbed waves, because other audio
grabbers will do only jitter correction but CD-ROM drives reading scratched
CDs often produce distortions. Listen to all waves would be a waste of
time. So two month ago I decided to write my own audio grabber, mainly for
my and my friends private usage. So if you don't like this software - don't
use it !   I don't want to make any profit with it, I just want to use (and
share) the best grabber (that's in my eyes the most exact grabber) ever
programmed. Most important for me is feedback from the users, more about
that later at registration chapter.


Features of EAC

   * Usage of the Windows 95 and Windows NT ASPI Interface, so both SCSI
     and ATAPI CD-ROM drives are supported
   * Hidden sector synchronization (jitter correction)
   * Read error and complete lost of sync detection and correction, as far
     as possible
   * Output of time positions of all non exact corrections
   * Usage of the Windows Audio Compression Manager (ACM Codecs) for direct
     compression e.g. to MP3 waves
   * Program is Cardware, so feel free to copy

Features to be Implemented

   * Copy of ranges of music data, not only tracks
   * Automatic Speed reduction on errors and full speed afterwards
   * Implementation of a save support of NEC CD-ROM drives. I left out the
     NEC vendor specific audio read command D4 because it caused several
     problems with other SCSI components. So older NEC CD-ROM drives are
     not supported. Please report if your drive does work.
   * Block offsets for non "accurate stream" CD-ROM drives
   * Safety tests for unexpected errors like drive not ready, hardware
     audio read failure, not enough space on harddisk, etc.
   * CDDB support planned
   * Better GUI
   * Bug Fixes

Known Bugs

   * On some computers the whole system hangs after a short period of time.
     I didn't find the solution to this problem yet, because it never
     happend on my computer. It is possible that any cd-player causes these
     problems. So try to stop any play in progress before starting EAC.
   * Some CD-ROM drives or computer configurations does not return the
     correct values on drive detection, so no drives could be selected even
     if a drive is installed. On some computer it will work nevertheless.
     If a CD is inserted it will show up all tracks correctly.
   * On some CD-ROM drives occur extreme jitter errors so the extraction
     will slow down to a non acceptable value (e.g. Mitsumi FX240)
   * Sometimes the program will not copy any tracks and finish immedeatly.
     Try to restart the copy more often, it will help on some computers.



About Me

I am a student of computer science and mathematics here at the University
of Dortmund. At the moment I have some preparations on aural examinations
and the start of an one year project group. Beside the usual work at the
university as a student, I work in a computer store selling computers.
In my spare time I like spending time with my friends and playing computer
and board games. Of course I also work on some computer projects like this
one. Further I do a lot of sports like cycling, walking, inline skating and
some martial arts.
I am using a Pentium 200 MMX, total of 2.5 GB IDE harddisks, 4.3 GB SCSI
harddisk, 32 MB RAM, Mitsumi FX001D and Plextor 12/20 CD-ROM drives, Yamaha
400t CD-R drive, Diamond ET6000 4 MB video card, Windows 95 and Stony Brook
Modula 2.


Technology

This program reads every audio sector at least twice. That is one of the
reasons why the program is such slow. But by using this technique it could
detect any not identical sectors. If an error occurs (read or sync error)
the program keeps on reading this sector, until eight of 16 retries are
identical, or five times these 16 retries are read. So, in worst case, bad
sectors are read up to 82 times! But this will help the program to find the
best result by comparing all of the retries. If it is not sure that the
stream is correct (at least at approx. 99.5%) the program will tell the
user where the (possible) read error occurred. Furthermore the program
tries to adjust the jitter artefacts that occurs on the first block of a
track, so that each extraction should be exactly the same, which is
guarateed on drives with the "accurate stream" feature. Of course, this is
a little bit more complex, also because some CD drives support caching.
These drives will cache also audio data and reading twice a sector will
bring twice the same result. So I implemented for drives that does caching
(that means these drives will not report any errors, even on bad CDs) an
extra option for resetting the cache. In the actual beta version I reset
the cache by resetting the drive completely. You could imagine that this
will slow down the reading process very badly. I hope to find more
information on disabling read caches on CD-ROM drives, but until the next
version you could only choose to use only the half functionality of the
program at half speed of other audiograbbers or full functionality at less
than quarter speed. I am using a Plextor 12/20 drive that does no caching
and a Yamaha 400t drive that does caching. Furthermore the Plextor 12/20
supports the "accurate stream" feature, that will produce no jitter
artifacts on any stream. For more information on this have a look at the
table at the bottom of this document.
This program is really right slow in comparison with other grabbers, but
the program checks every sector over and over to get sure to read the exact
data. If you don't like this feature of EAC and prefer fast copies instead
of secure copies, you should use other grabbers like Audiograbber or
WinDAC32.


Documentation

This is only a prerelease, so no work on the user documentation has been
done yet. A complete user guide and documentation will be done as soon as a
stable version has been published.
If you encounter any further bugs, please report them by mail or e-mail.
Also report any drives that work or don't work, to complete the list below.
If you want to report anything, please don't forget these important
informations

   * Operating system
   * Hardware configuration (CPU, memory, CD-ROM drive, etc.)
   * CD-ROM drives working / not working, drive caches audio data / don't
     caches audio data, accurate streaming / non-accurate streaming
   * Any bugs that occurred

Please do not bother me with simple questions like "How could I save my
wave file with 22.050 Hz, 8 bit, mono ?". I will try to answer all reports
/ questions but I don't know how long it will take. I am a student and I
also have to work to earn some money, so I have not much time for these
things, so please be patient.


Registration

As I mentioned before, this program is and will be Cardware. This means
using the program will cost you no money, but a nice picture postcard from
your hometown or a beautiful countryside nearby (perhaps it will also be
possible to use a nice stamp for sending the postcard). This is support
that will help me developing the software to more and more functionality
and safety of usage. Please tell me what you like (or dislike) and please
don't forget your e-mail address. If I ever decide that not enough the
users will not give enough support (my subjective decision), I will add nag
screens and key codes that will remove these nag screens to registrated
users. So if I have already your e-mail address it will be much easier to
send you your personal registration code. Of course, this will only be done
if there isn't enough support. But I released until now some other programs
and so I am already disillusioned.


Limitations

Even if you are free to copy the program for private purposes, it is not
allowed to

   * Make changes to the executable and distribute it
   * Disassemble / decompile the executable
   * Spread it together with other programs on CD-ROM, web sites or any
     other media without my permission. It is allowed to put it up on free
     FTP sites or make links directly to my homepage.



Please Help

If you have any information on deactivating the read cache on audio
extraction for any CD-ROM drive or know a SCSI command to declare the
contents of the cache for invalid, then please send me these information to
help me improving this program.
I already use the non caching flag in some reading commands and also the
cache mode pages. But some CD-ROM drives will still cache the read
operations (e.g. Yamaha CDR400t).


Caution !    Beta Version !

This is a only a beta version from the final program that will be
distributed later in this year, at least I hope so. This version should
only be used by experienced users.
I will not take responsibility for any damage to your hard- and/or software
that is caused directly or indirectly by this program. So download this
beta version on your own risk.




Please report any bugs or any information on CD-ROM drives regarding this
program to this e-mail address

su0165@studserver.uni-dortmund.de

Homepage : http://studserver.uni-dortmund.de/~su0165/eac.html


If you want to registrate in order to support me or just want to send me
snail mail please use this address

Andre Wiethoff
Stockumer Str. 412
44227 Dortmund
Germany


