Hi,
Longtime linux user, don't mean this as a troll, I'd really like to know....

Every so often, I come up with the situation that I need to play an audio cd - I use xine for this. Quite often, I get cd read errors: it will take longer to start, or keep being interrupted, or timeout and skip a track if there is so much as a smudge on it (it seems like that anyway). Then I'll reboot, and software as basic as windows cdplayer will handle it fine (even on windows 98). I tried playing some seriously screwed up (scratched) cds on windows - the software made a good effort - on linux if I put in an old cd with a few fingerprints I expect to find that it is more likely to choke. I'm pretty sure this isn't my imagination - I've noticed the same thing with a variety of distributions.

My question is: is this an noted phenomena? Is windows cd handling just not as error corrective as windows? Is there a luxury driver/kernel module I can install to improve cd handling?
I'm asking because I want to know if I'm better off ripping tracks from my audio cds on windows - all I care about is quality, and I get the impression it might be better of on windows. I'll admit now - all of my cds are NOT in perfect condition Be honest - I'm already a linux fan.

Thanks for any information.

~Regards, rx.

i don't think ive ever actually tried to do an audio cd. take a look at this post:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=400202

see the last entry. could that be an issue? poor cable maybe?? maybe windows is using digital extraction and linux not....

what's your kernel etc?? type of cdrom/dvd.

On my system, Linux works better than windows in every area related to sound. The only exception being the audio editor program Goldwave ... For my purposes, Audacity is not quite there yet.

Xine is probably not the best program for playing audio cds, but it should work. Depending on your distro there is probably a program specifically named something like Audio CD Player. Xmms and other players also work. You may need to tweak your sound card driver, and make sure that Alsa is being used everywhere it should be, but, in answer to your title question ... No way!

well, lets not start windows bashing. enjoyable though it is, i think there is just a small problem on your system somewhere.

like rickh says there is not reason for windows to be better. unlike dvds etc, the bods at phillips et al, didnt originally make it so that there was encryption or any nonesense on cds. hello sony!!!??

cool - thanks. My kernel is vanilla 2.6.10 w/ a standard vanilla slackware config file, on e16 (so I don't have any kde/gnome specific daemons that may handle cd-errs, if they do that). Interesting that (from the other post) software handles audio cd reading directly straight from the drive (no mounting or anything - although that doesn't really surprise me). I have a regular ide cable for connection, and it's an oldish dvd rom drive (lg - might replace it with plextor - but I wonder if plextor error recovery is handled by the drive or helped by windows drivers?). Anyone know if any kernel options exist when making to enable any DAE/fancy relevant stuff?

Thanks!

DAE is happening by the program. Linux has nothing to do with it. Also if the drive has a bad firmware, it could give you more errors. If the lens of the drive is dirty, it will have a hard time reading the data.

Go to http://www.xiph.org/paranoia/index.html for more information about cdparanoia.

You could spray compressed air on the lens to get rid of dirt. If it does not help, it is good time to buy a new drive. You could buy a skipDr machine to sand down the CD/DVD disc to get rid of most scratches. I suggest buying a CD skin to protect the disc from future scratches.

I think you meant to ask "is linux cd handling just not as error...."

All of the above posts are correct in asking you to check the optical drive, cleaning your cds etc. I too have found Xine to be klunky. I don't think on the OS level that linux should be any different than Windows, but maybe the linux front ends are not as polished.

Remember, MS had a huge head start in specifically focusing on desktop multimedia and printing, whereas linux and unix were originally at home in a networking and file server environment.