Clicks and Pops in your MP3's - may be macrovision - check this out.

[NicColt]

This was first reported in this thread but this is what was published in CNet yesterday

Copy-protected CDs quietly slip into stores - The technology, which inserts audible clicks and pops into music files that are copied from a CD onto a PC, highlights what could become a critical part of the major music labels' efforts to stem digital piracy.

This may be why so many people are having this problem. Macrovision can easily be removed but not knowing that it's there is the problem. Once this info gets out Macrovision will have a short lifespan.

 

[Shmorq]

Shouldn't this be illegal since it prevents me from converting my purchased CD's to MP3's for my portable player? Some else mentioned this in off topic.

 

[DeeK]

It's not illegal. The record industry is under no obligation to make it easy for you to make fair-use copies. Just because something isn't illegal doesn't mean it's a right.

 

[Eug]

I would be interesting to see what the technology is exactly. I do not understand how an audio distortion will prevent correct CD --> .wav copies, assuming the drive doing it does good quality rips. On the other hand I can see how certain sound combos could wreak havoc with certain .wav --> .mp3 encoding algorithms, resulting in unwanted weird sounds. Of course, if the watermark is attacking this particular part of the process, then I'm sure that one can revise the encoding algorithms to compensate.

 

[NicColt]

macrovision has been in VCR tapes for years, but now they've managed to get it into CD's. The problem is not macrovision since it can easily be filtered out with software. It's not knowing that it's there in the first place to filter it out. Now we know what *MAY* be causing the clicks and pops in mp3's. We may have been blamming win2k, sound cards and drivers when in fact it could be macrovision.

 

[Eug]

Well, many pops and clicks are actually bad CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives.

By the way, Macrovision truly is suck. It wreaks havoc with much high end equipment.

And it's not quite the same thing as this CD protection thing, since the equipment has to built to be affected by Macrovision as I understand it. Back in the late 1980s when Macrovision was introduced widely, many VCRs were NOT affected by Macrovision. Interestingly after that though, nearly all VCRs were affected by Macrovision, so you couldn't do a direct VCR to VCR copy. My old JVC (circa early 1980s) copied tapes just fine.