Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The All-Knowing CDDB

This is topic The All-Knowing CDDB in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-27-2003, 09:25 PM:

The CDDB is pretty cool for giving track and names to CDs when you insert them into your computer. Recently I tried to confuse it, though. I took a CD-R (F-Zero X Guitar Arrange) made for my by a friend and recorded to MiniDisc using 4x copy speed. I then recorded all of the tracks from the MiniDisc through the analog cable to my computer where they were saved as uncompressed AIFF sound files. I even edited the files a bit, deleting periods of silence at the beginning and ends of some tracks. I did not do this to all tracks. I then burned the files to a CD-R. I pop the CD-R in the computer and the CDDB knows that I have inserted "F-Zero X Guitar Arrange" and presents me with the correct track titles as well.

Amazing. I am convinced. I thought it would be much easier to confuse the CDDB. Would it think I had insterted "F-Zero X Guitar Arrange" if I had the same number of tracks, all the same length as the real CD, but containing only pink noise instead of music?

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 04-28-2003, 01:24 AM:

Dear Diary: Why did Joe do this?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-28-2003, 02:04 AM:

Dear Manny's diary:

Because Joe was bored. (And the CD was short).

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 04-28-2003, 04:07 AM:

What software did you use to burn the disc? Sometimes, the burning software can burn CD-Text to the disc and the software in turn will upload it to CDDB behind your back. Just a thought.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-28-2003, 11:55 AM:

Chris-- I used Roxio Toast for the Mac. I did fill out the names for the tracks as I burned it, but it did not save to the disc in CD Text format (I don't think Toast supports that format). Also I noticed as I was burning that I typed a bit too fast and misspelled a couple of names, including the CD title itself. Those names were correctly spelled upon re-insertion into the computer once the CDDB was accessed.

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 04-29-2003, 09:33 PM:

Well, I guess I fooled CDDB. I did it by buying most of my CD's from 1985 to 1995. Apparently they didn't encode the album number (or whatever is used as the identifier for albums) and nothing appears when I load them.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-29-2003, 10:49 PM:

John, the CDDB is contributed to by users. So unless you are the only one to ever buy those CDs, I am betting that the info exists. Remember, you have to be hooked up to the internet for it to work and many programs make you request the CDDB info for it to be displayed.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 04-30-2003, 02:39 PM:

The CD Audio standard hasn`t changed very much in the last 20 years. I think the album numbers should all be encoded on your old CDs too. When you read the CD in a burn program, the album number will be displayed as "Unknown CD No.XXXXXXXXXX" if it is on the CD.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-30-2003, 04:23 PM:

One thing to remember is that somebody must enter the data for those CDs in order for the CDDB to be able to distribute it.

I guess nobody has ever bothered to type in the titles of all those old songs by "Air Supply" and "The Human League". [Big Grin]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-30-2003, 07:28 PM:

If the CDDB goes by album numbers, how does it know what the CD was that I recorded via analog off of MiniDisc? I think it goes by TOC data instead.