Sometimes I need to play a CD without ripping it to my library. Is that possible? How? J. River and Foobar play CDs.
Roon doesn’t currently support CD playback to endpoints and I haven’t seen it mentioned as an intended future feature.
It wouldn’t be a high priority for me. If I want to listen to a CD through the stereo system then I have a separate player to do that. If I want to listen to a CD at the computer before ripping it, then there are lots of ways to do that outside Roon.
Were you thinking, perhaps, of multi-zone CD playback ? I could see that being a useful feature for a number of users if Roon were to evolve into a “whole of house” solution. A lot of the cool features of Roon, however, need the background analysis, which works on a file rather than a stream.
There is a tension between being a file based hyper-linked database and being an “all audio” networking solution which may result in Roon having to make some choices.
I’m thinking that often a friend drops by bringing a CD he wants to hear. I don’t want to take the time to rip the CD, just listen to it. Or maybe I check out a CD from my local library, and just want to listen to it. I don’t want to waste a shelf on a transport just for that. I’d just like to put the CD in my Roon computer and play it from there.
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vforrest.
I am with you. This is something needed along with ripping capabilities.
Sorry to compare, but I have been a longtime JRiver user, and it has a function whereby when a new disc media is seen in the machines tray, it starts playback and the program automatically rips it to the library.
Very convenient. To me, this should be a priority as it would complement the currrent ease of use capabilities.
Its nice to have all the great metadata and relations for the library, and ease to play and mix, but if its a hassele to add music on the fly… that a big minus for roon. In my opinion.
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Thanks for the feedback guys.
Our feeling that there are a number of high quality options out there for CD ripping and playback. For the moment, we don’t have any plans to try and compete in those areas, especially when there’s so much we want to do closer to our core strengths and product vision.
Our team has our priorities for where we want the product to go, but a lot’s changed since launch based on user feedback, so for now I’d consider this a feature request that’s under consideration. As I said, we don’t have any plans in this area right now, but if this feature is important to you, definitely let us know.
Thanks again guys – moving this to Feature Requests for the moment.
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Thanks for the response.
I know there is a lot in development. Still I feel the ability to play back discs within the roon application with the option to autorip is a must for a complete intuitive package.
Having to use a separate program or cd player to play cds and another ton rip discs, seems non sensical to me.
The whole point of something like Roon is to get rid of the cd player.
Maybe setting the cd drive as a watch folder/drive could work in a future tweak. Whenever a CD is inserted it gets ID’d and is available for play. Take the cd out and it is gone.
That all said, how long does it take to rip a CD? 2 minutes ?
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In the two examples I cited, the time it takes to rip a CD is not germane–ripping CDs from a friend or from a public library is illegal. It’s legal to rip your own CDs, but not those belonging to someone else. Yeah, I’ve heard rumors that it’s been done, but technically, it’s not legal.
FWIW, I strongly disagree. Good products happen through single-minded focus, and this is an example where I’d tell the Roon folks to continue to consider it out of scope.
It’s trivially easy to rip a CD with any manner of software. You could even configure Roon to watch the folder you have as default output for your ripper.
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I totally agree it is out of scope for a specialized player like Roon. Playing a CD within Roon would be the same thing as going to File > Open, and selecting some media not in your library, the latter of which you cannot do in Roon.
There are so many great programs out there to rip CDs, i’d hate to see Roon start to add hundreds of little features that bloat the program with endless options and turn it into something like itunes. Rip CD to a watched folder and then play in Roon, seems simple enough to me.
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SM31.
I agree that producs have their focus.
I dont agree that limiting Roon’s ability to play music from a cd and rip it to the library is a plus, or that adding it would hurt.
To me its the natural thing to have. If Roon if software to play mostly ripped music, also downloaded, but in reality any real music afficiando has a sizable cd collection that has to be ripped, and some music is not available online so it has to be ripped.
Lets see the difference in the procedure to get exactly the same rip at the same library location…
I have a friend that has a large Jazz collection. He comes over to experience music on my systrem with my brand new Roon software. We start the session and he says he has one of his non mainstream Jazz cd’s ( he used to be a Jazz record buyer for a distributor).
He asks for me to play it…
Scenario 1: I insert it on my pc drive… Roon sees it, asks if I want to play it… I hit play. At the same time it plays, Roon rips it to the library.
Once the CD is over, I give it back, but it stays on my library.
Scenatio 2: I insert the disk.
I have to click windows start menu, find the ripping software and click it.
The ripping software opens and
I have to click the options to rip the cd drive.
Then after it finishes ripping, Roon has to import it from music library location.
Then I have to search for it in Roon and hit play.
It does not strike me as the same or a 2 minute job. Ill do it if I must, but its disadvantegeous to the intuitiveness of Roon considering that music cds have to br ripped.
Anyhow, Roons people will decide in th end whether it will be included or not.
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Hi
I would be happy with Roon simply playing the CD in my Mac/PC drive
as if I had put it in my CD player
- i.e. no need to rip it or provide any info during playback.
Mike
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If you don’t need any info, why should Roon play the CD?
You could simply use your system media player. You can even configure it to play automatically the CD on insertion. So, why Roon for that task?
Because I wish to give other users in the house & guests a single interface to playing music,
i.e. Roon remotely controlled on an iPad.
[And the fact that I prefer to have Roon access the DAC in exclusive mode.]
Having a CD as a watched folder / file system would be very convenient.
I would like the same feature too.
In fact I want ti use my actual Raspberry renderer (with a really wonderful attached dac), or any other high quality renderer as a Roon endpoint, and sometimes, I want to read a CD( and sometimes why not a SACD too) without ripping it.
I really don’t want to have another player to do it.
Perhaps it will be a priority for me, more than a ripping feature.
and I do not need any metadata when I read a CD in real time.
But I feel that the possibility to play a CD in real time would be a very nice feature (in fact some of my friends asked me)