Not a CD (6 comments)
I got Ben Folds' latest work from amazon today. As I do with every CD I buy, I got to ripping it into Ogg Vorbis. But something was different. CDex was displeased. I cancelled the encoding after ~160 disc read errors in the first two minutes of audio. Looking at the back of the case, I was greeted with:
A small box in the lower left corner of the back of the packaging, dwarfed by the FBI anti-piracy warning (which is also the only use of color in the disc's printed materials), mentioned in very small text that:
The audio side of this disc does not conform to CD specifications and therefore not all DVD and CD players will play the audio side of the disc.
I checked, and there is no compact disc logo anywhere in the package. What I bought was not a compact disc and it aggravated me that it was sold as one.
Well, it aggravated me until I changed some settings in CDex and installed a firmware update for my DVD-RW drive and everything ripped cleanly. They've managed to trash compatibility with a few generations of automotive CD players in order to put a stop to the creation of MP3s.
...except by anyone who has access to the internet and the ability to read.