CD not Playing on PC but will on CD player

[paul_g_787]

Hi all, I have a CD here, Led Zeppelin by, well, Led Zeppelin. The 1994 CD release. I have owned this since new and it has never been mis-treated, mis-stored and it is not scratched. It is mint like new.

However when I tried to rip it to my music collection it is all distorted and garbled. My PC is on Linux Mint 20.3.

It will not play on VLC player at all, just hangs loading when I click on the Audio CD.
I also tried on my laptop and with a USB external drive with exactly the same results.
So I tried on the PC at work. Windows media player will not recognise it, VLC will not play it.

I have tried multiple different CD players, the one in my car, the proper Sony deck I have had for years, the Lidl Silvercrest branded DVD player and also PS1, PS2 and PS3 and all of these read the disc and play it through without issue.

So I am pretty certain the disc is fine. but why can I not rip it or play it on PC?
I have put hundreds of my CDs (just checked 683 ripped / 791 in my collection to be exact) onto my PC, all ripped in full quality FLAC.
Until this CD, I have not had a single problem apart from one slightly scratched disc that worked after I polished it.

Any suggestions? I am literally stumped with this. 

[tunk]

Some kind of copy protection?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_and_DVD_copy_protection
Maybe you could try dd to make an 1:1-copy iso-file?

[themadhippy]

yep its some form of copy protection,had the same problems with a  couple of zep compilations that wouldn't read on a pc drive,but work fine in a normal player.

[Tomorokoshi]

Is SONY the publisher?

[DrGeoff]

If you have a deck with spdif out then you can use this to rip a digital copy from your deck into your PC.
What software do you use for ripping? I've done the same with a CD collection using Exact Audio Copy to create a wav backup of them.

[pardo-bsso]

I'd try with cdparanoia on linux.
It worked for me in similar scenarios.

[Bicurico]

That's the copy protection.

Take care, as already hinted, if the publisher is Sony. During some time they use a protection that consisted in a data track unreadable by regular CD players. This had an autostart which would actually install a rootkit!

[tooki]

Was the CD in question bought in 1994? If so, then it’s definitely not copy protection, since that wouldn’t come around till years later. MP3 ripping didn’t become a thing until the very late 90s.

[tooki]

Try a different computer or different drive in the computer.

Right in the original post:

I also tried on my laptop and with a USB external drive with exactly the same results.

Hence why the suggestion that it’s a copy protected disc (assuming the disc itself is newer than 1994) is likely correct.

[Faranight]

Check, if the CD has two visible rings on the data side.
If yes then use a black marker to draw a line across the outer ring.

https://www.theregister.com/2002/05/14/marker_pens_sticky_tape_crack/

[paul_g_787]

Check, if the CD has two visible rings on the data side.
If yes then use a black marker to draw a line across the outer ring.

https://www.theregister.com/2002/05/14/marker_pens_sticky_tape_crack/

Interesting you mention this as I would not have noticed but do you mean like this? (see image)

[paul_g_787]

Check, if the CD has two visible rings on the data side.
If yes then use a black marker to draw a line across the outer ring.

https://www.theregister.com/2002/05/14/marker_pens_sticky_tape_crack/

Interesting you mention this as I would not have noticed but do you mean like this? (see image)

Just looking and lots of my older CDs (1996 and before) have these inner and outer rings on them. But I have ripped many of these without issue so maybe it isn't this?