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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Itunes Clicks/pops/skips Despite Error Correction

stasiaw - Aug 5, 2005 - 1:54 am

Hi. I'm having a problem with skipping, popping, and clicking at the end of CD imports (most noticeably with audiobooks, but also with music, always near the end of a complete CD).

I HAVE turned on "error correction" in the iTunes preferences as specified in the Help file. I have also tried changing my ACC importing options to "custom" and then "optimize for voice", but with no improvement.

It is always at the end of a CD, as if something "ran out of memory". The problem is in the iTunes file as imported on my computer (so it's not just happening to the files on my iPod), but the CDs themselves play fine on the computer - the corruption is happening in iTunes during the import.

I use the "Import" button or "Add To Library" menu choice in iTunes to get the music/chapters into the library - I don't drag and drop the files. I download the CD track names from the online database (if this makes any difference) before importing the CD items into the library. I keep the tracks in order, and just import the CD as a whole.

I'm using iTunes 4.9, on a brand-new iMac G5 20" running OS X 10.4.2. with 1G of RAM. I have tried not running any other applications (including virus software) during an import, with no improvement. I have set the computer not to go to sleep, and turned the screen saver off as well, to no avail.

Any suggestions? I can't find anything at the Apple site beyond the suggestion of using error correction in iTunes Preferences, which (as I said) I've tried.

I'm going attempt to import files using Apple Lossless and see if it makes a difference... (Even if it does, I believe that type of file won't do me any good in other applications I might want to use music files in, like iMovie or iDVD; could those use AIFF files, and will the soundtracks I create for slideshows still be playable on DVD players?)

I'd just like to know if there is a glitch in my computer's CD drive, but as I poked around the Apple Support Site, I saw others were having similar problems, and I'm really curious whether this is an iTunes software issue, or something with ACC files, or...?

Ideas most welcome!!! Thanks musch for any help you can offer.

stasiaw - Aug 5, 2005 - 7:12 pm

I tried it again using Apple Lossless; same thing happened.

On the current disk I've imported, the problems are happening at the end of track 10 and the beginning of track 11.

I switched back to ACC (left error correction on but turned off "optimize for voice") and then I re-imported tracks 10 and 11 individually, one at a time. I had to do it twice for track 11 but this seemed to finally eliminate the skipping/garbling.

So, is this a problem with my CD drive, when it reads a whole CD at one time?

stasiaw - Aug 5, 2005 - 9:33 pm

I contacted Apple support via their chat site and was told I should reset the CD drive by doing a reset-vram and reset-all. Which I will try - but do I need to unmount/power down my external hard drive before attempting this?

stasiaw - Aug 5, 2005 - 11:29 pm

OK, resetting the vram and resetting all didn't work, so back to the support site I went. (Note that I did not have to unmount or disable my external devices, per them, before doing this.)

Their next step was having me create a new user for the computer in order to try to duplicate the problem when logged in at that user - it still happened. (Then I had the fun of learning you have to LOG OUT from that new user account before you can delete it if you want to do so - take note.)

They are now sending me a new SuperDrive.

Just reporting this in in case it is if any help to anyone. If anyone thinks that this is a software issue with iTunes, I would really like to hear more about it. In the meantime will try replacing the drive.

stasiaw - Aug 24, 2005 - 1:20 am

The new drive finally arrived (it was on backorder; I called Apple to check the status as it hadn't appeared in some time, and was told that they'd find one available locally and overnight it.)

It was a different drive from the one that came in my computer, as Apple Service states it may be (it is the same TYPE but different brand - Pioneer instead of Matsu-something).

DH installed it. I used iTunes to import two audiobook CDs with which I'd had the noise problems. I'd noted the tracks and times when the problems had occurred, and I duplicated the problem by re-importing those tracks before we changed the drive (again, no problem playing those CDs on the computer, just weird problems with the files as imported into iTunes).

There are no longer any noise problems in those specific areas. So far we've also tested music CDs and video DVDs, and the new drive seems to have fixed the problem.

currand - Aug 25, 2005 - 9:21 am

Wow, that was an impressive bit of troubleshooting. It does make sens though that the drive was the issue considering it always skipped at the same point on multiple CDs.