faq

Q. How long does it take?
A. This depends on the size of your collection. Most collections will be processed in less than 3 days, once we receive your shipment. Larger orders (i.e. over 200 CDs) may take longer depending upon our workload. In addition, more complex collection, such as classical music, may require additional time due to our efforts in providing consistent album information.

Q. How much does it cost?
A. Get Digital has a tiered pricing structure dependent on the number of CDs you would like to have encoded. From 50-200 CDs, the price is $1.49/CD, from 201-400, the price is $1.29/CD, and then any CD over 400, the price is $0.99/CD. You may also choose to purchase an external USB hard drive or have Get Digital load your MP3 player with your new collection at no extra cost. Please note, this does not include the cost of shipping.

Q. Is there a minimum number of CD's Get Digital will process?
A. Due to the costs of handling each order, there is a minimum order of 50 CDs.

Q. Are the shipments insured?
A. Yes, Get Digital insures your CDs for a replacement value of $10 per CD. As standard, Get Digital utilizes FedEx for all shipments.

Q. Why don't I send my jewel cases?
A. Jewel cases are very heavy to ship with CDs, and they are very fragile. To prevent broken cases and reduce the shipping costs, Get Digital sends CDs in spindle cases that provide maximum protection and lower shipping costs. Get Digital will return your collection in the same order as you sent them to us for ease of returning them to their jewel cases.

Q. How do you pick up my CDs once I've packed them?
A. You will receive a personalized instruction sheet with the number of your local FedEx location that you will need to contact to schedule a pick-up of the package. Get Digital can also contact your FedEx location to schedule this pick up. You can also drop off the package to you nearest FedEx shipping location.

Q. Will my original CDs be returned to me?
A. Yes, we will return your CDs as well as the digitized collection.

2. Encoding
Q. How are my CDs encoded?
A. Get Digital can encode your CDs into MP3 and/or FLAC format. MP3 is by far the most popular format. The MP3 files can be played on nearly all digital music devices, including the Apple iPod. FLAC is considered a lossless digital format. This differs from an MP3 in terms of how the files are compressed. A FLAC file is compressed in a manner that it does not lose any audio quality. The downside to FLAC is that it results in much larger (approx. 4 times) files sizes requiring more storage space. In addition, FLAC is not as universally supported as MP3. The Apple iPod will NOT play FLAC files.

Q. Can you provide both FLAC and MP3 formats?
A. Yes, Get Digital can return your collection in both FLAC and MP3 formats. Many customers wish to maintain a permanent archive of their collection in a lossless format as well as have their music readily accessible for other devices such as their iPod. Get Digital offers the customer the ability to select the FLAC format as well as the MP3 format. The cost for this is an additional $.25 per CD on top of our Base price. Additional bitrate or DVD adders still apply depending upon your selection.

Q. What is bit-rate and how do I select this?
A. The MP3 compression format offers different bit-rates, which are the settings for quality: the higher the bit-rate, the higher the quality of the compressed file. Get Digital offers the following bit-rates; 128kbps (kilo-bits per second), 192kbps, 256kbps, and 320kbps. In general, selecting a bitrate is typically determined by the available hard drive storage as well has how the digital audio will be utilized. For example, if a user will be primarily utilizing their music on a portable device, they may be more inclined to select 128kbps or 192kbps due to the limited storage capacity of their portable device.

Q. Does the bit-rate affect the storage size of the CD collection?
A. Yes, quality and storage size directly affect each other. A collection of 300 CDs stored in 128kbps MP3 will typically take 15GB (gigabytes) of storage space. The same collection stored in 320kbps MP3 will take up 37.5GB of storage space. By selecting a lower bitrate, you are able to maintain CD sound quality, while at the same time, maximize the storage space needed to hold the collection. For this reason, 128kbps and 192kbps are very popular bit-rates for MP3 files.

Q. What if there's a scratch in one of my CDs? How about damaged CDs?
A. Get Digital's encoding process is able to check for any errors that may occur during the encoding process. If there are any scratches in your disc that result in an audible skip, Get Digital will try to fix the error by cleaning the CD, and reprocessing it. If the error cannot be fixed by a surface cleaning, Get Digital will resurface the disc with the SkipDR™ scratch repair device. If the disc is too badly damaged and cannot be resurfaced, Get Digital will be unable to encode the disc properly without errors and will recommend replacement.

3. Delivery
Q. How will you deliver my CD collection after you’ve converted it?
A. Get Digital can offer several delivery methods depending on your requirements. The simplest and most cost effective method is to deliver your collection on a set of DVDs, since a recordable DVD can store about 100 CDs (128kbps MP3). Get Digital delivers your collection on DVDs using the DVD-R standard. DVD-Rs are compatible with most newer PC DVD drives. It is possible your DVD drive does not support DVD-R, but supports DVD+R. If this is the case, please advise us as to your needs so that we can accommodate your requirements. All MP3 orders are returned on DVDs. FLAC orders can be delivered on DVDs as well, but must be selected during the order process.

Q. Can you load my iPod or other MP3 player?
A. Yes, and this is the easiest way for you to start enjoying your new investment. MP3 players such as the Apple iPod and Dell DJ are now available in 20 GB to 60 GB versions and can let you transfer your entire collection to them. If you’d like Get Digital to load your player, just make sure you tell us when you order, then send it along with your CDs. Get Digital will do the transfer for you and return your device back with your entire CD collection on it. We’ll also provide the DVDs of your collection for your archives. Get Digital supports all the standard USB and Firewire based MP3 players. (Note: iPod loading is only available for MP3 orders)

Q. Will my iPod Photo be able to display the cover art?
A. Yes, we embed album cover art into each of mp3 tracks of your collection. These images will be recognized by any device or application capable of displaying cover art, which includes such devices as the iPod Photo, Sonos Digital Music System and Escient Fireball, as well as most PC applications.

Q. How much extra do the external hard drives cost?
A. Get Digital offers customers the ability to purchase an external hard drive containing their digitized collection. Hard drive prices vary depending upon the size of the drive. When proceeding through the order prices, you will be given an oportunity to select the size of hard drive you would like and will be presented pricing at that time.

Q. Can I purchase a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive?
A. Yes, Get Digital offers Network Attached Storage drives as well as external hard drives. In order to purchase a Network Attached Storage drive, during the order processes, select the size of hard drive you would like, then check Yes where asked if you'd like to substitute the external hard drive with a Network Attached Storage drive of the same capacity. Note, Network Attached Storage drives are not offered under 200GB.

Q. Can you load my MP3 Jukebox?
A. MP3 jukeboxes such as devices available from ReQuest Multimedia, Escient, and newer products from Thomson and Kenwood are supported as well. Please contact us with your equipment requirements, and Get Digital will work with you to provide the fastest and easiest method of loading your device.

Q. Can you send me a printed list of my CD collection?
A. Along with the DVDs of your collection, Get Digital offers you the opportunity to include binder with a print out of each CD and song we have encoded for you. You will be able to keep this as a record of the CDs which are archived on the DVDs. Click here to see an example of the printed index.

4. Important Issues to Consider
Q. What is important to consider when encoding my CDs?

A. There are 3 primary items you should consider when having your CDs encoded.

1) Ensure your CDs will be handled and processed by professionals. Get Digital is the founder of the CD encoding service and has developed a strong reputation providing exceptional product and service to both consumers and professional audio firms. Get Digital utilizes advanced equipment to ensure you receive a high quality resulting product as well as the utmost care with your valuable collection.

2) Select the format that is best for you. With the rapid acceptance of digital music there has also been an introduction to a long list of digital music formats (ie. mp3, aac, wma, etc). While each encoding format has its advantages, they have likely done more to confuse consumers than anything else. It's important to understand some formats, such as Apple AAC and Microsoft WMA are utilized by their respective companies due to the ability to incorporate security features (DRM - Digital Rights Management) into these files. This was designed to prevent users from easily copying/transporting their music. The downside of utilizing either one of these formats is that they limit users by the products that will play them. For example, the iPod won't play WMA files. Fortunately, there is a very simple answer to this problem and that is MP3. MP3 is the only universally accepted format out there. Virtually all products designed to play digital audio files are capable of playing MP3 (such as the iPod). Due to this universal acceptance, we strongly encourage our customers to avoid limiting their usage of their music by sticking with the proven standard of MP3.

3) Ensure your collection is properly organized. This is a very important issue and also a very big problem. When we talk about metadata, we are talking about the album information associated with each track (ie. artist name, album name, track name, cover art, etc). While it isn't as noticeable when converting a single CD, the tools & databases utilized by industry, currently, don't provide the accuracy or consistency necessary when converting an entire collection. Fortunately, Get Digital has focused its efforts through the years to develop and provide a new solution to our customers, Datafix. I encourage you to read more about Datafix by clicking the Advantage button on our menu bar.

5. Miscellaneous
Q. Can you convert audio cassette tapes or LP's to MP3's?
A. Get Digital does not provide cassette or LP conversion to MP3. We are pleased to provide a referral to Cassettes2CDs who provides cassette and LP to MP3 conversion. Follow this link ( Cassettes2CDs) to be transferred to their website .

Q. Can you convert VHS tapes to DVD's?
A. Get Digital does not provide VHS tape services. We are pleased to provide a referral to Cassettes2CDs who provides VHS to DVD conversion. Follow this link ( Cassettes2CDs) to be transferred to their website .

Q. I used another service (or I ripped my CDs myself), can you apply your Datafix process to my collection in order to correct album information and provide cover art?
A. No. Unfortunately we are unable to apply the Datafix process to collections already converted to digital format. In order to provide our Datafix process Get Digital must also encode the CDs.

Q. Can you encode a copy protected CD?
A. No. Copy protection is a limitation installed on the disc from the manufacturer and encoding these discs would be a violation of this copyright protection. Get Digital will notify you if you own any discs with copyright protection, and will not charge you for that CD.

Q. Can Get Digital encode custom CDs that I’ve made myself or someone has given me?
A. No. Get Digital can only copy original pressed CDs known as "REDBOOK CDs". Any copied CDs on a CD-R that you provide Get Digital will be set aside and returned to you with the rest of your collection, and you will not be charged for these CDs. Also, any mixed CD that you have created or may have received from someone will be set aside as well, as Get Digital will be unable to process them.

Q. Can you encode a SACD or DVD-Audio disc?
A. No. A SACD or DVD-Audio disc is actually a DVD, and DVDs are copy protected. Get Digital will set aside and return any DVDs that you may send in without charging you.

Q. Does Get Digital keep a copy of my collection?
A. No, this is illegal. Get Digital will return all of your CDs along with every copy of them which was generated by the process. You may choose to make as many copies of your CD as you’d like, but Get Digital cannot keep or store these copies for you. Get Digital will keep a record of the CDs we recorded for you as part of our standard customer log.