Most programs that copy music CDs, and rip them to hard drive files include
a connection to an Internet database to fill in the album and song titles,
etc. This can save a lot of time from manually typing in all that info. (One
obvious question is--why don't CD manufacturers include that CD-Text info on
the original CD, so that there would be no need for such databases either.
The additional cost and trouble would be negligible to do so.)

Most programs that do that these days use the freedb database, as there seem
to be problems with the Gracenote CDDB charging money to the software
developers, or something like that.

However, in trying different programs that access the freedb, they all seem
to have problems accessing the database, at least those I have tried--Nero,
Feurio, CDEX, etc. I do not understand what the problem is--I have no
problem going to freedb on my web browser, and putting in keywords to look
up a song, etc. But when an application tries to do so to look up info on an
inserted CD, always an "http error". I've checked and re-checked my
settings, tried different freedb servers, turned off my (Windows XP)
Internet connection (dial-up) firewall, turned off Antivirus software, etc.
Always get that http error.

First of all, anyone aware of solutions to this problem accessing freedb? I
saw many complaints about this, in a Google group search, not many
solutions.

Today I experimented with a couple other programs that access databases,
though none are freedb. I tried a program I got with a Soundblaster card,
the "Creative Play Center". It retrieved song data without a hitch, from the
Gracenote CDDB2. (It didn't ask me for money, BTW.)

Then I tried Windows Media Player 9. It also retrieved the song info well,
it said from something called AMG. (What is that? Never heard of them
elsewhere. A song database owned by Microsoft?) Not only the song info, but
cover art, biographical information about the artist, info on other albums
by that artist, etc. A lot of info.

The problem is--I don't find either WMP 9 or that Creative program very good
for copying CDs. I'd rather use a program such as Nero for that purpose.

The question is---is it possible to transfer the locally stored database of
one of these programs, and use it for another? (It really would make much
more sense if Windows had one format for locally stored song database, that
all such programs could access.) They all seem to have different formats for
their database. Creative seems to keep it in a folder called something like
"C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application Data\Creative\Media Database"
(the second level of folders, "Owner", might well be different for you), in
files with names like ACDL_1.dac.

WMP keeps it in a folder called something like "C:\Documents and
Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player".
(Again, "Owner" might well be different for you.) The main file seems to be:
CurrentDatabase_59R.wmdb, and there are a few other files and folders.

The question is--can either of those databases be copied to the Nero folder
for local database, changed in some way (perhaps filename), and be read as a
local database by Nero? Imported or converted somehow? Or, are all these
song databases kept in a format totally incompatible with other programs?