Ripping is distinct from simple file copying, in that the source audio or video often isn't originally formatted for ease of use in a computer file system; ripping such data usually involves reformatting it and optionally compressing it during the extraction process. The correct use of the term rip refers to reading digital data directly from the source material without first converting it to analog and then re-encoding it. This was an important distinction in the early days of CD-ROM drives because some of them could not do DAE. Digitizing audio and video originally stored on analog formats, such as vinyl records is often incorrectly referred to as ripping

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