[slimeruky]

First of all, welcome to the game. You will find that the trading and all is more addictive than what you can forsee at this time, and every minute of it is great.

Next, your fear of viruses, while warranted, is something you can let go of and have fun. I have downloaded that version of EAC from that website and I use extensive virus protection and it has given me no probems. It has been pretty well proven that nothing really gives the results that EAC does when used properly, best I know. Check out this link: http://users.pandora.be/satcp/tutorials.htm That will give you all you need on how to rip and encode with EAC, step by step.

I am not familiar with the Roxio product you're asking specifically about, so I'll let someone else handle that, but I can tell you that there are good, free programs that can do what you'll need very well.

Also, you needn't even consider paying for FLAC encoding because it's supposed to be free to all of us. It's even in the name. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. You also don't need to be worried about viruses here. It's smart to think about, but time and time again this codec has proven to be legitimate and virus-free. With as many eyes as there are around here always checking out all those links in the FAQ, if something was sketchy, we'd all know about it really quickly. Just follow those for what you need.

I hope that helped you out and helped quell some of your fears. Best of luck. Keep asking questions. We're always happy to have new faces passionate about live music as we are.