Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - MultiPage

[comp.publish.cdrom] CD-Recordable FAQ, Part 2/4

From: fadden@netcom.com (Andy McFadden)
Newsgroups: comp.publish.cdrom.hardware,comp.publish.cdrom.software,comp.publish.cdrom.multimedia,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: [comp.publish.cdrom] CD-Recordable FAQ, Part 2/4
Supersedes: <3759c419.0@news.spies.com>
Followup-To: comp.publish.cdrom.hardware
Date: 19 Jul 1999 04:25:39 GMT
Organization: Netcom
Message-ID: <7mu9c3$inn@dfw-ixnews21.ix.netcom.com>
X-NETCOM-Date: Sun Jul 18 11:25:39 PM CDT 1999
Summary: Frequently Asked Questions about CD recorders, CD-R media, CD-RW,
	 and CD premastering.

Archive-name: cdrom/cd-recordable/part2
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 1999/07/18
Version: 2.13

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: [3] How Do I...
(1998/04/06)

This is general information about recommended ways to do specific tasks.


Subject: [3-1] How do I copy a data CD?
(1998/05/16)

Several publishers have CD-to-CD copiers.  Two low-cost versions for the PC
are Adaptec EZ-SCSI, which comes with a simple CD copier called "CD
Copier", and Jeff Arnold's freeware CD2CD (http://www.goldenhawk.com/).
Mac users can get a product called CD-Copy from Astarte
(http://www.astarte.de/).

The easiest and most reliable method to make copies of single-track data
CDs is also the least expensive: CD2CD runs under DOS and works very well
with a wide variety of hardware.

Software such as Arnold's and Adaptec's will allow you to make a CD image
on a hard drive that can then be written to multiple CDs.

The fancier packages will usually provide a way to do this as well, but
the software tends to be more complicated and harder to use.  Multi-
session and other complicated formats require more sophisticated software,
such as Jeff Arnold's SNAPSHOT or CDRWIN.

It's important to remember that, when copying directly from one CD to
another, the source MUST be faster than the target, and must be
error-free.  If the source pauses or spins down to read a marginal area of
the disc, the target may outrun the source, and the CD-R will only be
useful as a frisbee.  Most programs have a "test write" feature that put
the CD-R device into a mode where it goes through all the motions but
doesn't actually write anything; it's a good idea to do this right before
copying.


Subject: [3-1-1] Why can't I just do a block copy like a floppy?
(1998/04/06)

CDs don't have circular tracks.  They're laid out on a spiral, with
multiple sessions composed of multiple tracks composed of sectors, and the
data in the sectors is interleaved and spread over a large area.  The
sector format is standard, but there's more than one standard.

 "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from."
 -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum, _Computer Networks_, 2nd ed, p.254

The ability to read certain portions of a CD depends on the CD firmware.
Some CD players aren't capable of understanding multi-session discs or of
reading audio tracks as digital data.  Jitter, described in section (2-15),
is also a problem for most drives.


Subject: [3-2] How do I extract tracks from, or copy all of, an audio CD?
(1998/08/07)

Start with the CD-DA FAQ: http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~psyche/cdda/.

To copy from CD to CD, the source drive needs to support digital audio
extraction, which is rather rare among older drives.  A copier such as
Adaptec's "CD Copier" will copy the CD track-by-track, while one like Jeff
Arnold's CDRWIN will use disc-at-once recording.

Some programs will only copy the CD to the hard drive and from there to
CD-R, some will allow CD-to-CD directly but only if the source is a SCSI
CD-ROM, and some will work with IDE or SCSI.  As with copying CD-ROMs, you
must be able to read data off of the source drive faster than your recorder
is writing.  If you can only extract audio at 1x, you're not going to be
able to do a CD-to-CD copy reliably.

If you're just interested in extracting digital audio, you don't even need
a CD-R unit, just a CD-ROM drive that supports DA extraction and some
software.  The CD-DA site shown at the top of this section lists some
drives that support it, has a place to submit results for your own drive,
and has links to inexpensive or free DAE software.

Different drives can extract digital audio at different speeds.  For
example, the Plextor 6Plex can extract audio at 6x, while the NEC 6Xi can
only extract at 1x.  The Plextor UltraPlex has been clocked at over 20x.

Some CD-ROM and CD-R drives have trouble extracting digital audio at high
speed, so if you're getting lots of clicks and pops when extracting you
should try doing it at a slower speed.  You may also run into trouble if
you try to extract faster than your hard drive can write.  One user found
that he was able to eliminate clicks and pops by defragmenting his hard
drive.  Another found that the Win95 "vcache" fix (section (4-1-2)) solved
his problems.

It should be pointed out that, while digitally extracted audio is an exact
copy of the data on the CD, it's an exact copy as your CD player perceives
it.  Different drives or different runs with the same drive can extract
slightly different data from the same disc.  The differences are usually
inaudible, however.

The quality of the CD-R audio output depends mostly on how well your CD
player gets along with the brand of media you're using.  See the next
section for some comments about avoiding clicks and pops.

Some drives have trouble starting at the exact start of audio tracks.  The
extraction starts a few blocks forward of where it should, and ends a few
blocks later, so the track may not sound quite right and the extraction
program will report errors at the end of the last track.  See section
(4-19).

One minor note: the data on audio CDs is stored in "Motorola" big-endian
format, with the high byte of each 16-bit word first.  AIFF files also use
this format, but WAV files use "Intel" little-endian format.  Make sure
your software deals with the endian-flipping correctly.  Byte-swapped CD
audio sounds like noise.


Subject: [3-3] How do I get rid of hisses and clicks on audio CDs?
(1998/10/12)

If you're interested in removing noise from audio captured from an analog
source, such as a record player or analog cassette tape, skip to section
(3-12).  This section is about unexpected noise in audio from digital
sources, such as tracks extracted from a CD.

The single most important rule of noise removal is to figure out where the
noise came from.  Play the .WAV files off of your hard drive (if you're
doing direct CD-to-CD copies, extract a track and listen to it).  If you
hear noise in the .WAV on your hard drive, the digital audio extraction
isn't working very well.  You either need to extract more slowly, extract
from a different device, find a program that works better, or maybe just
clean the dust and grime off the source CD.  For more information,
including a URL for the CD-DA FAQ, see section (3-2).

If the problem sounds like repeated or skipped samples, rather than clicks
or hissing, the problem is probably jitter during extraction.  See section
(2-15) for an overview.

A nifty trick for comparing two .WAV files is to use the "Mix Paste"
feature in Cool Edit.  Extract a track twice, then use Mix Paste to copy an
inverted version of one file on top of the other.  The two sound files will
cancel each other out wherever they are identical, and have little spikes
where they are different.  This can be useful for seeing if the problems
are only on one channel or are happening at regular intervals.  You need to
make sure though that both files start at the same place though.  If your
CD-ROM drive doesn't always extract from the start of the block, you will
need to adjust the files so they line up.

Useful things to do with this include comparing two extractions from the
same drive, extractions from different drives, or extractions from the CD-R
you just wrote to the original .WAV file you used to write it.

If you just want to see if the files are the same, use the DOS File Compare
command, with the "binary" switch set: FC /B FILE1.WAV FILE2.WAV.

Some CD-ROM drives may put a click a few seconds into the first track being
extracted.  This appears to be related to the drive spinning up.  Try
starting the extraction, cancelling, and then immediately restarting.

The rest of this section only applies if the extracted audio sounds fine on
disk, but has problems when played back from the CD-R.


If you're using track-at-once recording, you may get a short click or
silent "hiccup" at the start of each track.  Hiccups are unavoidable, but
you should be able to get rid of the click by using different software.

If you're using disc-at-once recording, and are still getting a short click
at the *start* of every track, then your recording software is probably
writing the sound file with the headers still on it.  You should either
use a smarter program, or remove the header manually (see the URL for
"WAVECLIP", below).

If you are getting clicks in the middle of a track, they are either being
added when pulling the data off the disc or when writing it.  If the .WAV
(AIFF on the Mac) file plays without clicks, then your CD recorder may be
failing somehow during the write process.  Some people who got "static"
in audio recorded on an HP 4020i found that reducing the DMA transfer
rate to 2MB/sec helped.

One user was told by Yamaha tech support that crackling (similar to a dirty
vinyl LP) was a symptom of laser misalignment.  If you've been writing
audio CDs for quite a while, but lately you've been getting "crackly"
results from tried-and-true media, this might be the culprit.  Since it
requires returning the unit for repair, you should exhaust all other
possibilities first.

If you are getting clicks at the end of a track, it's possible that the
software used to create the .WAV file put some information at the very end,
which is legal but not handled correctly by some CD-R software.  See
section (3-12) for tips on using CoolEdit to remove the data.  If you are
finding that tracks extracted from CDs don't have clicks but tracks that
you have recorded or edited do, chances are the data size isn't a multiple
of 2352 bytes, and the last block is being filled with junk.  This is
common on live recordings or when large tracks are cut into smaller ones.
Jeff Arnold's DAO will fill out the last block with zeros (digital silence)
if there is space left over, but most of the other programs will write
garbage that is audible as a short (less than 1/75th second) click.  The
fix is to split the track on 2352-byte block boundaries.

A program called "WAVECLIP" will remove .WAV headers and footers, and will
either pad out the last block or remove silence from the end of a WAV file
to make it an exact multiple of 2352 bytes.  The program is available from
http://www.ptialaska.net/~syntec/waveclip.zip.  Another choice is
"StripWave", from http://www.lightlink.com/tjweber/.


If you must use track-at-once, make sure you're writing it all in one
session.  PC-based CD players may be able to see tracks in later sessions,
but the CD player in your stereo system can't.

A distantly related problem can arise if you use "shuffle play" to play
random tracks from a CD-R.  If the audio of track N begins immediately,
some CD players will slide from the end of track N-1 into the start of
track N, playing a short burst of track N before seeking elsewhere.  This
can be avoided by putting a gap at the start of such tracks (e.g. with
"INDEX 01 xx:yy:zz" in a DAO cue sheet).


Subject: [3-4] How do I copy game console discs (e.g. Playstation, Dreamcast)
(1999/06/13)

For PCs, Jeff Arnold has a utility called CDRWIN that can do this.  See
section (6-1-7).  For Macs, take a look at Astarte's CD-Copy (section
(6-2-8)).

Note that the software does NOT defeat the copy protection.  (I'm told that
the "copy protection" on Playstation discs is in fact a region code --
America, Europe, Japan -- printed as a barcode on the CD hub.  The "MOD
chip", a device attached to the Playstation that defeats one aspect of the
copy protection, emulates the barcode reading process.  It sends all three
region codes back, enabling the game console to play discs from other
regions as well as copied discs.  Other people have told me that it's not a
barcode, but data encoded in a particular block; yet others have insisted
that it's in the ATIP region of the lead-in.  Whatever the case, it doesn't
get copied by a CD recorder, and claims of hacked recorder firmware that
can create MOD-chip-free duplicates are false.)

Instructions for copying discs and vendors who sell MOD chips can be found
by searching the net.  If you don't have a PC, or if your drive doesn't
support disc-at-once recording, you will need to look for disc copying
instructions on the net.

Sega Dreamcast discs use a proprietary format, called GD-ROM, which can
hold 1GB of data.  This could make them difficult or impossible to copy.
Persistent rumors claiming that CeQuadrat's PacketCD can copy the discs are
false.  GD-R (Gigabyte Disc Recordable) media has two regions, a
"single-density" area near the hub and a "high-density" area farther out.
A visual inspection of GD-R media suggests that the single-density area
starts at about 22mm from the disc's center (same as a CD-R) and goes to
29mm.  From 29mm to 31mm is a "no-mans" land that isn't recordable, and
the high-density area goes from 31mm to 58mm.

Incidentally, posting requests or advertisements for pirated software on
one of the non-warez Usenet groups is generally regarded as a mark of
extreme stupidity.  Whatever your opinion of software piracy, it is against
the law in much of the world.


Subject: [3-5] How do I get long filenames onto a disc?
(1998/04/06)

There are several different ways, most of which only work with some
operating systems.  The next few sections discuss the various methods.

See http://www.adaptec.com/tools/compatibility/cdrecfilename.html for a
detailed description with some examples.

Getting mixed-case filenames onto a disc is a similar problem.  Burning an
ISO-9660 disc with lower-case filenames isn't recommended, because some
systems aren't able to access the files even though they appear in
directory listings.

"mkhybrid" and recent versions of "mkisofs" (1.12b1 or later), described in
sections (6-1-32) and (6-1-10), respectively, are able to create CDs that
have both Joliet and Rock Ridge extensions.


Subject: [3-5-1] ISO-9660
(1998/09/16)

Level 1 ISO-9660 defines names to be the familiar 8+3 convention that
MS-DOS users have suffered through for many years: eight characters for the
name, a period ("full stop" for those of you in the U.K.), followed by
three characters for the file type, all in upper case.  The only allowed
characters are A-Z, 0-9, '.', and '_'.  There's also a file version number,
separated from the name by a semicolon, but it's usually ignored.

Files must occupy a contiguous range of sectors.  This allows a file to be
specified with a start block and a count.  (Most disk-based filesystems
require index blocks that list all the blocks used by a file.)  The maximum
directory depth is 8.

Level 2 ISO-9660 allows far more flexibility in filenames, but isn't usable
on some systems, notably MS-DOS.

Level 3 ISO-9660 allows non-contiguous files, useful if the file was
written in multiple packets with packet-writing software.

Some of the CD creation programs will let you select how closely you want
the CD to conform to the ISO-9660 standard.  For example, Easy-CD Pro 95
can restrict filenames to be ISO-9660 compliant, or allow the full set
of valid MS-DOS filenames.  (Most systems can handle MS-DOS filenames.)

Incidentally, the ISO-9660 spec requires that all files be displayed in
alphabetical order, with directories first, no matter how they are recorded
on the CD-ROM.  You can't arrange files on the disc, because the ISO-9660
reader (e.g. MSCDEX) sorts them before displaying them.


Subject: [3-5-2] Rock Ridge
(1998/04/06)

The Rock Ridge extensions to ISO-9660 define a way for UNIX-isms like long
mixed-case filenames and symbolic links to be supported.

Because it's still an ISO-9660 filesystem, the files can still be read by
machines that don't support Rock Ridge; they just won't see the long forms
of the names.

Rock Ridge is supported by UNIX systems.  DOS, Windows, and the Mac
don't currently support it.

Copies of the Rock Ridge standard and System Use Sharing Protocol (SUSP)
can be found at ftp://ftp.ymi.com/pub/rockridge/.  Pay a visit to
http://makecd.core.de/Rock_Ridge_Amiga_Specific for a description of
Amiga-specific extensions.


Subject: [3-5-3] HFS
(1998/08/10)

HFS is the Hierarchical File System, used by the Macintosh.  This is
used in place of the ISO-9660 filesystem, making the disc unusable on
systems that don't support HFS.

At present, the systems that can read HFS CD-ROMS are Macs, Amigas (with
AmiCDROM, available from ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/aminet/disk/cdrom/), PCs
running Linux or OS/2 (with appropriate patches), the Apple IIgs, and SGI
machines running Irix (they appear as AppleDouble format).

Some authoring packages for the Mac and Windows allow the creation of
"hybrid" CDs that have both an ISO-9660 filesystem and an HFS filesystem.

Apple has defined some ISO-9660 extensions that allow Macintosh files to
exist with file and creator types on ISO-9660 CD-ROMs.  A description of
the extensions is available as tech note FL 36 from:
http://developer.apple.com/technotes/fl/fl_36.html


Subject: [3-5-4] Joliet
(1998/11/18)

Microsoft, being Microsoft, created their own standard called "Joliet".
This is currently supported by Win95 and WinNT.  It's useful when doing
backups from Win95 onto a CD-R, because the disc is still readable as
ISO-9660 but shows the long filenames under Win95.  The limit on Joliet
filenames is 64 characters.

The spec can be found at http://www.ms4music.com/devl/dvjoliet.htm.

Recent versions of Linux (kernel >= 2.0.34 and 2.1.60) have Joliet
support.  Older versions can be patched; for details, see
http://www-plateau.cs.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/joliet.html.

To patch Joliet support into OS/2, visit:
http://service.software.ibm.com/os2ddpak/html/miscellb/os_2warp/updatedc/index.htm

Some Creative CD-ROM drivers have trouble with CD-ROMs that have Joliet
filenames.  You may need an updated copy of sbided95.exe, available from
http://www.ctlsg.creaf.com/wwwnew/tech/ftp/ftp-cd.html.


Subject: [3-5-5] Romeo
(1998/04/06)

Adaptec's Easy-CD Pro software allows creation of discs in "Romeo" format.
This never really caught on.


Subject: [3-5-6] ISO/IEC 13346 and ISO/IEC 13490
(1998/04/06)

These are new standards intended to replace ISO-9660.  The UDF filesystem
specification is based on ISO/IEC 13346 (which is closely related to
ECMA-167).  For more information about these standards, see the links in
section (6-4).


Subject: [3-6] How do I use a CD-i disc on a PC?
(1998/06/29)

Short answer: you don't, unless you have a CD-i add-on board.  Even if you
have a CD reader compatible with the CD-i (Green Book) standard, there are
still a number of obstacles in your way.  The filesystem used isn't
ISO-9660, and CD-i players are based around a 680x0 CPU and have special
hardware for video and audio.

Longer answer: it depends on what kind of disc it is, and what you mean
by "use".

PhotoCD and VideoCD discs are CD-ROM/XA "Bridge Format" discs that play on
CD-i players as well as dedicated players and computers.  These use the
ISO-9660 file system, and can be read with commonly available PhotoCD
software and MPEG-1 players.

DigitalVideo discs from Philips manufactured before June, 1994 are in CD-i
format, not VideoCD format.  If your CD-ROM drive supports raw 2352-byte
sector reads, it's possible to pull tracks off of a Green Book format disc,
and extract audio or MPEG video data.  VCD PowerPlayer from CyberLink
(http://www.cyberlink.com.tw/) can play CD-i movies directly off of a Green
Book disc.


Subject: [3-7] How can I extract disc and track titles from an audio CD?
(1998/09/01)

Typical Red Book audio CDs don't have this information.  Software audio CD
players like those provided by Adaptec or Microsoft require you to type in
the information, which is then stored in a database on your hard drive.
The discs are identified by computing a signature based on track offsets
and other fields.  http://www.cddb.com/ acts as an Internet database of
CD info.

Some newer formats, like CD Extra, allow or even require such information
to be included on the CD.  See Sony's pages at http://www.cdextra.com/.

Some recent CD players are advertised as "CD-Text Ready".  These use the
CD-Text data embedded in the P-W subcode channels to display disc and track
title data.  See section (3-28) for more about CD-Text.


Subject: [3-8] How do I write more than 74 minutes of audio or 650MB of data?
(1999/03/10)

CD-R's have a pre-formed spiral track, and the sector addresses are
hard-coded into CD-R media, so there's no flexibility.  Every disc holds a
predetermined amount of data.

Most discs hold slightly more than 74 minutes.  How much more depends on
the brand of media, batch of media, and perhaps even on the recorder used
(see section (7-6) for more details on how much a CD-R can hold).  In some
situations you can exceed the stated capacity of the disc; see section
(3-8-2) below.

Since CDs are written in a spiral, the amount of data you can get on a disc
is affected by how tightly spaced the "groove" is.  A standard Red Book
audio CD or Yellow Book CD-ROM is designed to allow at most 74 minutes of
data.  By using a tighter track pitch on the spiral "groove" on the glass
master, manufacturers can get more data onto the disc.  In theory this
could make it harder for some CD readers to use the discs.

There *are* 80-minute CD-R blanks, but they're very expensive, and may not
work on all systems.  Some sources say that the longest possible CD-R is 79
minutes, 59 seconds, 74 blocks long, because of the way that the last
possible start time of the lead-out is encoded, but some recorders may
allow even larger values.  See the next sub-section for more about 80-minute
media.

The easiest way to get more data onto a disc is not to try.  For audio CDs,
you can leave off one or two tracks that you're not overly fond of.  For
data CDs you may be able to drop some images or sample data.  The most
common problem people encounter with data CDs is trying to copy them as a
collection of files rather than doing a bulk copy of the entire disc.  See
also section (3-24).

One user suggested using the "speed up" function of SoundForge or CoolEdit
to increase the speed of extracted WAV files by 3%.  This supposedly gives
better results than resampling, and allows writing 77 minutes.

If you have a mono recording, you could double the length of a CD by
recording half the sound on the left track and half on the right.  The
sound would be recorded as two monaural files, and then merged into a
single stereo file with a sound editor like Cool Edit.  (With Cool Edit
96:  load first mono file.  Use "Convert Sample Type" to convert to
Stereo.  Select the right track, and Delete Selection.  Use Mix Paste to
load the right track from the second file, or just fire up a second copy of
Cool Edit with the other track, and use Copy and Paste commands.)  The
person playing the CD back will need to use a "balance" knob to select the
left or right track.  One issue with this method is that the track markers
apply to both tracks, so providing random access to specific sections can
be tricky.

If you're trying to copy a CD-ROM or VideoCD and running out of room, you
may have a different problem.  See sections (3-24) and (4-25).


Subject: [3-8-1] How well do 80-minute CD-R blanks work?
(1999/07/12)

In general, they work just fine.  Reports from people who have used
80-minute CD-Rs indicate that compatibility with different CD-ROM drives is
very good.  However, bear in mind the following statement, which was sent
by e-mail from a TDK representative:

  "The CD-R80 is a special product developed by TDK to meet the application
  needs of software developers and music studios.  To achieve its 80 minute
  recording time, track pitch and scanning velocity specification tolerances
  had to be minimized, reducing the margin of error between drive and media.
  This means limited compatibility between some CD-Recorders and CD-ROM
  Readers.  If you intend to use this recording length, please check with
  your hardware manufacturer.  Use of the CD-R80 is at one's own risk.  No
  guarantees of performance are made by TDK."

The TDK discs are now "official"; see http://www.tdk.com/n_80mincd.html.

Whether it's better to use 80-minute discs or "overburning" (described in
the next section) is a worthy subject for debate.  Both can cause problems
on different CD-ROM drives, and not all recorders are capable of doing
one or the other.

If you're making backups of your hard drive or writing valuable data, don't
use either.  Stick to 74-minute blanks, and only record as much as you're
supposed to.  CD-R media is too inexpensive these days to justify pushing
the limits for a slight increase in storage.


Here's a few personal notes on my experiments with TDK 80-minute "green"
blanks, back in late 1997.  Similar discs are now commonly available from
several Internet vendors, for a small markup over 74-minute media.  Back
then this wasn't the case, but I was able to purchase a small quantity
(three discs) from Microboards at http://www.microboards.com/.

The discs were part number SCWA-ETC80A-X, priced at US$40.00 per disc in
October 1997.  That was about 20x the cost for an extra 8% storage.  The
discs were unbranded.  The only difference I could see between these and
other TDK green discs is that on the hub it says "CD-Recordable 6129B-80".
Easy CD Creator Deluxe v3 showed 359,624 blocks (702.8MB in MODE-1) on the
TDK 80-minute blanks, versus 333,010 blocks (650.8MB) available on my
Mitsui gold 74-minute blanks.

The first challenge was finding software that would work correctly with the
discs.  Neither Easy-CD Pro 95 v1.2 nor Easy CD Creator Deluxe v3.0 would
allow me to do a test recording with more than 650MB of files.  I ended up
using mkisofs to create an image file with 341,163 blocks (666.3MB) of
data, composed of two large .AVI files, and three smaller pieces of one of
the other .AVI files.  (With Easy CD Creator Deluxe v3.5 and later, you
can choose to ignore a warning about the data size.)

Using a Yamaha CDR-102 with v1.0 firmware, the first thing I tried was to
burn the image file to a 74-minute blank.  Easy-CD immediately rejected the
disc, saying there wasn't enough space.  I then put the 80-minute blank in
and did a test run.  Easy-CD Pro 95 had no problems burning the ISO-9660
image file, until the screen saver activated and McAfee anti-virus "screen
scan" kicked in.  Good thing it was a test burn; I got a buffer underrun.
I killed the screen saver and virus checker and ran again, had a successful
test run, and followed it with a successful burn.

To verify the data, I used Easy-CD Pro 95's "compare track" feature.  This
failed, complaining that one track was shorter than the other.  My guess is
that the compare feature has some sort of track length limitation.  My next
attempt was to use the Linux "sum" command to make sure that the disc was
readable in my Plextor 8Plex.  This worked fine, and the output of "sum"
matched what I got on the 4x CD-ROM drive in the Sun workstation at work.
I also tried the disc in a Mac 7500 and a Dell Pentium, and had no problems
with either.

The next step was an 80-minute audio CD, and that's where things fell
apart.  Easy-CD Pro 95 v1.2 didn't work at all (!), Easy CD Creator Deluxe
v3.0 again refused to allow me to create a long audio CD, and with Jeff
Arnold's software (both the DOS version and CDRWIN) the test write failed
after a minute or so (after the lead-in had completed?).  Strangely,
removing the last two tracks from the cue sheet, which reduced it to 72
minutes, allowed the test write to succeed on both 74-minute and 80-minute
blanks.  It appears that the Yamaha CDR-102 drive is unwilling to write
that much audio data.


Subject: [3-8-2] How can I exceed the stated disc capacity ("overburning")?
(1999/02/19)

The capacity of a CD-R is calculated to allow enough space to hold at least
74 minutes of Red Book audio data and 90 seconds of digital silence.  The
silent area is called the "lead-out", and is included so that a CD player
will realize that it has reached the end of the disc, especially when
fast-forwarding.

When a recording program tells you the exact capacity of the disc, it's not
including the area reserved for the lead-out.  There's nothing magic about
this reserved area though.  With the right kind of setup -- and a
willingness to accept write failures as a matter of course -- you can put
data into the reserved area, and possibly into a few blocks past the end
of it.  This is often referred to as "overburning" a disc.

How much more you can fit depends almost entirely on the media.  Some
brands will hold as much as 78 minutes, but it varies from batch to batch.
See http://cdr.mypage.org/ for a long list of "offical" capacities.

You also need the right recorder and the right software.  The Teac CD-R55S,
Plextor PX-R412C, Yamaha 4xx/4xxx, and Memorex/Dysan CRW-1622 units have
been used to write "extra long" audio discs successfully.  The recent
Philips, HP, and Ricoh units don't seem to be willing to do so.  Not sure
about Panasonic.  The firmware revision may be important.  A recorder that
isn't able to do this sort of writing will reject the cue sheet.

To write such a disc, you need to use a program that won't refuse to exceed
the disc capacity.  Easy CD Creator, in an attempt to prevent you from
making mistakes, will refuse to allow you to write more than you should be
able to.  CDRWIN will warn you that the write may fail, but will allow you
to continue anyway.  Nero has a preference (under Expert Features) called
"enable oversize disc" that allows the longer write.

Gather a large collection of audio tracks, and start writing.  Eventually
the recorder will attempt to write past the end of the disc, and the write
process will fail.  Now play the disc, preferrably in a player that shows
the total elapsed time for the entire disc.  When the music cuts off, make
a note of the time.  That's the absolute capacity of the disc.

Most (all?) CD players will display the total disc time when you first put
the disc in.  This value represents how much you tried to write, not how
much was actually written.  If you want to impress your friends, try to
write 88 minutes of music.  You won't get anywhere near that far, but the
CD player will show it.

There isn't a reliable way to determine absolute "over capacity" without
actually writing to the disc, but it's reasonable to assume that the
capacity of one disc in a box of 10 is representative of the rest.

It should be possible to write a CD-ROM in the same manner as an audio CD,
but the space would have to be calculated so that the write failure
occurred when the lead-out was being written.  Otherwise, some of the files
that appeared to be on the disc wouldn't actually exist.

Recording in DAO mode may be helpful to ensure that the lead-in gets
written.  Without a table of contents, the disc is useless.  It's very
likely however that you will be able to finalize the disc even after the
write fails.

Depending on the disc and your player, you may have trouble seeking out to
tracks near the end of the disc.  Also, your CD player may behave strangely
when it walks off the end of the disc: one user said he had to open and
close the player afterward to convince it that a disc was still loaded.

The disc surface past the end of the area reserved for the leadout may be
unreliable.  Attempting to use more than 90 seconds (about 15MB of MODE-1
data) beyond the rated capacity of a disc could be asking for trouble.

It's possible to perform similar tricks on 80-minute media.  Experiments
with TDK 80-minute discs resulted in a recorded length of 82:09.  MMC
recorders don't seem to like having the lead-out position any later than
88:29:74, but that shouldn't get in the way.

Further commentary and instructions can be found at
http://www.esware.net/empire/hardware/cdrom/oversize.htm.


Subject: [3-9] How do I put photographs onto CD-ROM?
(1999/03/31)

The first thing you have to do is get them onto your computer.  There are
three basic approaches: use a scanner to convert printed photographs, use a
video digitizer to pull images off of a video tape, or use a digital camera
to take pictures that can be transferred directly.

There are a great many different scanners, with different resolutions and
capabilities.  http://www.zdnet.com/products/scanneruser/index.html is a
fair place to start.

Video digitizers are mentioned in section (3-16).  If you're scanning off
of VHS video tape, you are going to get disappointing results.

Digital cameras will generally give you the best results.  A mid-range
digital camera will give you pictures that look as good (when printed on a
photo-quality printer, which are inexpensive now) as a 35mm point-and-shoot
film camera.  A few links:

	- http://www.steves-digicams.com/
	- http://www.imaging-resource.com/
	- http://www.dcresource.com/

Once you have the photograph on your hard drive, you may want to touch it
up a bit.  You can use software to correct for over- and under-exposed
snapshots, remove "red eye", and crop off bits that weren't supposed to be
in the frame.  Cameras and scanners should come with image manipulation
software that will help you manipulate and manage the images.  Adobe's
PhotoShop (http://www.adobe.com/) is the standard high-end solution, and
their PhotoDeluxe Home Edition may appeal to a less demanding crowd.

Once you've got the images in a reasonable state, save them in a widely
accepted format such as JPEG or TIFF, and write them to a CD-ROM like you
would any other files.  You may need to use an "Export" function rather
than "Save As...", because consumer photo software authors tend to use
proprietary image formats as the default.

If you want to create a PhotoCD that can be played in a PhotoCD player,
continue on to the next section.  If you're interested in arranging the
pictures into an album, see (3-9-2).


Subject: [3-9-1] How do I create a PhotoCD?
(1999/03/31)

First off, you need to be aware that certain aspects of PhotoCD creation
are proprietary to Kodak.  Programs like Adaptec's Easy CD Creator will
allow you to create CD-ROMs with PhotoCD image files, and you will be able
to view the images with Mac or PC programs that understand the PhotoCD file
format, but you won't be able to look at the disc with a PhotoCD player.

http://www.kodak.com/country/US/en/corp/pressReleases/pr19950328-10.shtml
has the glossy brochure information, with some Kodak contact information.
The Build-It and Arrange-It software, which allow you to create "real"
PhotoCDs, costs about US$450.  Kodak apparently pulled the software from
the market in December 1997, so it may be difficult to find.

http://www.shiresoft.com/ gives you step-by-step instructions and software
for creating "real" PhotoCD discs with Kodak's software.  The Build-It
program will only write to Kodak CD recorders, but a translator available
from this web site will allow it to work with GEAR or CDRWIN.  Follow the
Kodak links on that page.

There are some utilities that will convert images into PCD format, but they
only support the uncompressed base resolutions.  The higher resolutions are
compressed with an algorithm proprietary to Kodak.


Subject: [3-9-2] How can I set up a photo album on CD-ROM?
(1999/07/01)

There are programs available that will do this for you, or you can take
a "do it yourself" approach.  Some examples:

Adaptec "Photo Relay" (part of Easy CD Creator Deluxe Edition - see
section (6-1-26)).  According to their web page, it "lets you organize
digitized photos and videos, then create Slide Shows, Web Albums and Video
Postcards that can be stored to CD and shared with others - no proprietary
viewer is required by the recipient!".

Cerious "Thumb's Plus" (http://www.cerious.com/).  Helps you organize
images and create slide shows.  Free evaluation version.

Firehand "Lightning" (http://www.firehand.com/lightning/).  Photo albums,
slide shows, screen savers.  Free evaluation version.

Tlonstruct "CDView Pro" (http://tlonstruct.com/).  Fancy picture viewer.
Free shareware download.

The do-it-yourself approach.  Make an HTML page with pictures, using a
program like Microsoft FrontPage to create thumbnails (the auto-thumbnail
feature is *very* handy), so that when you click on the thumbnail image you
get the full-sized image.  Put the HTML page and all of the graphics onto a
CD-ROM, and view the pictures with a web browser.  For bonus points you can
use "shellout" with autorun.inf (section (3-21)) to have Windows
automatically launch the default web browser when the disc is inserted, and
"mkhybrid" to create a disc with long filenames and correct file types for
Rock Ridge, Joliet, and MacOS.


Subject: [3-10] How do I make a CD that will work on a PC or a Mac?
(1998/04/06)

If it's just a disc full of data (like JPEG images), writing the disc in
minimal ISO-9660 should work.  You may have to master it without the file
version number (e.g. ";1") at the end of the name.

If you need the format to be more flexible, perhaps with separate
executables for Macs and PCs, you'll want to build a "hybrid" CD that has
two sets of files on it.  Adaptec's Toast for the Mac is widely recommended
for this.  See section (6) for other options (search for "hybrid").


Subject: [3-11] How do I access different sessions on a multi-session CD?
(1998/04/06)

As always, it depends.

MS-DOS lets you see the first data session.  Usually.  Win95 lets you see
the last data session.  Usally.  Adaptec's Session Selector and Ahead's
MultiMounter will let you choose which session you see.

Some CD creation software (e.g. Adaptec Easy-CD Writer) writes a complete
table of contents in each session, some of which refers back to the files
from the previous session, allowing a form of incremental backup.  (This
will work for ISO-9660 discs, but won't work for HFS.  However, this is
less painful than it seems because a properly-configured Macintosh will let
you mount all the sessions as individual volumes.)

Adaptec's Easy-CD Pro will allow you to combine the contents of several
previous sessions by creating a new session (use RCD's Load Contents
option to read the file/directory info from more than one session, then
write and close a new session with that directory structure).

Some of it depends on the SCSI or CD-ROM driver you have installed.  It's
unwise to expect somebody else's system to treat multisession discs the
same way yours does.


Subject: [3-12] How do I transfer my records or cassettes to a CD?
(1999/03/23)

The tricky part in doing this -- unless you have a stand-alone audio CD
recorder -- is getting the audio transferred to your computer and modifying
it to suit your tastes.  The act of writing a sound file onto a CD is
fairly trivial with most recorders and software.  If you're considering the
purchase of a computer-connected recorder for transferring tapes or LPs to
CD, you should worry less about the recorder and more about the quality of
the digitized audio.  Few, if any, people will insist that recorder A
produces better quality audio CD-Rs than recorder B, but everybody has an
opinion about sound cards.

Start with http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~abcomp/lp-cdr.htm and
http://www.octave.com/library/outsidesource.html, and read through
http://www.octave.com/library/audiocd.html.  These go into a lot more
detail than this section does.

If you have questions or need a recommendation on a sound card, you might
want to try:

	news:rec.audio.tech
	news:comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech

Some highly technical benchmark evaluations of cards are available at
http://www.rockpark.com/soundcards/ and http://www.pcavtech.com/.


To record on your PC, connect the output of the receiver/amplifier to the
"line in" on your sound card.  If you want to go directly from a record
player, you need to run it through a pre-amp (which both pre-amplifies the
signal and equalizes it to RIAA standards).  Anything labeled "preamp out"
or "tape out" can be connected directly.

You can use the A/D (analog-to-digital) converter built into a sound card
like a SoundBlaster 16, but the sound quality will not be very good.  The
sound cards from Turtle Beach (Tropez, Tahiti) and CrystaLake are a step
up, and a Digital Audio Labs CardD+ is about as good as it gets for
internal A/D cards.  If you're really serious, you should get an external
A/D converter like the Symetrix 620 or the Lucid AD9624 and feed the
digital output from that into the computer.  Another way of accomplishing
the same thing is to record to an audio DAT deck and then use the digital
output on the DAT recorder; see section (3-13) for details.  (Looks like
the Lucid device has superseded the Symetrix one -- it's the same company.
Relevant URLs are http://www.symetrixaudio.com/faq620.htm and
http://www.lucidtechnology.com/welcome.htm.)

A problem with some sound cards (really cheap Opti and ESS cards have been
named) is that the crystal that controls the recording sample rate is off.
If the card doesn't do the sampling at the correct rate, the recorded audio
may end up slightly slower or faster than the original.  This will become
apparent when the sound is played back off of a CD or through a better
sound card.

When recording, try to get as much signal as possible.  Normalization will
bring the signal level up, but can't replace parts of the signal that were
lost.  Sound editing utilities, such as GoldWave or Cool Edit, can be used
to equalize, normalize, and even perform noise reduction on your
recordings.

Adaptec's Easy CD Creator includes an application called "Spin Doctor" that
performs most of the tasks needed to transfer LPs to CD.  Depending on your
needs, it may provide a simple solution for all your needs.

There are a variety of programs that can automatically remove pops, clicks,
and hissing from digitized audio.  Few automated tools can do as good a job
cleaning up pops and other noise as an experienced person, however.  If you
want to perform the transfer by hand, the following method has been
suggested for PC users:

 - Record directly into Cool Edit, using the highest possible input
   level that doesn't exceed the maximum.  You want to record 16-bit
   stereo samples at 44.1KHz.
 - In the "noise reduction" dialog, set FFT size to 8192, FFT precision
   to 10, and #of samples to 96.
 - Select a silent passage between songs or from the end of the record.
   It can have some crackling but no huge pops.  Set the noise level.
 - Select the entire track and perform noise reduction at about 70%.
 - Select the entire track and normalize it.
 - Manually remove any big pops (easily located by zooming in to the general
   area and switching to "spectral view" in the edit menu) by zooming in on
   them and amplifying them to about 8%.  You only need to select the
   channel (left or right) in which the offending data occurs.  If it occurs
   across BOTH channels, you may get a better result by deleting that part
   of the track and reconstructing it in such a way that it remains
   smooth... if that's not possible, make one channel smooth and then
   amplify the other to 8%.

Cool Edit optionally leaves a blob of data at the end of the .WAV file,
which is legal in the file format but not expected by some utilities.  To
avoid this, go into the "Options" menu and select "Info" (for Cool Edit 96,
it's under the "View" menu).  There is a check box here labeled "Fill *
fields automatically".  Make sure the box is unchecked, and don't put any
information into the fields.  (For Cool Edit 96, there's a simple checkbox
in the file save dialog as well.)

Cool Edit can be found at http://www.syntrillium.com/.  A similar product
called "GoldWave" can be found at http://www.goldwave.com/.  A fancy
commercial product called Sound Forge is described on
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/.  Algorithmix, at http://www.algorithmix.com/,
has a noise reduction program called SoundLaundry.  DART and DART PRO are
designed for audio restoration, and can be found at
http://www.dartpro.com/.  Another fancy (and expensive) program is at
http://www.waves.com/.  See also DCart at http://www.diamondcut.com/.

Don't forget that CD audio is 16-bit PCM stereo samples at 44.1KHz, and
will chew up disk space at roughly 176K per second.  Playing back large
sound files is difficult with simple-minded applications like the standard
Win95 WAV player, because they try to load the entire file into memory all
at once.  Cool Edit 96 is able to play files back as it reads them, and
works very well even over a network.  (Section (4-20) has some other
suggestions on this same topic.)

See section (3-3) for some tips on avoiding clicks when committing the
audio to CD.

You can find odd bits of hardware that will play or enhance playback of
older recording formats (78's, LP's, 16" Radio Transcriptions) at Nauck's
Vintage Records (http://www.78rpm.com/).

For those of you wondering what the deal with pre-amplification is, this
little tidbit is courtesy Mike Richter:

  "Preemphasis has been used since the earliest days of commercial recording.
  In general, the high-frequency content of the music (or whatever) being
  recorded is low and the noise is high.  Therefore, treble was boosted and
  lows were cut by a preemphasis curve which was removed in playback.  The
  standard RIAA curve for turnover and rolloff (the amount and frequency
  for treble and bass, respectively) was not accepted universally until the
  50's, and some fine preamps offered selectable values with presets for
  the common curves into the early transistor era."


Subject: [3-13] How do I transfer an audio DAT tape to CD?
(1998/05/16)

Buy a card that will allow you to go from DAT to hard disk digitally.  Make
sure you get one that can handle the same digital standard the DAT recorder
uses, i.e. S/PDIF (Sony/Phillips Digital Interface Format, sometimes
referred to as "domestic") or AES/EBU ("professional").

Some of the solutions for the PC are the DigiDesign AudioMedia (see
http://www.digidesign.com/), the Zefiro Acoustics ZA2 (see
http://www.zefiro.com/), the AdB Digital Multiwav Pro (see
http://www.adbdigital.com/), the Digital Audio Labs CardD+ (see
http://www.digitalaudio.com/products.htm), or the Turtle Beach Fiji (see
http://www.tbeach.com/products/fiji.htm).  The CardD+ comes highly
recommended.  There may be newer versions of these products, so be sure
to check out the web sites.

Visit http://www.digitalexperience.com/cards.html for a feature comparison
of many different models.

A cheap S/PDIF card available from Computer Geeks (http://www.compgeeks.com/)
was evaluated by some newsgroup readers.  Apparently there were some
problems with the physical dimensions of the card (too wide for some PC
slots), the documentation is poor, and the voltage level for both input
and output was TTL instead of standard S/PDIF.  You're probably better off
with one of the established brands unless you're sure about what you need.

You should record from the DAT onto your hard drive, and then record the CD
from there.  If you try to record directly from DAT you'll likely end up
with a lot of wasted CD-Rs due to buffer underruns or minor mistakes.  You
should use Disc-At-Once recording for best results; Jeff Arnold's DAO
software is recommended for this on the PC.

One issue you need to be aware of is that some older DAT recorders can
only record at 48KHz, while CDs are recorded at 44.1KHz.  If this is the
case with your equipment, you will have to do a sample rate conversion.
The DSP on cards like the ZA2 will do this for you, or you can use an
audio editing program like CoolEdit or Sound Forge.

There *are* CD-R drives that have analog inputs, and can record directly
from audio sources.  See section (5-12).

If you use a DAT and haven't been to the DAT-heads home page, you should
definitely check out http://www.atd.ucar.edu/rdp/dat-heads/.

If you want to manipulate audio DATs directly from your computer, you need
a DDS drive with special firmware.  The SCSI DDS drives that are typically
sold for backups don't have the firmware required to handle DAT tapes.
Most SGI workstations can do this, and Mac users should check out
http://www.demon.co.uk/gallery/StudioDAT.html.  If you have an Archive
Python DDS drive, check out ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/pub/DATlib.

An interesting combination of technologies is the DAT-Link from
http://www.tc.com/, which connects to the digital connectors on the DAT
machine (or MD, DCC, or CD player) and the SCSI interface on a computer.
The device can be controlled from other computers on a network.

If you're interested in mastering production audio CDs, you should take
a look at http://www.sadie.com/.


Subject: [3-14] How do I put audio and data on the same CD?
(1998/09/12)

There are two ways to do this.  The first is to put the data on track 1 of
the CD, and audio on the next several tracks (discs created this way are
referred to as "mixed-mode" CDs).  The CD-ROM drive will automatically look
at track 1 and ignore all other tracks, so you'll be able to get at the
data and -- depending on the operating system -- will be able to play the
audio tracks.  Remember that all of the tracks, both audio and data, need
to be recorded in a single session.  See section (3-2).

The down side of this is that audio CD players may attempt to play track 1,
which can be obnoxious or downright harmful to audio equipment.  Most
modern CD players are smart enough to ignore data tracks, so this won't
usually be a problem.

The other approach is to create a multisession disc with the audio tracks
in the first session and the data track in the second.  This is how CD
Extra (the format formerly known as CD Plus) works.  Audio CD players only
look at the first session, and CD-ROM drives are (supposed to) start with
the last session, so it all works out.  Sony Music has some pages at
http://www.cdextra.com/.

A common question is how to write the audio in the first session without
gaps between tracks, because you can't use disc-at-once recording.  (If you
did use DAO recording, the disc would be closed, and you wouldn't be able
to write the data track).  With the GoldenHawk software and a Philips
recorder, you can do "session-at-once" recording to write the audio without
gaps, and purportedly there is a strange hack you can do with GEAR that has
the same effect with certain recorders.  (With GEAR, write the audio tracks
in the first session using disc-at-once recording, but with "multisession"
and "leave session open" set.  Don't ask me for details, and don't be
surprised if it doesn't work.)

What happens when you try to play one of these as audio in your CD-ROM
drive?  As with most things multisession, it depends on your drive.  (The
player that comes with Plextor CD-ROM drives does the right thing.  If
you're using a different drive, you're on your own.)


There's actually a third way to do this that involves putting the data
track into the extended pregap of the first audio track.  Instead of the
audio starting at minute:second:block 00:02:00, the data starts there, and
the audio is written after.  The pregap is adjusted accordingly.  This
method never gained popularity because some drives started playing at
00:02:00 regardless.

Some CDs perversely put audio in the pregap.  You can play it by starting
to play track 1, then holding the "reverse" button until it seeks all
the way to the start of the disc.  Some digital audio extraction programs
(e.g. "cdclip" from www.goldenhawk.com) allow you to specify block numbers
instead of track numbers; these can be used to extract the "hidden" audio.

For example, _Factory Showroom_ by "They Might Be Giants" looks like this:

  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 00:00:00
    INDEX 01 01:01:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 04:52:10
    INDEX 01 04:52:10
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    [...]

Index 01 on track 01 is usually 00:02:00.  Holding down the reverse button
backs the time up to -1:03.

For more information (mainly aimed at Macintosh users), see
http://www.musicfan.com/ecd/what.html.


Subject: [3-15] How do I make a bootable CD?
(1999/07/12)

On a Mac, this is reasonably straightforward.  A CD can be bootable if it
has a bootable system folder on it.  Tell the recording software that you
want to make the CD bootable; this usually involves clicking in a checkbox
before burning the first session.  Then, copy a bootable system folder onto
the disc.  An easy way to create an appropriate system folder is to launch
the system installer, tell it you want to do a "Custom" install, choose the
"Universal System" option, and then install it onto the CD source volume.

Holding down the 'c' key while booting will cause the Mac to boot from an
internal CD-ROM drive.  Alternatively, the "Startup Disk" control panel
will allow you to select a CD-ROM.

The rest of the section applies only to PCs, which are more challenging.

The BIOS or SCSI card on most newer machines support booting from CD-ROM,
but on many older machines it's just not possible.  Phoenix (the BIOS
developer) has created the El Torito standard for doing this sort of
thing.  When the machine boots, if the BIOS recognizes a bootable image on
the CD-ROM, it maps that image onto the A: floppy drive.  (Depending on
implementation, A: will move to B: and B: will go away.)  From that point
onward, it's just like booting a floppy.

Not surprisingly, the way you create a bootable CD-ROM is to take an image
of a bootable floppy disk and write it in a specific way onto the CD.
Many of the current CD writing programs, including Easy CD Creator and
CDRWIN, will do the hard work for you.

You can find El Torito specifications and a "how to" guide at:
    http://www.ptltd.com/products/specs.html
    http://www.ptltd.com/products/wp.html

If you like to do things the hard way, step-by-step procedures with
varying levels of detail can be found here:
	http://www.cdpage.com/Compact_Disc_Variations/bootablecdarticle.htm
    http://www.ora.nsysu.edu.tw/~goldentime/bootcd.htm
    http://www.fadden.com/doc/bootcd.txt

The "BOOTISO" utility may come in handy, and can be found here:
    http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/2996/index.html

When booting the PC, you may need to change the boot order in the BIOS from
the typical "A, C" to "A, SCSI, C", and configure the SCSI interface to
attempt to boot from CD.  On some adapters, the boot-up SCSI bus scan may
take an extra second or two while the interface tries to determine if a
bootable CD-ROM is present.

Some programs insist that bootable CD-ROMs be written in plain ISO-9660
format, not Joliet.  One way around this is to write the bootable portion
in the first session, and then write the rest of the data in a second
session.

The El Torito standard allows CD-ROMs to have more than one bootable
image, but none of the existing software support that.


Subject: [3-16] How do I convert home movies into video on CD?
(1999/04/04)

This topic is largely outside the scope of this FAQ, so I'm not going to go
into much depth.  The Usenet newsgroup news:rec.desktop.video is more
applicable.  I'm not aware of an FAQ for that group, but the links found at
http://www.videoguys.com/jump.htm will get you started.

You need a capture device to transfer the video to your hard drive.
Capturing high-quality video can eat up 2MB or more per *second* of video
at full resolution (640x480x24 at 60 fields per second for NTSC) with a
reasonable degree of compression, so this isn't something to be undertaken
lightly.  The lower your quality requirements, the lower the bandwidth
requirements.

If MPEG is your only interest, you might be better off with an MPEG-only
card rather than a hobbyist video capture board.  http://www.b-way.com/
and http://www.darvision.com/ are good places to look.  The Broadway
card has been given high marks for quality.

Once you've captured the video, you'll probably want to edit it, at least
to clip out unwanted portions or add titles.  Packages for doing this,
like Adobe Premiere and Ulead MediaStudio, are usually included with the
capture card.  These will also let you adjust the resolution, color depth,
and compression quality to output the video so that it's suitable for
playback on double- or quad-speed CD-ROM drives.

You can convert AVI files to MPEG and vice-versa with a program from Ulead
(see http://www.ulead.com/), Xing Technologies, or several other vendors.
You should be able to create QuickTime or AVI movies using the compression
codec of your choice from the video editing software.

Once created, you can write the AVI, MPEG, or MOV (QuickTime) file to a
CD-ROM like you would anything else.  If you'd like to view the disc in a
DVD player or other VideoCD playback device, read the next section.  Note
that not all DVD players are capable of reading CD-R media, so if VideoCD
on CD-R playback is important to you, check the DVD player feature set
before you buy.


Subject: [3-16-1] How do I create a VideoCD from AVI or MPEG files?
(1999/04/04)

This section assumes you already have the video on your computer.  If
you don't know how to do that, read the previous section.

If you want to try creating a White Book VideoCD, which can be viewed on a
VideoCD playback device like a Philips CD-i or from a computer with
appropriate hardware and software, CD-R software packages like Easy CD
Creator and WinOnCD can convert AVI movies into MPEG and write them to CD
in the necessary format.  You can use other programs to create the MPEGs,
but if the encoding parameters (frame rate, number of pixels, etc) don't
match the VideoCD parameters you may have trouble getting the CD writing
software to accept the movie.

John Schlichther's AVI2MPG1 combines standard tools into an easy-to-use
program for Win95 and NT; use it with the "-v" flag to convert an AVI file
into a VideoCD-compatible stream (http://www.mnsi.net/~jschlic1/).

Adaptec has an all-in-one solution for video capture and MPEG VideoCD
creation, called "VideOh!".  The package includes a parallel-port capture
device, basic video editing software, and Adaptec's Easy CD Creator
software for writing the CDs.  For details, visit
http://www.adaptec.com/products/overview/videoh.html.

If you're running Linux you should take a look at Bernhard Schwall's
"avi2yuv" program.  It converts M-JPEG movies created with popular video
capture boards into a format accepted by the Berkeley MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
encoders (ftp://bmrc.berkeley.edu/pub/mpeg/).  The README for avi2yuv lists
the additional software packages (all of which are free and run under
Linux) needed for creating MPEG movies complete with sound.  Most (all?) of
the utilities can also be built to run under DOS.
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/convert/.

"iFilmEdit", from http://www.duplexx.com/ifilmedit.html, will convert MPEG
to VideoCD, and can reportedly convert a VideoCD .DAT file back into a
plain MPEG file.

Easy CD Creator requires that an MPEG MCI driver be installed in the system
(unlike CD Creator, it doesn't come with Xing's MPEG software).  The
popular VMPEG 1.7 doesn't quite work: ECDC can't see the audio, and you're
not allowed to select the frame to view when shuffling streams around.  If
you have VMPEG installed as the MCI driver -- select "About ECDC" from the
Help menu to check -- you need to *remove* VMPEG and then install
ActiveMovie.  (I removed under Win95 it by going into the Advanced section
of the Multimedia control panel, expanding "Media Control Devices",
selecting vmpegdll, and clicking on "Remove", but you may be able to use
Add/Remove Programs instead.)

Finally, you should be aware that MPEG playback is rather CPU intensive,
and it's possible to create movies that don't play very well on slower
machines without hardware support.  The PowerPC QuickTime MPEG extension
(available from http://quicktime.apple.com/) works well, as does Microsoft
ActiveMovie (http://www.microsoft.com/, available as part of MSIE 3.02 and
later), but most of the UNIX players won't play the audio.  Software MPEG
playback is becoming easier as CPUs become more powerful, and it's much
more common than it once was.

VideoCDs can only be read by CD-ROM drives capable of reading CD-ROM/XA
discs.  If your drive doesn't claim to support PhotoCD, you're probably out
of luck.  Microsoft's ActiveMovie and Apple's Video Player can play movies
off of a VideoCD.  Apple's AVP will scan the CD and present a list, but
with ActiveMovie you need to look for and open the ".dat" files in the
"mpegav" directory.


Subject: [3-17] How can I burn several copies of the same disc simultaneously?
(1998/04/06)

You can if you have several CD-R drives and the right software.  Two
examples are CD Rep from Prassi Software (section (6-1-21)) and DiscJuggler
from Padus (section (6-1-27)).

Both products are SCSI multiplexors.  You use your existing CD writing
application (such as Easy-CD Pro 95) like you normally would, and the
program sends the same commands to each of the CD-R drives.  There are a
number of limitations, notably that all devices must use the same command
set and may need to have the same firmware revision.  There may also be
limits on the number of drives you can have attached at once.

DiscJuggler bills itself as "the professional CD Duplicator", CD Rep as
"the ultimate professional recording solution".  If you're interested in
either of these, you should read the web pages for both, and compare the
features available.

There are several hardware-based solutions to this, including CD-R units
that support daisy-chaining, and control units that vary from the simple (a
handful of units wired together) to the complex (robotic arms to move discs
around).  Most cost more than a Hyundai.

See http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/duplication.html for an
overview of several different hardware solutions, or visit a vendor web
page like http://www.princetondiskette.com/.


Subject: [3-18] Can I make copies of copies?
(1998/09/17)

The following was part of an e-mail message from Jeff Arnold back in
mid-1997:

  "I do not recommend making "copies of copies" with SNAPSHOT. The reason
  this does not always work is because many CDROM readers do not perform
  error correction of the data when doing raw sectors reads. As a result,
  you end up with errors on the copy that may or may not be correctable.
  When you make a second-generation copy of the same disc, you will make a
  disc that has all of the errors of the first copy, plus all of the new
  errors from the second reading of the disc. The cumulative errors from
  multiple copies will result in a disc that is no longer readable."

Some further explanation is needed here.  The heart of the problem is the
way that that the data is read from the source device.  When a program does
"raw" sector reads, it gets the entire 2352-byte block, which includes the
CD-ROM error correction data (ECC) for the sector.  Instead of applying the
ECC to the sector data, the drive just hands back the entire block,
including any errors that couldn't be corrected by the first C1/C2 layer of
error correction (see section (2-17)).  When the block is written to the
CD-R, the uncorrected errors are written along with it.

This problem can be avoided by using "cooked" reads and writes.  Rather
than create an exact duplicate of the 2352-byte source sector, cooked reads
pull off the error-corrected 2048-byte sector.  The CD recorder regenerates
the appropriate error correction when the data is written.  Ideally
SNAPSHOT would be able to do the error correction in software when
operating in "raw" mode, but apparently there's no readily available code
that does this.  It could also read each block twice, once in raw mode and
once in cooked, but that would double the read time.

This begs the question, why not just use cooked writes all the time?  First
of all, some recorders (e.g. Philips CDD2000 and HP4020i) don't support
cooked writes.  (Some others will do cooked but can't do raw, e.g. the
Pinnacle RCD-5040.)  Second, not all discs use 2048-byte MODE-1 sectors.
There is no true "cooked" mode for MODE-2 data tracks; even a block length
of 2336 is considered raw, so using cooked reads won't prevent generation
loss.

It is important to emphasize that the error correction included in the data
sector is a *second* layer of protection.  A clean original disc may well
have no uncorrectable errors, and will yield an exact duplicate even when
copying in "raw" mode.  After a few generations, though, the duplicates are
likely to suffer some generation loss.


The original version of this quote went on to comment that Plextor and Sony
CD-ROM drives were not recommended for making copies of copies.  The reason
they were singled out is because they are the only drives that explicitly
warned about this problem in their programming manuals.  It is possible
that *all* CD-ROM drives behave the same way.  (In fact, it is arguably the
correct behavior... you want raw data, you get raw data.)

The documentation for SNAPSHOT describes whether "raw" or "cooked" writes
are recommended for several different CD-R drives.  See the section on
"USING THE /COOKED OPTION" in "snapshot.txt", found in the documentation
for the DOS utilities at http://www.goldenhawk.com/.

The final answer to this question is, you can safely make copies of copies,
so long as the disc is a MODE-1 CD-ROM and you're using "cooked" writes.
Copies made with "raw" writes may suffer generation loss because of
uncorrected errors.

Audio tracks don't have the second layer of ECC, and will be susceptible to
the same generation loss as data discs duplicated in "raw" mode.  Some
drives may turn off some error-correcting features, such as dropped-sample
interpolation, during digital audio extraction, or may only use them when
extracting at 1x.  If you want to find out what your drive is capable of,
try extracting the same track from a CD several times at different speeds,
then do a binary comparison on the results.  PC owners can use the DOS "FC"
command to do this, as described in section (3-3).


Subject: [3-19] How can I compress or encrypt data on a CD?
(1999/07/14)

The easiest way is to use your favorite compression or encryption utility
and process the files before putting them on the CD.  However, this isn't
transparent to the end user.

CRI-X3 enables programs like DoubleSpace to work on a CD.  It's intended
for a publisher or for significant internal use, and the licensing is
priced accordingly.  See http://www.somerset.net/crix3.html.

A straightforward solution is to write all of the files onto the disc
as .ZIP files, and then use ZipMagic (formerly ZipFolders) to view the
contents.  Visit them at http://www.zipmagic.com/.

PGP at http://www.nai.com/ (was http://www.pgp.com) has some good
encryption software, but none of it seems directly applicable to software
distribution.  PGPdisk, available for the Mac, might be useful but it isn't
clear whether it can be used to distribute CD-ROMs.

ScramDisk, from http://www.hertreg.ac.uk/ss/, writes files into encrypted
"containers" on disk.  It can be used with CD-ROMs, runs under Win95 and
Win98, is free, and even includes source code.

http://www.c-dilla.com/ has information on CD-Secure 2, which allows
publishers to distribute network-licensed or "pay for the parts you
need" products, and CD-Compress 2, which provides a way to compress data
transparently on production CDs.  The web page didn't have pricing,
so it's probably expensive.

EnCrypt-CD encrypts the blocks as they are written to CD.  It's a shareware
product, available from http://www.shareit.com/programs/102046.htm.

Encrypted Magic Folders from http://www.pc-magic.com/ claims to
transparently encrypt data as it's being used.  Whether it would work from
a CD-ROM isn't stated.

You can install a cryptographic filesystem (called "CFS") under Linux; see
http://temp.redhat.com/linux-info/security/Linux-Security-FAQ/CFS-Doc.html.
Create a crypto-fs, copy your data onto it, then use mkisofs with Rock
Ridge extensions enabled to create an ISO-9660 disc image of the encrypted
data.  Burn the image to CD-ROM.


Subject: [3-20] Can I do backups onto CD-R?
(1998/09/12)

Some section (6-7) for software.

Of course, it's not really necessary to use special software if you're just
backing up your data files.  Most CD creation programs will allow you to
copy arbitrary files onto CD-ROM, and by using the Joliet standard you can
preserve long Win95 filenames.  Unfortunately, under DOS and Windows the
individual files show up as read-only, so write permission must be
re-enabled by hand when the files are restored.

Side note: the files aren't written to the disc as "read only".  They're
simply presented that way by Microsoft operating systems.  Mac OS deals
with this in a nicer way, showing unlocked files on write-protected media.

(DOS users can do "ATTRIB -R *.* /S".  Linux users can su to root, mount
the volume as MSDOS FAT, cd to the directory in question, and do "find .
-print | xargs chmod +w" to enable write permission for all files in the
current directory and in all subdirectories.  If you've got the GNU
utilities, use "find . -print0 | xargs -0 chmod +w" instead, especially if
you're using the "vfat" fs.  Of course, if you're a Linux user, you could
just use mkisofs with the appropriate options and have Rock Ridge file
permissions that match the originals.)

One thing to be careful of on Windows-based PCs: most programs that put
files on CD don't preserve the *short* file names that are automatically
generated for files with long file names.  This presents a problem because
the short form is often stored in the Registry and INI files instead of the
long form (try searching your Registry for "~1").  When your system is
restored, it may not be able to find the files anymore.

A way to work around this is to use a backup program that understands only
the short filenames, and save the long ones with LFNBK.  A program called
DOSLFNBK at http://www8.pair.com/dmurdoch/programs/doslfnbk.htm may be more
convenient than LFNBK.


Subject: [3-21] How do I change the CD icon?  How does Windows autorun work?
(1999/07/15)

The "autorun" feature of Windows 95 and later allows a program to be
executed right after the disc is inserted.  For this to work, the system
must have autorun enabled, and Auto Insert Notification ("AIN") must be on
for the CD-ROM drive.  See section (4-1-1) for more information on AIN and
the use of "TweakUI" to modify settings.

When preparing a CD for Windows, put a text file called "autorun.inf" in
the root directory that contains something like this:

  [autorun]
  open=filename.exe
  icon=someicon.ico

The CD-ROM will be shown in the "My Computer" window with the specified
icon.  If the disc is inserted on a system with AIN and autorun enabled,
the program named will be launched.  (If you manually turned auto-insert
notification off, you may need to reboot before the feature is re-enabled.)

Here's a more complicated example:

  [autorun]
  open = setup.exe /i
  icon = setup.exe, 1
  shell\configure = &Configure...
  shell\configure\command = setup.exe /c
  shell\install = &Install...
  shell\install\command = setup.exe /i
  shell\readme = &Read Me
  shell\readme\command = notepad help\readme.txt
  shell\help = &Help
  shell\help\command = winhlp32 help\helpfile.hlp

Taking it line by line, this says:
 - The default AutoPlay command will be "setup /i"
 - The icon for the CD will be icon #1 in setup.exe

 - Four commands will be added to the right-click pop-up menu:
 'Configure...',
   which will run "setup /c"
 'Install...',
   which will run "setup /i" (same as auto-run in this case)
 'Read Me',
   which launches notepad.exe to display "help\readme.txt"
 'Help',
   which displays the file "help\helpfile.hlp" with the Win95 help facility

You should be able to open a web page with the end-user's default browser
by using the "start" command, e.g.:

  [autorun]
  open=start index.htm

An alternative to "start", called "shellout", is available from the "files"
section on http://resource.simplenet.com/.  The advantage it has over
"start" is that it doesn't pop up a DOS window.

For more information on autorun:

  http://www.microsoft.com/win32dev/uiguide/uigui276.htm
  http://www.gui.com.au/avdf/oct95/samp_autoplay.html

A program that will allow you to test autoplay without burning a CD:

  http://www.connect.net/gstrope/autotest.htm

(Actually, if you SUBST a folder onto a drive letter, the autorun feature
in Win95 will scan the new drive.  For example, "SUBST J: \goodies\NewCD".
This technique is also useful for testing out a CD-ROM you're preparing.)

Some simple, configurable autorun applications (launchers and menus) are
available, most as shareware:

  http://www.powerup.com.au/~calypso/index.htm
  http://www.phdcc.com/helpindex/ShellRun.htm
  http://www.mediachance.com/
  http://www.pgd.dk/


How do you change the icon on a Mac?  Fine question...


Subject: [3-22] How can I be sure the data was written correctly?
(1998/07/06)

The easiest way is to compare the original with the copy.  If the disc was
burned from an ISO-9660 image file, programs like Easy-CD Pro 95 will do a
comparison of the disc with the original.  Toast for the Mac will
automatically verify after writing if requested.

Another way is to do a recursive file-by-file comparison.  Programs that
compute CRCs on files and then compare them (meant primarily for
virus-checking) will work.  Another way is to use the UNIX "diff" utility,
which is available for Win95 (along with many other similar utilities) from
http://www.reedkotler.com/.

If you had copied the contents of C:\MyData onto a CD-R at E:\, you
would use:

    diff -q -r C:\MyData E:

The "-q" flag tells it to report if the files differ, but not show what
the differences are, and the "-r" flag says to descend into directories
recursively.

There are many other options.  A utility called "treediff", available from
the Simtel archives (http://www.simtel.com/archive/index.htm), may be
helpful.  http://www.funduc.com/directory_toolkit.htm has a shareware
program with some relevant features.  http://www.araxis.com/ has an
evaluation copy of PMdiff, available for Windows and native OS/2.  You
can get "FileSync" from http://www.fileware.co.uk/.

You can download Microsoft's WinDiff -- which, unlike some of the programs
mentioned previously, understands long filenames -- from
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/services/technet/office95/wind.exe.  It can also
be found on the Win98 CD in \tools\reskit\file\.


Subject: [3-23] How do I copy Audio Karaoke/CD+G discs?
(1999/07/18)

The following is an excerpt from the http://www.goldenhawk.com/ web site.
CDRWIN is one of the few available programs that can copy CD+G discs.

  "To backup CD+G discs, you must have one of the following recorders... 

    Hewlett Packard 7500 / 7570 / 8100 / 8110 / 8200 / 8210 
    Panasonic CW-7501 
    Plasmon CDR4240 
    Plextor PX-R412C (must have firmware version 1.07) 
    Plextor PX-R820T / PX-W4220T / PX-W8220T) 
    Sony CRX100E / CRX110E / CRX120E 
    Yamaha All Models 

  All Yamaha recorders (except the CDR100 and CDR102), the PX-R412C, and
  the HP8100/8110 are the only models that are capable of reading as well
  as writing CD+G discs. If you do not have one of these models, then you
  will have to purchase another CDROM device that can read CD+G discs.

  The following CDROM drives can read CD+G discs... 

    Plextor 4Plex Plus 
    Plextor 8Plex (not recommended) 
    Plextor 12Plex 
    Plextor 12/20Plex 
    Plextor 14/32Plex 
    Plextor 17/40Plex (not recommended for CD+G at this time) 
    Sony 76S (not recommended) 
    Sony 415 (only works well at 1x reading speed) 
  "

There may be other units that work as readers or writers.  Check the
documentation from the manufacturer to be sure.

Shareware software for playing back CD+G discs on the PC or Macintosh is
available from http://www.karaoke.com/downcdg.html.  There does not appear
to be any generally available software for creating CD+G discs.


Subject: [3-24] How do I copy a CD-ROM with 3GB of data on it?
(1998/08/29)

You don't.  The CD doesn't actually have that much data on it.  Some CD
publishers use a trick where they reference the same spot on the disc
several times with overlapping files.  If you try to do a file-by-file
copy from the disc onto your hard drive, you'll end up with several copies
of the same blocks, and more data than can fit on a CD-ROM.

VideoCDs often appear to have individual files that are 700MB or more.  In
this case, they really *are* that big.  They're written in a special format
that drops error correction in favor of more space.  This works fine for
video data, but is definitely not recommended for ordinary data.

If you want to duplicate a CD-ROM, you should either use a program meant
for the purpose (Adaptec's CD Copier, Jeff Arnold's SNAPSHOT, etc), or
extract the data track as a single ISO-9660 image.  Some software is more
capable of dealing with complex CDs than others, so if you have a
particular kind of CD in mind (such as VideoCD) you should check the
capabilities of the software before making a purchase.


Subject: [3-25] How do I get my CD-R pressed into a real CD?
(1998/04/06)

There are a large number of companies that will do modest production
runs of pressed CDs, but listing them is beyond the scope of this FAQ.

Do a web search on "CD duplication" and "CD replication", or check out
http://www.cd-webstore.com/BurningIssues.html (a licensed-access web
site from the www.cd-info.com folks).


Subject: [3-26] How do I make a CD without that two-second gap between tracks?
(1999/07/12)

Most CD recorders are capable of doing this, given the right software.  The
key is to use disc-at-once recording instead of track-at-once.

Some programs give you a great deal of control.  Golden Hawk's CDRWIN
(6-1-7) will let you specify the gap size for each track, down to zero, and
set the location of the track and index marks.  You can put each track in a
separate file or have the entire recording in a single file.  Other
programs, like ECDC (6-1-26), are easier to use but less flexible.

You will almost certainly need to use disc-at-once recording.  Most drives
insist on inserting a two-second gap between tracks when track-at-once
recording is used, and those that don't will at best leave an instant of
silence between tracks.  You can eliminate the gaps from a TAO recording by
putting the entire CD into one track, but then you lose the ability to seek
immediately to the start of a song.

Most PC software supports both TAO and DAO recording modes.  On the Mac,
Adaptec's popular Toast software can't do DAO recording of audio CDs, but
CharisMac's Discribe (6-1-29) and Adaptec's Jam (6-1-34) can.

If you want to break up a long recording into several WAV files (one per
track), it's important to split tracks on precise 2352-byte boundaries.  If
you don't, you'll get tiny periods of silence or noise, lasting less than
1/75th of a second, that may be clearly audible depending on the context.
A handy Windows utility called "CDWAV", available from Mike Richter's web
page at http://resource.simplenet.com/files/cdwav.zip, is good at splitting
large WAV files into smaller ones, and can do so on block boundaries.

If you want to mix WAV tracks together, take a look at Multiquence,
http://www.goldwave.com/multiquence/index.html.


Subject: [3-27] How can I record RealAudio, MIDI, and MP3 on CD?
(1999/03/22)

The first step is to convert from whatever format the sound is in to WAV or
AIFF.  Converting directly to 44.1KHz 16-bit stereo will save you a
conversion step later.  Once it's in WAV or (on the Mac) AIFF format, you
can record it as you would any other audio.  Be sure to play it back once
in its converted form to make sure that the conversion was successful.

There may or may not be a converter for the format you're interested in.
Here are some links to try:

MIDI
 - http://www.advicom.net/~diac/mr-home.html  (MIDI Renderer)
 - http://www.polyhedric.com/software/  (MIDInight Express)
 - http://www.eden.com/~mitchell/  (Audio Compositor)
 - http://www.ptialaska.net/~syntec/pages/midiwave.htm  (MIDIwave)
 - http://www.dartpro.com/  (DART CD-Recorder)

MPEG audio (a/k/a MP2 and MP3)
 - http://www.mpeg.org/~tristan/MPEG/mp3.html  (various)
 - http://www.winamp.com/  (Winamp)
 - http://www.mp3.com/  (various)
 - (Feurio and WinOnCD will record from MP3 on the fly)

RealAudio
 - http://www.2bsys.com/Ra2Wav/index.htm  (Ra2Wav)

General (sound driver that writes to disk)
 - http://www.HighCriteria.com/  (Total Recorder)

You can't write MPEG, AC3, or other compressed audio formats to a CD-DA
disc and expect to play it back in your car stereo.  CD players only
understand uncompressed audio.

http://www.sonicspot.com/multimediaconverters.html has a collection of
converters for different formats.

For a tutorial on converting CD-DA to MP3 and vice-versa, see
http://www.cdpage.com/Compact_Disc_Consulting/Tutorial/mp3.html.

If you *really* want to be able to play MP3-compressed songs while driving
down the freeway, check out http://utter.chaos.org.uk/~altman/mp3mobile/.


Subject: [3-28] How do I add CD-Text information?
(1999/05/30)

CD-Text is a standard that allows disc and track information to be embeded
on an audio CD.  The data can be read by some CD players, providing a way
to have disc information available without having to enter it manually or
look it up in a database.

Adding CD-Text to discs you record requires a compatible recorder and
capable software.  Only the more recent recorders, such as the Sony 948S
and the HP8100i, have CD-Text support.

Among the programs that support writing of CD-Text are Prassi's CD Right
and CD Rep, listed in section (6-1-21); Feurio!, in section (6-1-42); and
Nero, in section (6-1-28).

The currently available software supports writing of album title, artist
names, and track titles, and can copy discs with CD-Text.  Storing lyrics
within the tracks isn't yet supported.

Not all CD players and CD-ROM drives can read CD-Text.  If this feature is
important to you, check the specifications before you buy.


Subject: [3-29] Can I distribute a web site on a CD-ROM?
(1999/02/06)

You need to include the content and a browser on the CD.  Some products that
might be helpful are:

  GEAR - WebGrabber:
    http://www.gearcdr.com/

  Softword Technology - Browse and View:
    http://www.pc-shareware.com/browser.htm

  Enreach - I-View
    http://www.enreach.com/products/iview/iview.htm

  Faico - NavRoad
    http://www.offlinebrowser.com/ or http://www.faico.com/

  Verity - CD-Web Publisher
    http://www.verity.com/

See http://www.phdcc.com/helpindex/cdroms.html for some suggestions on
putting web pages on CD-ROM.


Subject: [3-30] How do I clean my CD recorder?
(1999/02/14)

In general, you don't.  The only reason you'd need to clean a recorder or
(for that matter) a CD-ROM drive is if you went and stuck your finger on
the lens.  Cleaning kits and well-intentioned Q-tips are unnecessary and
potentially dangerous.

If you have an overwhelming desire to clear the dust out of your recorder,
and can't or don't want to send it to a service center, use gentle(!)
bursts of compressed air.

[ I've never had to clean a lens in *any* CD player, including a flip-up
top-loading boom box that I've had since mid-1990.  I can *see* the dust
inside, and I can see the lens, but it has no problem playing discs.  I
can't imagine how a recorder that's only a year or two old is going to
collect enough dust to fail. ]

The Repair FAQ at http://www.repairfaq.org/ has a section about CD-ROM
drives that seems relevant.  Find the "Compact Disc Players and CDROM
Drives" section, and skip down to section 4.


Subject: [3-31] Is it better to record at slower speeds?
(1999/07/18)

It depends on your recorder, media, and who you talk to.  For example,
some informal testing with the venerable Yamaha CDR-100 determined
that it worked best at 4x speed with media certified for 4x writes.
1x worked almost as well, but 2x would occasionally produce discs with
unrecoverable errors.

With audio CDs, the results are more subjective.  Some people have asserted
that you should always write at 1x, others have stated that 2x may actually
be better.  It depends on the recorder, media, player, and your ears.  Try
it both ways and listen.  See section (4-18) for some notes on how you can
write the same set of bits to two CDs and still have audible differences.

CD-R media is written by heating up tiny sections of the disc.  When the
disc spins faster, the laser has less time to shine on a particular spot,
so the laser has to be controlled differently.  Different formulations of
media may require a different "write strategy" at certain speeds, and each
recorder may adjust its write strategy differently to accommodate those
speeds.  This can potentially result in combinations of recorder and media
that work perfectly at one speed but fail miserably at another.

Put simply, there's more to writing at high speed than just spinning
faster.  There is no One True Answer to this question.  Do what works best
for you.

See http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/History/Commentary/Parker/stcroix.html for
commentary about "write strategy" selection and different media types.


Subject: [3-32] Where do I get drivers for my CD recorder?
(1998/04/06)

In general, you don't need them.  Software that burns CD-Rs has the
necessary drivers built in.

If you want to use your recorder as a CD-ROM drive, you may need drivers
for it.  See section (5-8).


Subject: [3-33] Can I copy discs without breaking the law?
(1998/04/06)

(This section only applies to people in the USA.  International copyright
laws apply in most other countries, but there may be local variations.)

You are allowed to make an archival backup of software, but the same
doesn't necessarily hold true for music.  The Home Rights Recording Act
will allow you to duplicate music under certain circumstances.

A discussion of the topic, including details on past and pending
legislation, can be found on the Home Recording Rights Coalition web site
at http://www.hrrc.org/.  The text of the Home Rights Recording Act can
also be found here.

The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the music
industry, has a web site at http://www.riaa.com/.

An article entitled, "Copying Music to CD: The Right, the Wrong, and the
Law" is at http://www.emediapro.net/EM1998/starrett2.html.

http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/bad_laws/dat_tax.html has some relevant
information and pointers.

http://www.bmi.com/ and http://www.ascap.com/ have yet more perspectives
on legislation.


Subject: [3-34] Can CD-Rs recorded at 2x be read faster than 2x?
(1998/05/10)

Of course.

The only possible basis in fact for the, "if it was recorded at 2x, you
can't read it faster than 2x" rumors is that some drives have trouble
reading CD-R media.  Discs that are hard to read when spinning at 12x may
become easier to read when spinning at 4x.  It has also been noted that
some recorders will write more legible discs at certain speeds (e.g. the
Yamaha CDR-100, which works better at 1x or 4x than it does at 2x).  None
of this should lead anyone to conclude, however, that the write speed and
read speed are tied directly together.  The reader, writer, and media all
have a role in determining how quickly a CD-R can spin and be readable.


Subject: [3-35] How do I make my CD-ROM work on the Mac, WinNT, and UNIX?
(1999/06/05)

This is a tricky one because of issues with long filenames and file
attributes.  Mac CD-ROMs are typically burned with an HFS filesystem, not
ISO-9660, and WinNT uses a different scheme for long filenames (Joliet)
than UNIX does (Rock Ridge).  Some variants of UNIX will recognize the
Joliet names, but neither Windows nor the Mac understands Rock Ridge.  You
might be able to use an HFS CD-ROM on a platform other than the Mac, but if
you're distributing software, it's not wise to assume that your customers
will be able to do the same.

The easiest way to create a disc that will work on all platforms is to use
plain level 1 ISO-9660, with 8+3 filenames and no special file attributes.
If you need to include Mac applications as well as data, this gets harder.

There is an Apple-defined extension to ISO-9660 that allows the Mac file
and creator types to be present on an ISO-9660 filesystem.  This allows
most of the features of the Mac filesystem on an otherwise plain ISO-9660
disc.  It's not clear how many of the software products in section (6-1)
take advantage of this, but "mkhybrid" (section (6-1-32)) seems to.
Section (3-5-3) has a URL to an Apple tech note with implementation
details.

A common way to construct a disc for the Mac and PC is as a "hybrid" disc
that has both an ISO-9660 filesystem and an HFS filesystem.  To save space,
the data itself is shared by both sections of the disc.  This is possible
because the ISO-9660 directory entries use an absolute block offset on the
disc, so they can point at data residing in the HFS filesystem.

There are various applications that will do HFS/ISO-9660 hybrids.
Adaptec's Toast for the Mac and "mkhybrid" for the PC are two examples.
Search for "hybrid" in the list of software in section (6-1) for more
examples.

The issue of Joliet vs. Rock Ridge can also be solved, by including both
kinds of extensions on the same disc.  The "mkhybrid" program can include
Joliet, Rock Ridge, and HFS all on the same disc.  You can even have files
appear on one kind but not the other, and rename files on the fly, allowing
you to have a "readme.txt" with different contents for Mac, UNIX, and
Windows.


Subject: [3-36] How do I put "hidden tracks" and negative indices on audio CDs?
(1999/03/06)

With a little searching you can find an audio CD that will cause your CD
player to show a negative track time when one track finishes and the next
begins.  The negative sections are usually filled with silence, but some
rare discs will have material in them.  If you seek directly to the track,
you don't see (or hear) the negative-time section.

The trick here is also described in section (3-14).  The start position of
an audio track listed in the TOC (Table of Contents) doesn't have to point
to the actual start of the track.  When using CDRWIN-style cue sheets, the
actual start of the track is at "index 00", and the place where the player
seeks to is "index 01".

The distance between the actual start of the track and the TOC-specified
start is called the pre-gap.  The Red Book standard requires that index 01
be at least two seconds (150 sectors) from the start of the CD.

You can specify additional index markers, but most CD players will simply
ignore them.  Index 01 is the only value written into the TOC.  Some CD-ROM
games have tried to use the index markers as a form of copy protection,
because they won't get copied automatically by many programs.


If you want to create your own discs with "hidden tracks", you need a
program that gives you full control over where the index markers go (CDRWIN
is one such program).  Combine two (or more) tracks with an audio editor
into a single file.  Specify the file as a single track in the cue sheet,
and set "index 01" to a point right after the "hidden" song finishes.

There are other ways to approach this, but this is probably the most
straightforward.


Subject: [3-37] Do I need to worry about viruses?
(1998/09/11)

Absolutely.  Infected CD-ROMs are every bit as nasty as infected floppies,
if not worse: you can't disinfect the source media.  It is prudent to
scan your files before creating a CD-ROM for distribution, and it's not
a bad idea to scan the CD-ROM afterward (in case somebody has cleverly
infected your CD writing software).

The dangers of boot sector viruses on bootable CD-ROMs are probably low.
Because the boot sector is created directly by the recording software, and
can't be modified after it has been written, the opportunity for infection
is small.


Subject: [3-38] How do I cover up a bad audio track on a CD-R?
(1998/09/11)

You don't.  With a CD-ROM you could use multisession writes to hide
unwanted data, but you can't create multisession audio CDs.  (Well, you can
create them, but nothing outside of a CD-ROM drive will be able to play the
tracks outside the first session.)

On CD-RW media, it might be possible to overwrite an individual track.  You
would need software that supported this capability.  Erasing the disc and
starting over is probably easier.


Subject: [3-39] How do I duplicate this hard-to-copy game?
(1998/10/22)

Requests for information on how to copy games like "Commandos: Behind Enemy
Lines" occasionally sprout up on the newsgroups.  Generally the publisher
has employed some form of copy protection that prevents the disc from being
duplicated easily.

Most publishers are well aware that there is no such thing is an
unbreakable copy protection scheme.  It is possible though to implement a
method effective enough to slow the tide.  If you don't believe that, start
counting posts the next time a popular game with decent protection is
released.

If you're looking for information, the most appropriate places to search
are "warez" newsgroups and web sites.  Searching the net for tips is a good
way to get started.  Be forewarned that any "cracks" you download will very
likely also be viruses, and that if you give away or accept a copy of the
disc from someone else you are probably breaking the law (and a virus is
what you deserve).

The point of this FAQ is not to aid and abet the illegal distribution of
copyrighted works.  There are plenty of news groups and web sites devoted
to the subject, so please don't waste bandwidth in "legitimate" forums
asking for cracks.


Subject: [3-40] How do I erase or format a disc?
(1999/04/11)

If you're using CD-R media, and you're not using a packet writing program
like DirectCD, you can stop reading now.  You don't need to prepare CD-R
discs for conventional recording, and you can't erase them no matter how
hard you try.

If you want to erase a CD-RW disc, use the software that came with your
CD-ReWritable drive.  Somewhere in the army of applications and mountain of
menus is the command you're looking for.

If you're going to be using packet writing, a little formatting will be
necessary.  The application should offer to do this automatically the first
time you insert a blank disc.  The fixed-packet formatting that DirectCD
does for CD-RW discs takes about 50 minutes on a 2x rewritable drive.

The difference between "erase" and "quick erase" is that the former erases
the entire disc, while the latter just stomps on the Table of Contents
(TOC).  It's like erasing the directory off of a floppy disk.  The file
data is still there, but since there's nothing pointing to it, the disc
appears empty.  (Some people have asked if it's possible to recover data
from a quick-erased disc.  The general answer is, "don't count on it".)

The difference between "format" and "fast format" (such as is offered on
the HP8100/Sony CRX100) is of a different nature.  Both format the entire
disc, and both operate at the same speed, but the "fast" format allows you
to use the drive before formatting has completed.  After a few minutes, you
are allowed to access the drive while the formatting process continues in
the background.


Subject: [3-41] How do I equalize the volume for tracks from different sources?
(1999/04/15)

A common problem when creating an audio CD compiled from many different
sources is that the sound is at different volume levels.  This can be
slight or, after you've cranked up the volume to hear the first track, very
much the opposite of slight.

There are actually two issues that determine how loud the music sounds.
The first is the signal amplitude.  Put simply, if you open a WAV file,
this is how close to maximum the squiggly line gets.  You can adjust the
WAV file so that the highest amplitude is at maximum with the "normalize"
function of a sound editor.  Some programs, such as Adaptec's Spin Doctor,
may even do this for you automatically.

The second issue is the dynamic range compression.  This differs from data
rate compression in that it doesn't make the WAV file smaller.  Instead,
it makes the quiet parts louder and the loud parts quieter.

A CD-DA has a dynamic range of 96dB.  If a symphony is recorded with a
range of more than 100dB, it has to be compressed to fit on a CD-DA.  In
practice, you don't want whispers to be inaudible and shouts to be
deafening, so the audio is often squeezed into a narrower range.

To make a CD that sounds like it has equal volume across all tracks, you
need to have the average sound level uniform across all tracks and have the
peak volume be about the same on all tracks.  One program that does
essentially this is Audiograbber v1.40 and later, available as shareware
from http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/.  (As of v1.41, you went into
"Normalize Settings" and hit the "Advanced" button.)  The tool is a little
clumsy for serious audio mastering, but should do fine for preparing a
"mix" CD that you'll be listening to in your car.

If you aren't dissuaded yet, http://www.digido.com/compression.html has an
excellent article on compression (intended primarily for the budding
recording artist, but a good general reference nonetheless).  Cool Edit 96,
available as shareware from http://www.syntrillium.com/, can do different
kinds of compression, and is fun to play with.

Sidebar: "dB" is the abbreviation for "decibel", a signal strength ratio
measured on a logarithmic scale.  Every time you add 6 dB, the signal level
doubles.  Detailed information is available from the Acoustics FAQ at
http://www.Point-and-Click.com/Campanella_Acoustics/faq/faq.htm.


Subject: [3-42] How do I make a bit-for-bit copy of a disc?
(1999/05/17)

A commonly posed question from the newsgroups: "what software can do
bit-for-bit copies?"

There isn't any.  If it helps to have a (convenient albeit somewhat
inaccurate) mental image, picture a long string of bits arranged in a
spiral.  There are bits at the start of the spiral that you can't copy (the
lead-in area), there are bits outside the spiral that you can usually copy
if you request them ("raw" MODE-1 CD-ROM ECC and sector goop), and there
are bits *under* the spiral that are blurry and hard to see (the subcode
data).

Making a "bit-for-bit" copy of a disc would require reading the data at the
lowest possible level, something that no production CD-ROM drive is capable
of doing.  Even if it were possible, there aren't any CD recorders that can
write that sort of data.

Because of these limitations, you have to read a sector of data as a sector
of data, not as a collection of frames scattered over half the
circumference of the disc.  You can read the sector in "raw" mode, scan for
index markers, and try to extract CD+G data tucked into the R-W subcodes,
but there's a good chance that you won't quite synchronize everything up
when you write it back.

Bear in mind that CD-ROM drives and CD recorders were designed for people
who want to read and write data, not decipher arcane standards documents
and perform their own error correction.  Creating exact one-off copies was
not a major consideration of the original design.

In general, however, you don't *need* a "bit-perfect" duplicate of the
original.  If what you're copying is a simple MODE-1 CD-ROM, you can make
an "identical" copy by reading the sectors off the original and writing
them to a duplicate.  For most situations this is good enough: you have
copied the bits that matter.

On the other hand, if it's a copy-protected CD-ROM with index markers in
strange places, you have to use software and hardware that can see the
"blurry bits" reliably and copy them.

See also section (3-1-1), (3-18), and (3-39).


Subject: [3-43] How do I put punctuation in CD-ROM volume labels?
(1999/06/05)

The name of a CD-ROM is determined by the CD-ROM volume label.  This
determines how the disc shows up on the Mac or Windows.

The ISO-9660 standard limits the characters in the volume name to the same
set of characters allowed in a filename, namely A-Z, 0-9, '.', and '_'.
Some programs enforce strict adherence to the standard, while others are
more relaxed.

For example, if you wanted to create a disc with Nero that had a hyphen in
the volume name, you would go into the "file options" and change the
Character Set to "ASCII".  Nero will then allow a broader range of
characters.

Remember that standards are guidelines, not laws enforced by threat of
punishment.  You are welcome to create discs that deviate from the standard
in any way you choose.  The only price you will pay is that, if you stray
too far from the standard, your disc may not be readable by everyone.  For
the specific case of a volume label, deviations are pretty harmless.


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