Mode2 CD Maker v1.5.1 ===================== Disclaimer ---------- This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Purpose ------- With this tool you can build a CD/XA Bridge image using any file you want (not just MPEGs). What's the point? Well, using Mode2/Form2 you have bigger user data sector sizes so you can fit more data in a single CD-R (up to 800 MB of data in a 80 min. disc). What's the drawback, then? There is an issue on how Windows handles these discs. It reads the files burned this way as RAW data, and it also appends a RIFF/CDXA header at the beggining of the file. So you cannou burn anything you want ant then just see it like any other file: you must deal with this RIFF/CDXA stuff. Here you have the theoretical max. capacities for each type of media: +--------+--------+--------+--------+ | 74 min | 80 min | 90 min | 99 min | +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | Mode 1 | 650 MB | 700 MB | 790 MB | 870 MB | +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | Mode 2 | 738 MB | 795 MB | 896 MB | 987 MB | +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ The Mode 1 line shows the "original" CD capacity, the Mode 2 the one that can be achieved using mode2cdmaker. In the practice you'll have to substract approx. 1 MB from the Mode 2 values since it's reserved for the ISO Bridge track. In my calculations 1 MB = 2^20 (1024*1024), and not this 1000*1000 stupid value used by the HD makers' marketing division. Usage ----- mode2cdmaker -m "movie1.avi" -d dirname -f "readme.txt" -v MODE2CD -e DAT -h, -help this help -v, -volume volume name (default: MODE2CD) -o, -output output image base name (*.bin, *.toc, *.cue) (default: image) -f, -file add Form1 files -m, -movie add movie (Form2) files (by default) -d, -dir add subdirectory -e, -ext set default extension for Form2 files (default: DAT) -c, -dos assume DOS charset for input file names -x, -extname keep original Form2 file extension -s, -single create a single track image -ccd output CloneCD image (*.img, *.sub, *.ccd) -raw output RAW-96 image (*.img) -list use filelist for input Form1 files -paramfile use parameter file for input -isolevel1 force ISO 9660 Level 1 for file names -isolevel2 force ISO 9660 Level 2 for file names * Add movie files: -m "d:\path\my movie.avi" [...] This is the main option in Mode2 CD Maker. By the use of -m (or -movie) option you can add any number of files to the current CD structure that are entitled to be burned as Mode2/Form2. You can enter as many files as you want after a single -m option, provided you enter the full path for each one. You can also use wildcards such as "*.*" or "*.avi" instead of adding single files. Note that by default the original file extension will be changed to ".DAT" for all Form2 files. This is needed because once burned as Form2, the original file contents won't be the same as the original, because of the way these files are readed by the OS (so you need the RIFF/CDXA reader filter to be able to play them). You can change this behaviour with the options below. * Add other files: -f "d:\path\my file.ext" [...] The -f (or -file) option works exactly equal as the -m option but in this time the files specified here will be recorded as Form1, not taking any advantage of the extra CD space, but you can read them just like any other file on the HD. This is meant for executable/text and other files that are not supported through DirectShow (so you can't read them using the RIFF/CDXA filter). As an example, you can add drivers, players or text files to the CD structure this way. Unlike Form2 files, these will retain their original file name and extension, since no change is made to their contents. * Add directory: -d "dir name" By the use of the -d (or -dir) option you can add a new subdirectory to the current CD structure. After this option any file entered using the -m or -f option will lie on the last directory specified. Note that you can't add full paths from the HD inluding its directory structure using the -m or -f option, hence the usefulness of this option. An example: -m "movie.avi" -d "player" -f "c:\my favorite player\*.*" This will add movie1.dat to the root directory, make a new dir named "player" and add the contents of the path specified after -f option to the "player" directory on the CD (not including subdirectories, though). Each directory entered after the -d option will be created in root. If you want to specify a subdirectory tree, separate each directory level with backslashes, but remember to create their parent directory first. An example of nested subdirectories: -d "player" -f "c:\my player\*.*" -d "player\filters" -f "c:\my player\filters\*.*" * Force ISO 9660 Level 1 or 2 file names: -isolevel1, -isolevel2 By default all names are saved in ASCII form (i.e. they maintain their original uppercase/lowercase characters and their length). In case you want to fit to standards you can force ISO 9660 Level 1 (i.e. all uppercase, 8+3 filenames) or Level 2 (i.e. all uppercase, max. 31 chars per file name) conversion to all file names. As an example a file called "My Movie.avi" would become "MY_MOVIE.DAT" after being converted to ISO Level 1. * Change default Form2 extension: -e "ext" By default all Form2 files will change their extension to "DAT" as stated above. You can change this default extension by using your favorite one thanks to the - e (or -ext) option. However note that by any means it's recommended using a registered extension here since it may lead to problems when trying to play the file (this is the case with OGG/OGM, as an example). * Keep original Form2 extension into file name: -x You can keep the original Form2 file extension into the file name by adding the -x option to the command line. An example: -m "this is a sample movie.avi" -x Will create "this is a sample movie.avi.dat" * Use DOS charset for source file names: -c In case you want to enter file names with international character sets using DOS character set (this is useful for BAT files, and some languages such as Russian) you can add the -c (or -dos) option to tell the program to do the appropiate conversion before trying to open the file. Otherwise you'd get a "file not found" error. * Set CD volume name: -v "name" With this option you can specify a new volume name for the current CD, other than the default "MODE2CD". * Set output image base name: -o "d:\path\image" With the -o (or -output) option you can specify a default path and base file name for the output image. The default path is current directory and the base name "image". Three files will be created using this information: *.cue, *.bin and *.toc. An example: -o "d:\cdimages\image" This will create: image.bin, image.cue and image.toc under "d:\cdimages" path. * Create a single track image: -s One of the limitations of standard Mode2/Form2 CDs is the minimum track size (300 sectors), so any file being recorded as Mode2/Form2 must be greater than 300 Kb in size. On the other side every track must be preceeded by a pregap which adds extra 300 Kb for each Form2 file, making it unsuitable for a lot of small files such as MP3. In that case you can add the -s (or -single) option which forces the creation of a single-track CD. This makes all files lie on a single track, which has the following advantages: now each Form2 file can be smaller than 300 Kb, no pregaps are added for each one (thus saving more space) and the ISO filesystem is smaller, too, because there is no need for a separate ISO Bridge track. This makes a better use of the available CD space, specially for large file collections where previously the tool would have not been able to take advantage of the extra space (since all gained space was then lost on pregaps). As a disadvantage, these CDs are currently unusable from Linux since the software currently available under Linux that can read XCDs works in a track- basis and not in a filesystem-basis, so it needs each Form2 file to lie on a separate track. Examples of this are mplayer as well as the vcdfs and cdfs drivers. Unfortunately, seems Linux can't read XCDs the same way as Windows due to a lack of support for Form2 files in the iso9660 driver (they are readed as Form1 files). * Output CloneCD (CCD) image: -ccd New to 1.5.1 is the possibility to create a CloneCD (CC/IMG/SUB) image set, instead of the default BIN/CUE image. These images contain more accurate information about every sector and thus gives less compatibility problems with certain recorders. The only drawback is that you need a compatible recording tool (such as CloneCD or Alcohol 120%) in order to burn them. * Output RAW-96 image: -raw With this option you can create a single file RAW-96 image, which is intended to be recorded with with recent cdrecord versions using the -clone mode. Only single track images can be created this way...
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