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scuzzy

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  1. scuzzy

    Strange but true!

    I found this to be true a few years ago when I was crossing a supermarket car-park with some friends and realised I'd forgotten to lock the car we'd just gotten out of, turned round and tried to use the car-key-fob remote, which failed cos I was evidently too far away for it to work. I was about to run back nearer the car to do the deed when a friend said "Just hold it against your forehead - it'll work" .... so I did, and it worked straight away. I don't like to think about the implications for what must be going on here ... radio waves being amplified and/or being focused into a tight directional beam by the shape of your skull .... I wonder what frequency range these widgets use ... hope it's on the low end.
  2. Here's another discussion of this issue you may find helpful : http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=78100
  3. The "cue method" is for burning real Red Book (=normal) audio CDs - I assume that's not what you want. This issue has come up several times - here is a relevant discussion.
  4. When you play it using what ? A domestic DVD player ? Most domestic DVD players can't play DVDs which contain video in .avi file format - you need to convert .avi files to the conventional DVD video file structure (.VOB, .IFO, etc.) I believe DVD Flick is the popular freeware tool for that purpose. If this doesn't answer your question then you need to tell us more about what exactly you're trying to do.
  5. Not sure whether you mean this is the first time you've tried to use ImgBurn to create a CUE file from such MP3 files, or whether this is the first time ImgBurn has hung up on such an MP3 file. Anyway, the obvious conclusion would be that the ImgBurn MP3 parser doesn't like the ReplayGain (RG) tag data in the Foobar-created MP3 files .... HOWEVER, this parser is not part of ImgBurn - it's part of the Windows DirectShow filter for MP3 files, and ImgBurn just calls it. At least that's my understanding of the current ImgBurn state of the art - see this post : http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=12528 That being the case, you should probably tell us what version of Windows you're using, and whether or not you've recently upgraded it (or applied a service-pack). You probably know that RG data is stored in different tags by different programs ... there seems to be no firm consensus. Apparently, Foobar uses ID3v2 by default, or APEv2 at the user's option. I have no idea what Microsoft's DirectShow MP3 filter expects. See http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Replay_Gain#Implementations So it might be worth you finding that option in Foobar's RG plugin config, and switching it to the other choice. Also see this post : http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=7789 where another user reported their MP3-ImgBurn problem was solved by installing the K-Lite Codec Pack which contained a later version of the relevant Windows filter (AIUI). NB: I've heard many people advise against installing the K-Lite Codec Pack .... (saying it contains a lot of guff you don't need, and sometimes things which actually do harm) Just my 2p .... I am not the droid ReplayGain expert you are looking for, and may be completely off-target with this reply
  6. [cough] .... not any more Current best advice seems to be that unless you can get the Verbs which use Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation's "Azo" dye, you'll be better off switching to Taiyo Yuden for CD-Rs. The packaging needs to actually state "Azo" ... if it doesn't then be Very Afraid. The Azo disks are sometimes packaged as Verbatim "Datalifeplus" brand, but the packaging should still say "Azo" somewhere. Like this : http://www.amazon.co.uk/pack-Verbatim-80Minute-Super-Spindle/dp/B001LF1976/ Avoid the Verbatim CD-Rs which are branded "Extra Protection" ... those are in fact made by CMC Magnetics and are only really fit for scaring birds in your garden. (Note that some of the CD-Rs sold by Amazon are described as "Super Azo" in the product description, but the packaging in the accompanying photos says "Extra Protection" instead .... gawd knows what they actually are.) Unfortunately the Azo Verbs seem to be disappearing from the market ... Verbatim products seem to be moving down some awful slope to the level of mass-market crud ... lets hope their DVD+R DLs stay as good as their reputation, or we'll all be screwed.
  7. (oil --> troubled water) Awesome arguments! Yes, these are my problems, but I need a solution once and for all! Congratulations. You have redefined the word "idiot". [cough] .. that's a little rough ... Just explain that ImgBurn is an excellent solution to several other needs (as you sort of already have) ... but not to the requirement for an incremental backup tool. Both of you seem to agree that optical disk technology is not reliable enough for a proper backup solution So what are you doing at this forum? Why do you use ImgBurn? Why do you even own optical drive? [...] It's possible, just possible that some of the people asking questions here might need some help. You, on the other hand, are obviously one of the chosen few that already know everything, which is a rare treat for the rest of us. How about you pull your bottom lip over your head and swallow? Again a trifle harsh To me it looked like Dmitry thought you were saying all optical technology is old-hat, unreliable and generally not worth bothering with (I suspect Dmitry's first language is not English) ... and if that's so then his reply just looks like a genuine query about your purpose for using IB. Just sayin' ... [eats another cookie ... life is good] OT: I totally agree with you about 'InCD'. For me, Roxio's 'DirectCD' was less toxic, but still caused various kinds of weirdness. Regretfully, I'm much happier without either. @Dmitry: FWIW, Most folks here (and I'm one of them) are not particularly bothered that ImgBurn can't do multisession. Quite a few folks are, of course, but many many more are not. The fact is that ImgBurn does so many other things so very very well, that it can be forgiven the few gaps in its feature set. I haven't voted in your poll, cos that's not the sort of thing that has much influence on LUK's ImgBurn roadmap. I hesitate to speak for him, but he knows lots of folks would like multi - however, he's not on some kind of messianic trip to bring an answer to everyone's needs ... he has his own vision for the program, and if somebody's request doesn't fit with his plans then it just has to wait low down on the list. Having said that, it was worth you making your thoughts known - just don't expect any particular result. New beers please
  8. The learning curve is worth it You mean this one : http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=5555 ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_image It's just the exact data content of a CD or DVD (any optical disk really) stored in a single conventional computer data file, usually named with the ".iso" filename extension. Such a file is an easy way to store an exact image (copy) of a CD or DVD on a hard drive, and to later burn a real CD/DVD containing that image in a simple straightforward operation. A ".bin" file is analogous to a ".iso" file - it contains the image of the meaningful data content of an optical disk. BIN is an alternative to ISO. A ".cue" file is a very different kind of file - it's a text file describing the structure and data component contents of a disk to be built and then burned. It does not contain the actual data content. ImgBurn needs one in order to burn a hand-built audio CD. At this stage I'd suggest you really don't need to know anything about the format of a UDF filesystem - you just need to know when to specify the use of it. For your current intents and purposes just remember to burn video DVDs with a UDF filesystem and no other (other readers will correct me if I'm wrong). Audio CDs are a special case (and don't use any filesystem as such), but all data CDs and DVDs can use any or all of the ISO9660, Joliet and UDF filesystems. Sounds like you were indeed requesting the burn of a standard data disk .... To begin building and burning an audio CD you just use "Tools | Create CUE File...". The rest all follows from that, and when told to burn the disk defined by the CUE file ImgBurn will automatically set all other parameters (apart from speed) appropriately. It will also set the speed appropriately if you take the time to set up the AWS feature first (i.e. don't just leave speed set to "MAX" all the time). ImgBurn recognises any optical disk that your drive recognises (I think it's fair to say that) .... certainly many of use it to burn CD-RW and DVD+/-RW disks all the time. You mean "after clicking the big red button" ? It's debatable quite when the final request-to-burn has been made .. wizard style varies among all the burner programs out there. I don't think there are any burner programs that will let you change significant parameters of the burn once the laser has been switched on. However ImgBurn will handily let you change some post-burn parameters while the burn is in progress - e.g. whether or not to perform a verify, and whether or not to shut down the PC when the burn finishes. Well there are probably quite a few other people on this board who would agree with you (I'm one of them), but so far LUK has had quite enough to do just making the actual software more and more reliable, capable and useful - and adding built-in Windows Help is quite low down on his list. Actually, I'd quite like a PDF manual ... sometimes I fantasise about making one myself and posting it here, containing the distilled wisdom from postings on this board .. but I haven't done it yet Also one of the side-effects of LUK putting so much work into the program itself is that (as you'll find) ImgBurn is quite clever and very helpful : it works out as far as it can (from the data you feed in, and the type of disk in the burner) what it is you must be trying to do, and will prompt you if you've forgotten something or specified something inappropriate ... to the point that you mostly don't even need a traditional help facility. And the program is loaded with tooltips .. just hover the mouse over anything you don't understand to get a helpful popup (most of the time). ImgBurn usually saves you from shooting yourself in the foot. FWIW, I don't believe a user-contributed Windows Help file would be much use without extensive collaboration with LUK about where and how to plug it in to the ImgBurn executable .. which I imagine is something he doesn't want to divert to at this stage in history
  9. It might be an idea to update to the latest ImgBurn 2.5.5.0 .... You're several versions behind; I don't recall a changelog entry for fixing audio CD burning "track numbering confusion", but you should check. Well it sure looks like 5 audio tracks got burned ... Are you saying that a domestic CD player deck shows that 5 tracks are present but that the player's skip-to-next-track button doesn't work ? Or does the domestic player say that only 1 track is present ? If you try it again with the latest ImgBurn I suggest you switch on 'Verify' at the burn stage, just in case.
  10. I must agree with Ianymaty ... I have no real idea what you mean. What version of Windows are you using ? What media player software are you using ? If your question relates to a problem with a media player then maybe this thread belongs in the 'Chat' forum - the 'ImgBurn Support' forum is only for problems with using ImgBurn. (I personally haven't used Windows Media Player since Windows 2000, so probably can't help you with that .. if that's what you're doing) Or are you thinking that ImgBurn has not burned your data DVD correctly ?
  11. That log doesn't show any burn operation even starting ... it doesn't look as though ImgBurn has been asked to do anything at all after startup .... maybe a DVDFab error ?
  12. I'm not sure, but I think what you might need is "Rockridge extensions" support in the built disc image ... in which case you're out of luck in using ImgBurn - it doesn't currently offer Rockridge support : http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=13611&st=0&p=112142&hl=rockridge [cough] ...http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=16646 http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=11238
  13. ... and just for the record, if your unprotected DVDs are simple movie discs then once you have the DVD contents ripped as .ISO image files on your hard drive you can usually "play" them directly using the VLC media player without having to mount them using any kind of virtual drive software first. (I just right-click on the ISO file, choose "Open With ..." and then select "VLC media player".)
  14. [ahem] ... @LUK, while I'm still not sure which page Paul was complaining about, I've just noticed on the ImgBurn Download Page that above the list of primary download mirrors, in a page area headed "Ads by Google" (an area my eyes automatically do not normally see ), there are two ordinary-looking links (blue text, underlined - at least on my PC) which have the link text "Download Imgburn" and "Imgburn Free" but which lead to a page of apparently completely unrelated Google ads for god-knows-what. That's not helpful ......
  15. As a non-newbie computer-literate engineer you will probably have already realised that your problem report is incomplete : there are multiple download mirrors listed on the ImgBurn Download Page - which one are you annoyed by ? As a non-newbie, you probably know that most of those download mirrors are major well-known "shareware/freeware software download" websites, which have to support huge traffic flows, and which therefore resort to the hideous (I agree with you) advertising business model to generate revenue with which to pay the bills. I run software which cuts out most of those adverts, but even then I have to be careful not to click on some flashing "Download Here Now!" button which actually links to yet another stupid registry-cleaner-speed-up-your-PC package instead of the package I'm trying to find. Them's the breaks .... Obviously, the only mirror site for which Lightning UK has influence over the advertisement blizzard is his own site. On the ImgBurn Download page I linked above, the last two mirrors in the list link directly to the executable download - with no further buttons, banners, adverts or intermediate landing pages to negotiate.
  16. Just to address the non-Xbox360 disc parts of your question ... My understanding is that the -R formats were standardised before the +R formats (for both SL and DL). But that's not important right now ("and stop calling me Shirley") ... The important bit for DL media is (as Rincewind has said) that with DVD+R DL the location of the layer break can be specified by the burning software (and IB allows you to do this), while for DVD-R DL the layer break position is fixed by the format. This matters when burning DVD movie discs, because during playback you (may) get a slight stutter or pause at the layer break transition moment, so it's preferable to set the layer break at a "scene change" frame position (or perhaps just a point where nothing much is happening in the plot ... actors staring at blank wall, or something). [i've never backed up an Xbox game, so didn't know the layer break position matters for Xbox360 game discs too - thanks Rincewind.] I believe one other advantage with +R media is that the format allows for extra error-correction data to be written to the disc ... this would help by allowing continuing use of a disc which gets scratched. On the other hand, (so I've read) some older domestic DVD players can only handle -R movie discs because they were made before +R was standardised. Because of this, I use -R SL to burn "shorter" movie discs (for max portability), +R DL for longer movie discs, and +R SL for data discs (where integrity matters more, and a computer optical drive can be assumed). So yes, take the unopened -R DL discs back and change them if at all possible. (And yes, watch out for the new crappy non-Verbatim Verbatims some folks are finding )
  17. http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=changelog (2.5.3.0 section) : Just FYI, 2.5.4.0 does not fix this problem as exhibited by the one affected drive on my PC. Do you want another debug trace ?
  18. Another data point: I've discovered the other optical drive in my workstation - a DVDROM drive, Asus DVD-E616P2 - reads the same audio CD just fine with all versions of ImgBurn right up to 2.5.2.0. I should have thought of trying this before , but have always used the DVDRW drive because its alleged capabilities are greater than the DVDROM drive. I've attached screenshots of IB's own Capabilities report for the two drives. I guess that despite this, the DVDROM drive must be able to read the subchannel data you mentioned, while the DVDRW drive can't Interesting you mention that - the CUE file created by IB 2.5.2.0 to go with the .BIN file created when I read this disc is like this : FILE "Image.bin" BINARY TRACK 01 AUDIO INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 AUDIO INDEX 00 57:26:52 INDEX 01 57:28:51 TRACK 03 AUDIO INDEX 01 63:58:00 The IB log for this read operation looks like this : I 20:39:25 ImgBurn Version 2.5.2.0 started! I 20:39:25 Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 3) I 20:39:25 Total Physical Memory: 1,048,048 KB - Available: 612,036 KB I 20:39:25 Initialising SPTI... I 20:39:25 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices... I 20:39:25 -> Drive 1 - Info: ASUS DRW-1608P2S 1.39 (F:) (ATA) I 20:39:25 -> Drive 2 - Info: ASUS DVD-E616P2 1.08 (E:) (ATA) I 20:39:25 Found 1 DVD-ROM and 1 DVD±RW/RAM! I 20:40:46 Operation Started! I 20:40:46 Source Device: [1:0:0] ASUS DVD-E616P2 1.08 (E:) (ATA) I 20:40:46 Source Media Type: CD-ROM I 20:40:46 Source Media Sectors: 319,808 I 20:40:46 Source Media Size: 752,188,416 bytes I 20:40:46 Source Media File System(s): None I 20:40:46 Read Speed (Data/Audio): MAX / 8x I 20:40:46 Destination File: N:\Image.bin I 20:40:46 Destination Free Space: 4,452,859,904 Bytes (4,348,496 KB) (4,246 MB) (4 GB) I 20:40:46 Destination File System: NTFS I 20:40:46 File Splitting: Auto I 20:40:59 Reading Session 1 of 1... (3 Tracks, LBA: 0 - 319807) I 20:40:59 Reading Track 1 of 3... (AUDIO/2352, LBA: 0 - 258501) I 20:50:00 Reading Track 2 of 3... (AUDIO/2352, LBA: 258502 - 287849) I 20:50:45 Reading Track 3 of 3... (AUDIO/2352, LBA: 287850 - 319807) I 20:51:33 Exporting Graph Data... I 20:51:33 Graph Data File: N:\ASUS_DVD-E616P2_1.08_29-NOVEMBER-2010_20-40_N-A.ibg I 20:51:33 Export Successfully Completed! I 20:51:33 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:10:46 I 20:51:33 Average Read Rate: 1,137 KB/s (6.6x) - Maximum Read Rate: 1,615 KB/s (9.4x) Two questions if I may : What's the significance of the "INDEX 00" entry in the CUE file ? There was nothing weird that I can think of about the 3 WAV files that provided the source for the audio tracks. I'm now thinking of buying a new DVDRW drive that doesn't have this issue - what capability description should I be looking for to get a drive that can usefully read the subchannel data ? Cheers
  19. So .. er .... the algorithm changed in the newer releases ? And the drive this user has is capable of providing the data my drive can't ? (They say they are using IB 2.5.2.0 to create image files from audio CDs.) Just a data point: I've now gone back through the last few ImgBurn releases till I got to one that works. For my Asus DRW-1608P2S drive : IB 2.5.0.0 is the last one that works. IB 2.5.1.0 is the first one that doesn't work. (I've actually now gone back to 2.4.4.0 which I seem to recall worked fine for me back in the day - for as long as I want to copy audio discs anyway.)
  20. BTW, it's off-topic, but just in case you don't know, you can skip a step there and just use VLC to play the ISO file directly. Right-click on the ISO and choose "Open With", then "Choose Program" and select "VLC media player" which should be in the list of programs you get offered. You don't need to mount the ISO in any virtualised drive in order to play it with VLC.
  21. I love that sound too ... it's a happy sound. My only issue with it concerns its loudness when it suddenly plays at 4:30am when the user has zoned out and isn't expecting it, and has forgotten s/he had the volume up high earlier for that music they were playing, and now there is total quiet throughout the house and the neighbours houses and outside on the street, cos sensible people have been asleep for hours .... and then that last disc burn just before bedtime completes okay, and .. aaaaaaaarrrrrrgggh .... forgot to turn the sound down again, and woke up the kids/partner/flatmate, and if I've also forgotten to take off the headphones from 3 hours ago then I've just had another heart attack. I did once suggest LUK add an option to automatically lower the dB of the playback if the local time is between midnight and, say, 7am, but I wasn't really expecting him to agree .... It would be a ridiculously wonderful feature, probably requiring far more coding work than is warranted for such frippery, and I could always just try to remember to turn down the sound manually instead. Actually ... I wonder whether there's a programmatic interface to the Windows volume control ... maybe a script could be written for running via Task Scheduler ... hmmmm.
  22. <AOL> Me too </AOL> Just in case it helps any debugging going on, I too have this problem: I'm trying to use ImgBurn 2.5.2.0 on a fully-patched WinXP box to copy an audio CD I burned on another PC using Roxio 5.3.4.21 - the CD contains 3 audio tracks sourced from WAV files (radio recordings using Audacity), burned in track-at-once mode (hence 2-second gaps will be present), and finalised. ImgBurn always hangs up after a couple of seconds while "Analysing tracks". The last status bar message is always "Analysing Tracks... (Session 1, Track 2)". I actually left it running for 9 hours at one point but nothing changed. The CD drive activity light stays on continuously. The CD actually plays fine, both on the PC and in a domestic CD player. The media is a Verbatim <barf> "Extra Protection" disc (actually made by CMC) but they work fine for my other scratch purposes so long as they're burned slowly (I'm using them up). It's a long time since I've used IB to copy audio but I know it used to work fine at earlier releases. The attached log is from a "Verify Disc" run (not against image file) with debug tracing enabled, which fails in the same way. From a quick look at the log it seems ImgBurn is getting lost, and reading sector numbers which increase and then decrease endlessly. If there's any more info you want I'm happy to supply. verify-audio-CD-hangup-log.zip
  23. Yes, as far as I can tell, the Verbs marked "Azo" are good (they use a Mitsubishi Chemical Corp [Verbatim's corporate parent] dye), but the ones marked "Extra Protection" are the shit CMC Magnetics ones - presumably they're actually rebadged CMC-manufactured discs. I like the ones sold as "Azo Crystal", but they've become hard to find in the UK (SVP don't seem to have them any more). Verbatim also produces "Azo Lightscribe" and "Azo Printable" CDRs which still seem to be carried most places, but I don't really want the printableness. I guess I'll be switching to Taiyo Yudens at the next purchase. I actually met a Verbatim UK CDR Division Product Manager on their stand at an IT exhibition earlier this year, and asked him about the CMC ones - pointing out the terrible mistake I feel Verbatim are making with this move, losing much of their previously valuable credibility with their core audience - and he said that Verbatim felt it needed a CDR at that price/quality point so as to exploit that kind of market niche. Bah. They should make the packaging look very very different if they have any sense. [Also see my post in April this year]
  24. Ah - thanks very much. I've been deliberately not installing that firmware since it came out - the Asus description for it (on their own website) doesn't make any English sense (well it's a bit Engrish), and when I queried it with Asus I got no reply at all ... so I've been sticking with the version you see - it works very well on all other burns I ever do. [smacks self on forehead] thanks for pointing that out ! .... I hadn't noticed - I normally burn everything with a considerably lower than advertised speed; in the case of the Azo Verb disks this is 32x, which I'd counted on IB using for the new disks ... which of course it won't when the media code is different. Grrr and double-grrr. I'll try a lower-speed burn if I don't end up exchanging the wretched disks for something else. Hmmm .... is that some kind of legacy effect of the legendary "eye-candy" thread ? I can't really see why otherwise ... a Bad Person could upload garbage to Bugs or Support just as easily as to Chat. Cheers
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