Bad or no ISRC and MCN codes from CD audio discs

[Jiri Zita]

I have several CD audio discs with properly burnt ISRC codes and MCN codes but when I use Read mode and "View Media Information" feature, there are wrong or no ISRC codes and wrong Media Catalog Numbers. I tried to do several tests and it seems to be a problem of my drives or the method ImgBurn tries to read from these drives.

 

Drives:

LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1693S KS0B (wrong MCN, no ISRC)

TSSTCorp CD/DVDW SH-S183A SB03 (good MCN, wrong ISRC)

both very good, reliable and C2 capable drives with latest firmware version

 

Tested on:

ImgBurn 2.5.0.0

Windows Vista Business SP2, with both SPTI and Nero ASPI

Windows XP Professional SP3, with both SPTI and Nero ASPI

DiscJuggler 6 Free edition

 

When I created CDI image of the CD using DiscJuggler software (RAW mode with subchannels), mounted by Daemon Tools 4.12.3 and used Read mode and "View Media Information" feature in ImgBurn, all information were correct. The ISRC and MCN were verified and tested by our premastering software which also had burnt the CD from DDP fileset. Similar results from pressed CDs with ISRC codes and MCNs... so it is not problem of burning.

 

I don't know the method you use for reading ISRC and MCN but it seems to be incompatible with these drives and maybe with many more. I think that reading of subchannels (for drives supporting it) will be much more accurate and I hope you will include this method into next releases :-))

 

Images attached: LiteOn, Samsung, PremasteringSW, Mounted CDI image created by DiscJuggler

Edited September 21, 2009 by Jiri Zita

[LIGHTNING UK!]

This is a drive issue.

 

ImgBurn uses 'READ SUBCHANNEL' (Op. code 0x42) to get MCN and ISRC.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

You might like to read these:

 

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f105/sh-s202h-doe...roperly-232717/

 

http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/forum/...opic.php?p=4609

 

http://www.plextoramericas.com/index.php/f...ead-incorrectly

[Jiri Zita]

I talked with our chief programmer today morning and he told me that he had found the problem with wrong subchannel reading several years ago and that he had to change our software to more secure and wider compatible way. I've seen its source code so if it can help you, here is the algorithm and info how it can be done or we can send you the complete source code:

 

- there's a cycle for all tracks - for every track we read first 100 sectors (the minimum for ISRC and MCN according to specification)

- we use READ CD MSF command (using of READ CD command only is not secure in all situations - addressing problems sometimes, READ SUBCHANNEL can lead to problems too)

- if the "Formatted Q sub-channel data" function is supported (Sub-Channel Selection bits 010b), the function will return Q channel only, otherwise "RAW" subchannels (backup for older drives, bits 001b according to ftp://ftp.seagate.com/sff/INF-8090.PDF, but not in latest MMCv6) are extracted and then decoded

- if non of the above commands are supported, only then the READ SUBCHANNEL should be processed but with warning that codes can be incorrect (for user to verify codes with supplied documentation)

 

We processed several thousands pressed and burned CDs with ISRC and MCN codes so our way is tested very well:-))

Edited September 22, 2009 by Jiri Zita

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I don't look at it as being 'more compatible', the drives don't reject the command, they just return garbage! It's their problem to fix it in the firmware really and not mine to do a workaround in software.

 

That said, I was looking at doing it via READ CD (i.e. the same way it looks like you're doing it) but on the disc I was testing, not once did I come across MCN in the subchannel data - and that was having scanned 200000 sectors! ISRC's were not a problem, they popped up at least once in every 100 sectors like they're supposed to. What's weird is that the 'READ SUBCHANNEL' command reported the MCN without a problem - this was with an iHAS324 model drive.

[Jiri Zita]

Yes, I know that we probably found the way only to ignore ONE kind of bugs in their firmwares and the rest were left uncorrected, but for practical reasons it is more helpful to us to do it that way. We have perfect readability with C2 error tests and both ISRC and MCN codes for almost all discs (with several exceptions of badly burned CD-Rs). We use(d) Samsung drives from SH-S182,183,202,222,223 and LiteOn drives from SOHW-1633,1673,1693. Even our old Toshiba DVD-ROM drives returns good values, but these work also with ImgBurn well.

 

I am trying to solve this problem now because I was asked by several our customers to recommend them a free utility for preparing disc images - reliable, compatible and well tested. And for me the best solution was ImgBurn so I started to write a tutorial for them. But I cannot be sure now that they will supply us with a good 1:1 image because I don't know if their drive reads all the info properly or not.

 

ImgBurn isn't perfect and maybe has more bugs but even those one-click big-icon hundred-MB applications for trained apes have some. We use it mainly for burning of DVDs and for this task it is superior. But proper reading of ISRC, MCN, CD-Text and indexes is also important to us and our customers too. All these information can be retrieved with ImgBurn so I would want to recommend it to them. And your Enhanced CD (CD-Extra) CUE support/improvement is also one of the advantages :-) over other utilities.

 

If you want we can send you our source code and you can test it if it works for you or not. To be honest, for us is easier and less work to help you with your worldwide known ImgBurn than to create a new separate application for reading discs to images.

Edited September 22, 2009 by Jiri Zita

[LIGHTNING UK!]

It certainly wouldn't hurt to see what you're already using code wise (as it's tried and tested), it's often nice to have things to compare against.

 

So by all means send away

 

Use the 'support' email address please.

[Jiri Zita]

I have tested 2.5.1.0 version of ImgBurn and the results are:

 

The above-mentioned LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1693S KS0B now can read all the ISRC codes properly. MCN is unfortunately still bad.

The above-mentioned TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S183A SB03 now can read all the ISRC and MCN codes properly.

 

Good work:-) Thanks.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I only check the first 100 sectors on the disc for the MCN during my subchannel scan, but it should be there - right?!

 

EDIT: LOL, scrap that. I dug out an old LiteOn and found the issue - an uninitialised variable that could prevent the new code from running.

 

It's fluke that the ISRC code worked for you (and me) as that had the same problem (was basically a copy + paste of what I'd done for the MCN bit)

 

Consider it fixed for 2.5.2.0.

[Jiri Zita]

I only check the first 100 sectors on the disc for the MCN during my subchannel scan, but it should be there - right?!

 

EDIT: LOL, scrap that. I dug out an old LiteOn and found the issue - an uninitialised variable that could prevent the new code from running.

 

It's fluke that the ISRC code worked for you (and me) as that had the same problem (was basically a copy + paste of what I'd done for the MCN bit)

 

Consider it fixed for 2.5.2.0.

 

Hi,

 

I'm only confirming that the new version 2.5.2.0 works well regarding the above-mentioned issues. Good work:-)

I will recommend the new version to our customers and will send them the PDF guide for creating disc images suitable for mastering.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Phew!

 

Thanks for letting me know.