A suggestion to end all suggestions?

[CrEOF]

Sorry for the length of this post, but I though it might be helpful to include some background...

 

I've been using ImgBurn since before it was ImgBurn. IMHO it's one of the best programs available to do what it does on Windows (or any other platform) - it's extremely simple but has the option to configure every advanced feature one could desire. Better yet, it doesn't try to be something it's not (like Roxio's or Nero's bloatware). And to top it all off it's free. Even through I've moved to the world of Mac, I still have one PC which only purpose is to run ImgBurn (and EAC, and yes I use Fusion and Parallels too).

 

I've recently untaken a project to archive all my audio CD's, and the first tool I pulled out of the "box" was ImgBurn. I'm not looking to split them up into individual files and add metadata - all I want is to create an accurate image which I can burn back to CD and end up with an exact copy. I'm doing this for a number of reasons, all of which really have little to do with the point of this post (though I'd be happy to digress if someone is curious).

 

I was a little surprised though when I looked through the preferences of the latest version of ImgBurn and could not locate any settings for audio CD read/write offsets. I can see why, being that ImgBurn is not really a ripping tool, but it would be trivial to implement. So I had to fallback to EAC for ripping. Unfortunately the writing support built-in to EAC is miserable, and cdrdao doesn't apply write offsets. So I've been using a combination of CueTools/ImgBurn or mktoc/cdrdao to burn CD's when necessary.

 

After going through this process for 100+ discs I came across one with a bonus live DVD. So off to Google to find some free/open-source software to allow me to image this. This of course let me down the path of rediscovering the bit of ImgBurn history I had forgotten. Yes, the good ol' days.

 

Now to the point. This morning after fighting with EAC and debugging some Perl code I've been working on to automate my workflow, it occurred to me that it might be possible to add a great number of requested features (looking through this forum many of which will not be added) without requiring any additional coding on the part of ImgBurn (other than the feature itself). This feature would be to create a plug-in API along with a simple SDK. The plug-ins could function much like DirectX/VST plugins, in that they would interface into various places in the I/O stream(s) depending on their function. A number of possible plugins immediately come to mind:

 

• 
   
  
• Compressed file support (iso<->isz, wav<->flac, etc.)
  
• Audio CD read/write offsets
  
• Replay gain
  
• AccurateRip verification
  
• Support for the various VLC libraries
  
• Transcoding
   
  

Granted this would be no minor feature, but I am not aware of anything that allows anywhere near this amount of flexibility. dbPowerAmp does have some plug-in functionality, but the API is not open and the program itself is geared more towards ripping, compressing, and tagging. Of course all of these features would be possible with an ImgBurn plug-in, but the program itself could continue to focus on what it has always done best. Possibly support for plug-ins could be something one would have to pay for a "Pro" version? I would definitely pay, and reading through here and other site's forums I'm sure many others would also.

 

I'll stop there. I know in the end it's unlikely that something like this will be implemented, as it would require some major rewriting, but I wanted to put it out there on the off chance that it might happen

 

Thanks again for a wonderful piece of software!

[spinningwheel]

I know in the end it's unlikely that something like this will be implemented

 

My opinion also, but it's always up to the Boss

[Rincewind]

Imgburn already supports burning flac, wav, and other audio files to audio cd. As far as replay gain is concerned, I prefer it doesn't apply to audio cd, and would rather have the track in it's original when burning flac to audio cd. I do use replay gain when listening to flac on my computer, but thats cause of software and soundcard isn't as good so replay gain is a necessary 'assistant'. When it comes to car or home stereo though, replay gain is not necessary since, because if you have a decent stereo system, then it means you have a decent equalizer to go along with it, as well as good speakers.

 

As for compressed ISOs (isz, whatever), I don't care for 'non-standard' image types, and I rather find some 'compressed' images rather pointless, most give out 10mb most, not really very significant these days when everybody has a decent net connection.

 

I do like the accurip idea, since imgburn can essentially copy audio cds, and not just 'data' discs.

 

As far as transcoding though, I dunno; I think you are wanting to make imgburn into something it is clearly not intended to be.

 

I rather like imgburn as is.

[CrEOF]

Imgburn already supports burning flac, wav, and other audio files to audio cd. As far as replay gain is concerned, I prefer it doesn't apply to audio cd, and would rather have the track in it's original when burning flac to audio cd. I do use replay gain when listening to flac on my computer, but thats cause of software and soundcard isn't as good so replay gain is a necessary 'assistant'. When it comes to car or home stereo though, replay gain is not necessary since, because if you have a decent stereo system, then it means you have a decent equalizer to go along with it, as well as good speakers.

 

As for compressed ISOs (isz, whatever), I don't care for 'non-standard' image types, and I rather find some 'compressed' images rather pointless, most give out 10mb most, not really very significant these days when everybody has a decent net connection.

 

I do like the accurip idea, since imgburn can essentially copy audio cds, and not just 'data' discs.

 

As far as transcoding though, I dunno; I think you are wanting to make imgburn into something it is clearly not intended to be.

 

I rather like imgburn as is.

 

My understanding of replay gain is that the audio is not modified, it just determines a value which is stored in metadata so that it can be compared across tracks/discs to normalize on playback.

 

I wasn't aware that ImgBurn supported flac audio files, I'll have to take another look at that - thanks!

 

I think you may have misunderstood my idea. I agree with you completely that adding transcoding or replay gain or any of the examples I made to ImgBurn is outside its scope. Adding a plug-in/API interface to ImgBurn though would allow 3rd parties to create their own additional code (which is not supported or developed by Lighting UK!) to do what ever they wanted it to do. It could play music through an underwater speaker for dolphins for all anyone cares. I was just giving some examples of what might be possible by allowing external access to the I/O stream. I myself would have little use for the majority of the cited examples (other than the read/write offsets and flac support) - I had just quickly browsed through some of the recent suggestions and listed the few I found which a plug-in could handle.