burning multiple CDs

[glennl]

So I had a bunch of .cue/.bin and .iso files for audio and mp3 files respectively... and had been generating .ibq files to burns sets of them in particular orders.

 

Of course, the .cue/.bin and .iso formats are not directly readable for other purposes, like audio players, so I had another set of directories containing individual tracks. Abhorring the duplication, I finally figured out how to make my own .cue files containing references to individual .wav files, and .ibb files containing references to individual .mp3 files files. All that works.

 

So what doesn't? If I put a .ibb file into the .ibq file, it can't handle it. (invalid image file format error)

 

Is there some particular reason why it can't? (I just tested, and the Write Queue interface won't let me add .ibb files, so I guess I'm breaking the interface by putting one in the .ibq files) It seems like it would be a natural fit to do this.

 

Is there some other write queue format I haven't found that can handle burning a mix of .cue and .ibb files?

 

Or is there a different format than .ibb for the .mp3 files (but that it what it seemed to create when I used the user interface to create one)?

 

Currently using version 2.5.7.0

[LIGHTNING UK!]

You're mixing up Build mode functionality with Write mode functionality... you can't do that.

 

Rather than just making IBB files in Build mode, have it build the ISO and add that to your queue in Write mode.

[glennl]

Yep, I figured out I can't do it, but build mode versus write mode I didn't figure out... Those modes may make perfect sense, in some sense, but let's compare some of the use cases:

 

Audio: I can either have a single entry .cue file, and a .bin file, ready to burn, and consume a big chunk of disk space containing duplicates of the .wav files inside the .bin file, or I can have a multi-entry .cue file, and point directly at the .wav files, and be able to access the .wav files with other software, and not need the big chunk of disk space... ImgBurn will just gather together the .wav files and put a big chunk of data on the CD.

 

If I want to burn more than one Audio CD, I can make a write queue, and burn one after another.

 

Data: I can have a .iso file, ready to burn, and consume a big chunk of disk space containing duplicates of the (.mp3, or data files) inside the .iso, or I can have a .ibb file, and be able to access the (.mp3 or data) files with other software, and not need the big chunk of disk space... ImgBurn will just gather together the (.mp3 or data) files and put a big chunk of data on the CD.

 

If i want to burn more than one Data CD, I can ?????

 

Is there a separate write queuet for a sequence of Data CDs? If so, where do I find it? And if so, why is it separate from the Audio CD write queue?

 

And if not, doesn't that sound like a useful feature that is missing?

[glennl]

P.S. I do know how to make .iso files, and I suppose I could dynamically create them on the fly as a "pre-burn" step so that I could add them to the existing write queue, but since ImgBurn already knows how to burn a collection of files to a CD, why can't it simply use that as a substep in burning a write queue? Granted, I know nothing of the internals of the program, but it seems logically straightforward.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I don't really know what to say beyond "You just can't".

 

I know that sounds lame but they're doing different things and currently they don't talk to eachother to the point where you can queue up a Build mode project file in Write mode.

 

Write mode is burning prebuilt image files - so it's reading a sectors worth of data from a file and asking the drive to write it to a sector on the disc. It's a very simple process.

Build mode has to deal with creating file systems for the files you're adding to the project and is 100 times more complex. Build mode uses Write mode's code for burning the image it creates on the fly, but Write mode can't use Build mode's code for creating the image.

 

Yes, maybe it would be nice if Write mode could queue up IBB files but it can't do it now and it isn't going to in the near future - but this isn't the first time doing that has occurred to me.

 

What you can do is build your IBB files and use a batch file to build the ISO files all in 1 go. You just put them all in 1 folder and pass each one (in a loop) to ImgBurn via the command line.

 

Something like this should work...

 

for %%i in (*.ibb) do "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\ImgBurn\ImgBurn.exe" /MODE BUILD /BUILDOUTPUTMODE IMAGEFILE /SRC "%%~fi" /DEST "C:\Image Files\%%~ni.iso" /START /CLOSE

 

Whilst untested, that (or something like it) should loop through the IBB files in a folder and make ImgBurn build an ISO of each of them. If you've already configured the output file name within the IBB (i.e. within the GUI), you can remove the '/DEST "..."' command from the parameter list.

[glennl]

So since I don't really want the .iso files long term...

 

So I suppose I should figure out where the command line parameters are documented...

 

So if I have to use a batch file, wouldn't it be better just to use the batch file in lieu of a burn queue, and launch ImgBurn once for each CD to burn? Now the burn queue lets me do copies nicely, but I could duplicate the lines in the batch file generated instead... so I could then interleave the burning of .ibb and .cue files in the desired sequence. The question is how to handle errors? Does ImgBurn provide a useful exit code to indicate success/failure to the batch file? And does /start wait for a CD just like the burn queue does between CDs? And I hope /close exits without the "this job is completed" dialog?

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Well, the batch file was just for making the ISO files from your IBB files. I was expecting you to just insert those into your existing queue. You can make the progarm delete the image files when it's done with them.

 

If you want to *just* use the batch file, you can't do a single loop (as I've done) if you're going to burn images too. I guess you could make a 2nd loop though and have that burn all of the images. Or you have X number of lines calling ImgBurn.exe with the correct parameters for whatever you're trying to do. That's not very reusable though and the looping ones are.

 

Everything you need should be in the 'ReadMe.txt' file that lives alongside ImgBurn.exe.

 

I just gave you an example with the most basic of command lines, there are tons of options (including some for disabling prompts etc - but some are taken care of automatically anyway) in that ReadMe.

[glennl]

Yeah, will do some reading on those switches. I've already got a program generating the .ibb and .ibq files, generating a straight-line batch file instead of the .ibq is just a matter of syntax… and error handling... I'll be back if I can't figure something out. Would be handy to add .ibb support to the .ibq files, though... that would be very straightforward to use. Maybe if you think about it some, you'll get an inspiration about how to do it without 3 man-years of work