CD ISO files

[TSM]

I've been thinking about ripping all of my Audio CD's to iso images, for backup purposes and easier access to the cd's from my htpc.  Anyone know of any software with which I could simply point to the folder they are stored in and it could shuffle through tracks from the random CD's iso image, as if each track were a seperate file?  I know I could just make seperate files, but the idea of iso image backups to the physical CD's appeals to me, and I see no point in having the ISO, and the individual tracks as seperate files, both taking up space.  I know there are plenty of apps with which I could manually mount the iso and play it as if it were a cd, but I'm looking for something a bit more automated. 

[WeeboTech]

I've never heard of anyone doing it that way.

Especially in a random fashion. Seems like quite a bit of work to do it that way.

My brain is spinning with ideas.

 

I've been thinking the same thing, only I decided to backup my CD's to FLAC.

Considering it's lossless and I can convert to mp3 easily after flac with a simple script.

 

There is a way to rip it with EAC to create a single flac file and a cue sheet.

But then you would need some way to index the songs and access the flac via the cue sheet.

Otherwise it will play the CD as one long track.

 

Eventually I choose to rip to flac as individual tracks. From there I can tag the file and scan in the cover art.

[Rajahal]

Exactly, FLAC is the way to go.  XBMC reads FLAC files natively, and has a 'shuffle' option.  Plus, you'll save a bit of space too.

[purko]

I've been thinking about ripping all of my Audio CD's to iso images.... 

Anyone know of ... CD's iso image, as if each track were a seperate file?...

...the idea of iso image backups to the physical CD's appeals to me...

 

First, you need to get one thing very clear:  AudioCD format is NOT ISO!

DVDs are ISO.  AudioCD is one 'spiral' track, much like those black turntable LP records.

 

I know there are plenty of apps with which I could manually mount the iso and play it as if it were a cd...

 

Name one.

 

 

[purko]

I've been thinking about ripping all of my Audio CD's to iso images, for backup purposes and easier access to the cd's from my htpc.  Anyone know of any software with which I could simply point to the folder they are stored in and it could shuffle through tracks...

 

OK, now that I told you why it can't be done, let me tell you how it can be done.

 

It will be convenient if we separate your request into two things:

1) Make images of AudioCDs, images that can later be mounted like real AudioCDs.

2) Convert the stuff that's on the AudioCD into some kind of manageable file structure,

like Artist/Album/Song, which can then be fed to some media playing frontend.

 

So...

1) After long and hard search, I found only one program that can nicely do that: DAEMON Tools Lite

(Note: chose a minimum install of  DAEMON Tools Lite, otherwise it also installs some extra addvertisings-crapware)

If you find another such program, please let me know!

 

2) You could make some scripts to mount your AudioCD images, and use them like real AudioCDs.

But a better way to do it is to extract the stuff to Artist/Album/Song files.

You need to decide which audio codec to use. Many people use MP3 for that. Weebo mentioned FLAC (which is loseless!)

I'd suggest you go with the 'eAAC+' codec: the file sizes end up being a tiny fraction of MP3s, while the quality is practically indistinguishable from FLAC! 

One piece of software which does a really great job of that is Easy CDDA Extractor. Try it, you'll love it!

 

Purko

 

---

One bonus hint: You could do 2) in a virtual machine. You can restore a fresh copy of the virtual machine every 30 days.

 

 

[bubbaQ]

AudioCD is one 'spiral' track, much like those black turntable LP records.

 

[slapping forhead] Where do people get this BS?  An Audio CD (CD-DA) is a Redbook standard disk, and is sector based just like a DVD.... and they make perfectly good ISO files.

[purko]

AudioCD is one 'spiral' track, much like those black turntable LP records.

 

[slapping forhead] Where do people get this BS? 

 

That was more a figure of speach, to emphasize that AudioCD is not ISO.

 

An Audio CD (CD-DA) is a Redbook standard disk, and is sector based just like a DVD.... and they make perfectly good ISO files.

Now here I wonder where do people get this BS? ISO images do not support multi-track, thus they cannot be used for audio CDs.

 

 

[BRiT]

Purko is correct, however some PC burning programs abuse the file-extension of 'ISO' while using a different container format to include the multiple-tracks. This explains why .bin/.cue and other formats were created.

[WeeboTech]

Now here I wonder where do people get this BS? ISO images do not support multi-track, thus they cannot be used for audio CDs.

Did you mean Multi-track or Multi-session?

 

You need to decide which audio codec to use. Many people use MP3 for that. Weebo mentioned FLAC (which is loseless!)

I'd suggest you go with the 'eAAC+' codec: the file sizes end up being a tiny fraction of MP3s, while the quality is practically indistinguishable from FLAC! 

 

Why eAAC+? From what I read, it was lossy.

FLAC is lossless. I think if you are going to back up your CD's  choose a lossless format so you can recreate lossy formats or recreate the original CD>

It's my understanding that with the correct full FLAC file and CUE sheet, you can recreate the CD exactly.

 

From experience, over the years I've ripped everything to MP3. It was more out of the need to consolidate and have access to many cd's rapidly. I have over 6,000 cd's.

I've used various media players and recently since using a new PC with XBMC the loss of quality is just too noticeable (even though I ripped everything at the highest mp3 bit rate).

 

I'm starting to re-rip everything to FLAC & scanning the artwork so I can clean out the shelves and put the CD's in storage.

With the right programs and scripts, I can create the MP3's from the FLACS very easily.

I suppose you could do that with an eAAC+ encoder too.

 

The point is to choose a "lossless" format for your backups and choose one that enables you to recreate the CD if you need/want to.

[bubbaQ]

You can easily make an image of a multi-track Audio CD.... and you can give it an ISO extension.  It may not be a 9660 ISO file, but it is an image of the Audio CD, with multi-tracks, and many different programs can mount it, and burn it back to a CD.

[purko]

You can easily make an image of a multi-track Audio CD.... and you can give it an ISO extension.  It may not be a 9660 ISO file, but it is an image of the Audio CD, with multi-tracks, and many different programs can mount it, and burn it back to a CD.

You can rename any file and give it a ".iso" extension, that doesn't make it an ISO image file.

But you are welcome to give examples how, and links to some programs.

 

 

[purko]

Now here I wonder where do people get this BS? ISO images do not support multi-track, thus they cannot be used for audio CDs.

Did you mean Multi-track or Multi-session?

Yes, I did mean multi-track.

 

You need to decide which audio codec to use. Many people use MP3 for that. Weebo mentioned FLAC (which is loseless!)

I'd suggest you go with the 'eAAC+' codec: the file sizes end up being a tiny fraction of MP3s, while the quality is practically indistinguishable from FLAC! 

 

Why eAAC+? From what I read, it was lossy.  FLAC is lossless.

I think if you are going to back up your CD's  choose a lossless format so you can recreate lossy formats or recreate the original CD

You are absolutely right about FLAC.  So why eAAC+?  Just a suggestion for a different option he meight be interested in.

 

eAAC+ (a.k.a. HE-AACv2) really impressed me. 

Personally, I never liked MP3, so I never bothered much with it.

But lately, I've been playing a lot with eAAC+, and honestly, at 48 kbit/s I can't tell which is the original and which is the encoded version.

It's hard to believe.

 

I'm starting to re-rip everything to FLAC & scanning the artwork so I can clean out the shelves and put the CD's in storage.

I suppose you could do that with an eAAC+ encoder too.

Exactly!   

 

 

[WeeboTech]

Reply on this subject because of some recent knowledge I gained.

FLAC could be a great way to archive your collection.

 

From what I've been able to find out, you can rip a CD with EAC to a WAV or Single FLAC with a CUE sheet.

The CUE sheet has the index points for the file and can be used to reconstruct the CD.

 

A FLAC will compress to about 50% of the WAV file.

There is a way to embed the CUE Sheet & Art work into the FLAC file.

 

With XBMC it can read the single Large FLAC file, the CUE sheet and the embedded artwork and still provide access to the individual songs inside the FLAC file.

 

Under Windows FooBar2000 can also access the CUE sheet (or embedded CUE sheet) and access the individual files.

 

I've recently began doing this to archive CD's I no longer want. After I archive them I sell them off via half.com or second spin.

 

I still plan to archive/backup all my CD's then use some form of archival storage mechanism to put them away (That's a feat and expense in itself!)

 

 

In any case, it worked out pretty nicely to embed the cuesheet and artwork into a single flac and have access to it all from XBMC and FooBar2000.

 

Who knows, XBMC may be able to access the .ISO of the CD image and still be able to play it.

I know it can play DVD .ISO files with full menu access.

 

 

Another interesting thread which may prove valuable in the future.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2578.0

[Guest smnas]

If your "backing up" Audio CD's which as no copyright protection, use IMGBurn, a free CD/DVD data writing and capturing application that can create ISO's of data and audio CD's given their not copyright protected.

Or if you have copyrighted CD's, use PowerISO or AnyCD from SlySoft. AnyCD like AnyDVD can decrypt or "open" most CD's to allow you to make a legal 'backup' of your CD's. Personally if I were you, I'd rip your audio CD's to a high bit rate MP3 or WAV files. You'll get the same audio quality and save a lot of space if you have hundreds or thousands of CD's to archive.

[purko]

If your "backing up" Audio CD's which as no copyright protection, use IMGBurn, a free CD/DVD data writing and capturing application that can create ISO's of data and audio CD's given their not copyright protected.

For the last time, you can create ISO files from Data CDs.  Audio CDs are not ISO.  Google the ISO format.

"ISO" is not a synonym for "image"!

 

Also, the goal was not just to make backup images which you can later burn to CDs.

The goal was to be able to mount those images and play them as if they were real CDs.

 

Personally if I were you, I'd rip your audio CD's to a high bit rate MP3 or WAV files. You'll get the same audio quality and save a lot of space if you have hundreds or thousands of CD's to archive.

That's a bad idea.  How do you save a lot of space with WAV files?

And you certainly don't get the same audio quality with MP3 files!

 

[Guest smnas]

If your concerned about space while archiving, convert the CDs to high bit rate audio files, use the favourite audio rip of choice. Yeah WAV files are a waste of space. I recently archived my audio CDs and I decided and others I know suggested that ripping them to MP3 was the way to go. CDs are slowly phasing out and audio files seem to be the thing of now and the future. But again, each to their own and a forum shows that we are all entitled to our opinions. Cheers!

[WeeboTech]

High bit rate mp3's are not the way to archive a CD. The original sound file can never be reproduced 100% with a lossy mp3.

 

A CD archived in an image file or WAV/WAVPACK/FLAC with a Cue sheet allows the CD to be remade and also be played as individual tracks without having to mount the CD.

 

Flac files are 50% of the WAV and are lossless. They can contain tag information and you can embed art work and cue sheet.  Makes a nice portable playable file.  There are also media players that can play the flac file.

 

Also with foobar2000, you can create an additional set of mp3's for portables, while leaving your lossless files still present.

 

Thanks for the recommendatons on the poweriso. didn't know of that one.

I have anydvd, I would imagine that can back up copy protected CD's also.

[Guest smnas]

No worries I used Imgburn for data CD archiving, though PowerISO and AnyCD does decrypt CD protected CD's. Happy to spread the word.