anyone here made cd-extra/cd-plus discs with bonus content?

[housepig]

I have a disc I'm putting out that includes some short films, in quicktime format. I've put together a web-page interface to select the videos, so I'm almost good to go.

the problem I'm having is that I keep making test discs, and every player I check them in sees a silent track 1 (where the data is) and plays it. my understanding of these, and in fact all the ones I've got, the player skips the data and goes straight to the audio.

any suggestions? first off, this is driving me nuts, and secondly, time is getting tight - I'm going to have to ship a master disc off later this week.

FWIW, I've got Wavelab 4, Nero 5 & 6 and Vegas 4, and I think I have some other burning software kicking around if need be.

any links / info / tips / suggestions appreciated.

[Mark Alan Miller]

Just did one with a browser interface like you describe, cross-platform and with auto-run for Mac and PC. You need to do some very specific things. I got myself sorted with Google, searching for 'enhanced' 'cd' and 'toast'.

one great link:
http://www.bumblesmp3s.com/how_to_make_ ... ced_cd.htm

I set up the audio on a PC in CD Architect. Used a piece of freeware called CDP Burn to create a multi-session Audio CD from CD Architect's .cdp file. Then put together the addtional content on my G3 in Toast, making it the second session, and closing the disc. The additional content comes after the audio, and most CD players will never know it's there.

A few paramater tweaks here and there, and Bob's your uncle.

Let us know what you figure out?

[jerrymac]

hey,
you have to do it in the other order...burn the audio first, as a "write session" NOT "write disc" because you don't want it to write the lead-out. Then burn the data part, using "write disc" to finish it off. Regular CD players can't read the second session, so you don't get that silent track.

Jerry M.

[jerrymac]

boo ya! cross post. I type so damned slowly. What Cowtrax says is dead on.

[Mark Alan Miller]

I just got a head-start...

[evan]

I know you can do this in Nero, although I'm not entirely sure on the specifics -- certainly don't use the mixed-mode option, which I'm guessing is what you used. Try burning an audio CD without finalizing the disc, then the data portion as a CD-ROM (ISO), selecting 'No multisession' and 'Mode 2/XA' (under the 'ISO' tab). Be sure to finalize the data session, of course.

[evan]

Just tried the above and it works!

[Mark Alan Miller]

Just tried the above and it works!

Cool! My question then is, is it Mac-friendly? Can you get the Mac to auto-run it? That's why I went for the Toast-related method - it seemed the only way to be really cross-platform... dunno.

[evan]

The method that I described actually doesn't give you an auto-run CD, but simply creates one that has both audio and data sectors. It seems that my method is also not cross-platform compatible, since it writes only a ISO 9660 track, and no HFS (Macintosh) track. So no-go on mine if you want cross-platformness.

[FoundationSound]

In the past I always used Visual Basic to do my enhanced cd's. But now I'm switching over to Real Basic because it can compile XP/Mac/Linux. http://www.RealSoftware.com Usually I do all my track markers in CD Archetect and then use wavelab to rip them at a really slow speed, like 4x. Then I import them in Nero with the CD Extra format. (I've never been able to notice any quality loss) The auto-run feature comes from having an autorun.inf file in the root directory with these 3 lines:

[autorun]
OPEN=autorun.exe
ICON=favicon.ico

autorun.exe is obviously the line it executes, can have some tags like: iexplore http://www.Foundation-Sound.com.
and the ICON is the icon that windows explorer uses for the cd.

If anyone knows some more tags I'd be interested.

Is auto-run possible for mac?

[housepig]

thanks for the info - I was trying the Mixed-Mode disc, as I wasn't sure why Nero was putting two folders, "cdplus" and "pictures" in the root directory by default when I used the CD Plus settings.

I did burn one as a CD Plus last night after posting, and it worked properly (ran two sessions automatically, test players ignored the data track).

I'm going to try Evan's method above and see if I can get rid of those two folders I don't want.

thanks for the info!

[evan]

Is auto-run possible for mac?

Yes it is, but the process is different from creating an auto-run CD for PC. Macs don't recognize the autorun.inf file, not to mention you need to be writing in HFS to get a Mac to let you autorun it.

I'm going to try Evan's method above and see if I can get rid of those two folders I don't want.

Remember, my method is not cross-platform compatible -- Macs won't be able to auto-run whatever's on the disc. However, they still will be able to read them.

[housepig]

Remember, my method is not cross-platform compatible -- Macs won't be able to auto-run whatever's on the disc. However, they still will be able to read them.

there is no auto-run - just a html page in the root directory, and a line in the packaging that says "open xxx.html to play videos". I didn't want to hassle & overcomplicate the process by using an autorun, since there's not a good way to open a web page using one anyway...

thanks for the info!

[Mark Alan Miller]

Is auto-run possible for mac?

Yes...

the following quote is from the link I posted in my first reply to this thread:
"On a Mac, the Autorun feature of QuickTime enables autoplay. The DATA session of your E-CD must be a Mac/PC Hybrid (or ISO9660/MacHFS) to enable this feature, so you need to burn your second session in that format. If you're using a Mac, Toast burning software has a little box you can check that says "Autostart" and then asks you what file you want to use to start the CD with. If you are using something other than Toast, search your manual for autorun or autostart. "

There is also mention of making a Mac autorun CD on a PC in that same link... but that I've never tried.