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Optical disc authoring, including CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc authoring, is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded ("burned") onto an optical disc (typically a compact disc or DVD).
To burn an optical disc, one usually first creates an optical disc image with a full file system, of a type designed for the optical disc, in temporary storage such as a file in another file system on a disk drive. One may test the image on target devices using rewriteable media such as CD-RW, DVD±RW and BD-RE. Then, one copies the image to the disc (usually write-once media for hard distribution).
Most optical disc authoring utilities create a disc image and copy it to the disc in one bundled operation, so that end-users often do not know the distinction between creating and burning. However, it is useful to know because creating the disc image is a time-consuming process, while copying the image is much faster.[ dubious – discuss ] Most disc burning applications silently delete the image from the Temporary folder after making one copy. If users override this default, telling the application to preserve the image, they can reuse the image to create more copies. Otherwise, they must rebuild the image each time they want a copy.
Some packet-writing applications do not require writing the entire disc at once, but allow writing of different parts at different times. This allows a user to construct a disc incrementally, as it could be on a rewritable medium like a floppy disk or rewritable CD. However, if the disc is non-rewritable, a given bit can be written only once. Due to this limitation, a non-rewritable disc whose burn failed for any reason cannot be repaired. (Such a disc is colloquially termed a "coaster", a reference to a beverage coaster.)
There are many optical disc authoring technologies for optimizing the authoring process and preventing errors. Some programs can mount a disc image as a file system type, so these images appear as mounted discs. The disc image can then be tested after it is assembled but before writing to a physical disc.
DVD and Blu-ray (sequential) discs also allow the use of multiple sessions.
Tracks contain the information to be stored on the disc. A track is a consecutive set of sectors on the disc containing a block of data. One session may contain one or more tracks of the same or different types. Tracks can be audio information or data, which use the same format, or video information. Data can include album information and low-resolution graphics such as karaoke lyrics; however, these tracks are not compliant with the Red Book of CD audio standards.
Authoring is commonly done in software on computers with optical disc recorders. There are, however, stand-alone devices like personal video recorders which can also author and record discs.
Use of optical disc recorders require optical disc authoring software, sometimes called "burning applications" or "burner applications". Such software is usually sold with the recorder. Some operating systems come bundled with them.
Creating an optical disc usually involves first creating an optical disc image with a full file system designed for the optical disc, and then actually burning the image to the disc. Many programs create the disc image and burn in one bundled application (Quick Copy or Copy On-the-fly), such that end-users do not even know the distinction.
Disc file systems include ISO 9660 (often known simply as “ISO”) and Universal Disk Format (UDF). ISO is most common for CDs and UDF is most common for DVDs.
There are also packet writing applications that do not require writing the entire disc at once, but allow writing parts at a time, allowing the disc to be used as a random access removable medium (somewhat like a very large floppy, though with unique constraints).
Sometimes, disc images are made to make the authoring process more straightforward. Sometimes disc images are even used to emulate the presence of a CD-ROM or DVD drive with the data entirely resident on the hard disc.
For the command-line tool cdrdao , a so-called TOC file that can be authored inside a text editor is used to specify the details of the desired disc record. [1]
Optical disc file system types include ISO 9660 (often known simply as "ISO") and Universal Disk Format (UDF). ISO is most common for CDs and UDF is most common for DVDs and BDs.
ISO 9660 is a format mainly used on CDs. The ISO 9660 can be extended with El Torito, Joliet, Rock Ridge, or the Apple ISO 9660 Extensions.
El Torito makes it possible to boot from a CD. The Joliet extension by Microsoft makes it possible to have long file names encoded in UCS-2, among other things. Rock Ridge is a system providing file-ownership, fewer restrictions on the file names, and more. Amiga extensions allow use of Amiga-specific attribute bits and comments. The Apple Extensions enables Macintosh-specific creator codes, file type, and so on.
Universal Disk Format (UDF) is a newer filesystem that comes with additional features such as Unicode support, packet writing (UDF 1.50), and defect management on rewritable formats. Packet writing can alternatively be implemented with UDF 1.02 and Mount Rainier extensions. It allows one to use the disc like a floppy disk, that is to easily delete, create, and modify files, without having to write the whole disc again.
DVD-Video uses UDF 1.02, however Blu-Ray Disc uses UDF 2.50.
A compatibility technology called HighMAT allows visual material on the disc to be recognised, interpreted and supported by electronic play devices more efficiently. [2]
ISO 9660 is a file system for optical disc media. The file system is an international standard available from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Since the specification is available for anybody to purchase, implementations have been written for many operating systems.
Universal Disk Format (UDF) is an open, vendor-neutral file system for computer data storage for a broad range of media. In practice, it has been most widely used for DVDs and newer optical disc formats, supplanting ISO 9660. Due to its design, it is very well suited to incremental updates on both write-once and re-writable optical media. UDF was developed and maintained by the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA).
A disk image is a snapshot of a storage device's structure and data typically stored in one or more computer files on another storage device.
Mount Rainier (MRW) is a format for writable optical discs which provides the packet writing and defect management. Its goal is the replacement of the floppy disk. It is named after Mount Rainier, a volcano near Seattle, Washington, United States.
An optical disc image is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. ISO images contain the binary image of an optical media file system, including the data in its files in binary format, copied exactly as they were stored on the disc. The data inside the ISO image will be structured according to the file system that was used on the optical disc from which it was created.
DVD-RAM is a DVD-based disc specification presented in 1996 by the DVD Forum, which specifies rewritable DVD-RAM media and the appropriate DVD writers. DVD-RAM media have been used in computers as well as camcorders and personal video recorders since 1998.
K3b is a CD, DVD and Blu-ray authoring application by KDE for Unix-like computer operating systems. It provides a graphical user interface to perform most CD/DVD burning tasks like creating an Audio CD from a set of audio files or copying a CD/DVD, as well as more advanced tasks such as burning eMoviX CD/DVDs. It can also perform direct disc-to-disc copies. The program has many default settings which can be customized by more experienced users. The actual disc recording in K3b is done by the command line utilities cdrecord or cdrkit, cdrdao, and growisofs. As of version 1.0, K3b features a built-in DVD ripper.
InCD is a packet writing software developed by Nero AG for Microsoft Windows.
Packet writing is an optical disc recording technology used to allow write-once and rewritable CD and DVD media to be used in a similar manner to a floppy disk from within the operating system.
IMG, in computing, refers to binary files with the .img filename extension that store raw disk images of floppy disks, hard drives, and optical discs or a bitmap image – .img.
DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are a collection of optical disc formats that can be written to by a DVD recorder and by computers using a DVD writer. The "recordable" discs are write-once read-many (WORM) media, where as "rewritable" discs are able to be erased and rewritten. Data is written ("burned") to the disc by a laser, rather than the data being "pressed" onto the disc during manufacture, like a DVD-ROM. Pressing is used in mass production, primarily for the distribution of home video.
Optical disc authoring requires a number of different optical disc recorder technologies working in tandem, from the optical disc media to the firmware to the control electronics of the optical disc drive.
Drive Letter Access (DLA) is a discontinued commercial packet writing application for the Microsoft Windows operating system that allows optical disc data storage devices to be used in a manner similar to floppy disks. DLA is a packet writing technology for CD and DVD media that uses the UDF file system.
dvd+rw-tools is a collection of open-source DVD and Blu-ray Disc tools for Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, HP-UX, IRIX, Windows and OS X. dvd+rw-tools does not operate on CD media.
InfraRecorder is an open-source CD and DVD writing program for Microsoft Windows. First started by Christian Kindahl in the Google Summer of Code 2006, InfraRecorder uses the cdrtools software library to perform the actual burning.
Libburnia is a project that develops a collection of libraries and command-line tools for burning CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray media.
The Image Mastering Application Programming Interface, or IMAPI, is a component of Microsoft Windows operating system used for CD and DVD authoring and recording.
A CD-ROM is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both computer data and audio with the latter capable of being played on a CD player, while data is only usable on a computer.
Notable software applications that can access or manipulate disk image files are as follows, comparing their disk image handling features.
Live File System is the term Microsoft uses to describe the packet writing method of creating discs in Windows Vista and later, which allows writeable optical media to act like mass storage by replicating its file operations. Live File System lets users manage files on recordable and rewriteable optical discs inside the file manager with the familiar workflow known from mass storage media such as USB flash drives and external hard disk drives.