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Posted by Jan Willem
Posted on 04/09/02 17:06
Number of views 7428
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BR CD Image
 

On the first window of BR, the user gets to choose the reader and set some options about the reading process (alternative reading and reading of subs). The ability of the selected drive to comply with the read settings will also be displayed.



The alternative read method is a way for the program to quickly skip the C2 errors that might be contained in the CD. Usually C2 errors can be read by capable CD readers at the expense of reading speed. It could take several hours until the image is created. With alternative reading this process might get down to several minutes.

Possible problems that might occur with this method are that the CD reader doesn't support it or/and there is no distinction made between wanted or unwanted errors, which might lead to a bad CD image.

Usually, drives that have good audio extraction (such as Plextors) don't have any problems and work just fine with the alternative reading method. The truth is, though I had to check/uncheck several times the alternative reading box before it indicated that it is supported by the drive (could be a minor bug).

Extracting the subcodes

This is sometimes needed to make a perfect image of the CD you want to copy. There are several types of subcodes that one can encounter in CD (noted as P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W). Not all readers are able to extract subcodes, and those that will, might not be able to extract all subcode types.

P & Q subcodes can be usually extracted by most CD-ROM drives and are needed when reading SecuROM/SecuROM new protected PC games.
P-subcodes are used to determine whether the laser pickup is located within a track or not.
Q-subcodes is used to determine the absolute position of the laser pickup.

R to W subcodes are usually needed for CD-Text or CDG+D (Karaoke CD) and are more rarely supported by a reader.

An overview about when to enable Subcode extraction is shown in the table below. If you are unsure about whether to enable them or not, it is better if you enable it, since even if it is not required, it will not interfere with the quality of the image.



Pressing next on the previous BR window will get you to the following screen:



Here the user finds a few more reading options. He must choose between 'nibble extraction method" or 'multiple gaps extraction" and whether speed adaptation should be enabled or not.

The nibble method

This is the recommended method by BlindRead. With this method the drive reads the CD bit by bit and best handles the errors localized in non-contiguous sectors. It should be used with most protected CDs, especially those protected by SafeDisc and newer versions of it.

The multiple gaps method

is the best way to handle CDs with large parts of contiguous unreadable sectors, like games protected by LaserLock. Such CDs often have large visible rings with uncommon frames on the CD side, so the CD doesn't look normal on the surface.

Speed adaptation

enables BlindRead to slow down the read process to minimum if a read error is encountered, or accelerate the reading speed to maximum if the precedent read operation is error free. So it is recommended to leave this enabled.

Once the user has pressed the Read button, the extraction will start:



The 'extraction engine status" and 'special readzones count" provide information about the extraction process and possible read errors in real time. There is also some real time information regarding the extraction process, such as the elapsed time, the remaining time and the average bit rate and extraction speed since the extraction has started.

After the extraction process has finished, the user will be taken to the next BlindRead window, where the CD label, special readzone count and TOC will be displayed.



At this point it should be mentioned that BlindRead lacks a Log file such as CloneCD's, that will display useful information about the events that occurred during the reading process. However, Image Verification, which will be mentioned later on, is a unique feature of BlindRead that kind of makes up for the lack of such a log file.

The 'Start BlindWrite" button will launch BlindWrite in order to begin the burning process of the image you have just created.
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Reactions on this item
Very good first review, Hemispasm. Too bad the images aren't as good as the review. :)
I have had some probs with BW when backing up PSX games. The backups have had problems while CloneCD has produced clean results. Reader:Plex32 Writer:TDK 121032 (Plextor-made)
Hey i use both BW and CCD, both are good! Sometimes it only forgets to unlock the drive so i have to reboot before i can use my CDrom again :)
I have been using it for years and it is a little gem. Plus, the developers, who really treated this more like a hobby for a while have finally taken it seriously and we should expect even better things from them now.:7
Agreed.
I have been using this program for a long time, but for ages Clonecd has been ahead in reading/writing copy-proteted cd's I kinda forgot about it, but I often use it for heavily scratched/unrecoerable cd's.
blindwrite kicks azz :)

been advising it to alot of people in the last years
and i NEVER had a complain about it afterwarths
i'm a newbie,can i use Blindwrite or CloneCD to back up my copyprotected DVD'S I've got a DVD burner and easy CDcreator5
Sorry for some of the pics, Photoshop ain't my thingy ;)

Nope, you can't use neither BlinWrite nor CCD for backing up your protected DVDs Stu11, sorry :)
These programs are for backing up protected game CDs only. If you have a DVD related question, you can always drop by the DVD forum in CDFreaks to ask ;)
That is here
[url]http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=32[/url]

As far as BlinWrite is concerned, you can all post your opinions and experiences here
[url]http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53408[/url]
For copying DVD's, or everything in general, you should consider Alcohol 120%
-Does both protected Cd's and DVD's
-Has a Daemon Tools clone embedded (supporting up to 31 virtual CD's).
- the final version, due in a few days, will also include basic premastering.
- Multiple burners support.

AFAIK its only cons currently is the slow read speed with a few devices (to be fixed soon), and its ugly pink color. Leavin' that aside both Clone and BW suite have a lot to envy and nothing to boast about over this one.
How does it stand up to SecuROM/New will it make a working backup: Toshiba XM-6702B reader Writers Lite-on 40125S HP 9310i
blindwrite is a pain in the 4ss.
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