How to rip/burn Philips CD-i discs with data in audio pre-gap

I've been trying to copy some Philips CD-i discs and it's easy as long as there are no audio tracks on the disc. However, as soon as there are also audio tracks the problems start. The info I find online is from years ago stating only CloneCD can do it. However, this is not a free program and there must be some other way by now? ISOBuster (a new beta, 3.4 has serious issues) seems to be able to dump these discs except for some read errors right before the first audio track starts (which I think doesn't actually include any real data, I also get that for PC games and they seem to work fine). However there don't seem to be any programs that can burn the resulting BIN/CUE combo. For one disc I compared the ISOBuster and CloneCD images and they are basically identical except for those few read errors reported by ISOBuster. Since the images are almost identical, this must solely be a burning problem. And if you can't burn, the image is useless. The CUE from ISOBuster looks like this:

Programs like IMGburner and CDRtools give an invalid track 00 error. Track 00 doesn't seem to be allowed in CUE files so I assume the ISOBuster CUE is actually invalid. However, the CD-i data must be hidden in the pregap of the audio track so it's not possible to simply renumber the tracks starting from 1 as then you would get separate data and audio tracks. I can't find any information on how to hide non-audio data in the pregap of an audio track although it is mentioned on many sites that CDs uses to do this trick before they came up with the multisession stuff. All the CUE examples I find are for hidden audio tracks only, not for data (although I don't really understand them either, they are using INDEX 00). Is there any way to define a CUE file so it has hidden data in the pregap of the first audio track so these Philips CD-i rips can be burned with free tools?

 

Hi, I'm only guessing, but I though Cdi discs were an earlier "Greenbook" standard, and can only be read by a CD drive that allows you to rip raw data, the later "Whitebook" standard allowed any old PC to rip them correctly because of the [FONT=verdana, arial, sans-serif]ISO-9660 system..[/FONT]

 

I think I need a CUE file that defines the track layout as in Diagram E (or B) defined in this PDF http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/bchafy/cdb/info/enhanced.pdf

This means:
Track 01 Index 00 = data
Track 01 Index 01 = audio

Only examples I find online is for hidden audio tracks, so both index 00 and 01 = audio. But I can't find any examples for a hidden data track.

Well if i put a CDi in the computer drive it looks like an empty disc in Windows, however in ISOBuster I can see the files. But there are only problems with ripping if the CDI contains audio tracks. Now i've also tried CloneCD but even that fails on a bunch of discs I have, even though those old websites claim it works for CDi with audio tracks

 

How about Imageburn? Its free and can do mode 2 and raw rips??

edit: just had a look at that pdf, I think you are correct. Try Imageburn

 

It can burn CDI without audio if you change the CDI format to MODE2 in the CUE but I think that's about it. After ripping and burning those CDi with audio tracks, I simply get an audio CD

I found a program on Redump forums called DiscImageCreator but it only works with old IDE Plextor drives. I bought a cheap second hand one so I'll give that program a try when it arrives

 

I would try following this guide or ask in their forum
http://redump.org/guide/cddumping/

 

That guide only works for "Diagram A. - Mixed Mode Layout" in the PDF I posted earlier. Not for "Diagram B. Hidden Track Layout" or "Diagram E. CD-I Ready Disc Layout"

 

Hey candela, have you tried "Blindread"? I know its payware now, but here is the last freeware version I have (I think).. Currently on my MAC so can't test it though.. Blindread can make an exact sector copy.. worth a try?

https://mega.co.nz/#!sBEW3CDL!xQKg41wjq1wp_Wokh-IdHyL4lqzChDcnGNvFGjkzNt0

 

Didn't try but it's not free and I believe it uses a special format for the images so there is no point, might as well use CloneCD then.

I received my Plextor drive which turns out is a Plextor case with a liteon drive which doesn't work with DiscImageCreator. Of course the picture was showing the Plextor drive and the seller says "I took the picture from internet, didn't check what was inside". Yeah right, you were just hoping I wouldn't notice.

 

These are models confirmed to be real Plextor Drives. Before they had other companies make there drives.
PX-704A
PX-708A/UF
PX-712A/SA
PX-714A
PX-716A/SA
PX-755A/SA/UF
PX-760A/SA/UF

There are others as well but these are the ones I'm aware of.

 

Yeah, it wasn't a case of a rebadged drive by plextor. I bought an external PX-W4824TU (CD only, no DVD) and someone simply took out the actual Plextor drive and replaced it with a Liteon DVD drive. And this liteon drive is a piece of crap, it gives even more problem ripping CDi than the drives I already had. I bought a px-760a now which I'm gonna put in the external plextor shell

 

Now that really sucks. Hopefully you have beter luck on the next one. I have a PX-708UF that I love.

 

Be careful that app is just a much older version of the Trurip software which has came a long way and doesn't work with all plexor drives. While Trurip software is free it isn't public only a few of the rippers like myself have access to this and was done this way due to Redump rebranding Truong's software so it isn't public anymore so thank them for that. But I suggest the plextor premium drives as most externals do not work, I have four different ones that don't work with the software in my closet now. Finally gave up got a premium one and an external IDE USB drive to start dumping my disc. So far it has managed to make 1:1 copies of games even Sturmwind and Bleem! for the DC that has intentional bad sectors as a firm of copy protection for the DC and even the swap magic PS2 disc

 

Do you mean DiscImageCreator ? It's seems to be in active development though.

Anyway, got the PX-760a and put it in the PX-W4824TU shell and it seems to work with DiscImagecreator as I tried it on some PC games (doesn't seem to rip to 1 image though, it makes all these separate files for the audio tracks which is somewhat annoying). However, it seems that DiscImagecreator doesn't support the CD-i ready format at all so I'm still stuck. I don't really have time to look into it now, but i'll give it another try during the holidays

Which Plextor drives are the "premium" ones you are using ?