How can I convert dreamcast nrg file to cdi?

[|darc|]

I ripped a copy of Feet of Fury using a Pioneer BDR-XD05W USB 3.0 drive using DiscJuggler v6.00.1400 under the following systems:

- Linux via Wine using Windows XP 32-bit prefix
- Windows 7 virtualized via QEMU
- Windows 10 virtualized via QEMU
- Windows 11 on real hardware

All produced identical CDI images which, when adjusting for audio offsets, also appeared to match the Redump version converted to CDI via Redump2CDI.

[nuggetreggae]

@ moefoh

thanks very much, I was super interested to see if this worked. Unfortunately it would not install for shit. "this program cannot run on this windows. It has security implications and can slow down or damage your pc." looking online I determined that i might get it going by editing admin security policy, but seeing as I have workarounds now for every CDI i want to create, I didnt wanna risk getting screwy with my lappie too much. It's my only PC at the moment. But thankyou for putting it up for me. Reinstalling 12.1. Ho Hum!

[|darc|]

NRG is a useless format. There are so many different NRG versions & variants and the software to deal with it over time became the biggest junk / bloatware .... NERO AG in my opinion were in it for the money not the scene. Probably the last version I used was 6 (was it) yup checked my folder 6.6.0.8 was the last one i used regularly..... and usually for burning iso / bincue files!!!!!

Nero was awesome and my favorite disc burning software until it got bloated (sometime around 6.x as you say).
But that is irrelevant, disc images were frequently circulated using the NRG format, so it's worth adding support for those images.

Dreamcast hacker vector in russia primarily releases in mds/mdf. I've never come across a dodgy one. Works off the bat in GDEmu. Totally worth supporting.

Yeah.

You havent mentioned Clone CD. Big images (they include subchannel data) but generally compatible. There was a homebrew dreamcast game that used subchannel data for protection. (Ghost Blade) and if it determined the subchannel data wasnt there it refused to run and accused you (quite rightly so) of arrrr walk the plank piracy!!!! I recently updated my GDEmu firmware and that broke all CCD image support. I had to make a CDI with the subchannel data included..... But I like the format. It's been consistant and damn useful when necessary. In the past, though, i'd always rather store a 30% smaller ISO!

I thought about CloneCD but I don't see the point in supporting it at this time. It wasn't used for Dreamcast stuff often. Maybe later.

You noted differences between cuesheets from Imgburn and ISObuster. They may be relevant elsewhere but Dreamcast doesn't care. As long as stert LBA for each track is correct. I've never seen a GDI with pregap info. The image is sometimes different as well. They have differing ways of dealing with the data in the session gap. But CDI doesn't even store that, so also irrelevant.

If a user wants to create a game disc with a first session gapless soundtrack capable of being played in a CD player then it certainly matters.
As for GDI, that's an entirely different subject. All GD-ROMs were made in the same way with the same software and the same assumptions can be made for all of them.

I like the open viewable stuff. I like cuesheets over NRG CCD MDS. I can open in a text editor. See whats happening. Edit. Add sectors to the end of the BIN (a 0GDTEX.PVR for example) and they're there in the image with no editing. I like ImgBurn. Never failed me once. Free for everyone and Lightning UK supported it for years with DVD Shrink which was also his. I like vinyl over cd's - its simpler. You can play it with a vari speed drill a pin and a polystyrene cup in a power outage. You can see where the breakdown is by looking at the grooves. I'm a real stick in the mud.!!!!!!

Sounds great but without uniformity from software to software then it's problematic for accurately imaging discs.

[nuggetreggae]

@ |Darc|

"If a user wants to create a game disc with a first session gapless soundtrack capable of being played in a CD player then it certainly matters."

no, i'm afraid you're mistaken there. The bitstream and raw data will be the same between the two. the pregap info determines the subchannel info. I remember being fascinated watching the time display on an old cd player with a dj mix, where the track nears the end and the display goes "5:44 5:45 5:46 then the track number will change and it goes -0.02 -0.01 0.00 0.01 0.02 and the audio keeps playing the whole way through - that's pregap in effect......

To sum up, if there's 2sec gap between each track then no matter what that pregap value says it will still be there.

And... Adding a pregap to an existing cuesheet WILL NOT MUTE the cd during that time. It will behave as i described above.

If you were to put a 10sec pregap on an existing song without a 10sec blank audio proceeding the track then that track will start 10 sec in when you skip to that track number. you would need to then rewind to -0.10 to get the start. (I'm not entirely sure here it might get the 10 sec from the end of the previous track, maybe it's different between track-track things like redump and continuous bin file.)

There was some funny bugger (I think moby but don't quote me) who put a 4min pregap on track 1 and put a song in it!!!!!! of course you put a cd in the drive it starts at 0:00.... so you could find a hidden track by rewinding

But I'm absolutely sure that both the differing cuesheets will show same start LBAs for tracks when loaded in ISObuster.

Many older softwares had options for reading indices and pregaps, and it always used to take a long time. I think the disc read backwards from the track start until it hit data again, and determined the pregap that way....

[SMiTH]

hey darc, did you ever put together that software you were talking about a few years ago that would show how the bleemcast beta console lock worked etc?

if you never got around to it, i understand.

[MoeFoh]

@ moefoh

thanks very much, I was super interested to see if this worked. Unfortunately it would not install for shit. "this program cannot run on this windows. It has security implications and can slow down or damage your pc." looking online I determined that i might get it going by editing admin security policy, but seeing as I have workarounds now for every CDI i want to create, I didnt wanna risk getting screwy with my lappie too much. It's my only PC at the moment. But thankyou for putting it up for me. Reinstalling 12.1. Ho Hum!

Thanks for the feedback. Removing download link.

[|darc|]

hey darc, did you ever put together that software you were talking about a few years ago that would show how the bleemcast beta console lock worked etc?

if you never got around to it, i understand.

tbh, I forgot about it, lol. Still would be a cool thing to do, though. I'm busy at the moment though.

[SMiTH]

tbh, I forgot about it, lol. Still would be a cool thing to do, though. I'm busy at the moment though.

props to the way you derail the bleem tinfoil thread.

[nuggetreggae]

hi |darc|
I did some tests to work out exactly what's going on with INDEX, PREGAPS, ETC to make sure I wasn't arguing rubbish. Here's what I concluded. Both INDEX and PREGAP audio is included in the audio streams, usually but not necessarily as zero-byte data streams. When a cue sheet has INDEX 0 0:00 INDEX 1 2:00 the PREGAP starts at INDEX 0 and start LBA for the audio track will be INDEX 1, ie the wav/raw data will generally have 2 sec silence at the beginning of the file. If you used this format for a normal music file then when searching the cd for that track, it will start 2 seconds in. you could rewind into the previous track where the track would start at -2.00 PREGAP.

here's my results anyway......

as an example i'll use this NEO XYX....

(1) redump CUE/BIN is here.....
Volume in drive D is Nugget
Volume Serial Number is DC96-730F

Directory of D:\-=CDWork=-\NEO XYX (2014) (NG-Dev Team) (Indie) (2xCDI-RF)\_Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl)

10/16/2024 10:57 AM <DIR> .
10/16/2024 10:57 AM <DIR> ..
10/16/2024 10:57 AM 0 list.txt
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 1,385,328 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 01).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 37,615,536 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 02).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 36,583,008 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 03).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 37,855,440 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 04).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 36,646,512 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 05).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 36,143,184 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 06).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 36,225,504 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 07).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 37,401,504 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 08).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 13,665,120 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 09).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 20,295,408 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 10).bin
12/24/1996 11:32 PM 1,161 Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl).cue
12 File(s) 293,817,705 bytes
2 Dir(s) 925,452,894,208 bytes free
cuesheet:-
REM SESSION 01
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 01).bin" BINARY
TRACK 01 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 02).bin" BINARY
TRACK 02 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 03).bin" BINARY
TRACK 03 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 04).bin" BINARY
TRACK 04 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 05).bin" BINARY
TRACK 05 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 06).bin" BINARY
TRACK 06 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 07).bin" BINARY
TRACK 07 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 08).bin" BINARY
TRACK 08 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 09).bin" BINARY
TRACK 09 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
REM SESSION 02
FILE "Neo XYX (Europe) (Unl) (Track 10).bin" BINARY
TRACK 10 MODE2/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

(2) made into single file cue/bin:
Notes: I'm not sure if the data of the index 2:00 second gaps are included in the audio files.
Note that if these are carried through to the single BIN/CUE file they will, with the correct
ripping software, become a PREGAP. These are definitely included in the BIN file, as that is
a complete CD image from beginning to end.

This CUE/BIN below is a complete CD image including all audio gaps, and the large gap
between session 1 and session 2. thats why the 12 files in (1) adds to 293MB, and in (2)
the full cd image, 320MB

Volume in drive D is Nugget
Volume Serial Number is DC96-730F

Directory of D:\-=CDWork=-\NEO XYX (2014) (NG-Dev Team) (Indie) (2xCDI-RF)\BINCUE

10/16/2024 11:02 AM <DIR> .
10/16/2024 11:02 AM <DIR> ..
10/16/2024 11:02 AM 0 list.txt
10/16/2024 11:00 AM 320,629,344 NEOXYX.BIN
10/16/2024 11:00 AM 538 NEOXYX.CUE
3 File(s) 320,629,882 bytes
2 Dir(s) 924,544,020,480 bytes free
cuesheet:-
FILE "NEOXYX.BIN" BINARY
REM SESSION 01
TRACK 01 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:09:64
TRACK 03 AUDIO
INDEX 01 03:43:07
TRACK 04 AUDIO
INDEX 01 07:10:36
TRACK 05 AUDIO
INDEX 01 10:45:06
TRACK 06 AUDIO
INDEX 01 14:12:62
TRACK 07 AUDIO
INDEX 01 17:37:54
TRACK 08 AUDIO
INDEX 01 21:03:06
TRACK 09 AUDIO
INDEX 01 24:35:08
REM LEAD-OUT 25:50:43
REM SESSION 02
TRACK 10 MODE2/2352
INDEX 01 28:22:43

(3) the (2) cue/bin is loaded into ISOBUSTER and exported as individual
files, and I home-made a cue file to accompany them. This is ME chunking
a BIN/CUE manually. If I knew a scripting language such as PERL i'm sure I
could do this easily, and by pushing and reading BACK from the start LBA
could determine the PREGAP or even lose the data completely and build
a bin/cue such as the 1st with INDEX statements making gaps!!!!
********THIS IS WRONG. SEE ANALYSIS BELOW********

Volume in drive D is Nugget
Volume Serial Number is DC96-730F

Directory of D:\-=CDWork=-\NEO XYX (2014) (NG-Dev Team) (Indie) (2xCDI-RF)\REDUMP2CDI-COMPATIBLE

10/16/2024 11:30 AM <DIR> .
10/16/2024 11:30 AM <DIR> ..
10/16/2024 11:28 AM 727 cuesheet.cue
10/16/2024 11:30 AM 0 list.txt
10/16/2024 11:25 AM 1,738,128 Track 01.bin
10/16/2024 11:25 AM 37,615,536 Track 02.bin
10/16/2024 11:25 AM 36,583,008 Track 03.bin
10/16/2024 11:25 AM 37,855,440 Track 04.bin
10/16/2024 11:25 AM 36,646,512 Track 05.bin
10/16/2024 11:25 AM 36,143,184 Track 06.bin
10/16/2024 11:25 AM 36,225,504 Track 07.bin
10/16/2024 11:25 AM 37,401,504 Track 08.bin
10/16/2024 11:25 AM 13,312,320 Track 09.bin
10/16/2024 11:26 AM 20,295,408 Track 10.bin
12 File(s) 293,817,271 bytes
2 Dir(s) 924,250,161,152 bytes free
cuesheet:
REM SESSION 01
FILE "Track 01.bin" BINARY
TRACK 01 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Track 02.bin" BINARY
TRACK 02 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
FILE "Track 03.bin" BINARY
TRACK 03 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
FILE "Track 04.bin" BINARY
TRACK 04 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
FILE "Track 05.bin" BINARY
TRACK 05 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
FILE "Track 06.bin" BINARY
TRACK 06 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
FILE "Track 07.bin" BINARY
TRACK 07 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
FILE "Track 08.bin" BINARY
TRACK 08 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
FILE "Track 09.bin" BINARY
TRACK 09 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
REM SESSION 02
FILE "Track 10.bin" BINARY
TRACK 10 MODE2/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS:-

What is REALLY interesting to me is that the total bytes excluding cuesheet
in image (1) is 293,816,544 bytes. In (3) it is 293,816,544 bytes. ie. the same!
in (1) track 1 is 1,385,328 bytes in (3) track 1 is 1,738,128 bytes.
The difference is 352,800bytes/2352=150 frames = 2 seconds
SO what is happening is the 1st image has the 2 sec gap at the start of the file.
track 2 shows INDEX 0 00:00 INDEX 1 02:00 - the PREGAP starts at the beginning
of track 2....... The TRACK (INDEX 1) starts 2 seconds into the audio data.

Now we expect 11400 sectors for a session gap, right? lets put it to the test...
(2) total BIN bytes 320629344-293816544 = 26,812,800 / 2352 = 11,400 RIGHT

(bear in mind the 11700/11702 we are so used to has a 4-sec 300 sector track 1)

[MoeFoh]

With a mil-cd audio/data format, the first lba the drive can legally use is 11,400 or 11,402 (drive dependent) as per multi-session mixed-mode specifications. Add the typical 4 second audio track (300 bytes) and this puts us at lba 11,700 or 11,702 for the start of the data track.