Commit 2fbb3ce9 authored by Rocky Bernstein's avatar Rocky Bernstein

Add more verbiage.

parent ff02d1a6
Features over the older CD-DA plugin
This file documents the ``Extended'' VLC CD-DA Plugin
Copyright (C) 2003 Rocky Bernstein (rocky@panix.com)
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being ``Free Software'' and ``Free Software Needs
Free Documentation'', with the Front-Cover Texts being ``A GNU Manual,''
and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.
(a) The Free Software Foundation's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have
freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies
published by the Free Software Foundation raise funds for GNU
development.''
- - - - - -
Features over the older VLC CD-DA plugin
Internally I think this is much much cleaner. It uses the
libcdio for disk reading and libcddb to get CDDB information.
......@@ -16,10 +34,70 @@ Features:
- Will scan for a CD-ROM drive with a CD-DA loaded in it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Quick start
General Info
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If you're new to using the plugin some, here are some common things
that will probably trip you up.
Much of what I write in this section can be found elsewhere. See for
example http://www.pctechguide.com/08cd-rom.htm, or the libcdio
documentation.
The Sony and Philips Corporations invented and Compact Disc (CD) in
the early 1980s. The specifications for the layout is often referred
to by the color of the cover on the specification.
The first type of CD specification that was produced was the Compact
Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) or just plain ``audio CD'' and is commonly
called the ``Red Book''. Music CD's are recorded in this format which
basically allows for around 74 minutes of audio per disc and for that
information to be split up into *tracks*. Tracks are broken up into
"sectors" and each sector contains 2,352 bytes. To play one 44.1 kHz
CD-DA sampled audio second, 75 sectors are used.
A CD can hold at most 99 such tracks. Between the tracks CD
specifications require a ``2 second'' in gap (called a @term{lead-in
gap}. This is unused space with no ``data'' similar to the space
between tracks on an old phonograph. The word ``second'' here really
refers to a measure of space and not really necessarily an amount of
time. However in the special case here where you have an audio CD, the
amount of time to play a gap of this size will take 2 seconds. Note
this is independent of how fast your CD drive can read a sector.
The beginning (or inner edge) of the CD is supposed to have a ``2
second'' lead-in gap and there is supposed to be another ``2 second''
*lead-out* gap at the end (or outer edge) of the CD.
CD-DA ``Red Book'' Specification
One can create and then write or "burn" a CD in the CD-DA format
and in this process sometimes one writes the bytes that will appear as
a file on a hard disk. This is called a "CD disk image". This
plugin may be able to play this file just the same as if it were
burned onto a CD.
As there are a number of CD-burning programs, there are a number of
CD-image formats. This plugin uses libcdio which currently understands
the BIN/CUE disk-image format used by a popular DOS/Window mastering
tool and a limited subset of the proprietary and unpublished form at
used by the Nero burning software. Over time however perhaps more
disk-image formats will be recognized.
Audio CD Identification Information (CDDB)
The Philips Red-Book specification allows for a Compact Disc to have a
Media Catalog Number or MCN written on it, and probably this
was how they CD's would be identified. Alas, very few audio discs
actually have a Medium Catalog Number on the box, and the way the code
is written on CD is *not* uniform across all discs!
However the listening community wanted a way to identify an audio CD,
so a database of CD information was gathered by basically making a
``signature'' or hash from the number of tracks on a disk and a
checksum of the bytes of the tracks. This is referred to as CDDB
information. Using the hash the database gives information about the
titles of the tracks, the CD album name, year it was published and so
on. This plugin has the ability to show this information courtesy of
libcddb written by Kris Verbeeck.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
MRLS:
......@@ -117,13 +195,13 @@ Or
%T %M otherwise
- -
cddax-cddb_email
cddax-cddb-email
# email given on cddb requests
# string, default: me@home
- -
cddax-cddb_enabled
cddax-cddb-enabled
# Do we use CDDB to retrieve CD information?
# bool, default: 1
......@@ -211,7 +289,7 @@ Determination: start at step 5.
There may also be a message may under "setup/logs".
2. (There plugin was loaded and preferences found). In the "cddax" tab
of preference. An important selection is "vcdx-device." If this is
of preference. An important selection is "cddax-device." If this is
set to the empty string, CDDAX will try to scan your drives for a
suitable device if the driver has the capability to scan for
drives. However you can set the device to something of your
......@@ -294,3 +372,4 @@ analyze the contents of a CD.
The tool cd-read from libcdio can be used to show the sectors of
the CD or CD image or extract sectors.
$Id: intf-cdda.txt,v 1.2 2003/12/01 04:05:29 rocky Exp $
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