Reading a CD-I Disc

[kenetik]

Is there anyone for me to let my PC read a CD-I disc? My CD-I player reads it but my computer doesnt see anything on the disc. Any ideas? Thanks.

[kenetik]

Actually I got IsoBuster so that it reads all the data on the CD-I, and Im not trying to get video from it, just audio, but any time that I try to extract it, it says "Cannot open AVI." even why I try to extract just a .txt file.

Whats the prob and how do I get around it?

[spectroelectro]

Wow. That's a blast from the past. Circa 1994.
A CD-I is just a VCD with mpeg-1 audio and video and extra NAV and program information on the disc. Your best bet is probably just to rip the MPEG-1 files with ISObuster and play 'em directly on your computer, or re-author into a VCD and play that on your DVD player. If you want only the audio stream, you can get that by demuxing the ripped MPEG-1 file(s) and then converting the mpa stream to WAV (or whatever you want). Bear in mind that MPEG-1 audio files use 44.1 khz sampling rate, not 48 khz. TMPGenc and Womble and a variety of other programs will demux MPEG-1 files into separate elementary audio and video streams. In TMPGenc, choose ALT-F (FILE) and then T (TOOLS) and then SIMPLE DEMULTIPLEX. In Womble, choose the demulitplex ico (one file with an arrow pointing into 2 files). To convert mpa to WAV or any other format, use BeSweet.

[Trident5]

think i can suggest somthing a bit easier... Use cdrwin and turn into a bin then use VCDGEAR it has an option to remove cdi bump after that you can turn the movie into a vcd or svcd..Now you may be able to buy pass cdrwin and do it straight through vcdgear but im not possitive but the other way it well work..Vcdgear is a freebe and well worth the download.

[kenetik]

Thank you both very much for the posts, but did you see my first reply, as to the issue I am having with ISOBuster? Thanks.

[kenetik]

I've been able to extract data, but the data on the disc has no extension, thus when it is extracted it also has no extension but its audio. How can I convert it and listen to it? Thanks..

[spectroelectro]

When you say "the data has no extension," not sure what you mean. It should be mpeg-1 data. Rename it [whatever].mpg and try opening it with, say, womble, or VirtualDubMod.

If you've got data and still can't open it with any of your programs, you're outa luck. In that case, your only option is pure brute force: find an antique Philips CD-I player, pop the CD-R in, and play it and capture the analog audio out. Philips CD-I players are probably being blown out at flea markets for a buck or less. You can pick up CD-I players on ebay for $15 to $20 a pop:
http://search.ebay.com/Philips-CD-I_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8QQsatitleZPhilipsQ20CD-I

It's ugly, it's brute force, but it'll work.

[vcd4ever]

Hi kenetik,

A CD-i disc can have the audio in separate iff audio files or in a realtime file, but the audio can only be extracted from iff audio files. You can also extract pictures from iff files because the iff format is also used for pictures.

You can use this program Link Removed to determine if any of the files are pictures or iff audio files.

You can then use this program Link Removed for converting iff audio to wav and this program Link Removed for converting iff pictures to gif.

vcd4ever.

[kenetik]

It wont work in a regular CD-I player. It has some sort of lock on it (it opens and starts reading it but then gives me an error and locks it out), also seems to be a CD-BGM rather than CD-I. Does that mean anything?

[vcd4ever]

also seems to be a CD-BGM rather than CD-I.

A CD-BGM disc is a music disc that can have up to 10 hours of playtime and CD-i players can play CD-BGM disc's.

It wont work in a regular CD-I player. It has some sort of lock on it (it opens and starts reading it but then gives me an error and locks it out).

This can happen if the disc is damaged or if the disc has been authored without including a CD-i app.

vcd4ever.