Why make a Bin/cue file before burning?

[schwinn]

This question could have gone to several different forums but is part of DVD ripping...
What are the reasons/advantages to making a bin/cue file rather then just burning the .mpg file? most of the guides seem to include this step and since it is possible to burn without doing this I'm wondering....? thanks Schwinn

[Vejita-sama]

A lot of DVD players have trouble reading the timestamp from TMPGenc MPEGs. They also can't ff/rew when burned in Nero. Making a bin file fixes this for a lot of people. Also there are programs like TSCV which use VCDImager to add chapters, menus, etc. to your MPEGs prior to burning them and they all make images.

If I had multiple MPEGs I wanted to put together and have them play seamless I could either paste them together or just load both in VCDImager -> 1bin and burn it.

You're right its not necessary, but it often allows you to do things that just burning the MPEG wouldn't.

[hvr]

fyi,

vcdimager could in theory write directly through a pipe to a CD-R, the design of the application allows it; but it's not implemented yet in vcdimager and cdrdao...

but anyway, there is a need to scan the MPEG streams beforehand in order to determine some parameters and detect potentiall errors.. or would you like to start burning the VCD, and then realize that some error occured and the process just stopped leaving you with a coaster?

so if you create a bin/cue image you have a pre-calculated image, which won't require any cpu power or major I/O anymore, as it's a simple 1:1 read in - write out operation...