CDVDBurn released - read the hubersn Software website for more details.
CDBurn now has a new home - hubersn Software. The CDBurn part of the huber-net site is currently only kept for reference until stuff is moved completely.
You can jump to the Latest News section (updated 2004-12-05). 32bit version of CDBurn available, upgrades from CDBurn Lite to full CDBurn available, distribution moved from WSS to hubersn Software, my own company.
A list of supported drives (updated 2003-02-01) is also available.
There is a CDBurn Support Page available. FAQ updated 2002-10-28.
Since the first CD-ROM saw the light of day, the medium that was once devised for holding high quality audio recordings has become the standard medium for nearly every software distribution.
It was around 1996 when the first CD writers became available at affordable prices. Suddenly, the medium that was only available when producing around 1000 CDs at a time became popular for a wide variety of use - custom Data and Audio CDs were just the first step.
CDBurn, introduced at Acorn World 1997, was the first CD mastering solution for RISC OS that was affordable and was available without a bundled drive.
CDBurn is able to produce both Data and Audio CDs with a minimum amount of user interaction. While easy to use, it has some very powerful features not found anywhere else. CDBurn supports both CD-R and CD-RW writers and media.
CDBurn works together with a wide variety of CD-R writers and CD-RW rewriters. A summary of all supported and partly-supported drives is available here. CDBurn supports SCSI writers and IDE writers (only on selected computers/podules at the moment).
Some of the feature highlights for Data CD creation:
CDBurn's Audio capabilities are also very powerful:
Other highlights:
CDBurn is distributed by hubersn Software for a single license cost of 55 UKP.
You can also buy CDBurn from the RISC OS dealer of your choice. Many of them will also provide the possibility to buy a drive + software bundle.
Before you buy, there are several things you should be aware of first. I have written a short summary about the design philosophy of CDBurn.
CDBurn is under constant development. It is a very user-driven program, with many features already built in because of user requests.
Of course, there are always new features in the pipeline. For the near future, the following is planned (see Latest News for a more verbose description):
There are also some long-term plans:
[2004-12-05]
This bit of "news" comes a bit late since hubersn Software now exists for quite some time (Wakefield 2004 to be precise). However, some people were confused about the lack of CDBurn progress - no wonder, since this page told them the latest news was from February last year!
Anyway, big things have happened in the meantime. There is now a completely 32bit clean version of CDBurn which works both on the IYONIX pc and on most of the older hardware (RISC OS 3.5 and later). Upgrading from older CDBurn versions is completely free of charge. Also, the licencing conditions are now stated more precisely to avoid confusion - I had more than one customer who wanted to pay for a Lite to full version upgrade because he thought that his already existing full CDBurn licence was not applicable for more than one machine!
Since the arrival of the IYONIX pc, every machine has been shipped with CDBurn Lite, a slightly restricted version of CDBurn (see here for the differences to the full CDBurn). Users are encouraged to upgrade to the full CDBurn - you can buy it online from the hubersn Software site!
Speaking of new features, the biggest change was the introduction of Disc at once Audio writing for specific IDE writers, mostly those shipped with the IYONIX pc (Sony, LiteOn). You can now also fine-tune CDBurn performance for your specific writer and system.
Anyway, interesting times lie ahead of us. DVD-ROM writing capability is nearing completion. I hope you will all agree with me that the release of DVDBurn will be the right time to offer the first chargeable upgrade in CDBurn history.
[2003-02-01]
The CDBurn upgrade site (password protected - you have to subscribe to the Smartgroups mailing list to find out the necessary username and password - look at the CDBurn support page for information how to subscribe) now carries a beta version of possibly the most significant advance in CDBurn history since the introduction of IDE support.
New features:
Well, still no Disc at once for IDE, but hopefully you will agree that the enhancements mentioned above are not too bad, either.
With the new driver configuration stuff in place, I intend to collect as many driver configuration files as possible. They will all be downloadable for free - for more information, look at The CDBurn Drive Compatibility page. Information on how to write your own driver is available from The CDBurn Support page.
[2002-10-28]
As you might have noticed, Castle Technology have announced a new RISC OS computer, the XScale-based Iyonix PC. This machine will run the long-awaited 32bit version of RISC OS.
Therefore, I have started to produce a new version of CDBurn which will be able to run on both the new 32bit machine as well as the old 26bit machines.
The conversion is now mostly finished, testing has already started. Although it was quite a bit of work (and I would like to thank both Martin Würthner and Peter Naulls for their help), it is expected that current CDBurn customers can get the new version for free (as always).
Unfortunately, the work on the 32bit version has delayed the work on other features and bugfixes significantly, but I hope we all agree that making CDBurn compatible with the powerful hardware that is "coming real soon now" is worth the delay.
As a by-product, a new version of GNAT capable to produce 32/26bit mode neutral RISC OS software is hopefully released soon. Watch my Ada pages for more information.
The FAQ has also been updated with several new questions (and answers!).
[2002-08-27]
The CDBurn support mailing list, the preferred support medium for CDBurn, has been moved from YahooGroups to Smartgroups. See http://www.wss.co.uk/list.html for more information. Direct link to the group: WSS - CDBurn Users.
The quite underused FAQ has also been updated. Please have a look - at least for spelling and grammar mistakes. The updated FAQ should now contain a lot more interesting questions (and hopefully answers).
I have recently bought an Acard SCSI-to-IDE bridge which enables you to connect IDE hard drives, CD writers etc. to any SCSI interface. This is an interesting possibility for SCSI podule owners to get access to the cheap and widely available range of IDE writers. The bridge is not cheap (around 75 EUR in Germany), but neither are true SCSI CD writers...I will keep you informed about the possible drawbacks I encounter during my tests.
This bridge might also be a good idea for RISC OS users who have a high-performance SCSI podule, but use ADFS to drive those cheap and big IDE hard drives. With the help of the SCSI-to-IDE bridge, you can now use the much higher transfer rates of your SCSI podule in conjunction with the more advanced possibilities of the typical SCSIFS like partitioning, hiding partitions, directly using FAT discs etc. without having to pay over the odds for one of those extremely noisy, hot and power-consuming SCSI harddrives.
[2001-08-21]
After quite a long wait (see development plan below ;-)), I have finally uploaded the web-based Upgrader for CDBurn. This should relieve WSS and me from the burden of sending out updates every so often.
The upgrader is not yet officially released, it has to be considered of beta quality. You have to subscribe to our support mailing list to find out the URL and the username/password needed (look here for information where to subscribe).
Peter Naulls has provided me with the RapIDE API information, and Arthur Albuquerque has lent me a RapIDE podule - I am currently working on a RapIDE-enabled CDBurn version.
Oh, and Audio DAO support for Sony drives (CDU-948 tested, CDU-920/924/928 should work, too) is finished, too. Thanks again to Matthias Faust for lending me his drive.
There also were "issues" with the automated drive scanning and the Eesox SCSI firmware. This is now fixed.
I have also started to implement some optimizations to make ISO image generation faster. Looks fine so far, with speed improvements of over 150%.
[2001-01-03]
CDBurn and its author are alive and well - expect some interesting stuff in 2001.
[2000-12-11]
CDBurn version 1.58ß is now available for people with drives with BURN-Proof support. I had the hope that the new Plextor PX-W1210A IDE drive would end my search for a recommendable IDE drive. However, I was disappointed. While the drive seems to be of a very high quality, and worked great with the APDL ideA podule, it refused to work with both the Risc PC internal IDE and the Simtec IDE podule - for unkown reasons. The drive didn't even show up on the bus.
To reduce WSS' and my support load, I have added the CDBurn Support Page to this website. Please read it carefully (along with the manual!) before mailing WSS or me for help or advise.
The development schedule outlined below has slipped a bit. While the BURN-Proof support is already working (and was working in time), the web upgrader is not ready yet.
[2000-10-27]
I would like to introduce you to my latest development plans for CDBurn. Every item is given a timescale based on my current commitments in the "real world". Use the timescales as a rough guide for estimated complexity of implementation rather than a deadline.
Remember, no guarantees. It is after all just a plan ;-)
[2000-10-20]
In time for the RISC OS 2000 show, version 1.57 of CDBurn was released. There are no big surprises in that version, it is mainly a "fix all known and new bugs" version. See the list of changes for a detailed description.
A bug was fixed in the Joliet generation/import session routine which surfaced when trying to use multisession along with Joliet and having an empty directory inside the data set.
Another bug prevented the opening of the drawer of some SCSI drives after successful writing. This is now also fixed.
[2000-05-23]
In time for the Wakefield show, version 1.55 of CDBurn was released - and it contains a surprise: IDE support!.
For now, there is support for these IDE machines and podules:
I am always open for other IDE podule manufacturers to add support for their product. CDBurn needs to be able to send ATAPI commands - every podule which has a CDFSSoft driver available should already be able to do this.
All I need to add IDE support for your special podule is a test version of the hardware and documentation for the firmware on how to send ATAPI commands.
With the advent of the IDE support, it became necessary to think about CDBurn's configuration stuff - until now, you had to select the driver and the SCSI ID. Now, CDBurn scans all known IDE and SCSI buses as well as CDFS drives to present you a list of devices. For these devices, all the necessary configuration is done automatically.
The memory management received an overhaul and is now largely configurable. CDBurn now uses a dynamic area (if available) to store its buffer.
WAV detection and support is now much better - although still limited to 16bit stereo 44.1 kHz little endian samples, it now copes with everything that looks like a WAV.
Latest beta version: none currently released to users
Latest release version: 1.61 (2004-09-26) (available from the upgrade page)
You can view a list of changes since
the beginning of CDBurn development.
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