SOAK: CD-R/DVD-R Emulator for Windows?

[Dan203]

I have a program called Daemon Tools which can load an ISO image and emulate a CD-ROM/DVD drive. Now I'm wondering if there is a similar program that can emulate a CD/DVD Writer and create an ISO image from a program designed to burn to CD/DVDs?

Dan

[Raj]

Nero has an image writer, which can create images. It's a standard feature.

mkisofs also works well, and can be used under other operating systems as well.

[dansee]

Dan, I'm not 100% sure, but I think the answers you're looking for might be found here. Take a look, and see if this is what you are trying to do:

Playback from HD (http://www.doom9.org/mpg/hd-playback.htm)

[Dan203]

Not quite. Daemon Tools allows you to mount ISO images and read it as if it were a real CD. What I'm looking for is a driver that emulates a CD/DVD burner and creates an ISO image on the hard drive from programs that want to write CDs/DVDs.

For example... Instead of actually burning a CD from iTunes I could point it at this virtual CD/DVD writer which would take the data it's being fed and create an ISO image on the hard drive. I could then load that image into Daemon Tools and RIP the audio to standard MP3 files, without ever actually having to use a CD. (A similar method might be used for DVDs when TiVoToGo is released)

Dan

[bsnelson]

I think this has come up before, and the answers sometimes leaned towards the bizarre. Almost like it'd be "rude" for the Daemon Tools authors and the like to do something like this. I can't see any technical reason why it can't be done, but it's almost like talking about herpes when you start suggesting someone write something like that.

It'd be darned handy...

Brad

[Dan203]

I noticed that the Deamon Tools site specifically says they will never support CD-R emulation. I wonder why they're so against it?

Dan

[bsnelson]

Originally posted by Dan203
I noticed that the Deamon Tools site specifically says they will never support CD-R emulation. I wonder why they're so against it?

Dan I think that's what I was saying... :)

I just don't understand, unless they've been browbeaten by the RIAA or someone else, fearing that it could somehow be used to do nefarious things.

Brad

[WanMan]

Well, you could waste the dime/buck and take said files and burn a dick. Then, you could burn an ISO file from that disk.

[David Platt]

Originally posted by WanMan
Well, you could waste the dime/buck and take said files and burn a dick.

I'd skip that step if I were you. Sounds painful.

[bsnelson]

Originally posted by WanMan
Well, you could waste the dime/buck and take said files and burn a disk. Then, you could burn an ISO file from that disk. Since David already immortalized your words, I'll graciously correct your quote.. :)

Here's a good example of why what Dan wants is a good thing. I have three PCs at home that run Windows. I got a couple of free songs from McDonalds from the Sony Connect music service. If you have a (physical) burner in your machine, you can make either a MP3 or a (upconverted) WAV file of their DRM'd music, with which you can then do as you please. However, you can't say "write the MP3 to the hard drive" or "write the WAV to the HD".

Only one of my three machines has a writer, and in true Microsoft fashion, for some reason, that's the only of the three machines that I can't get the Sony Connect software to work on. So, I have no way of "liberating" the songs unless I (a) get a burner for one of the machines that works or (b) spend hours working with the support people to find out why the one machine can't do the software.

So yes, I'd love to have a virtual burner.

Brad

[holee]

Originally posted by WanMan
Well, you could waste the dime/buck and take said files and burn a dick. Then, you could burn an ISO file from that disk.

I had to read that line three times before I figured out what you were suggesting.......

I was trying to figure if burn a ....you know, was some sort of obscure technical euphemism or whether it was an insult. I think we should all adopt that as our new phrase. The question now is.....what DOES it mean?

That has got to go in a .sig line somewhere, but you just know it'll be banned. :)

[WanMan]

Dear god it was late and I do not know what I was thinking. So much for the spellchecker. :D

[holee]

Originally posted by WanMan
Dear god it was late and I do not know what I was thinking. So much for the spellchecker. :D

Don't worry, no one will fry your arse for this. ;)

[Dan203]

Originally posted by WanMan
Well, you could waste the dime/buck and take said files and burn a disk. Then, you could burn an ISO file from that disk.

It's not really the media I'm worried about (I could just use RW disks) its the time required for the process. Burning a full DVD+RW at 2.4x take almost 30 minutes. Ripping that same DVD back to the hard drive takes another 20-30 minutes. I've never used a virtual DVD burner (obviously because I can't find one) so I can't say how fast that is but I have mounted a DVD ISO in Daemon Tools and ripped it, and that only took about 5 minutes instead of 30.

Dan

[WanMan]

So, 60-minutes/DVD sounds like a job a lacky could do for, say, minimum wage.

[swsotd]

What's being asked for in this thread would be illegal (let's not get into an irrelevant philosophical discussion of whether it should or shouldn't be). As such it isn't allowed on this forum. Yes, I'm fully aware that I'm suggesting that a moderator has started a banned topic.

[jafa]

It is perfectly legal under copyright (proven in court) to convert music you have purchased to different formats for your own personal use for things like mp3 players.

Time shifting is ok, space shifting is ok, sharing music in a public forum with get your arse kicked.

Nick

[swsotd]

I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about "circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work". It's legal to move shows you've TiVoed to your PC, but the forum owner doesn't allow discussion of extraction for the same reason.

[WanMan]

Originally posted by swsotd
I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about "circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work". It's legal to move shows you've TiVoed to your PC, but the forum owner doesn't allow discussion of extraction for the same reason.
Do I really have to create a thread on behalf of the interested individuals about wanting DVD-R ISO creator for, say, my Word documents or my Excel spreadsheets without you having to bring politics into the picture?

[TreborPugly]

Most burner programs will create an image for you. However, the version of Nero that I used to use only burned a Nero specific image, not an ISO. For DVD stuff, check out www.doom9.org. There's a couple of differenate ISO creation tools on there.

[sWampy]

I have been looking for one of these to no avail, to quickly convert my audible audio books to mp3's so I could actually listen to the books I paid for without having to spend hours burning them to dozens of cdrws.

[Mike Wells]

I was going to say that I think Alcohol 120 does this, but I went to the site to verify and found that it is no longer on the market. Oh well.

[Cletus]

Originally posted by Mike Wells
I was going to say that I think Alcohol 120 does this, but I went to the site to verify and found that it is no longer on the market. Oh well.

No, Alcohol 120 doesn't emulate a CDR(W). It only emulates a CD-ROM. No R or RW.

[mkazen]

Alcohol 120 is gone?

[mkazen]

No, you can still get it: http://www.alcohol-soft.com/

But their distributor has pulled out... Can still get it directly from them.

[Mike Wells]

Ah, ok. I used google to find this: http://www.alcohol-software.com/ which says due to legal reasons they would no longer be selling alcohol software.

[mkazen]

Yes, Alcohol software (the distribution company) will not sell it anymore, but you can still get it from the developing company Alcohol-Soft... About as clear as mud...

[mkazen]

Here's all the info you need:

http://uk.geocities.com/thetomcatslair/Entertainment/DRM/drm.html

[SimonSez07]

the product you are looking for is called "Original CD Emulator II" and is available from ztekware dod com

this took me about 10 minutes of googling to find. unfortunately this utility will only emulate CD-RW and not DVD RW. i could not find one that is able to do both but if anyone comes across something like that, do post here.

what i dont understand is why it took a gazilion posts for your question to be answered. it seems as if people just like to conversate and no one gets any real answers : )

[dappertje]

You guy's never heart of a program isobuster or ultraiso?
With this programs you can put all your files (for burning to cd/dvd) in a iso file and
save it. Then you can put the iso file in a virtual cd/dvd, and you're done.

[4u2ges]

what i dont understand is why it took a gazilion posts for your question to be answered. it seems as if people just like to conversate and no one gets any real answers : )

Completely agree. There are plenty of CD-RW emulators out there but none of them would emulate DVD-R. I need this for Nero to be able to create a DVD image from .avi without actually having a DVD burner installed. But Nero doesn’t present a DVD-Video choice in Vision Express to complete this task. I just don’t believe there is no solution to the problem. :confused:

[mf_2]

Completely agree. There are plenty of CD-RW emulators out there but none of them would emulate DVD-R. I need this for Nero to be able to create a DVD image from .avi without actually having a DVD burner installed. But Nero doesn’t present a DVD-Video choice in Vision Express to complete this task. I just don’t believe there is no solution to the problem. :confused:

Hello. Sorry to dig out this old topic, but I have exactly the same problem as the poster I quoted.
I want to use a very powerful Athlon XP computer as my DVD encoding machine, however it lacks a dvd burner. And with it only having a CD burner, both Nero Burning ROM and Nero VisionExpress hide the DVD burning options from me. So I can't even use the Image Recorder that comes with Nero. Is there any virtual DVD burner that makes Nero think I have a real DVD burner? Then Nero would give me access to the DVD creation portion of the program and I could still use the Nero Image Recorder as a recording device.

[mkazen]

Not completely sure, but have you tried Alcohol or Daemon-Tools (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php)?

[krkaufman]

I want to use a ... computer as my DVD encoding machine, however it lacks a dvd burner. And with it only having a CD burner, both Nero Burning ROM and Nero VisionExpress hide the DVD burning options from me. So I can't even use the Image Recorder that comes with Nero.
Actually, your problem isn't as dire as the original poster's -- or mine.

You'll find your Nero-specific solution on the Ahead.de webisite:
I have Nero/Nero Express installed and a CD recorder connected to my system. Is there any way to create a DVD image on this system to burn it with a DVD recorder later?

Yes.

From within Nero Burning ROM go to 'File > Preferences > Expert Features'. Go to the bottom of this page and enable the option for ‘Enable Image Recorder for all supported recorder formats’.
From within Nero Express go to 'More > Configure > Expert Features' and enable the same option.
Now, go to the Compilation window and select the DVD image recorder.

[krkaufman]

Ok, I'm in the same boat -- although unrelated to any media or DRM issues.

I have a DR/backup application that can write DR (disaster recovery) images directly to a DVR-R/RW drive, but I don't want to have to sit in front on the computer swapping discs in the middle of the night. I need an application that will present itself as a DVD-RW drive to my DR/backup application, and will create ISO images on-the-fly as additional "disc" media is needed by the DR app.

Later, I can copy these ISO images to another system where I have a DVD burner installed, and burn them to DVD-R.

[mbarlowm]

This is an old thread, but for what it's worth I found a program that does what the OP was looking for.

Can't post urls. Search for "Virtual CD" from "H+H Software GmbH"

For $40 you get a nifty program that will create a Virtual CD/DVD Drive/Burner. First you insert a Virtual Blank Disk (creates a proprietary format .vc8), then select the Virtual burner drive from any program that burns discs. When it's done you have a Virtual Disc File, which can be "loaded" into another virtual drive similar to Daemon. With Nero, or Roxio, you could then create an ISO from this, or burn it right to a physical disk.

I'm not using this for Tivo, but to make backups of my hard drive. The program I use burns right to a disc, but my laptop doesn't have a burner. Now I have this virtual burner, that writes the backup to the network. It's pretty cool!

[guptasuneet]

the product you are looking for is called "Original CD Emulator II" and is available from ztekware dod com

this took me about 10 minutes of googling to find. unfortunately this utility will only emulate CD-RW and not DVD RW. i could not find one that is able to do both but if anyone comes across something like that, do post here.

what i dont understand is why it took a gazilion posts for your question to be answered. it seems as if people just like to conversate and no one gets any real answers : )

Original CD Emulator works only for MP3 files, i.e. it can be used as a virtual CD writer only for music writing software, e.g. Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc. It does not enable a generic CD-RW drive. Note-Burner is also a virtual CD-RW for mp3 files that directly converts the burned virtual CD into MP3 files. I have still not been able to find a truly and totally functional CDRW emulator after much searching on Google.

[mk678]

Awesome reviews
Thanks for sharing!!