What burning software do you recommend?

[gust0208]

Hello everyone,

I am interested in your opinion on which burning software to purchase, I am looking at either CloneCD, Blindwrite, or Alcohol 120%. All have comparable features in general, and was wondering what experiences people have had with the software.

Thanks for your time,

Cheers,
Numa

[NetSoerfer]

I'd recommend Alcohol 120%. It's being updated quite frequently to fit the latest copy protections.

CloneCD's lost its glory since SecuROM v4.8x and SafeDisc v2.8 as it has problems burning the latter and cannot burn the former at all.

Blindwrite - I don't know, I haven't used it yet so I cannot really tell you about it.

Let's see what the others have to say...

[Andareed]

I use alcohol 120%.

[strchild]

I use the BlindWrite Suite myself and am satisfied with it thus far. Just be sure your drive reads subcodes, or it won't extract a useable image from protected discs.

BlindWrite has it's share of bugs, but once you are familiar and comfortable with it, and it's running stably on your system, it's very easy to use, even telling you if the image will work before you burn a coaster with it.

I really don't use BlindWrite for making copies of CD's but rather it goes hand in hand with Daemon-Tools. Having most of the images from my CD's that I use most often, I don't need backup CD's and I save wear and tear on my CD-ROM drives.

~Brian

[zhai2002]

:roll:

I am using " Nero - Burning Rom " which will be updated frequently and which is applicable to many CD-RWs .

I like it !

[NetSoerfer]

If I'm not mistaken, gust0208 talked about CD Duplication programs, not CD mastering programs. ahead Nero is one of the latter, being unable to copy most recent copy protections.

[zhai2002]

Oh , perhaps I mistook gust0208's meaning . :mrgreen:

Ahead Nero also has " copy CD " function , but I haven't used .


Sergei.Gradski :

Would you mind briefly telling us why is Ahead Nero unable to copy most recent copy protections , and what are recent copy protections ?

Or would you mind giving us a URL to get these information ?

Thanks :P

[NetSoerfer]

Have a look at this article over at Alcohol's Support Forum, it explains how the different copy protections work.

Nero is simply not able to copy some of the advanced copy protections' security mechanisms such as physical media signature etc.

[zhai2002]

It is so kind of you , thanks for your help ~~~~~~~

[philamber]

I'd recommend that you use alcohol as opposed to clonecd or blindwrite. Currently there is nothing that clonecd can do that alcohol can't do equally well and because clonecd hasn't been updated for months alcohol can do a great deal that clonecd can't.

As for blindwrite, my experiences show it to be a horribly buggy and unreliable application (if it works for you, fine, but it rarely does for me). It has only one advantage over alcohol (if you can get it to work properly at all that is);

that being that it enables copies of securom 4.8x protected cds that work (on most but not all devices) without emulation to be made without the assistance of any external program.

Neither alcohol nor clonecd can do so but each of them is a stable and reliable program and each of them can do so with the assistance of a tool called twinpeak.

[Dr--Evil]

I prefer Blindwrite. I used to love CloneCD but Ollie has spent too much time with CloneDVD to make it a serious option these days. Alcohol is a good stable program and can do most. But Blindwrite can do all. I have copied lots of securom 4.x games and all have worked great. I have seen none of the bugs reported by other members and it seems to be updated more frequently even than Alcohol :shock:

Give it a try. If it proves buggy for you then try another but start with this because it backs up all of the most common protections found today.

[Andareed]

There are so many releases because all they do is fix bugs :shock:

Alcohol 120 is now able to backup securom 4.8x without emulation. You have to use alcoholer's modified twincreator.

[strchild]

Extra software?

I have yet to need any extra "helping" software to fully use an image created by Blindwrite, beyond whatever tool I happen to use to mount the image, which most often happens to be Daemon-Tools. If I did need that extra software, I would be at the point when getting out the original CD and just leaving it in the drive for a few weeks is more convenient than circumventing it in software. I am not trying to "stick it" to the makers of the anti-piracy protections as I, and I'm sure others, have more profitable things with which to spend time than vain attepts at shaking fists toward some silly, unseen enemy of the peoples. Workarounds and patches exist to cover shortcomings in the created disc image, or in the software playing the image back to the host system, or both. I always have my original game discs, and my optical drive in the computer I use for games is IDE based, so it really just comes down to convenience, the safety factor of not having to use an original disc, and minimizing wear on my optical drive.
Blindwrite can be tried before purchasing. As others have said, try it! Don't feel you are required to take my or others' words. Heck, try them both, or even more products if you wish! I did. If I felt Alcohol was a better product, I would have purchased it instead, or possibly both.
The one note I would make: Blindwrite will not allow you to work with a DVD- video disc, if it is marked as copy-protected, such as a Hollywood movie would be. This has nothing to do with it's ability to copy the disc, or make an image therefrom. The developer simply chose to avoid the legal issues of unprotecting these discs themselves. I don't blame them. Besides, there is third party software which is adept in this role, at which point Blindwrite will happily do whatever you wish with the disc, ie. make a backup image or disc for your own personal use.

[LocutusofBorg]

well, this thread is a bit old (2003)

Apart from that, keep in mind that we all have other priorities

While you (same as me) prefer to run IMAGES, others may
feel more comfortable to have even 1:1 copys of their discs.

It is their decision. I prefer to run DT Pro, as it covers all my
needs, but if you need a good burning solution I can recommend
indeed Alcohol, as it is rockstable (for me) , very comfortable and
covers all features around image-burning..

Others may tend to like BW better, but that is another story..

What is most important to MANY DT users is compatibility.
And here nothing beats Alcohol, as we work hand in hand
with them. So also in future, Alc will be compatible to
DT Pro/DT and format is interchangeable between those three
applications.

In the past we already saw incompatibilities between DT and
BW, and although we do our best to keep it uptodate with
their latest versions, if you want to be on the safe side:
stick to mds/mdf-format, it is DT's and Alc's native format
and therefore no bad surprises - especially when you use
DT for more professional reasons, which I and maaany people
do, additional to simple run games.

DT Pro can also encrypt and compress images, not every
format support such features (this is also important for
companys)...

So if you need good imager: DT Pro (what else? )
If you need good image-burner: Alcohol...

But of course I'm for sure a bit biased on this

[PegHorse]

Locutus, may i ask a question please ?


As a customer user, i would prefer to have a Full featuring application that do all my needs.
DT Pro is very nice, but its missing 2 very importants plugins :

1) Protection scanner
2) Burning plugin

Your team has presented Astroburn, but its only a classic burner.
It won't burn copy-protected games.


My question is :
Are your team is on the way about creating such missing plugins ?