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по-русски
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Got release named like

Your.Favourite.Artist-2007-Your.Favourite.Album.eac.wv.cue.covers.iso
or
Your.Favourite.Artist-2007-Your.Favourite.Album.eac.wv.cue.covers.iso.wv

in your search results?

Don't be afraid. Start download and go on reading.

Yes, it's definitely Your Favourite Album of Your Favourite Artist accurately ripped and packed in lossless quality (with WavPack in current example) with CUE, log and covers. The only unusual thing is "iso" container instead of common "rar". Below you'll get two main questions "what can I do with this stuff?" and "what for release packed by such uncommon way?" answered.


What can I do with ISO release?

Var. 1 (too boring one)
Extract like you did it dozens of times before

ISO image can be unpacked with widespread WinRAR archiver. So you'll get usual folder with standard set of files ready for listening. Besides you have to keep original release file - to continue sharing it.

Even if your goal is to burn audio-CD immidiately and delete release file (it's no good, but...), you do not need to unpack it. Read on.


Var. 2 (not so boring)
Mount ISO as a virtual CD-drive

Self-explaining header:) There are numerous utilities handling ISO as virtual CD. Use Daemon Tools, MagicDISC (freeware), Alcohol 120% or smth similar. Here is a list of suitable software. With Alcohol 120% mounting looks like this:



After mounting you'll see a directory of so familiar files



to play with your favorite player (assumed your player handles cue-files). With no doubt recommended and the most popular lossless formats player for now is foobar 2000.

Mount, listen to music, look at pictures and then unmount ISO without wasting of disk space. That's main advantage of Var.2 for those who is familiar with iso mounting.

Another significant advantage of ISO-packed release is ability to burn audio CD directly from mounted ISO without unpacking first. You'll need to configure your favourite burning software (like Nero) so, that it should handle corresponding losless codec (WavPack or APE) packed WAVs.

But for listening Var.2 is not simple enough:) Because of...


Var.3 (the most interesting one)
With NO intricating actions at all

Just add ".wv" to the release filename (resulting in *.iso.wv filename) and open that "fake" WavPack file with foobar. You should feel yourself a witness of a miracle:) because of track names appearance in player tracklist and... sound in your speakers! WinRAR assumes that was an archive. Virtual-CD service treats release as ISO. And finally music player just accepted this file as a lossless music file - isn't it a miracle? :w00t:

Of course not:) Some useful tips on ISO release "anatomy" are given below.

CUE file extraction can be made without unpacking original cue from ISO. Just click right button on any track in release tracklist:



CUE is "hidden" into the CUESHEET tag of APEv2 standard. Besides other standard tag - LOG - contains Exact Audio Copy log file, to give experiecnced user convenient way of checking rip quality:





APEv2 convention stands for unlimited number of any tags (including jpeg album covers), so list of tags can be a bit longer than at screenshot above:)

Despite of renaming trick foobar sees nothing unusual in "as is" release file (remember it was an iso previously). Common WavPack file with CUE embedded:



and finally - you need to do nothing with the original release for all the common tasks.


What for?

At last let's summarize:

1. ISO release can be stored without any transformations for listening, audioCD burning and sharing (the same file!) If you listen and sharing music on same computer iso releases doubling your online music storage capacity because of no need to decompress files for listening - it's already music file with CUE embedded.

2. No need to transform ISO-releases to smth other when archiving music collectuion to CD-R or DVD-R. Burn archive discs with original release files and later you'll have no troubles with listening them directly from removable media.

3. Because of release file remains untouched during listening and archiving - you've got abitlity of easy on-demand supporting p2p releases at any time instead of complete re-sharing.

- - -

The above text called to make you don't worry about (still) unusual iso format of releases you're going to get. Remember: releasers made this effort to let you do nothing with downloaded files... except of LISTENING of course:)

Да я то понял, просто алкоголю у тебя бесплатная альтернатива стоит. А тут не было... :wink:

bubamara
а как бы сделать это кратко, выжимку, самую суть, что бы можно в любой топик-релиз вставить на буржуйском форуме? :D: посылать оттуда сюда - не всегда этично так сказать :rolleyes:

Текст для включения внутрь ISO-релизов. Я назвал файл

No unpacking needed to play or to burn this release.txt

(более короткие и одновременно более понятные варианты имени файла приветствуются:))

В нем такой текст:

WHAT THIS ISO FILE IS
=====================

The file you're looking inside is an ISO-packed release - a new generation
of no-need-to-change lossless music releases. It's main benefit is that you can:

- LISTEN it with normal cue tracklist
- BURN it to audio-CD
- STORE it on archive media (DVD, for example)
- SHARE it on p2p network

and all of the above - WITH THE SAME FILE, unchanged since you've downloaded it
WITH NO NEED TO UNPACK IT.


FEATURES BRIEF DESCRIPTION
==========================

LISTENING

Just rename this .ISO to .WV (or .APE corresponding to codec suffix in release file name).
Then every player with support of CUE standard tracks and lossless codecs (foobar2000
for example) should recognise release as lossless music file with embedded CUE.
LOG tag also contains EAC log file to ensure rip quality. Enjoy listening!


BURNING TO AUDIO-CD

Mount release as an ordinary ISO image to virual CD - you'll see it contents
is pretty usual - music file, cue file, log file, covers (if any),.. -
everything you get accustomed with popular RAR releases. Yes, you can listen music
from mounted iso through external cue instead of embedded (as described before).
But the main advantage is you can burn audio-CD without unpacking release. 
Just configure your favourite burner (like Nero) to suppot lossless audio codecs
directly (usually via plugins). Enjoy burning!


STORING IN HOME ARCHIVE

Releasers made everything to let you do nothing with downloaded release.
It's fully-functional for every common task music releases are used to.
Store it as you got it to listen directly from archive media. Enjoy fully-functional
home archive discs!


SHARING ON P2P NETWORKS

For the above reasons if release remains unchanged you can support p2p sharing
WITH THE SAME FILE you're storing for listening. That doubles your hard disc
music collection capacity!

- - - - - - - - - - - -

And the last (but not the least). ISO no-need-to-change releases technology 
designed for convenience of "lazy" majority of p2p users who don't like to spend
much time to recode, rename and repack downloaded releases. If you have very special
personal requirements for files in your music collection (repacking all releases
to ALAC codec for example) - keep doing what you use to do - any file of ISO release
can be unpacked by WinRAR or copied from mounted virtual CD.

Вроде не плохо получилось, особенно последний абзац. Спасибо, будем включать этот файл в ИЗО и текст пихать в теги!

спасибо, бубамара :)
только надо бы убрать слова

Спасибо за статью! но не мог бы кто-нибудь поравить картинки?

Спасибо огромное! :)

How do I edit these iso files without losing the embedded cuesheet? Whenever I add/remove stuff like scans in UltraISO and save, something gets broken and the songlist doesn't display when loaded into foobar (it still plays, but only as one track).

QUOTE (Sartre @ 23-10-2008, 07:09)

Whenever I add/remove stuff like scans in UltraISO and save, something gets broken and the songlist doesn't display when loaded into foobar (it still plays, but only as one track).

Unfortunately neither UltraISO nor any other known ISO creation tool cares about cuesheet and other embedded tags. After rewriting ISO you have to re-embed all tags using appropriate tool (foobar or may be smth else)

А как такой image прочечь на обычный сидюк для прослушки? Ниодна из моих прог его не понимает :(