Image formats
Astroburn Pro supports the following image file types:
- b5t (BlindWrite images)
- b6t (BlindWrite images)
- bwt (BlindRead images)
- ccd (CloneCD images)
- cdi (DiscJuggler images)
- cue (Cue sheets)
- iso (Standard ISO images)
- mds (Media Descriptor Files)
- mdx (Media Data Extended)
- nrg (Nero images)
- pdi (Instant CD/DVD images)
- isz (Compressed ISO images)
- ape (audio image format)
Brief description of image formats:
- MDX
MDX (Media Data Extended) is the new image format created to replace more old MDS. The main difference is that the new format creates only one file (*.mdx) instead of two files (*.mds and *.mdf). The MDX format is also more optimized comparing with ISO due to data compression during the creation of an image.
- MDS
MDS (Media Descriptor) is an older version of the MDX format. It utilizes the same features, however, it uses two image files (*.mds and *.mdf).
- ISO
According to the materials from Wikipedia an ISO image is an archive file (also known as a disc image) of an optical disc in a format defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This format is supported by many software vendors. ISO image files typically have a file extension of .iso. The name ISO is taken from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media, but an ISO image can also contain a UDF file system since UDF is backward-compatible with ISO 9660.
- APE
An APE format (Monkey’s Audio) is a file format for audio data compression. Being a lossless format, Monkey’s Audio does not discard data during the process of encoding, unlike lossy compression methods such as AAC, MP3, Vorbis and Musepack.
Full erase vs. quick erase
Astroburn allows to perform quick disc erase and full disc erase. During quick erase the drive just erases the CD/DVD/Blu-ray directory information to read zero data. To the contrary full erase erases every bit of data on the entire CD. Full erase takes much more time and is useful only if it is not possible to get an error free recording of a CD-RW/DVD-RW disc. Quick erase is usually the best choice because it only takes a few minutes.
