WinCDG (C)2000 Steve J. Gray, sgray@acs.ryerson.ca ====== V0.60, Feb 20/2000 - FREEWARE Homepage: http://www.ryerson.ca/~sgray Note: Users of WinCDG BETA please delete WINCDGB.EXE, as the filename for this release is WINCDG.EXE Legal Notice ------------ WinCDG is for personal use and may not be distributed with any commercial product. Please obey all copyrights when using this product. It may be unlawful to decode, encode, convert, reproduce and/or exhibit copyrighted material for commercial purposes. Introduction ------------ WinCDG is a freeware program to display the graphics from CDG files (with a CDG extension) in sync with the audio from MPEG files (with an MP3 extension). WinCDG will also play either separately. IMPORTANT NOTE!: WinCDG does NOT play CD+G discs!!!!! Program Requirements -------------------- To play CDG/MP3 files you will need: * Pentium II 266 or higher * Fast graphics card and Hard drive * 16-bit sound card * Windows 95,98,NT or 2000 * VB6 Runtime files (available by downloading Mimic) * MS MediaPlayer 5.2 or higher (6.4 recommended). (May require editing your system file or registry; see troubleshooting). * MP3 and/or CDG Files (See below. WinCDG does NOT read CD+G discs directly!!!!) To Convert CD+G discs to CDG/MP3 files you will need: * Registered CDDA by Jim McLaughlin: www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aa571 OR CDRWin by GoldenHawk: www.goldenhawk.com * CD Ripper and MP3 encoder(s): www.mp3.com is a good source What is an MPEG audio file? --------------------------- An MPEG audio file (MP3) is a highly compressed audio file that can be played back at CD quality. A typical audio track from a standard CD normally takes 30 to 40 megabytes to store. Using MP3 this can be reduced to less than 4 megabytes while still retaining high quality. The process of extracting the audio from a CD disc is called "ripping". This gives you a WAV file. You must then "encode" this WAV file into an MP3 file. There are various programs available to do this for you. Some programs combine the ripping and encoding into one step. What is a CDG file? ------------------- A CDG file contains the data normally found in the subcode area of CD+G audio discs (mostly Karaoke CD's). That area is used to hold graphics that display in sync with the audio. In a process similar to ripping, a program (CDDA - see below) reads the audio disc and extracts the data from the disc and saves it to a file. WinCDG uses these files. WinCDG does NOT read the data directly from the disc! There are very few CD-ROM drives that will read the subcode area of an audio CD in order to extract the CD+G info. In addition there are only a few computer programs that will read the subcode area: CDDA for DOS by Jim McLaughlin (ripper) CDGPlay for DOS by Jim McLaughlin (player) CD+G for Mac by Jim Bumgardner (player) CDRWin by GoldenHawk software (CD Recording utilities) Out of the above only CDDA is able to save the data to a CDG file. Please refer to Jim's homepage and the CDDA documentation for information on supported drives. Note: CDG files may also have the extension RW What is the CD+G format? ------------------------ CD+G discs look like standard audio CD's when played back on regular CD players or CD-ROM drives. The CD+G format is an extension of the standard RED-BOOK audio format. On an audio disc there is an area known as the subchannel. This area is used to store data for the cd player like elapsed time etc. Some of this area is normally unused. In CD+G discs the subchannel is used to store the CD+G data. This data consists of commands and graphics that are interpreted by the player to produce the CD+G display. There are dedicated CD+G players, mostly in the form of stereo equipment or stand-alone Karaoke systems. Some video game systems (consoles) also play CD+G discs. These include Commodore CD32 and CDTV, Philips CDI, NEC TurboDuo, SegaCD, and Sega Saturn. WinCDG is a software CD+G player designed to eliminate the need for the CD+G disc. Using CDDA or CDRWin to extract the CD+G data and one of the many CD audio rippers and MP3 encoders you can convert your CD+G discs into files on your computer. WinCDG will then play those files on any properly equipped Windows system. This release does not have a complete implementation of the CD+G format. The following are NOT supported and/or not working 100%: * Color cycling not supported * Transparency not supported * Vertical scrolling not 100% working If you have some CDG files that do not display properly please send them to me to look at and I will try to fix the player. Using WinCDG ------------ To play a CDG file, MP3 file or both at the same time, click the OPEN button. This will bring up a file requester where you can choose your file. To play CDG files in sync with MP3 files BOTH files must be in the same directory, and must have the same base name (the name without the extension). Note: This latest version will also let you play MP3 or WAV in sync with CDG or RW files. Click the PLAY button to start playback. If there is a CDG file a window will open to display the graphics. The PLAY button will become a PAUSE button that can be used to PAUSE and CONTinue audio playback (graphics playback may continue if it needs to catch up to the audio on a slow machine). Depending on the speed of your computer you may need to adjust the Redraw Frames-Per-Second setting in order for the graphics to keep up with the audio playback. You may freely resize the display window or double-click the title bar to toggle from normal to maximized (Note; when maximized the aspect ratio may not be correct depending on your display settings). Use the SIZE button to toggle the display window size between 1, 1.5, 2, or 3 times the standard CD+G display size. Using this button ensures the aspect ratio of the display window is correct. You can close the display window by using the X button. In order to re-display the window you must re-start playback or click the SIZE button. Press the SNAPSHOT button to save the current CDG bitmap to a file. The file will be in the same directory as the source file and will be in the form filenameXXX.bmp, where 'filename' is the base-name of the source file, and 'XXX' is a number from 0 to 999. Example: If you are playing "danger.cdg" the snapshots will be danger000.bmp danger001.bmp etc... The ABOUT button displays the copyright notice and version number. The INFO button displays this WinCDG text file. By default WinCDG will use the MCI device named "MPEGVideo", which is installed with MS Mediaplayer. If you have a hardware MPEG decoder card (such as from the Creative Encore Kit) you may need to select the "ALT" checkbox to use ActiveMovie as an alternate driver. See the troubleshooting section for details. The "V" button toggles the CDG extractor options area. This section lets you create CDG files by extracting the data from BIN files created via CDRWin from GoldenHawk software. See below. Creating CDG files ------------------ In order to display CD+G graphics you must have or make CDG files. There are currently two ways of making them: 1) Using the registered version of CDDA by Jim McLaughlin. This program extracts the CD+G data directly from a CD+G disc. The program is DOS based and supports a limited number of CD drives. 2) A combination of CDRWin from GoldenHawk software and WinCDG. Using CDRWin you extract the track to a BIN file with the CD+G option selected, then you use WinCDG to make a CDG file from that file. Extracting CDG data from BIN files ---------------------------------- Click the "V" button to display the extraction section. Click the "..." button to select a BIN file then click the CONVERT button. This will produce a file in the same directory and with the same name as the source file but with a CDG extension. To batch convert files, specify the common name WITHOUT the extension or track number. For example, if you used CDRWin to create tracks with the name track01.bin, track02.bin etc, simply enter "track" as the name. Click convert to process all the files. While converting you may click the STOP button to abort processing. Troubleshooting --------------- * If you get the message "not a registered MCI device" then MediaPlayer is not installed. Download and install the latest version from Microsoft. * If you try to play an MP3 file and you get an error saying the format is unsupported, or you get an MPEG video window (such as the Creative DVD player window) then most likely you will need to re-instll the Microsoft MPEGVideo driver (MediaPlayer) and try again. * If the above doesn't work you will need to use MPEGVideo with an "Alternate" name as described below: Win 95/98: Check your SYSTEM.INI file for the following line: ActiveMovie=mciqtz.drv If it is missing you must add it to the [MCI] section. Win NT: Use REGEDIT to add the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI32\ActiveMovie Set the value to: mciqtz32.dll Restart Windows for the changes to take effect. When you Re-run WinCDG you must select the "ALT" checkbox. Where to get the software: -------------------------- My homepage.....: www.ryerson.ca/~sgray GoldenHawk page.: www.goldenhawk.com CDDA homepage...: www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aa571 Rippers/Encoders: www.mp3.com CDG files.......: Unknown. If you know of a source please e-mail me! WinCDG and General CD+G FAQ --------------------------- Q: Why won't WinCDG read directly from the disc? A: Very few CD-ROM drives support reading of the subcode data of the disc. Reading subcode data is very difficult and varies from drive to drive. By using other programs (MP3 encodes and CDDA or CDRWin) you can convert those discs into a much more compact form that can be played on a computer using WinCDG. You could create custom Karaoke compilations that don't require specialized CD+G equipment or the original CD+G discs. Q: Is there a program that will read a CD+G disc directly? A: For the PC: CDGPLAY by Jim McLaughlin: www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aa571 For the MAC: CDG Player by Jim Bumgardner. Q: Why won't WinCDG play my CDA files. A: It's not designed to. CDA files are NOT the audio or CD+G info, they are Windows95 "virtual files" to the CD audio track. Q: What is CDDA? A1: CDDA is "compact disc digital audio" and it is the term that refers to the actual digital waveform stored on an audio disc. A2: CDDA is also the name of a CDDA/CDG extraction program. Q: Which CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-R/W drives support CD+G? A: Check below. Also check www.goldenhawk.com Q: Do you know how to copy a CD+G disc? A: You need a CD Reader/Writer that supports reading CD subcodes plus software that does the same. The only software I know that does this is CDRWin from Goldenhawk Technologies. Only a few CD-ROM's support subcode reading (some sony and plextor drives). Yamaha CDR drives and the newer HP drives support both Reading and Writing. Q: Do you know how to create a CD+G disc? A: You can make a compilation disc by taking individual tracks from different CD+G discs and combining them using CDRWin software and a Yamaha CD Recorder. Q: Do you know of a program to create CD+G graphics. A: The only software I know of is made by Philips and is commercial. It costs about $25,000 US and is for Windows 3.1. Q: Can you make a CD+G editor like the above? A: If enough interest is shown I may considered it... Q: Will WinCDG ever read the CD+G disc directly? A: Maybe. If you have any information on how to read CDDA and Subcode data please forward it to me! What devices support CD+G discs? -------------------------------- [The following is taken from the Golden Hawk FAQ. This is included for information purposes only. It DOES NOT imply that WinCDG is able to read/write or backup CD+G discs... because it CAN'T!!!] To backup CD+G discs, you must have one of the following recorders... * CREATIVE CDR4210 * HEWLETT PACKARD 8100/8110 * PANASONIC CW-7501 * PLASMON CDR4240 * PLEXTOR PX-R412C (requires firmware 1.04 or higher) * SONY CDW-900E * YAMAHA All Models All Yamaha recorders (except the CDR100 and CDR102), the PX-R412C, and the HP8100/8110 are the only models that are capable of reading as well as writing CD+G discs. If you do not have one of these models, then you will have to purchase another CDROM device that can read CD+G discs. The following CDROM drives can read CD+G discs... * PLEXTOR 4Plex Plus, 8Plex (not recommended), 12Plex, 12/20Plex, 14/32Plex * SONY 76S (not recommended), 415 (only works well at 1x reading speed) NOTE!!!!: Please check www.goldenhawk.com for updated information!!!!! Revision History ---------------- V0.60, Feb 20/2000 - Now compiled with VB6 - Now has separate controls and display windows - Added Open, Stop, Play, Info, and About buttons - Added Size button that changes display to 1x, 1.5x, 2x or 3x standard CDG resolutions - Display window is now SCALABLE and can be maximized - Added FPS (frames per second) setting - Added elapsed time display - Implemented smooth scrolling - Added Snapshot function - Added CDRWin BIN file to CDG file conversion!!! - Added batch conversion. - You can double-click a CDG file to play it (You must select WinCDG as the EXE the first time) - Added MCI device selection (default is MPEGVideo, or ALT=ActiveMovie) - Now can play WAV with CDG or RW - Improved documentation and FAQ V0.52, Apr 27/1998 - Minor changes (slightly slower) V0.50, Jan 31/1998 - Initial Release Steve Gray. sgray@acs.ryerson.ca END