3. CD Burning

Resumo

In this section we discuss using K3b to perform common CD burning operations. K3b also supports DVD recording, but we only concentrate on CD recording in this section. You only need to install the k3b-dvd package. DVD recording is very similar to its CD counterpart.

[Nota]Nota

Copyrighted Material. Please note that data, audio, video CD or DVD copying is often forbidden by copyright law. The examples provided here are informational only and aren't intended to make a CD/DVD pirate out of you. We assume that if you want to duplicate copyrighted material, it's because you have the right to do so.

3.1. Getting Started

K3b is automatically configured to give normal users access to the CD burner. However, we highly recommended that these users be part of the cdwriter group to minimize burning errors due to system overload. So, go ahead and add those users to the cdwriter group. Please refer to Seção 6, “Managing Users and Groups”, for information on users and group management.

Choosing System+Archiving+CD burningK3b from the main menu starts K3b. Figura 11.6, “K3b's Interface” shows K3b's interface with a new data project open.

Figura 11.6. K3b's Interface

K3b's Interface

Tool Bar. Where buttons to perform common actions lie. See Tabela 11.1, “K3b's Toolbar Buttons”.

File Manager. To choose which files to include in the burned CD. Use the left-side tree to navigate the file system and drag and drop the files you want to include in the project into the Project Manager.

Project Manager. Where all files which will be on the burned CD are shown and handled. Files can be removed and their location (directory) on the CD can be changed here.

The following table shows the most important buttons available in K3b's tool-bar, their equivalent keyboard shortcuts and a brief explanation of the functions they provide.

[Nota]Nota

Not all buttons are enabled at all times. For example, the Save button is not enabled if there is no active project.

Tabela 11.1. K3b's Toolbar Buttons

ButtonKeyboard ShortcutFunction
 

Create a New Project. Once you click on this button a list of available project types are shown: choose New Data CD Project to create a data CD (see Seção 3.2, “Burning Data CDs”) ; choose New Audio CD Project to create an audio CD (see Seção 3.3, “Burning Audio CDs (CDDA)”); choose New Mixed Mode CD Project to create a mixed mode (data+audio) CD; choose New Video CD Project to create a digital compressed video CD; choose New eMovix CD Project to create an eMovix CD.

Ctrl-O

Open an Existing Project. A standard file dialog opens from where you can choose the project you wish to open. Select the project you are interested in and click the OK button.

Ctrl-S

Save the Current Project. A standard file dialog opens where you can enter the name under which the current project will be saved. Type the name of the project and click the Save button.

 

Copy a CD. To make an exact copy of a CD. It opens a window which asks for the copy settings. Refer to Seção 3.4, “Duplicating a CD”, for more information. Please note that you cannot duplicate copyrighted DVD movies with this function, they are encrypted.

 

Erase a CD-RW. To erase re-writable media. It opens a window which asks for the erase operation settings. Please refer to Seção 3.6, “Erasing CD-RW media”, for more information.

3.2. Burning Data CDs

3.2.1. Burning From an ISO Image

Let's presume you downloaded a CD-ROM image from the Internet and you want to burn it on a CD. Choose ToolsBurn CD Image from K3b's menu. Click the “open file” button to browse for the CD image file and select the file in the standard open file dialog. The CD image is then verified and information about it is displayed (see Figura 11.7, “Burn CD Image Options”).

Figura 11.7. Burn CD Image Options

Burn CD Image Options

Once the image is verified, you can insert the recordable medium and click on Start to write it to the disc.

[Nota]Nota

If an already written re-writable medium is found in the CD burner, a dialog pops up asking you whether to erase it first. Click Yes and follow subsequent instructions if you want to erase it, or change the medium for a non-written one and click No.

[Dica]Dica

The Speed pull-down list should be set to Auto to make K3b select the fastest possible recording speed supported by the combination of your CD burner and the currently inserted recordable medium. The “slowest” speed between the two limits the maximum recording speed.

3.2.2. Burning a Set of Files or Directories

Choose FileNew ProjectNew Data CD Project from K3b's menu shown in Tabela 11.1, “K3b's Toolbar Buttons”). Then drop into the Project Manager the files and directories you want to include on the CD (see Figura 11.8, “Selecting Files and Directories to Include on a CD”).

Figura 11.8. Selecting Files and Directories to Include on a CD

Selecting Files and Directories to Include on a CD
[Nota]Nota

Adding directories containing lots of files can take some time. Please be patient and wait until the Adding files to Project PROJECT_NAME message disappears.

The space occupied by the selected files and directories is shown by a color-coded bar at the bottom of the Project Manager, together with the quantity expressed in MB and the available MB of the medium's total capacity. The bar's color codes are as follows:

Green

The set's size is less than that of the selected medium's capacity (700 MB by default). There are no capacity-related problems.

Yellow

The set's size is nearly equal the selected medium's capacity. If it's a few MB below the medium's capacity, there won't be any capacity-related problems; if it's a few MB above the medium's capacity, the CD might be written without problems, but there's little guarantee of success.

Red

The set's size exceeds the medium's capacity by many MB. The CD won't be recorded properly.

Right-clicking on any file or directory in the Project Manager pops up a contextual menu with options to remove and rename files, create new (empty) directories, etc. Files and directories can be relocated (change the directory under which you want them to appear) on the CD using drag-and-drop.

[Dica]Dica

Renaming the top element of the left side tree in the Project Manager changes the CD's volume name (K3b data project by default for data CDs).

Choosing the ProjectBurn menu entry displays a window where you can select writing parameters (see Figura 11.9, “Setting Writing Parameters”). Insert a recordable medium in the CD burner and click the Burn button to start writing the CD.

Figura 11.9. Setting Writing Parameters

Setting Writing Parameters

3.3. Burning Audio CDs (CDDA)

By audio CDs, we mean the ones you play in your car or home stereo equipment, not data CDs holding OGG, MP3 or any other digital audio format files.

At the time of writing, K3b supports recording audio CDs from tracks digitized in Wave (*.wav), Ogg Vorbis (*.ogg), and MP3 (*.mp3) formats. You can mix digital audio formats since K3b decompresses the compressed ones on-the-fly. K3b can also create digital audio tracks from audio CDs, also known as “ripping” (see Seção 3.5, “Audio CD Extraction (Ripping)”).

Choose FileNew ProjectNew Audio CD Project from K3b's menu. Select K3b's File Manager's filter to Sound Files, navigate to where the digitized audio files are and then drag the audio tracks and drop them in the Project Manager (see Figura 11.10, “Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD”).

Figura 11.10. Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD

Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD

Use drag and drop to move the files up and down the compilation. Once you have the tracks compiled in the order you want in the Project Manager, you can write them to CD.

3.4. Duplicating a CD

Figura 11.11. Setting Options to Copy a CD

Setting Options to Copy a CD

Choose ToolsCopy CD from the menu. Select the number of copies (1 in the example), whether to remove the temporary image or not (yes), the reader and burning devices (automatically set) and click on Start. The “sourceCD is then read, an image of it is made and the “targetCD is written.

3.5. Audio CD Extraction (Ripping)

Make sure that enough temporary space is available. You can check the available space in K3b's status bar near the right. Have in mind that each minute of CD-quality digitized uncompressed audio takes a bit more than 10MB of disk space.

 Insert the audio CD to rip tracks from and double click on the drive in the left side of the File Manager. The CD is read and, by default, all tracks are marked to be ripped. Remove the check mark from those you don't want to rip and click on the gears button to show a dialog to set ripping options (see Figura 11.12, “CD Ripping Options”).

Figura 11.12. CD Ripping Options

CD Ripping Options

Review the different ripping options (notably the file naming ones) and once you're satisfied with your settings click on the Start Ripping button.

3.6. Erasing CD-RW media

Figura 11.13. Setting CD-RW Blanking Options

Setting CD-RW Blanking Options

You might want to format your CD-RW media in order to write it with different data. To do so, choose ToolsErase CD-RW from the menu (see Figura 11.13, “Setting CD-RW Blanking Options”). The Erase Type can be set to Fast (the CD-RW is quickly erased in up to 3 minutes); Complete (the CD-RW is completely erased taking up to 90 minutes); and a few options related to multi-session recording are also available. Insert the medium on the CD burner and click the Start button to erase the CD-RW.