CD-Text
Encyclopedia
CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book
Red Book (audio CD standard)
Red Book is the standard for audio CDs . It is named after one of the Rainbow Books, a series of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats.The first edition of the Red Book was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony; it was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc...
Compact Disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
specifications standard for audio CDs. It allows for storage of additional information (e.g. album name, song name, and artist) on a standards-compliant audio CD. The information is stored either in the lead-in area of the CD, where there is roughly five kilobytes of space available, or in the Subchannels R to W on the disc, which can store about 31 megabytes. The latter areas are not used by strict Red Book CDs. The text is stored in a format usable by the Interactive Text Transmission System (ITTS). ITTS is also used by Digital Audio Broadcasting
Digital audio broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....
or the MiniDisc
MiniDisc
The disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...
. The specification was released in September 1996 and backed by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
. Support for CD-Text is common, but not universal. Utilities exist to automatically rip CD-Text data, and insert it into CDDB
CDDB
CDDB, short for Compact Disc Database, is a database for software applications to look up audio CD information over the Internet. This is performed by a client which calculates a unique disc ID and then queries the database. As a result, the client is able to display the artist name, CD title,...
or freedb
Freedb
freedb is a database of compact disc track listings, where all the content is under the GNU General Public License. It was originally based on the now-proprietary CDDB . As of April 24, 2006, the database holds just under 2,000,000 CDs...
.
Format
MMC-3 specifies 16 types. Of these, three are reserved and so don't have keywords.| Keyword | Description | Section | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARRANGER | Name(s) of the arranger(s) | Any | Character |
| COMPOSER | Name(s) of the composer(s) | Any | Character |
| DISK_ID | Disc Identification information | Any | Binary |
| GENRE Music genre A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music... |
Genre Identification and Genre information | Any | Binary |
| ISRC | ISRC Code of each track | Track | Character |
| MESSAGE | Message from the content provider and/or artist | Any | Character |
| PERFORMER | Name(s) of the performer(s) | Any | Character |
| SONGWRITER | Name(s) of the songwriter(s) | Any | Character |
| TITLE | Title of album name or Track Titles | Any | Character |
| TOC_INFO | Table of Content information | Any | Binary |
| TOC_INFO2 | Second Table of Content information | Any | Binary |
| UPC_EAN | UPC/EAN code of the album | Disc | Character |
| SIZE_INFO | Size information of the Block | Any | Binary |
The character encoding
Character encoding
A character encoding system consists of a code that pairs each character from a given repertoire with something else, such as a sequence of natural numbers, octets or electrical pulses, in order to facilitate the transmission of data through telecommunication networks or storage of text in...
is not specified, and there is no provision for indicating in the CD-Text data which encoding is in use. The original Sony authoring tools and specifications supported ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
and two of its supersets, ISO-8859-1 and "MS-JIS"
Code page 932
Code page 932 is Microsoft's extension of Shift JIS to include NEC special characters , NEC selection of IBM extensions , and IBM extensions . The coded character sets are JIS X0201:1997, JIS X0208:1997, and these extensions...
. Annex J of the MMC
MultiMedia Commands
MultiMedia Commands defines a SCSI/ATA based command set for accessing multimedia features on devices capable of such functionality. T10 subcommittee is responsible for developing it as well as other SCSI command set standards.-See also:...
-2 specification mentions only ASCII, but provides for "double byte character codes
DBCS
A double-byte character set is a character set that represents each character with 2 bytes. The DBCS supports national languages that contain a large number of unique characters or symbols...
" to be indicated.
Software
- AudiograbberAudiograbberAudiograbber is a proprietary freeware CD audio extractor/converter program for Microsoft Windows. It was one of the first programs in the genre to become popular. The data extraction algorithm was designed by Jackie Franck and was included in the Xing Technology software package Xing Audio...
has support for reading CD-Text to fill in artist/title information (if present) when ripping CDs - BraseroBrasero (software)Brasero is a free disc-burning program for Unix-like systems, which serves as a graphical front-end to cdrtools, growisofs, and libburn.Brasero is the default CD/DVD application in the GNOME desktop....
has support for CD-Text from version 0.5.90 - cdrdaoCdrdaocdrdao is open source software for authoring and ripping of CD-ROMs. The software is released under the GPL. Cdrdao records audio or data CD-Rs in Disk-At-Once mode based on a textual description of the CD contents...
, Linux command line tool that supports writing CD-Text. - CDexCDexCDex is a CD ripper for Microsoft Windows. It convert tracks on a CD to standard computer sound files, such as WAV, MP3, or Ogg Vorbis. Released under the GNU General Public License, CDex is free software. , it is the 14th most popular download on SourceForge.net, with over 41 million downloads. It...
can read from CD-Text. - CDRWINCDRWINCDRWIN is a CD/DVD burning software for Microsoft Windows developed by Golden Hawk Technology company.Once popular, CDRWIN's usage has diminished due to the bundling of limited versions of other software packages, such as Nero Burning ROM and Roxio Easy CD Creator, with new computers and optical...
can burn CD-Text - Exact Audio CopyExact Audio CopyExact Audio Copy is a proprietary CD ripping program for Microsoft Windows. It has also been tested to work under newer versions of Wine on Linux...
have support for reading CD-Text to fill in artist/title information (if present) when ripping CDs. - foobar2000Foobar2000foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows developed by Peter Pawlowski, a former freelance contractor for Nullsoft. It is known for its highly modular design and extensive SDK which allows third-party developers to do such things as completely replace the interface...
Since version 1.0 foobar2000 has support for reading CD-Text to fill in artist/title information (if present) when playing and ripping CDs. - icedax, Linux command line tool that supports reading CD-Text.
- ImgBurnImgBurnImgBurn is a freeware program that allows the recording of many types of CD/DVD images to recordable media . Starting with version 2.0.0.0, ImgBurn can also burn files and data directly to CD/DVD. It supports padding DVD-Video files so the layer break occurs on a proper cell boundary...
can burn CD-Text. This information can be added/modified during the creation of a .CUE file. - IsoBusterIsoBuster-External links:*...
copies CD-Text (if available) when a CD is ripped in raw format and saves it to a .cdt file. - iTunesITunesiTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
7 or higher supports burning with CD Text. It is by default an unchecked option in the burning preferences. - K3bK3bK3b is a CD and DVD authoring application by KDE for Unix-like computer operating systems. It provides a graphical user interface to perform most CD/DVD burning tasks like creating an Audio CD from a set of audio files or copying a CD/DVD, as well as more advanced tasks such as burning eMoviX...
has support for reading and writing CD-Text on Linux. - MediaMonkeyMediaMonkeyMediaMonkey is a proprietary digital media player and media library application developed by Ventis Media Inc., for organizing and playing audio on Microsoft Windows operating systems. By using plugins, it can be extended to handle video and other media formats as well.MediaMonkey is available in a...
has full CD-Text Support. - MusicBeeMusicBeeMusicBee is a free digital media player and media library application for organizing and playing audio on Microsoft Windows operating systems using the BASS Audio Library.-Features:...
audio player/organizer can read CD-Text when playing or ripping CDs. - Nero Burning ROMNero Burning ROMNero Multimedia Suite is a popular software suite for Microsoft Windows by Nero AG . Version 10 of this product was released in April 2010.- Included products :The following applications are included in Nero 11 :Disc authoring...
can burn CD-Text since version 5.5.10; its track saving utility can read CD-Text when ripping. - PowerISOPowerISOPowerISO is an application used to create, open, mount / emulate, compress, encrypt, and otherwise manipulate CD / DVD image files. It is most commonly known for its proprietary DAA disc image format. Other supported formats include ISO, BIN, NRG, and CDI. PowerISO is able to modify all supported...
has support for CD-Text from version 4.5 - RealplayerRealPlayerRealPlayer is a cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.-History:...
10 supports Reading and Writing of CD-Text - Sound JuicerSound JuicerSound Juicer is an application Front-End to the Cdparanoia CD ripping library. It allows the user to extract audio from compact discs and convert it into audio files that a personal computer or digital audio player can understand and play...
can read from CD-Text - Toast on Mac OS X has support for CD-Text.
- VLC media playerVLC media playerVLC media player is a free and open source media player and multimedia framework written by the VideoLAN project.VLC is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to...
can read CD-Text on all platforms - WinampWinampWinamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp...
has had support for reading CD-Text since version 5.31, but does not write CD-Text. - Windows Media PlayerWindows Media PlayerWindows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
10 and higher with the WMPCDText plug-in supports reading CD-Text. - X-CD-RoastX-CD-RoastX-CD-Roast is a GTK+ front-end for cdrtools which provides a graphical user interface for CD authoring.X-CD-Roast runs on Linux and other Unix-like computer operating systems...
for Linux has had reading/writing support since version 0.98alpha10.- The underlying command-line utilities cdrecord/cdda2wavCdrtoolscdrtools is a collection of independent projects of free software/open source computer programs, created by Jörg Schilling and others under the GNU General Public License ....
have support in (at least) version 2.01, but it must be enabled. See the documentation.
- The underlying command-line utilities cdrecord/cdda2wav