OmniCD is a NeXTstep application for controlling the audio functions of a cdrom drive. It serves as a replacement for NeXT's CDPlayer application. The primary reasons for using this application rather than CDPlayer are that it can be controlled via the app icon, and with certain cdrom drives it can record the audio directly over the scsi bus and into a sound file. Please note: OmniCD requires the Foundation Kit (see the installation instructions below).
OmniCD is free, but is currently in early beta form. Omni is not responsible for any damage that may occur as a result of using this software. This application does have fairly low level access to the hardware, and it's conceivable that it could cause system crashes with certain hardware combinations, especially when recording. Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress, and bear with the incomplete nature of this application. However, please do report bugs, feature requests and general comments, especially to note non-working hardware combinations, and to note which bugs/features/etc are most important to you.
Installation:
OmniCD may be run manually, it may be placed in /LocalApps or ~/Apps, or it may simply be placed in the application dock. In the latter cases, inserting a cd into the cdrom drive should cause OmniCD to automatically launch (it may take a moment). You may need to log out and log back in to get this to work. Wherever placed, OmniCD must be either run as root, or set-uid root. For normal usage, the latter will be preferred - once OmniCD is installed in the desired location, from the shell, as root type the following commands (example is given using /LocalApps as the installation directory - modify as appropriate):
/etc/chown root /LocalApps/OmniCD.app/OmniCD
chmod u+s /LocalApps/OmniCD.app/OmniCD
OmniCD and all future Omni products require the Foundation Kit, which is bundled with NEXTSTEP 3.3 User, Enterprise Objects Framework, and OpenStep. There are two versions of the Foundation library for 3.3, the better one is available from _NeXTanswers._
Features:
• Can record audio directly from many Toshiba, Sony/Matshita/Apple, and possibly NEC drives (platform limitations may apply - see below).
• Basic features controllable via the application icon.
• Repeat mode available for disc-play, track-play or shuffle-play modes.
• Can manually open cds which also contain data tracks and which would normally be automounted as cdroms.
• Can handle multiple cdrom drives simultaneously.
• Volume control goes up to 11 for when you need that extra boost.
Limitations:
• In order to replace CDPlayer, OmniCD has to pretend it is CDPlayer, to the extent that it is listed as CDPlayer in Workspace's processes list.
• Currently no fast-forward or fast-reverse.
• Currently can only view current track and position within track, not time remaining, etc.
• Currently can not identify track indexes.
• Currently unable to "play-through" (read the audio over the scsi bus and play out of the computer speakers).
• Source is not available, though the source for controlling the cdrom drive will be made available later.
• Can not control the Apple CD150 cdrom drive.
• No online help.
• Application icon control panel is actually a window placed over the real application icon; this window can not be moved while a cd is loaded, and it floats above all other windows (so that it is safe to operate from the dock).
• Incomplete support for mixed-mode (data + audio) cds.
• Recording from Sony/Matshita/Apple is only confirmed to work with NeXT hardware; in particular, in limited testing it has not worked on Intel or HP hardware, and has caused system hangs with the latter.
• Recording from NEC is almost entirely untested, and it didn't work with the only tested configuration (Intel).
