Contents

CDMASTER

The ONLY Compact Disc Utility for your PC

Table of Contents

Product Registration

Copyright © 1993 by Thomas L. Thornbury.  All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1993 by Semaphore Software.  All rights reserved.


Contents
Table of Contents

Introduction

CD Master Overview

About CDMaster

Using CDMaster

Modes of Operation

What are Play Lists

Saving Play Lists

Loading PlayLists

Contacting The Author

Product License & Warranty

Product Registration

Copyright/Trademark Acknowledgements

Questions And Answers

Copyright © 1993 by Thomas L. Thornbury.  All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1993 by Semaphore Software.  All rights reserved.


Introduction

I like to listen to music when I program, so when I bought my CD-ROM drive, I not only intended to use it for data purposes but also for audio.  Prior to my CD-ROM drive, I was running the output from my portable audio CD player through my sound board.  While this worked fine, it was a pain always connecting and disconnecting it when I wanted to take it somewhere.

So when I bought my CD-ROM drive, I first used the audio CD program that came with my sound card.  It was pretty basic and did the job, but it wasn't Windows based, it misbehaved under Windows, and just wasn't what I wanted.  So I looked through the CD-ROM forum on Compuserve, and while I liked some of the programs, some would terminate unexpectedly others had more features than I wanted.  As a result, a programmer by profession, I decided to write my own.

CDMaster is the result of that effort.  It was written in 'C' using Borland C++ 3.1 and Application Frameworks and uses the MCI interface of Windows 3.1.  Nearly all of the documentation for CDMaster is provided via the online help system.

General Help is accessed by pressing the F1 key.  Context sensitive help is accessed by pressing Shift-F1.  I hope you like CDMaster enough to share your observations and suggestions with me, and if I'm lucky, you will register CDMaster.


CDMaster Overview
Overview of CDMaster

CDMaster is intended to be the only application you need as far as controlling a CD-ROM drive attached to your PC in audio mode.  There are various hardware and software requirements to be able to use CDMaster.  If you are having trouble getting CDMaster to work with your machine, please consult the applicable help topics and the Questions and Answers topic in this documentation.

CDMaster allows you to program the CD-ROM player that is attached to your PC the way you would your audio CD player.  You can play CD's in two modes, Entire CD mode or PlayList mode.  For more information on these modes, please consult the Using CDMaster topic and the Modes of Operation topic.

When CDMaster first loads, it interrogates your hardware in this order.

1. Dou you have a CD-ROM drive attached?

2. If so, is media (a CD) in the drive?

3. If there is a CD in the drive?

a. How many tracks on the CD?

b. How long is each track?

c. Is a CD currently playing?

If CDMaster fails to identify the CD drive or the CD that is loaded, it informs you by way of a message box and certain functions are disabled.  Otherwise, CDMaster is ready for either PlayList programming or direct entry of a desired track.  By default, just pressing Play will start play at track one in Entire CD mode or the first track in a PlayList in PlayList mode.


About CDMaster

CDMaster is a copyrighted work of software and as such is protected by all applicable laws.  Please see the License and Warranty section of this document.

Copyright © 1993 by Thomas L. Thornbury.  All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1993 by Semaphore Software.  All rights reserved.

CDMaster is the result of many hours of hard work and a few late nights.  I hope you, the user, are pleased enough with my work to register this program.  The registration fee is a nominal one.  By registering this program you will receive free techinical support and a free copy of the next version of the program.


Using CDMaster

Since CDMaster behaves similar to a real CD player, CDMaster is, for the most part, pretty simple to use.  If there is no CD-ROM drive attached to your machine or if no CD is present in the drive, CDMaster disables the pushbuttons associated with the operation of the CD-ROM drive.  Otherwise the usage of CDMaster should be straight forward.  It is recommended however that you should read the topic regarding PlayLists.  If you have any difficulty with the basic operation pushbuttons, there are sections in this documentation detailing their use.

See also:

Modes of Operation

PlayLists Described


Modes of Operation

There are two modes of operation for CDMaster.  Normal or Entire CD mode and PlayList mode.

See also:

Entire CD mode

PlayList mode


Play List Description
Play Lists Described

Just as you can program most audio CD players to play selected tracks from a CD, you can do this with CDMaster.  With CDMaster you can also Save new PlayLists and Load existing PlayLists.

A PlayList contains the tracks you wish to play and the order in which to play them.  The order is represented by the ordinal position in the list, that is they are played in the order the occur in the list.

See also:

Modes of Operation


Saving PlayLists

You can save a PlayList for later retrieval.  This is done by selecting File|Save PlayList off the menu.

PlayLists are saved and indexed by name, so no two PlayLists can have exactly the same name.  When saving a PlayList, if the name is identical to an existing PlayList, the information related to that PlayList is replaced by the current information.  Otherwise, the PlayList is saved under the name provided.

When saving a PlayList, the tracks contained in the current PlayList are displayed in the listbox below the name.


Loading PlayLists

You can load a previously saved PlayList by selecting File|Load PlayList off the menu.  When you load a PlayList, CDMaster checks to see if the CD in the drive is the same as the one that the PlayList was created for.

If it isn't, CDMaster will ask you if your sure you want to load this PlayList.  The reason for this is that CDMaster plays tracks from their ordinal position on the CD.  Using the incorrect PlayList for a CD is not reccommended.

Remember:  CDMaster saves the total number of tracks on a CD with the PlayList.  Therefore, if you load an incorrect PlayList, modify it for that CD, and then save it, you may recieve an error when you try to load it for the correct CD.


Contacting the Author

I am always interested in hearing input from users of my software, both good and bad.  Whether you have a bug report, you don't like something about the user interface or whatever, please drop me a line.  I may be contacted either via email at:

Compuserve:  75600,631

or at:

Thomas L. Thornbury

Semaphore Software

1309 Melanie Street

Easton, PA  18042


Product License
CDMaster User License & Warranty

Semaphore Software is a trade name used by Thomas L. Thornbury and the two may be used interchangeably.  Therefore, all copyrights, distribution rights, and other rights or liabilities under this agreement are held by Thomas L. Thornbury.

This is the CDMaster License Agreement and describes the warranty given by Semaphore Software.  Please read the agreement and sign and date the registration form.  Failure to register this software renders any and all warranties, express or implied, pertaining to the product and it's use, null and void.  This is sole agreement between you and Semaphore Software governing the use of CDMaster.

License

This agreement gives you a non-exclusive right to use this program.  This program may only be used on a single computer.  You may physically transfer the program from one computer to another provided that the program is only used on one computer at a time.  You may not distribute this program via any medium, including but not limited to, Local or Wide Area Networks; data communication lines; floppy or hard disks; or any other data transfer medium for the purposes of profit or personal/commercial gain without first obtaining these rights from Semaphore Software.  You may however, distribute this software in its original archive to other individuals or organizations via any medium you wish provided no fee is charged for it's duplication or distribution.  Online usage charges such as usage charges charged by Compuserve and similar networks are not considered distribution fees for the purposes of this agreement.

Copyright

CDMaster is the valuable proprietary property of Semaphore Software and is protected by Title 17 of the United States Code otherwise known as Copyright Act of 1976 and by laws of most foreign countries.  Thomas L. Thornbury owns all rights to CDMaster including the Copyright.  This agreement does not convey ownership to CDMaster to you, but is only a right to use a copy of the product in accordance with this agreement.  Copyright infringement under the U.S. Copyright Act carries a fine of up to $25,000 and imprisionment of up to one year (17 USC 506).

Limited Warranty

If you obtained this program directly from Semaphore Software on magnetic media, Semaphore Software warrants that:

(a) The magnetic media on which the program is recorded is not defective;

(b) The program is properly recorded on the magnetic media;

(c) The programs functions as described in the attached documentation and online help system.

Semaphore Software specifically excludes all other express and implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, and limits the end users remedy to replacement of the defective media.

If you obtained this software from an online service such as Compuserve, Semaphore Software warrants that:

(a) If the archive is a copy of the archive supplied to online service, the executable programs are extractable from the supplied archive;

(b) The programs functions as described in the attached documentation and online help system.

Semaphore Software specifically excludes all other express and implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.  The sole remedy to the end user is that Semaphore Software will re-introduce the software to the Compuserve Information Service regardless of what Information Service the software was obtained from.

Miscellaneous

Any provision or provisions of this agreement which is or are proved to be invalid, void, or illegal shall in no way offset, impair, or otherwise invalidate any other provision.  It is the intention of the parties that this agreement be governed by the laws of the state of Pennsylvania.  Any action or proceeding based on this agreement arising out of its performance shall be brought in a Federal or State Court in Pennsylvania and in no other jurisdiction.

Copyright © 1993 by Thomas L. Thornbury.  All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1993 by Semaphore Software.  All rights reserved.


Registration
Product Registration

By registering CDMaster, you not only clear your conscience and become a licensed user, you will also recieve notice of updates to CDMaster and announcements of new products.  You will also receive a disk automatically when the next version of CDMaster becomes available.

Registration costs only $15.00.  To register, select the following text Registration Form, and then select File|Print Topic from the Help System menu.


Copyrights/Trademarks
Copyright/Trademark Acknowlegements

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Compuserve is a registered trademark of Compuserve, Incorporated.

Borland C++ is a trademark of Borland International, Incorporated.


Questions
Questions And Answers

Q. When I exit CDMaster while a CD is playing, it sounds like my CD is skipping. Why?  Answer

Q. I have a play list loaded and I just changed CD's.  CDMaster is telling me the current PlayList conflicts with my new CD.  Why?  Answer

Q. I just brought up CDMaster and it is acting as though there is no CD in the drive but it didn't give me an error.  What's the problem? Answer


Registration Form

TO:	Thomas Thornbury

Semaphore Software

1309 Melanie Street

Easton, PA  18042

Enclosed is my registration form and applicable registration fee.  I understand that by registering CDMaster I will receive the next version of CDMaster free of charge and that I will receive announcements of future versions and products.

Name____________________________________________________

Address_________________________________________________

City___________________________ State _____ Zip ________

What version of Windows are you using? ________

Make and Model of CD-ROM Drive _________________________

Number of CD's owned. ___ Audio ___ Data CD's ___

Where did you acquire CDMaster ?

    Compuserve [ ]   Genie [ ]    America Online [ ]

    BIX [ ]   Prodigy [ ]    America Online [ ]

    Internet [ ]    Other [ ]

Forum/Newsgroup or BBS Name ____________________________

________________________________________________________

Magazines you read regularly. __________________________

________________________________________________________

Suggestions/Comments ___________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________


MSCDEX.EXE

MSCDEX.EXE is the Microsoft CD Extensions driver.  CDMaster has only been tested with version 2.21 or greater.  If you do not have the latest version, you can usually download this file from an online service service such as Compuserve or obtain it directly from Microsoft.


MCICDA.DRV

MCICDA.DRV is the Multimedia Communications Interface CD Audio driver.  This file is installed through the Control Panel in Microsoft Windows.  Please consult the documentation in Windows on how to install this file.


Selecting PlayList mode

The PlayList mode of CDMaster is invoked by setting the radio button corresponding to PlayList Mode to on.  This act will automatically set the Entire CD mode radio button to off since the two are mutually exclusive.


Selecting Entire CD mode

The Entire CD mode of CDMaster is invoked by setting the radio button corresponding to Entire CD to on.  This act will automatically set the PlayList mode radio button to off since the two are mutually exclusive.


Selecting Play to End

CDMaster needs to know what to do with a playing CD if you exit the application while a CD is playing.  Upon exit, CDMaster sends his last dying message to your CD player.  By default, CDMaster will finish playing the current track.  If you want CDMaster to tell the CD player to finish playing the entire CD, select this option.

note:  This does not apply to PlayLists.  If this option is selected and a PlayList is active, CDMaster acts as if it was in Entire CD mode and plays the entire CD.


Ordinal

Ordinal means in order, like 1,2,3 or first, second, third.


A. During operation, CDMaster plays each track one by one.  If you exit CDMaster and Play To End is selected in Options, CDMaster needs to save the current position and reissue the play command to your CD-ROM drive instructing it to continue play from the saved position and then all remaining tracks on the CD.  If Play To End is not selected, the CD-ROM drive plays to the end of the currently playing track.


A. CDMaster has a pretty good idea of whether the currently loaded PlayList corresponds to the currently loaded CD.  If they don't, CDMaster sees this as a conflict and generates a message to that effect.  Since CDMaster plays from ordinal positions, and since CDMaster won't let you program a PlayList for a CD that's not loaded, this check isn't really required for PlayList integrity.  This check is performed so that you are aware that you are loading a PlayList for a unloaded CD.  Using the incorrect PlayList for a CD can cause unpredictable results.


A. It's possible the problem could be hardware related.  However, if you've loaded and used CDMaster before and now all of a sudden CDMaster isn't sensing the status of your CD-ROM drive or the number of tracks, you probably have accidentally turned on No Status Checks on the Options menu.  If you turn this off, CDMaster should work fine.


File Menu

The following menu options can be found off the File Menu.

File|Load PlayList

File|Save PlayList

File|Exit


Load PlayList
File|Load PlayList

You can load an existing PlayList using this menu selection.


Save PlayList
File|Save PlayList

You can save a defined PlayList using this menu selection.


Exit
File|Exit

To exit CDMaster, either double click on the system menu box in the upper left hand corner or select Exit CDMaster off the menu.

note: By default, upon exiting CDMaster, the CD-ROM will stop playing after the current track.  To change this, select the Play To End off the Options menu.


Options Menu
Options

The following menu options can be found off the Options Menu.

Options|No Status Checks

Options|Minimize Status Checks

Options|Play To End


No Status Checks
Options|No Status Checks

This option tells CDMaster to not poll the CD-ROM drive at all for status information.  This useful if you want to load CDMaster in your startup, but only use it to start/stop/pause the CD-ROM drive.

note: Since this option disables status checks and since this option is saved in CDMASTER.INI, it can appear that CDMaster is not functioning correctly.  Please see the Questions and Answers section.


Minimize Status Checks
Options|Minimize Status Checks

This option tells CDMaster to only poll for status when CDMaster is windowed.  If you select this option, when CDMaster is iconized, no status checks are performed.  This is beneficial if servicing these requests puts too much stress on your system.


Play to End
Options|Play to End

Normally, each time a track finishes playing, the CD-ROM drive sends a message to CDMaster to tell it it is done.  CDMaster then either plays the next track in the PlayList if in PlayList mode or the next track on the CD if in Entire CD mode.

A side effect of this approach is that if you exit the application, since CDMaster isn't running he doesn't know what to do when the track finishes.  By selecting this option, CDMaster sends a final command to the CD-ROM drive instructing it to play the rest of the CD.

note:  This does not apply to PlayLists.  If this option is selected and a PlayList is active, CDMaster acts as if it was in Entire CD mode and plays the entire CD.


Play

To play a loaded CD, just press the Play button.  In Entire CD mode, play will begin at the first track on the CD.  In PlayList mode play will begin at the first track in the PlayList.


Stop

To stop CDMaster, just press the Stop button.  Upon pressing the Stop button, play is stopped and certain buttons that don't make sense in this state, like Stop and Pause, are grayed out.


Pause

To pause CDMaster while playing a track, press the Pause button.  CDMaster saves the current position and pauses the CD.


Next Trackt
>> (Next Track)

To go to the next track on the CD, press this button.  Pressing this button in Entire CD takes you forward 1 track on the CD.  Pressing this button in PlayList Mode takes you forward 1 track in the PlayList.


Previous Track
<< (Previous track)

To go to the previous track on the CD, press this button.  Pressing this button in Entire CD takes you back 1 track on the CD.  Pressing this button in PlayList Mode takes you back 1 track in the PlayList.


Next 10 seconds
> 10s (Next 10 seconds)

To go forward 10 seconds in the currently playing track, press this button.  This button is independent of mode, it moves you within the track only.


Previous 10 seconds
< 10s (Previous 10 seconds)

To go backward 10 seconds in the currently playing track, press this button.  This button is independent of mode, it moves you within the track only.


Numbers
0 thru 9

To direct enter a track for playing, use the number pushbuttons or type the number of the track you want using the digits 0 thru 9.  When entering a track directly, CDMaster treats the first character entered as the most significant.

If the pushbutton is grayed out, it is because there are less than that number of tracks on the CD.

Example:  To enter track 12, press 1 and then 2.


Restart Track Entry

To cancel the direct entry of a track, press this button.  When entering a track directly, CDMaster treats the first character entered as the most significant.

Example:  To enter track 12, press 1 and then 2.


PlayList Programming

To program a PlayList for the currently loaded CD, press this button.  You will be presented by two list boxes.  The left listbox contains tracks that are in the current PlayList.  The right listbox contains a list of all tracks on this CD.

See also:

Add to List

Remove from List


Add track to PlayList
Add to PlayList

Select a track from the right listbox and optionally provide a name for the track and press this button.  A occurrence of this track will be added to the PlayList (left listbox).


Remove track from PlayList
Remove from List

Select the track you wish to remove from the left listbox and press this button.  The track will be removed from the PlayList.


Entire CD Mode

Select the Entire CD mode radio button.

In this mode, all tracks on the CD will be played.  The default is to start from track one, however you may also direct enter the desired track.  By then pressing the Play pushbutton, play will begin at the selected track.


PlayList Mode

Select the PlayList mode radio button.

In this mode, the tracks specified in the PlayList will be played according to the options set in the Play Options group to the right.


Software Requirements

CDMaster requires that you be running Microsoft Windows 3.1.  While CDMaster may run under Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions, it is not recommended.

CDMaster also requires the latest versions of the following files/drivers to be loaded.

MSCDEX.EXE Ver (2.21+)

MCICDA.DRV (3.10+)


Hardware Requirements

CDMaster requires that you have a CD-ROM device attached to your machine that is audio capable.  Most CD-ROM drives available today are audio capable.


Keys

The following is a list of keys that are valid in CDMaster.

F1	General Help/Help Index

Shift-F1	Context Sensitive Help

Alt-S	Save PlayList

Alt-L	Load PlayList

Alt-X	Exit CDMaster

Alt-N	No Status Checks

Alt-Z	Minimize Status Checks

Alt-E	Play to End

Alt-P	Play

Alt-O	Stop

Alt-<	Previous Track

Alt->	Next Track

Esc	Cancel Direct Track Entry

0 thru 9	Same as Numeric Pushbuttons


F1

F1 is the general help key.  It will bring up the Windows Help Facility and position you at the index.


Shift-F1

Shift-F1 is the context sensitive help key.  If the focus is on a control or key that has context sensitive help, this key will take you directly to the help for that key.