Naturally, this process of placing all the information bits at the correct order is not done manually (although it remains the CD-i producer's responsibility to investigate wether the choice on amount and quality of audio and video will fit in the data stream). The process of the creation of a file that represents the contents of a CD-i disc is called disc building. The resulting file is usually called a CD-i Disc Image. The Disc Image can be played back using an Emulator (see What is a CD-i Emulator?) or burned on a CD-R to check wether its behaviour on an actual CD-i player is as expected.
There were two different models of CD-i authoring players from Philips. The first model was the CDI 180/181/182 modular CD-i system (which was also the first CD-i system ever released). The CDI-182 Expansion Module added the authoring facilities (the SCSI port, the ethernet port, a parallel port and 1 MB of extra RAM) to the generic system. Later, the CDI 605/00 replaced this system as an all-in-one authoring player. The CDI 605 consisted of 5 MB of RAM, ethernet, SCSI, parallel, extra serial ports and several diagnostic and emulation tools build in ROM. Since both of these players could not be expanded with a Digital Video cartridge, a new version of the CDI 605 was released as CDI 605T/20 which provided space for a Digital Video extension.
All CD-i titles that you see around are created with either low level authoring tools on a PC, Macinthosh, Sun or OS-9 system which was connected to a CD-i development player and emulator, or entirely on a CD-i development player using a high-level authoring tool like MediaMogul. Refer to What CD-i authoring tools were available? for more information about the available tools.
Another easy way of producing a CD-i compatible title is using the Presentation CD driver for Windows that can be downloaded at the PC/Windows downloads page at this website. Presentation CD is in essence a (Windows 3.x) printer driver that allows you to 'print' to a CD-i disc image format. All 'pages' will be added in sequence and are combined with a CD-i application. The created file can then be burned onto a CD using most popular CD-Recording tools. The resulting disc is playable on a CD-i player. Please keep in mind that the driver only supports up to 16 colors due to a limitation in the Windows 3.x printer driver system, but it is fun for presentations on CD-i.
The best way to make a decent looking CD-i title using a Windows systems however is probably the ShowBuilder package from Philips, that can be downloaded at the PC/Windows downloads page at this website. It allows you to create CD-i presetions using stills, audio and even MPEG Digital Video directly on a PC. The scripts you provide on the disc can even be changed at runtime on the CD-i player, allowing the user to create his own presentations using the audio, stills and video on the disc. ShowBuilder does not provide for interactive features besides creating a slideshow and browsing through its contents.
Of course, you can also make a Video-CD title to play on a CD-i player. Video-CD creation tools are much more widely available than dedicated CD-i creation tools, and a true White Book Video-CD disc can always be played on a CD-i player. Refer to How can I make a Video-CD? for more information.
For more information about the various versions of the White Book Video-CD standard, the various CD-i applications, its versions, the customizations of the application and all other questions related to Video-CD on CD-i, please refer to section 6 of this FAQ: Video-CD on CD-i.
Kodak sold a CD-Recording application to create Photo-CDs once, called Kodak Arange-it!, but this software is no longer available. It seems like Kodak is rapidly replacing Photo-CD with their new Picture-CD format which is not compatible with Photo-CD players nor CD-i players.
Just drag your JPG-files to the Video-CD section on the disc and they will be converted to MPEG stills. From version 5.5 onwards, Nero will include an index screen with thumbnails of all pictures that can be selected on the disc!
The MPEG still pictures are encoded in high TV resolution (as long as the source pictures are in a high resolution), but they will be showed in a lower resolution when viewing the disc on a CD-i player. The pictures can then still be viewed in a higher resolution on for example DVD players. Note that the CD-i player needs to be equiped with a Digital Video cartridge to view the MPEG stills, even though the disc might not contain moving video.
CeQuadrat/Roxio WinOnCD 3.7 and up offers similar functionality called the 'Photobook' feature, but although the program claims to make a Video-CD compliant disc, it does not include a CD-i application capable of showing these Video-CD 2.0 enhanced pictures. Future version will allow you to replace the CD-i application by the Philips application that can be downloaded from www.icdia.org.
Remember that in contrast to making a Photo-CD, placing pictures on a Video-CD is not a good solution for storing your archives of pictures. A Photo-CD contains pictures in a very high resolution (over 3000 x 2000 pixels) alowing you to make pefect prints of them, a Video-CD only stores the pictures in TV resolution. Always preserve the original files!
7.14 How can I make a CD+Graphics?
Using CD+G Creator (which can be downloaded from the Other CD-i tools page in the PC/Windows download section), you can create a CD-Audio disc with a background picture for each audio track according to the CD+G specification. The tool does not allow you to create moving graphics or colour loops, these features may possibly be included in a future version. Please note that you need a CD-Recorder capable of writing subcode to record CD+G data. Most Plextor models can do this.
