.Bin+.Cue vs .Iso

[Daniel Oskarsson]

Hi all, I have a question that I thought that you guys (and girls) would like to help me with. I wonder why .Bin+.Cue is the #1 format and not .Iso. Is .Bin+.Cue supperior to .Iso in any way, and if so in what way? And if not why isn't .Iso #1?

If you know anything about this or just wish to share your thoughts to all us other please make a post. thx

[baphomet_irl Veteran]

yeh good question, Ive always wondered about that too...

I think .bin and .cue's might be better for multi-track burns or soemthing, but im DEFINITELY not sure :D

[insanekiwi]

bin+cue(sheet) = cdrwin, very old n reliable program ,manyppl use it (especially for zipping juarez online for trading *wink wink*). maybe it's way more popular cuz cdrwin has been around for quite a long time.

[[f]]

As far as I know, an .iso is the older of the two formats, and I come to this conclusion only logically...... .iso is the ISO standard compact disc IMAGE format....and would thusly have been created at the time Compact Disc's were invented (or shortly thereafter).

Now for why I think .bin files are the norm these days for disc imaging.

.iso files when created use an amount of compression, that MAY interfere with some/all protection schemes. And I don't think .bin files use the compression, and would therefore not interfere with said protection schemes.

Just my thoughts, if I'm wrong I am...lol

[f]

[aco Veteran]

What I think...

An ISO image is an exact copy of a CD made in the ISO 9660 format. A bin is a type of ISO image and a cue is just the index file with the name of the bin file and the bit rate.

I think bin images are used more for media and music.

[KnifeFace]

You can convert .bin to .iso, and from .iso to .bin

but .bin takes some 10% more space, so I honestly can't understand why people use .bin

[ElGato]

My Thoughts;

AFAIK, an ISO can be created from so many applications these days that the contents can not be garaunteed to be an "Exact Copy" of a CD and there for subject to virus and such. Where as .BIN + .CUE can only be a CD Copy using appropriate programs, and as such is a genuine untainted Copy.

[MaddogMDD]

Basicaly, an ISO is best when your CD is a data CD with no copyright protection. It's a more universal and versatile format, and is smaller as stated earlier. But if you want an exact copy of a cd, including multiple tracks and copyright data, you have to use BIN, which is the next most universal format. Nero can now burn bin/cues so all is peachy ;-).

[KnifeFace]

btw: what is .cue actually?

[twist]

Originally posted by KnifeFace

btw: what is .cue actually?

its the table of contents for how to burn the bin file, lemme find one...

<pre>

FILE "filenamechanged.bin" BINARY

  TRACK 01 MODE2/2352

    INDEX 01 00:00:00

  TRACK 02 MODE2/2352

    INDEX 01 00:16:02

</pre>

i find bin/cues burn much faster then isos.

[baphomet_irl Veteran]

so are .bin .cue's better for copyin a multi-track CD - i.e. an 'enhanced' musi CD which has video data aswell?

[twist]

Originally posted by baphomet_irl

so are .bin .cue's better for copyin a multi-track CD - i.e. an 'enhanced' musi CD which has video data aswell?

i've never had a problem with them, copied lots of psx games with data + music tracks just fine

[aco Veteran]

Originally posted by baphomet_irl

so are .bin .cue's better for copyin a multi-track CD - i.e. an 'enhanced' musi CD which has video data aswell?

I think so, because a straight iso burns one track and (as shown above) a bin can have multiple tracks set out in the cue file.

[Daniel Oskarsson]

Originally posted by ElGato

My Thoughts;

AFAIK, an ISO can be created from so many applications these days that the contents can not be garaunteed to be an "Exact Copy" of a CD and there for subject to virus and such. Where as .BIN + .CUE can only be a CD Copy using appropriate programs, and as such is a genuine untainted Copy.

dunno about this, there are alot of applications out there to create .bin files aswell. well it seems like .bin+.cue is taking over from .iso witch as a can remember has been the #1 format for a quite long amount of time. i don't agree that is used mainly for music and multimedia, every new realise is done in .bin+.cue no matter what the source are. what i don't get is why there is need for an extra file to keep that small amount of data, when the whole .bin file is uncompressed, well a little hard to change now a guess :), thx for you comments guys/girls made me a bit wiser..........

[MxxCon]

.iso is only data.

.bin/cue can have anything..data, audio, photo, raw, etc.

when you convert .bin to .iso becuase you think your software burn .iso better you can lose some data during coversion and get a coaster

[E3L]

normally (when its a single data track) you can just rename a .bin to .iso when ur missing the .cue... but for REAL working 1:1 CD copies go .ccd or .bwt (iso and bin are inferior) :)

[liar2]

they all seem the same to me. .cue/.bin files do burn much faster but are also much larger. they both can do the same things as far as i can see.

[+Fulcrum Subscriber¹]

great thread, but only guesses so far in terms of finding an answer, maybe someone will search for fact, and post link to articles :)

[xWeston]

What is the difference between ISO, RAW, and BIN?

There are only 2 types of CD image. The first type contains only the 2048 data bytes of a CD data sector. AGES considers this type to be .ISO. The second type contains all 2352 bytes of a CD data sector including sync, mode, and CRC junk. AGES considers this type to be either .RAW or .BIN. If your image file has the incorrect extension, you will get an error. Please note that all of these filetypes are incomplete representations of a CD if they are not accompanied by a CUE file.

What is a CUE file?

CUE files are pretty standard among CD burner software. It tells the software what files are to be burned and how to format them on the CD. AGES requires a CUE file when using a CD image in order to produce accurate TOC information. Without accurate TOC information, most Sega CD games will not work.

I got this off of a site about burning games, but it is applicable in all areas. Aparrently .bin contains sync, mode, and CRC... therefore being better to copy stuff with i assume. I personally like clone cd for making copies because of all of the raw stuff that it does.

[twist]

2048, isn't that just mode1?

2352, isn't that mode 2?

[theprotege]

iso is the way to go...or most preferably...clone cd (CCD)

i use CCD myself...bin+cue is nice...but a pain in the ass if you corrupt your cue file accidentally forget it...

isos have several programs that will let you "peek" inside, much like winzip and extract your files reguardless of whether or not you have a "cue" file...

iso is also data only...

so if you are doing music...bin+cue is better...or just a straight mp3 rip :)