Building Images

Open Burning Suite can create disc images from files and folders on your computer. This includes data disc images (ISO 9660, Joliet, UDF) and audio CD images.

Data Disc Images

Supported Filesystems

Filesystem	Description	Compatibility
ISO 9660	Base standard for CD-ROM filesystems (ECMA-119)	Universal — works everywhere
Joliet	Microsoft extension to ISO 9660 with Unicode support	Windows, most modern OS
UDF	Universal Disk Format — modern replacement for ISO 9660	DVD, Blu-ray, modern OS
Rock Ridge	POSIX extension to ISO 9660 (long filenames, permissions, symlinks)	Unix/Linux systems
HFS+	Apple filesystem for hybrid disc images	macOS systems

Note: HFS+ hybrid images are not fully built natively. Open Burning Suite creates the ISO 9660 portion of the image. For a native HFS+ wrapper, use Apple’s hdiutil on macOS.

Filesystem Selection Guide

Use Case	Recommended Filesystem
Maximum compatibility	ISO 9660
Windows with long filenames	Joliet
DVD or Blu-ray data disc	UDF
Linux/Unix systems	Rock Ridge
Cross-platform with long names	Joliet + Rock Ridge

Build Options

Basic Options

Option	Description	Default
Source Folder	Directory containing files to include in the image	— (required)
Output Image Path	Where to save the generated image file	— (required)
Disc Type	Target disc type (CD, DVD-5, DVD-9, BD-25, BD-50, etc.)	CD
Filesystem	Filesystem format (ISO 9660, Joliet, UDF, Rock Ridge, Mixed)	ISO 9660

Volume Metadata

Option	Description	Max Length
Volume Label	Name of the disc as shown in file managers	32 characters
Publisher	Publisher identifier	—
Preparer	Data preparer identifier	—
Application	Application identifier	—

Note: The ISO 9660 volume identifier is limited to 32 uppercase characters per ECMA-119 §8.4.1. Open Burning Suite automatically truncates and uppercases the volume label for ISO 9660 compliance.

Filesystem Options

Option	Description	Default
Joliet Long Filenames	Allow filenames longer than the 64-character Joliet limit	On
Rock Ridge Extensions	Include POSIX metadata (permissions, symlinks, long names)	Off
Deep Directory Nesting	Allow directory nesting deeper than 8 levels (ISO 9660 limit)	Off
Allow Lowercase	Allow lowercase characters in ISO 9660 filenames	Off
Allow Special Characters	Allow special characters in filenames	Off
UDF Version	UDF filesystem version (1.02, 1.5, 2.01, 2.50, 2.60)	1.02

Advanced Options

Option	Description	Default
Pad to Capacity	Pad the image to fill the target disc capacity	Off
Sort Files	Sort files in a specific order within the image	Off
Input Charset	Character encoding of source file names	UTF-8
Output Charset	Character encoding for the image filesystem	UTF-8

Bootable Disc Images

Open Burning Suite supports creating bootable CD and DVD images using the El Torito specification.

Options

Option	Description
Bootable	Enable boot support in the image
Boot Image Path	Path to the boot image file (e.g., isolinux.bin, GRUB image, UEFI loader)
Emulation Mode	No Emulation (modern, most common), Floppy (1.2/1.44/2.88 MB legacy), or Hard Disk
Platform	x86 (BIOS), PowerPC, Mac, or EFI (UEFI)
Load Segment	Memory address to load the boot image (hex, 0 = default 0x07C0)
Sector Count	Number of 512-byte virtual sectors to load (0 = auto-detect)
Patch Boot Info Table	Required by ISOLINUX and GRUB — patches the boot image with LBA and size
EFI Dual-Boot Image	Optional second boot image for UEFI, enabling dual BIOS+UEFI boot

Common Boot Scenarios

BIOS boot CD: Use a floppy image (1.44 MB) or no-emulation boot image
UEFI boot DVD: Use a FAT-formatted UEFI boot image
Linux live CD/DVD: Typically uses isolinux/syslinux boot loader

Audio CD Images

Open Burning Suite can build audio CD images from audio files. The built-in audio converter (powered by NAudio) handles format conversion automatically.

Audio Track Properties

Property	Description	Default
File Path	Path to the audio file	— (required)
Title	Track title (for CD-TEXT)	—
Artist	Track artist (for CD-TEXT)	—
Pre-Gap	Silence before the track (seconds)	2
ISRC	International Standard Recording Code	—
Copy Permitted	Allow digital copying of this track	Off
Four Channel	Mark as 4-channel (quadraphonic) audio	Off
Pre-Emphasis	Apply pre-emphasis flag	Off

CD-TEXT Metadata

Property	Description
Album	Album title for the entire disc
Artist	Album artist for the entire disc

Note: CD-TEXT is embedded in the disc’s subchannel data and displayed by compatible CD players and car stereos.

VCD / SVCD / XSVCD Images

Open Burning Suite can build Video CD (VCD), Super Video CD (SVCD), and eXtended Super Video CD (XSVCD) disc images in BIN/CUE format using CD-ROM XA Mode 2 sectors.

Feature	VCD	SVCD	XSVCD
Video codec	MPEG-1	MPEG-2	MPEG-2
Max resolution	352×240 (NTSC), 352×288 (PAL)	480×480 (NTSC), 480×576 (PAL)	720×480 (NTSC), 720×576 (PAL)
Mux rate	1,394 kbps (fixed)	Up to 2,778 kbps (VBR)	Up to 3,500 kbps (VBR)
Capacity	~74–80 min per CD	~35–40 min per CD	~25–35 min per CD
Sector type	Mode 2 Form 2 (2,328 bytes user data)	Mode 2 Form 2 (2,328 bytes user data)	Mode 2 Form 2 (2,328 bytes user data)

VCD/SVCD/XSVCD images include the required filesystem structure (VCD directory, INFO.VCD/INFO.SVD, ENTRIES, etc.) and optional CD-i application stub for playback on Philips CD-i players.

CD-XA Marker

VCD, SVCD, and XSVCD images include the CD-XA001 marker in the Primary Volume Descriptor as required by the CD-ROM XA specification. For data ISO images, this marker can also be injected via the CD-XA Mode build option.

DVD-Video / Blu-ray Disc Authoring

Open Burning Suite includes DVD-Video and Blu-ray disc authoring capabilities. Video transcoding is handled via FFmpeg (must be installed separately).

DVD-Video

Builds a compliant VIDEO_TS directory structure containing IFO, BUP, and VOB files from input video files. The DvdAuthoringBuilder handles muxing and structure generation.

Blu-ray BDMV

Builds a standard BDMV directory structure containing index.bdmv, MPLS playlists, CLPI clip info, M2TS streams, and AUXDATA/META/BACKUP directories.

BDAV (Blu-ray Recording)

BDAV is the Blu-ray recording format used by BD recorders. Unlike BDMV, BDAV uses a simplified BDAV/ directory structure, application type 0x06, and omits AUXDATA, META, and BACKUP directories.

Blu-ray 3D

Builds stereoscopic 3D Blu-ray discs using MVC (Multiview Video Coding). Supported 3D modes:

MVC (Frame-packed) — Full resolution per eye via dependent MVC stream
Side-by-Side (SBS) — Half horizontal resolution per eye
Top-and-Bottom (TAB) — Half vertical resolution per eye

3D authoring generates the additional SSIF (Stereoscopic Interleaved File) directory and extended CLPI/MPLS metadata with depth offset information.

Note: FFmpeg is required for all video authoring features. It must be installed and available on the system PATH or in a common installation location.

Progress Tracking

During an image build, Open Burning Suite reports:

Percent complete — Overall build progress
Bytes processed — Amount of data processed
Total bytes — Total size of source data
Current file — File currently being added to the image
Elapsed time — Time since build started
Status messages — Detailed build log

Tips & Best Practices

Choose the right filesystem for your target.
- Burning for Windows PCs? Use Joliet.
- Burning for Linux servers? Use Rock Ridge.
- Burning a DVD or Blu-ray? Use UDF.
Keep volume labels short and uppercase. ISO 9660 limits labels to 32 uppercase characters. Longer or mixed-case labels will be automatically adjusted.
Use “Pad to Capacity” for gaming discs. Some gaming consoles expect the disc to be filled to a specific capacity.
Set the correct disc type. This ensures the image size is validated against the target disc capacity before building.
Pre-emphasis is rarely needed. Only enable it if your audio source was recorded with pre-emphasis encoding.

Next: Verification →