DELPHIAN  Obviously DiscBlaze works quite well for most people, so I would be curious as to why it doesn't for you.

What OS version are you running? (DiscBlaze 6 and newer require OS 10.4.)

Do you have a supported CD/DVD burner attached and, if necessary, turned on?  
(Version 6.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  Not really a cosmetic overhaul, it was coded from scratch at 6!

(from carbon to cocoa)  
(Version 6.0.1)

ANONYMOUS  Could you give us some additional information? Obviously we didn't find any crashing problems during our testing, but if you're experiencing it we'd love to find out why.

What OS version are you running? Do you have a supported burner (do you have several)?  
(Version 6.0)

BRYAN  Between version 4.0 and 5.0 we added the following:

- Enhanced custom icon support.

- Disc image burning as a disc type.

- The ability to check or uncheck wether a file or folder is burned in any disc layout easily.

- Audio file previews.

- Enhanced burn progress display (along with quite a few other UI improvements).

- Burning in simulation mode.

- UDF burning.

- Bit-for-bit ISO creation.

- There's many more as well, these are just a few of the changes.

Typically we have added a handful of new features every point (1.1, 1.2, etc) release and then saved the bigger releases (1.0, 2.0, etc) for times when a lot of new things are being introduced, a major platform shift is occuring (Tiger, etc) or the code for DiscBlaze has changed dramatically.

6.0 is a really solid release so far. Honestly, the UI improvement alone warrants a 6.0 in my mind. But there are also a number of usability improvements that will make people very, very happy.

As for VideoCD support, we initially planned support for this well over a year ago. In fact we even got it mostly functional and was previewed by a small selection of users. The end result? Nobody seemed to care. We asked and asked and asked our users what they wanted in terms of VideoCD functionality... and only one single user we talked to wanted to use it and could tell us what he wanted it to do.

Everyone else said "yeah, neat" but that they wouldn't ever actually use it. (That or they never would respond to our questions of what they wanted.)

Users were far more interested in things like UDF burning.

So we put the VideoCD project off to the side so that we could focus on things users actually wanted. If nobody was going to be interested in a feature, why would we clutter up DiscBlaze and spend a pretty large amount of time and money developing it?

We actively sought feedback on this for over half a year.

You see, we take a great deal of pride in listening very closely to our users. Most of the changes that have been made in DiscBlaze are direct results of conversations we've had with individuals or groups of users.

So, if it turns out that users really do want VideoCD support, talk to us about it. If we know people want something, and we know how they would use it (ie, what specific task they would use it for), then we can seriously look at making that happen if it doesn't hurt the rest of the app.  
(Version 5.1.7)

ANONYMOUS  I downloaded 5.1.7 (free trial) & tried to format a R/W CD as a UDF disc. At first I couldn't see it on the desktop, & when I added a file to it, I couldn't add more files or delete files. What's the trick?  
(Version 5.1.7)

ANONYMOUS  I second that! Toast gives you soooooooo much more. I mean sooooooooooooooo much more.  
(Version 5.1.7)

ANONYMOUS  DiscBlaze has a number of features not found in Tiger: Burning speed is faster (doesn't need to create a disc image before burn), the disc list system, true custom hybrid discs with options for which files are visible on which platform, audio cd burning with pre-gaps definable on a per-track basis... and many more.

To suggest it provides no new features to Tiger (or that it provides 1/20th the features of Toast) is just plain silly. Several of DiscBlaze's features are not found in Toast at all.

I highly encourage people to try various applications to find the tools that fit their neds best. Some will find one tool completely useless for their needs, while another tool (which may have only small differences) may be found highly favorable. But to suggest that any app is useless is, generally, a silly thing to suggest.  
(Version 5.1.6)

ANONYMOUS  Tiger now burns without pre-images... it's called a burn folder... a pretty stupid implementation IMO... but a workaround to a fundamental flaw in the way the OS burns.  
(Version 5.1.6)

ANONYMOUS  Drop us a line at support [at] radicalbreeze.com with your info (OS Version, etc) and we'll see about figuring this out. Obviously we did not find these problems here, but if you are having them we'd love to find out why and, if possible, fix them.  
(Version 5.1.6)

ANONYMOUS  We're being completely honest. I've heard from a number of people who think our language there is a little odd (usually far more extreme words have been used). But we seriously have been discussing this very issue with our users for over a month now and the vast majority of our users who have opted to take part in the discussion have recommended (some slightly... some said this was definitely the best way) that we change to this new model.

So that's what we did. We presented a series of options to our users. Asked for feedback. Modified our plans to meet many of their suggestions. Tried a modified free/pro model that some users suggested. That didn't work out. Then our users chimmed in in almost unison that we should switch to a trial system (like what we have just instituted).

We try to be as open as possible to all of our users. And I think any of our active users who have been around for a while know the benefits of that.  
(Version 5.1.5)

ANONYMOUS  From the looks of things DiscBlaze is not recognizing any burner on your system? Do you have a burner that is compatible with MacOS X and DiscBlaze? If not... well... DiscBlaze may behave quite strangely as it was not intended for use without one.  
(Version 5.1.5)

ANONYMOUS  c'mon, of course I have one.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?N28622C6B

:-)

>DiscBlaze may behave quite strangely as it was not intended for use without one

Why not?? Do I need a recording device to create an image file with DB ?  
(Version 5.1.5)

ANONYMOUS  Could you give some steps you took to have DiscBlaze not show your burner in the list? Did you, by chance, have your burner connectec after starting DiscBlaze? If so hitting the refresh button should automatically select it. If not, then that's definitely a bug we should fix. (It works properly here.)  
(Version 5.1.5)

ANONYMOUS  i agree... this product is a train wreck... developer claims to be responsive to people's feature requests coming out with frequent updates... but look back at the release notes... he's either fixing bugs or taking features that were free and making them no longer free  
(Version 5.1.5)

ANONYMOUS  Most of the 5.1.x releases have been focused on fixing bugs and getting the licensing right.

But note that the last major update (with new features) was 5.1... which was only a month ago. And if you look at our release schedule you'll notice that we release new features pretty much constantly (about every month).

If you have a list of issues that cause you to believe that DiscBlaze is, as you say, a "Train Wreck" please let us know with as much detail as possible (a post on our forum or a mail to support at radicalbreeze.com would be great).   
(Version 5.1.5)

MCT  on screenshot #1: my device was not plugged in.

on screenshot #2: the device is plugged in, I clicked the refresh button and DB automatically selected it.

This works perfectly.

The bugs are:

1) my CD is > 100% full (is it going to overburn the CD ? ;-D)

2) there is 0MB left

3) the checkbox is "under" the list.

.  
(Version 5.1.5)

ANONYMOUS  Thanks for the info.

Bugs 1 and 2 are fixed for the next release. Bug 3 we're having a hard time reproducing in order to fix it. But we'll keep an eye out for what the culprit might be (the checkbox is in the right spot on all the machines we've got here for testing).  
(Version 5.1.5)

MCT  me again :)

I know how RB works. The problem with the checkbox is that it doesn't move when resizing the window. Just check "Lock right" in the property panel :)   
(Version 5.1.5)

TUPRING  Perhaps you aren't eating the right foods…  
(Version 5.1.5)

ANONYMOUS  Hey hey, the developer needs to make a living. Lay off.  
(Version 5.1.5)

ANONYMOUS  If you are having problems with the current version of DiscBlaze please let us know. We strive to fix any known bugs as quickly as possible. Currently there are some known issues... but it is a -very- short list and all of them are being actively worked on.  
(Version 5.1.4)

ANONYMOUS  and btw, why does it say that my disc is 22100% full ? There is only a 34MB folder in the list.  
(Version 5.1.4)

ANONYMOUS  DiscBlaze certainly shouldn't be doing either of those things.

What version of DiscBlaze are you running? What OS version? What steps did you take that caused this problem?

If you could email that info to support at radicalbreeze.com we can look at figuring it out.  
(Version 5.1.4)

ANONYMOUS  hello :)

Ok, here are the steps to reproduce:

- Open DiscBlaze

- that's it :)

Here is the result of the "top" command:

PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE

1431 DiscBlaze 67.6% 0:11.55 4 113 266 16.6M 11.3M 23.8M 117M

Wow 67.6% CPU, not bad for an idle application... And by the way, why 24MB of RAM???? I have acquisition.app running and it only require 19MB...

There is no CD in the list (you call 'em listbox in RB right ? ;-) I'm running MacOS 10.41 and the latest version of discblaze

I have not been able to reproduce the 22100% bug. Let's say it was the interface that didn't refreshed properly... (But I tried to resize the window to force it to refresh the interface)  
(Version 5.1.4)

ANONYMOUS  The specifics of DiscBlaze licensing is a topic we've discussed in depth with our users (both publicly in our forum and privately).

In a nutshell it all boils down to providing as much functionality for free with DiscBlaze as possible while still keeping enough (or the right) features on the Pro side to keep sales up enough to allow us to continue development. The current change has been the topic of much internal debate, but we decided it was the best way to move forward... a proper balance between Free and Pro DiscBlaze needs to be met, otherwise DiscBlaze development wouldn't be able to continue at a good rate.  
(Version 5.1.3)

JEDIK  SAVE, not "sabe", of course. :)  
(Version 5.1)

ANONYMOUS  Not a bad suggestion. We'll think on it. Our goal is to provide as much as possible for free in DiscBlaze while still having enough features be "Pro Only" that we can afford to stay in business and continue development.  
(Version 5.1.1)

JEDIK  Sure... Just thought about it as it would be a DiskUtility-like feature, wich is included in the Mac OS X. Thanks for the reply. I do appreciate it and the job you did in the app. :)  
(Version 5.1.1)

ANONYMOUS  Is your burner properly supported by MacOs X? ie, can you properly burn CDs from the Finder or iTunes? If so, DiscBlaze should have no troubles with it.

You might also try PatchBurn to enable full support for your drive. http://www.patchburn.de/  
(Version 5.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  Yes, my drive is recognized by Tiger with Patchburn and other burning software recognizes it too. When I say recognize, I mean all its features sets, such as buffer overrun.  
(Version 5.0.3)

BRYAN  Your statements are incorrect.

1) DiscBlaze can burn dual layer DVDs quite well in MacOS X 10.4.

2) DiscBlaze is no more a GUI sitting on top of things provided by Apple than is any other Mac application. Every application utilizes, to one extent or another, libraries and classes provided by Apple. And, like many other applications (such as Toast), DiscBlaze contains a vast amount of custom code to accomplish many things that could not otherwise be done.

3) When you say people could get the "same stuff" as in DiscBlaze for free from the OS it proves, without a doubt, that you have not actually used DiscBlaze (certainly not for more than a moment or two).

Can you burn a true custom hybrid (some discs visible only on Mac, others only on PCs, others on both) with a custom icon?

Can you burn files quickly without having to have Finder make duplicate copies of them?

Can you burn multi-session HFS CDs with a simple checkbox?

Can you specify the exact file system you want to use for any disc?

Can you use, and re-use, existing disc layouts as many times as you like without taking up any extra HD space? And then make minor modifications to which files you burn from that layout by simply checking/unchecking the file?

All of this is a breeze with DiscBlaze.

And some of these are features not available in other popular CD burning application. In that regard DiscBlaze is an absolutely incredible bargain at less than $30 USD.   
(Version 5.0.2)

ANONYMOUS  And where is your awesome software? At least he tried.  
(Version 5.0.3)

A. DENG  Before Discblaze I tried other freeware such as Yuburner, dragon burner, missingmedia burner... Discblaze is the one I feel satisfied with although I did not pay for the $$. It just does whatever I want to do.  
(Version 5.0.3)

JUST BUY TOAST  Oh and BTW I ma a registered user of DiscBlaze, but stopped paying the foolish upgrade prices. Toast is simply superior is so many ways and I wish I had bought Toast in the first place and saved my money.  
(Version 5.0.1)

ANONYMOUS  There has only ever been one for pay upgrade for DiscBlaze. And we have no plans to charge for any upgrade in the near future.

Plus, DiscBlaze costs a small fraction of what Toast costs.

It's also worth noting that DiscBlaze adds new features far more rapidly than Toast. So, it would seem to me to be a far better investment to pay 29 bucks for DiscBlaze than $79 for Toast.  
(Version 5.0.1)

ANONYMOUS  UDF is the file format used for Video DVDs.   
(Version 5.0)

ANONYMOUS  a very quick cursory investigation reveals:

they're down for maintenance  
(Version 4.4)

ANONYMOUS  and have been for 3 weeks.  
(Version 4.4)

RADICAL BRYAN  We moved to a new server recently and are still getting the forum and blog back online. It will happen soon (though not as soon as we'd hoped).  
(Version 4.4.1)

JIM  It implements most of the functions in hdiutil in a GUI interface. While you can do the same things with Disk Utility, you can't do them as easily. Also, I don't know of a way in DU to hide particular files on each platform of a hybrid disk, add a custom icon. I waited a long time for Apple to improve DU or the Finder to burn disks, but finally paid for DiskBlaze because it is easier to use than DU and more capability than Finder's burn.  
(Version 4.3.5)

IMTIAZ HABIB  1) Its much faster that Panther's DU

2) Its lot less buggy (Panther's DU often won't read rw discs that it burned before)

3) It easily allows/does multiple burn sessions on the same cd--DU doesn't or at least I haven't been able to make it do it despite several weeks of trying to do so even though each time I begin by erasing the disc and then doing a fresh burn while remembering to click "leave file/disc appendable" but to no avail--because DU locks the disc. DiscBlaze did multiple burns effortlessly. My only annoyance is, it makes seperate disk icons for each session, so I get one rw cd with several icons for it on the desktop. There may be a way around this, but at the moment its much farther than I've gone with Panther's DU.

4) Its also got a really nice interface--nicer than DU's.  
(Version 4.4.3)

ANONYMOUS  It doesn't do copies of any sort  
(Version 4.3.4)

BIGBADBEN  expensive but fast dvd copy is your option..  
(Version 4.3.7)

DPG4450GUY  I suggest you read again what DiscBlaze can do that Apple's burner can not.  
(Version 4.3.3)

GETOVERIT  Imagine that! A burner software that expects you to have a burner conneccted to your Mac!

Horrors!

What will they do to us next, these vicious developers?  
(Version 4.2.3)

ANONYMOUS  Funny...Toast doesn't require one and you can configure and setup matters to your liking for when you turn on a separate burner.  
(Version 4.2.3)

HOOHA  Well, then, use Toast.  
(Version 4.2.3)

BOOBA  Stills good to me as Toast is superior in a multitude of ways. Thanks for the suggestion.  
(Version 4.2.3)

ANONYMOUS  try Dragon Burn :-)  
(Version 4.3.6)

BRYAN  Well... DiscBlaze does quite a lot more than simply the Finder or Disc Utility. And, where there is overlap of functionality, DiscBlaze performs those tasks and is used in a quite different way.

As for burning coaster... that's definitely not good (or normal). If you could send som info to blaze@radicalbreeze.com (OS ver, DiscBlaze ver, wether or not you can burn CDs/DVDs via other apps, what sort of file system and files you were trying to burn, etc) that would help a great deal.  
(Version 4.0)

BRYAN  I would certainly not consider DiscBlaze a "work in progress" Each previous version has been supported and we have, I must say, an incredibly high level of customer satisfaction. We get complimented on our tech support daily.

If you have a specific problem have you emailed us with information about the problem you are having? We are always striving to make DiscBlaze better and solve any problems that our users have.  
(Version 4.0)

GONE, OUTTA HERE  Bye-bye...simply not worth the effort to write you when that effort should have been put into first-rate software apps versus wannabes'.  
(Version 4.0)

BRYAN  To each their own. We have quite a large user base (of very happy users I might add). So DiscBlaze obviously works quite well for most, but if it doesn't for you... that's fair. But to say that it's a "wannabee" product simply based on that is more than a little missleading.  
(Version 4.0)

BRYAN  We pride ourselves on being one of the most responsive Mac developers. Sorry to hear of the troubles you have had but we do continue to improve DiscBlaze and, from our testing and customer feedback, DiscBlaze is already one of the most reliable burning software on the market.

If you haven't already make sure to send any useful information to us (drive model, os version, error info, etc) so we can work towards resolving whatever problems you are having.  
(Version 4.0)

BRYAN  Are you able to burn any data discs at all using DiscBlaze with the drive you have? Do you have a drive that is supported by OS X itself? If so it would be incredibly helpful if you could email your system info (OS version, drive model, etc) to blaze@radicalbreeze.com.  
(Version 4.0b2)

ANON  I burn successfully to an external usb drive. Not DVD... still in the pokey stone age of computerdom.  
(Version 4.0)

PETER COLLIE  I have once again sent an email with no reply 24 hrs ago to webmaster@radicalbreeze since I and probably you prefer not to resolve this in an open forum but it seems the only way.  
(Version 4.0b1)

BRYAN  peter collie: We have sent two emails to the new address you provided. None have bounced back so I assume they made it to your mail server okay. My hunch is that there might be a problem with spam filtering on either your server or in your email client. Perhaps you could create a user acount in our online forums and we could send you your registration info via private message that way (or maybe you have an AIM account)?  
(Version 4.0b1)

PETER COLLIE  Try mosquitox@ipipi.com but also cc it to my usual email flyindog@tpg.com.au . it makes no sense that I get all my mail, including a fair amount of unsolicited mail but that you emails dissappear without a trace.  
(Version 4.0b2)

BRYAN  Would you mind emailing your info (system info, what you were doing when you had problems and noticed the sluggishness, etc) to blaze at radicalbreeze.com?

We haven't seen much in the way of sluggish behavior, and any crash is definitely something we need to look into.  
(Version 3.1.3)

A MARTIN  Will do.

Sorry for the harsh review, but I needed some urgent burning that time and put my faith in DiscBlaze. Unfortunately it failed on me. (That time)  
(Version 3.1.3)

BRYAN  I wouldn't exactly call it a reverse port.

The last pure Cocoa version of DiscBlaze was 1.1.1. Since then DiscBlaze has received a ton of new features (some of which can not be found in any other burning software on the market), it works more reliably and looks better and better.

In the last 6+ months DiscBlaze went from just another tiny CD burning tool to one of the best burning applications on any platform. I'd call that some serious forward progress.  
(Version 3.0.1)

WOLF  You didn't answer the question.

I too wuld prefer to see cocoa apps, so would be interested in the reasons for your change. Understanding the reason may compensate for the negative impression caused by the change.  
(Version 3.0.5)

BRYAN  There was actually a full article written about this in the Dec/Jan issue of RBDeveloper magazine. In a nutshell : It was a matter of picking the right tool for the job.

And, based on how far DiscBlaze has come over the last 6 months or so (not to menion what's in store over the next 6 months), I'd say the right decision was made.  
(Version 3.0.6)

FLARCH  Still doesn't satisfactorily answer the question.

What does RealBasic do that Cocoa wouldn't do better or faster?  
(Version 4.0)

ANONYMOUS  I guess the developer just couldn't figure out where to put the brackets.  
(Version 4.1.2)

TIM B.  I should also clarify that I do not supported "warez" or pirated software in any way. Any software I produce, or any other company (Like the fine folks that make DiscBlaze) would only make said software to copy your own LEGALLY purchased games in case you accidently destroy your disc.....

Also, fine work on this version of DiscBlaze...  
(Version 2.2b1)

KREVNIK  Might I suggest looking into something that creates images by using the unix tool 'dd'? This can easily create single files with every bit of data from a CD, including all sessions. The trick is burning it back, but if you write an app to parse this type of raw image, you can add this sort of functionality through a small app that uses Apple's APIs to do the burning itself. (It would even be possible to burn a .cdi directly using GPL code to parse the .cdi and give you session/track information)  
(Version 2.2b2)

BRYAN (RADICAL BREEZE)  Should work great in 10.3.1 now with the 2.0.7 release.  
(Version 2.0.7)