Abstract
In this section we discuss
using K3b to perform common CD burning
operations. K3b also supports DVD recording, but we
concentrate only on CD recording in this section. You only need to
install the k3b-dvd
package. DVD recording
is very similar to its CD counterpart.
![]() | Note |
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Copyrighted Material. Please note that data, audio, video CD or DVD copying is often forbidden by copyright law. The examples provided here are informational only and are not intended to make a CD/DVD pirate out of you. We assume that if you want to duplicate copyrighted material, it's because you have the right to do so. |
K3b is automatically configured to give
normal users access to the CD burner. However, we highly
recommended that these users be part of the
cdwriter
group to minimize burning errors due to
system overload. So, go ahead and add those users to the
cdwriter
group.
Please refer to the Managing Users and
Groups section of the Starter Guide for
information on users and group management.
Choosing → from the main menu starts K3b. Figure 6.4, “K3b's Interface” shows K3b's interface with a new data project open.
Tool Bar. Where buttons to perform common actions lie. See Table 6.1, “K3b's Toolbar Buttons”.
File Manager. To choose which files to include in the burned CD. Use the left-side tree to navigate the file system and drag and drop the files you want to include in the project into the Project Manager.
Project Manager. Where all files which will be on the burned CD are shown and handled. Files can be removed and their location (directory) on the CD can be changed here.
The following table shows the most important buttons available in K3b's tool-bar, their equivalent keyboard shortcuts and a brief explanation of the functions they provide.
![]() | Note |
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Not all buttons are enabled at all times. For example, the button is not enabled if there is no active project. |
Table 6.1. K3b's Toolbar Buttons
Button | Keyboard Shortcut | Function |
---|---|---|
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Create a New Project. Once you click on this button a list of available project types are shown: choose to create a data CD (see Section 2.2, “Burning Data CDs”) ; choose to create an audio CD (see Section 2.3, “Burning Audio CDs (CDDA)”); choose to create a mixed mode (data+audio) CD; choose to create a digital compressed video CD; choose to create an eMovix CD. | |
![]() | Ctrl-O |
Open an Existing Project. A standard file dialog opens from where you can choose the project you wish to open. Select the project you are interested in and click the button. |
![]() | Ctrl-S |
Save the Current Project. A standard file dialog opens where you can enter the name under which the current project will be saved. Type the name of the project and click the button. |
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Copy a CD. To make an exact copy of a CD. It opens a window which asks for the copy settings. Refer to Section 2.4, “Duplicating a CD”, for more information. Please note that you cannot duplicate copyrighted DVD movies with this function, as they are encrypted. | |
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Erase a CD-RW. To erase re-writable media. It opens a window which asks for the erase operation settings. Please refer to Section 2.6, “Erasing CD-RW media”, for more information. |
Let's presume you have downloaded a CD-ROM image from the Internet and you want to burn it on a CD. Choose → from K3b's menu. Click the “open file” button to browse for the CD image file and select the file in the standard open file dialog. The CD image is then verified and information about it is displayed (see Figure 6.5, “Burn CD Image Options”).
Once the image is verified, you can insert the recordable medium and click on to write it to the disc.
Choose + → from K3b's menu . Then drop into the Project Manager the files and directories you want to include on the CD (see Figure 6.6, “Selecting Files and Directories to Include on a CD”).
![]() | Note |
---|---|
Adding directories
containing lots of files can take some time. Please be patient
and wait until the |
The space occupied by the selected files and directories is shown by a color-coded bar at the bottom of the Project Manager, together with the volume expressed in MB and the available MB of the medium's total capacity. The bar's color codes are as follows:
The size of the set is less than that of the selected medium's capacity (700 MB by default). There are no capacity-related problems.
The size of the set is nearly equal the selected medium's capacity. If it's a few MB below the medium's capacity, there won't be any capacity-related problems; if it's a few MB above the medium's capacity, the CD might be written without problems, but there's little guarantee of success.
The size of the set exceeds the medium's capacity by many MB. The CD won't be recorded properly.
Right-clicking on any file or directory in the Project Manager pops up a contextual menu with options to remove and rename files, create new (empty) directories, etc. Files and directories can be relocated (change the directory under which you want them to appear) on the CD using drag-and-drop.
![]() | Tip |
---|---|
Renaming the top
element of the left side tree in the Project Manager changes
the CD's volume name ( |
Choosing the → menu entry displays a window where you can select writing parameters (see Figure 6.7, “Setting Writing Parameters”). Insert a recordable medium in the CD burner and click the button to start writing the CD.
By audio CDs, we mean the ones you play in your car or home stereo equipment, not data CDs containing OGG, MP3 or any other digital audio format files.
At the time of writing,
K3b supports recording audio CDs from tracks digitized in
Wave (*.wav
), Ogg Vorbis
(*.ogg
), and MP3
(*.mp3
) formats. You can mix digital audio
formats since K3b decompresses the compressed ones
on-the-fly. K3b can also create digital audio tracks from
audio CDs, also known as “ripping” (see Section 2.5, “Audio CD Extraction (Ripping)”).
Choose + → from K3b's menu. Select K3b's File Manager's filter to Sound Files, navigate to where the digitized audio files are and then drag the audio tracks and drop them in the Project Manager (see Figure 6.8, “Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD”).
Use drag and drop to move the files up and down the compilation. Once you have the tracks compiled in the order you want in the Project Manager, you can write them to CD.
Choose
→ from the menu. Select the number
of copies (1
in the example), whether to remove
the temporary image or not (yes
), the reader and burning devices (automatically set) and
click on . The “source” CD is then read, an image of
it is made and the “target” CD is written.
Make sure that enough temporary space is available. You can check the available space in K3b's status bar near the right. Bear in mind that each minute of CD-quality digitized uncompressed audio takes a bit more than 10MB of disk space.
Insert the audio CD to rip tracks from
and double click on the drive in the left side of the File
Manager. The CD is read and, by default, all tracks are marked to
be ripped. Remove the check mark from those you don't want to rip
and click on the gears button to show a dialog to set ripping
options (see Figure 6.10, “CD Ripping Options”).
Review the different ripping options (especially the file naming ones) and once you're satisfied with your settings click on the button.
You might want to format your CD-RW media in order to write it with different data. To do so, choose → from the menu (see Figure 6.11, “Setting CD-RW Blanking Options”). The Erase Type can be set to Fast (the CD-RW is quickly erased in up to 3 minutes); Complete (the CD-RW is completely erased taking up to 90 minutes); and a few options related to multi-session recording are also available. Insert the medium on the CD burner and click the button to erase the CD-RW.