Can I Convert CDI To GDI?

[vus7294]

I have many CDI. It has only 700MB so I want to convert them to GDI.
But I can't find how to convert CDI to GDI tutorial. Damn!
Do you know how to convert CDI to GDI? please.

[markbarkins]

Why would you want to convert CDI ti GDI? Some Dreamcast games had 700 MB or less so there was no ripping/down-sampling. But if they are already in CDI format they would've already been ripped/down-sampled and covenrting back to GDI isn't going to restore that data. If you want nothing ripped/down-sampled, you'll have to find the original GDI images.

[vus7294]

Why would you want to convert CDI ti GDI? Some Dreamcast games had 700 MB or less so there was no ripping/down-sampling. But if they are already in CDI format they would've already been ripped/down-sampled and covenrting back to GDI isn't going to restore that data. If you want nothing ripped/down-sampled, you'll have to find the original GDI images.

CDI has a stupid dummy files. It is a waste of capacity. So I put those files back to GDI format and trying to convert back to small CDI image files.
However, it is impossible. Sorry.

Sorry for google translate

[Warrior]

if you want GDi dumps look for TOSEC,Redump or Trurip Dreamcast images, not sure if the main site has TOSEC or not.

[Zorlon]

cdi format = ripped to CD-Rom format (sometimes that does include getting rid of files or re-sampling files if the original game contents was much larger, dummy files are included to improve laser reading for that media and push the actual game data to make reading easier with less drive noise)

gdi format = dump of original GD-Rom discs apx 1.2GB in size the size of the disc is apx the same throughout all of these even if the data is not even close to 1GB in a lot of cases, there are only a few games that use that entire amount of space with game data and CDDA tracks otherwise most of that is made up of junk data

Both use a form of dummy data

The Nintendo GameCube also used a similar method making all dumps of there disc the same size because they also have junk data stored on the discs (can be removed now)

Converting from cdi to gdi is not going to help anything

As you have posted in Everything Emulation though I am presuming you are indeed only emulating the system so you are not burning to CD or anything, then just get the gdi dump to start with

http://www.emuparadise.me/Sega_Dreamcast_ISOs/1 has some gdi dumps

However if you are using a real Dreamcast (no modding needed but you do need a model (1) or under (some (2) may work also) CD rips is all you can use unless you buy a GD-Rom emulator (it replaced the GD-Rom drive with a SD Card) then you can run gdi dumps from SD

The only real way to create a GDI raw dump is to dump from a GD-Rom or a GD-R, but GD-R's stopped production year and years ago and the GD-R hardware stopped before that, buying either is not going to be affordable for most of us to start with let alone finding blank GD-R's then ripping those from a Dreamcast via an SD adapter (Not the same as the GD-Rom emulator) or via a BBA/LAN adapter (Not what the Dreamcast comes with that is at 38k or 48k modem and BBA/LAN will cost around $100 for something that isn't supported officially any more, just the odd very rare home servers)

CDI's are created by extracting the data files (this part is not a standard disc image and needs to be patched before it can even be extracted/read via PC software) and cdda files from the GDI dump then after that the files will need to be sorted for the best reading [Something that older CDI rips did not apply] (you can get the sort info from the GDI dump same thing applies the GDI data track first needs patching before it can be read) the next step would be to create the first session once, done you need to find out what the end LBA value is so you can crack the IP.BIN & 1ST_READ.BIN if the data is too big for a standard sized CD or 99min CD you have a few options remove unneeded data, but those are only a few bytes or ripout data like Movies (replaced with dummy blank movies or pointed to a single movie (a bit more hacking to point to a different movie))/CDDA, downsample sound/movies or even shorten CDDA tracks, most games fit just fine on 80min CD-R's but if the data does not fill the CD-R then it is bets to create that dummy data to push the data to the edge of the disc to optimize data reading via the GD-Rom drive, anyway once that is sorted to create the second session and patch that with the IP.BIN that was patched earlier on and a CDI created from that, by the way I did mega simplify what needs to be done to create a CDI it is a bit more complicated than that.

It's not something that can be done in reverse though, so you can make a cdi image from a gdi image though it's not a simple process, but you can not make a gdi image from a cdi image.