Re: I Give up ?!?!

Hi Brian,

I wrote at least some of the code that's posted/referenced on the FreeDB 
site -- unfortunately it's all C/C++ written specifically for Windows.  
Though I own a copy of Delphi, I don't do very much with it and won't be of 
much help there.  I wrote a ripper DLL which also does Freedb queries, and 
which someone made a Delphi wrapper for, but I've never used it so I don't 
know whether it'll help you or not.  It's at http://akrip.sourceforge.net/ . 
  The code I wrote specifically for Freedb testing is at 
http://www.freedb.org/software/cddbidgen.zip .  You might try looking at the 
Active-X Delphi wrapper and sample program that is at 
http://akrip.sourceforge.net/ .

Let me explain about the three methods of retrieving the table of contents 
(TOC) from a CD under Win32 (95/98/NT/2000/XP).  The three methods refer to 
the interface used to retrieve the TOC; they are ASPI, SPTI, and 
IOCTL_CDROM.  For ASPI and SPTI, you are communicating with the SCSI/IDE 
drive at a very low level directly with the hardware -- you create SCSI 
command blocks and transfer them to the CD using ASPI/SPTI, and then have to 
parse the results.  It's not a particularly easy thing to do, and can be 
daunting because the SPTI interface is not particularly well-documented.   
The main difference between the two is that for ASPI you use SCSI addressing 
-- host adapter:target:lun -- while SPTI you use the drive letter (also SPTI 
only works for NT/2000/XP).

IOCTL_CDROM refers to a more generic way of accessing the drive data, but 
it's still fairly daunting for someone who's new to low-level windows 
programming.  Like SPTI, you use the drive letter to open the interface to 
the drive, but you don't have to set up a SCSI command block, so it's a 
little less complicated (though not much).  Like SPTI, it only works under 
NT/2000/XP.

ASPI was the first interface commonly used, since it was installed by 
default in Windows 95/98.  However in NT/2000/XP it is not installed by 
default, but you have to find and download it.  So you probably want to stay 
away from any toolkits that support just ASPI, since you can't count on it 
being installed.

regards,
Andy Key

>For the past year I have been trying to find a CDDB component for Delphi
>that works, and can't So I decided to try to right my own.
>OH MY GOD why did I start this ! Connecting and sending info to
>the CDDB, not a problem, getting info from the CD that's a different
>story.
>I have downloaded, and read, and asked on so much info and I'm more
>confused than when I started ! I'v been told not to use MCI, but use ASPI 
>or
>SPTI by Jacob from this list (Thanks), and there was examples on the FreeDb
>site, but either I can't find it or have all ready read it.
>I'm the first to admit I'm not the best programmer in the world
>but this one I think has beaten me as I'm having trouble trying to work out
>how to even use the above.
>
>I keep coming across a wnaspi32.pas and a AspiCD.pas , then
>other info tells me that these are DLLs that need to be installed?
>Some sites tell be these are free and others tell me I have to pay
>for them, or do these work instead off a DLL, I'm really confused
>
>Below I have listed the component I have tried, all of them will not
>install for one reason or another.
>
>cddbcomp << ICS will not install, and it needs IcsKylix and I'm
>running windows with Delphi 6
>cdplayer << will not install
>DiscID_Calculator_src << tells me ASPI for Win32 is not initialised
>MiTeC CD Player << installs but will not run ??
>
>Any web searches keep sending me back to these one way or another
>so if anybody out there has got a component or code that works or can
>give me a 'step by step' (really spoon feed me here) on how to get 
>something
>working that would be great, this means I can finally write program round 
>my
>needs to catalogue all my CDs
>
>Brain
>
>
>
>
>
>
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