tochd

Convert game ISO and archives to CD/DVD CHD for emulation.

Author: Tuncay D.
Website: tochd-converter
Source: Github
Releases: Github Releases
Issue Tracker: Github Issues
Forum: Github Discussions
Update Notes: CHANGES
License: MIT License

What is this program for and what are CHD files?

Automation script written in Python as a frontend to 7z and chdman for converting CD like formats into CD or DVD CHD.

When you are playing CD based games on RetroArch or possibly on any emulator which supports CHD files, then you might want to convert your ISO and CUE+BIN or GDI files into the CHD format. It has the advantage good compression and produces a single file for each CD. This saves a lot of space and makes organization easier.

To achieve this, the separate program chdman from the MAME tools is invoked, which introduced the CHD format in the first place. Often you need to extract those various CD formats from archives such as .7z or .zip files too. The program 7z is used to extract those files, before handing them over for conversion.

Requirements

The script was originally written for Python 3.10 for Linux. No other Python module is required. The following external applications are required to run the script:

7z
chdman

On my Archlinux-based distribution, the programs are available in the packages: p7zip mame-tools

Installation

Manual installation

No special installation setup is required, other than the above base requirements. Give tochd.py the executable bit, rename the script to exclude file extension and put it into a directory found in the systems $PATH . To automate these steps, an installation script is provided, but not required. If you cannot install from AUR, then use following commands to install newest version manually:

git clone https://github.com/thingsiplay/tochd
cd tochd
bash suggested_install.sh
tochd --help

AUR: Install with package manager on Archlinux

The package is available in the Arch User Repository: AUR Package Details

yay -S tochd
pamac install tochd

Usage

usage: tochd [OPTIONS] [FILE ...]

usage: tochd [-h] [--version]
             [--list-examples] [--list-formats] [--list-programs]
             [--7z CMD] [--chdman CMD]
             [-d DIR] [--temp-dir TEMP_DIR]
             [-R] [-p] [-t NUM] [-c NUM] [-m DISC] [-H BYTES]
             [-q] [-n] [-s] [-E] [-X]
             [-] [file ...]

This is a commandline application without a graphical interface. The most basic operation is to give it a filename, a list of files or directories to work on. The default behaviour is to convert .iso and .cue+bin and .gdi files to .chd files with same basename in their original folders. Archives such as .7z and .zip are extracted and searched for files to convert. The progress information from 7z and chdman are printed to stdout.

How to use the commandline options

Options start with a dash and everything else is a file or folder. In example tochd . will search current working directory for files to convert. Use option -X like in tochd -X . to list files without processing them. The option -d DIR specifies a directory to output all created .chd files into. In example tochd -q -d ~/new_chds ~/Downloads will process all files it can find in the "Downloads" directory and save the created .chd files in a folder named "new_chds" under users home. The -q option means "quiet" and will hide progress information from 7z and chdman, but still output current job information from this script itself.

You can also specify filenames directly or use shell globbing * in example to give a list of files over. Usually that is not a problem, but if any filename starts with a dash -, then the filename would be interpreted as an option. To prevent that, you can use double dash option -- to indicate that anything following the double dash is a filename and not an option. In example tochd -q -- -name_starting_with_dash.iso would recognize -q as an option and -name_starting_with_dash.iso as a filename.

Use tochd --help to list all options and their brief description.

Examples

tochd --help
tochd -q .
tochd --quiet --stats --names ~/Downloads
tochd -p -- *.7z
tochd -m dvd -- psp/

Example output

The following is an output from some files I used to test the program. The failing jobs are supposed to fail, for one or another reason. "Completed" jobs are files that are successfully created. "Failed" jobs point to the path that would have been created.

$ tochd -q cue iso gdi unsupported .
Job 1     Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/cue/Vampire Savior (English v1.0).7z
Job 1   Completed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/cue/Vampire Savior (English v1.0).chd
Job 2     Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/cue/3 x 3 Eyes - Sanjiyan Hensei (ACD, SCD)(JPN).zip
Job 2      Failed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/cue/3 x 3 Eyes - Sanjiyan Hensei (ACD, SCD)(JPN).chd
Job 3     Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/cue/Simpsons Wrestling, The (USA).7z
Job 3   Completed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/cue/Simpsons Wrestling, The (USA).chd
Job 4     Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/cue/Shining Wisdom (USA) (DW0355).rar
Job 4   Completed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/cue/Shining Wisdom (USA) (DW0355).chd
Job 5     Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/iso/Parodius_Portable_JPN_PSP-Caravan.iso
Job 5   Completed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/iso/Parodius_Portable_JPN_PSP-Caravan.chd
Job 6     Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/iso/Bust_A_Move_Deluxe_USA_PSP-pSyPSP.iso
Job 6   Completed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/iso/Bust_A_Move_Deluxe_USA_PSP-pSyPSP.chd
Job 7     Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/gdi/[GDI] Metal Slug 6.7z
Job 7   Completed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/gdi/[GDI] Metal Slug 6.chd
Job 8     Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/gdi/[GDI] Virtua Striker 2 (US).7z
Job 8   Completed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/gdi/[GDI] Virtua Striker 2 (US).chd
Job 9     Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/gdi/GigaWing 2.zip
Job 9   Completed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/gdi/GigaWing 2.chd
Job 10    Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/unsupported/Dragon_Ball_Z_Shin_Budokai_USA_PSP-DMU.rar
Job 10     Failed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/unsupported/Dragon_Ball_Z_Shin_Budokai_USA_PSP-DMU.chd
Job 11    Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/unsupported/ActRaiser 2 (USA) (MSU1) [Hack by Conn & Kurrono v4].7z
Job 11     Failed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/unsupported/ActRaiser 2 (USA) (MSU1) [Hack by Conn & Kurrono v4].chd
Job 12    Started:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/missingfiles.gdi
Job 12     Failed:    /home/tuncay/Downloads/missingfiles.chd

PSP games should be using the dvd format option.

$ tochd -qs -m dvd Tactics*.iso
Files in queue: 1

Job 1     Started:      /home/tuncay/Desktop/Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together (USA).iso
Job 1   Completed:      /home/tuncay/Desktop/Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together (USA).chd

Started: 1
Skipped: 0
Failed: 0
Completed: 1
Elapsed time: 0:00:17

Cancel jobs

At default Ctrl+c in the terminal will abort current job and start next one. Temporary folders and files are removed automatically, but it can't hurt to check manually for confirmation. When option -E is in effect and Ctrl+c is used in the terminal, then script will stop ALL jobs and exit, while removing the temporary folders as well. (Unlike before, where option -E caused to leave temporary files.)

Multiprocessing support

At default all files are processed sequential, only one at a time. Use option -p (short for --parallel) to activate multithreading with 2 threads. This enables the processing of multiple jobs at the same time. Set number of max threads with option -t (short for --threads).

Drawbacks with multiprocessing / parallel option

live progress bars and stderror messages of invoked processes from 7z and chdman cannot be provided anymore, as they would have been overlapping on the terminal, but stdout messages such as statistics are still output
user input won't be allowed and is automated as much as possible, because overlapping messages could lead to stuck on waiting for input and losing the context to what file it belongs to are potential problems

Additional notes, workarounds and quirks

Forcefully terminating script could leave unfinished files

If you forcefully terminate the entire script while working, then unfinished files and especially temporary folders cannot be removed anymore. These files and folders can take up huge amount of space! Hidden subfolders with a starting dot are created in the same directory as the input files, when no path is given with option --temp-dir . Make sure these files are deleted. The regular Ctrl+c in the terminal to abort current job is a controlled termination, not forced one (even with option -E in effect).

Files and archives that need special preparation before converting

Some archives contain multiple folders, each with ISO files of same name. These are usually intended to copy and overwrite files in a main folder as a meaning of patching. However, the script has no understanding and knowledge about this and would try to convert each .iso file on it's own. As a workaround all .iso files in the archive are ignored when a sheet type such as CUE or GDI files are found.
There are cases where the audio files can be a different format than what the .cue (or .gdi) files expect. In example there are cases where the audio files are in .ape format and need to be converted to .wav first. If you are unsure about this, then look into any provided readme file or the .cue sheet itself. Then convert them before handing it over to .chd conversion.

Automatic renaming output files based on archive filename

Sometimes .cue or .iso files found in an archive have a different name than the archive filename itself. Sometimes one of them lack important information and you need to determine which of them is "correct". In example translations could have important information encoded in the filename of the .cue, which would be lost, as the .CHD file is automatically renamed to match the .zip or .7z archive in example. Use in such situations option -R (short for --no-rename) to prevent that and leave the original files name found inside the archive.

Use DVD format for certain emulators instead

Some emulators don't work well with standard CD format, because their disc format is not CD. Especially the developers of PPSSPP emulator recommends converting with chdman createdvd instead chdman createcd, which are the internally used commands of tochd. tochd will use -m cd at default, so make sure to change this option to -m dvd for PSP games. You can also use -m auto, to determine the format based on filesize with a 750 MB threshold. But be careful, in my own testings DVD format on PS2 games did not work to play with PCSX2 core in RetroArch.

Buggy GDI files causes to not process any other file too

There is a bug with .gdi files, but normally this shouldn't be a problem. When a .gdi file contains lines that points to non existing files or are corrupt otherwise, then the program might stop processing any file. In such situation, exclude these .gdi and its associated .gdi files, so it does not get in the way.

Stats counting with parallel option does not work

At the moment counting a Job finish state (such as "Completed" or "Skipped") is thread unsafe. This is an oversight and rookie mistake by me. Therefore until a solution is found, the program will simply exclude the counter such as "Skipped: 0" and others from final result, when -p and -s options are combined.

Contributors

While this project is mainly written and tested by myself, there are other major contributors who deserve a special recognition. Thank you to:

AlexanderRavenheart

Also visit: Contributors for a more complete list and stats.