Dumping games FAQ? Technical overview of each step?

I've begun dumping my games and have run into a few questions that--at first glance--don't appear to be addressed via the FAQ or quickstart guide.

1.) Is ImgBurn acceptable?  Does one have to use something else, like IsoBuster or Alcohol 120%?

2.) Once you've patched an .iso with the test_patcher.exe, is your .iso "stuck" with the IRD you used?  Can you re-patch with a different IRD?  Remove all patching to a clean state?

3.) Is firing up Multiman and using FTP to pull the contents of dev_bdvd just as good?  The PS3 decrypts them as it reads them via FTP?  Or are the files it's pulling still decrypted?

4.) Do IRD files specify per-file encryption, or regions?  Is it possible that games that fail a check within PS3-ISO_rebuilder are actually good rips?

These questions arise because I have some discs with a denotation of "F" that don't appear in the IRD database (French perhaps?  I'm in Canada).  There are also discs that match exactly, yet a certain number of files fail.  This is what lead me to try IsoBuster instead of ImgBurn, but it made no difference.

Using PS3-ISO-Rebuilder to check my decrypted .iso against the the IRD results in a number of files having mismatched hashes.  But here's the weird thing--when using FTP to grab those files directly off my CFW PS3--the hashes match what I got from my decrypted dump via Blu-ray drive.

So...I don't think I'm understanding how the IRD actually works.  Should I just re-rip games that don't match by using the PS3 to be sure they're decrypted correctly?

Perhaps this has been covered somewhere and I've missed it--if that's the case then I'd love to be pointed in that direction.

Thanks!  And thanks for the amazing work.  All I've done so far is load up Heavenly Sword (intro movie).  Never thought I'd see this day...

I've begun dumping my games and have run into a few questions that--at first glance--don't appear to be addressed via the FAQ or quickstart guide...

I can't believe there isn't more discussion about how to rip discs.  

Here's what I've learned--at least with BCUS98174-[LAST_OF_US].

Imgburn rips it in half the time IsoBuster does.  The .iso CRCs match down to SHA-1.  They're identical.

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I patch the .iso with the corresponding IRD.  The game version, app version and update version all match the IRD.

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I decrypted the .iso, then extracted it to folders.  The decoded folders fail a check using PS3-ISO-Rebulider (ignore the two unnecessary files--they were .par files I generated).  The vast majority of my rips pass.

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I then FTP the entire contents of the Last of Us to a local folder.  It fails in exactly the same manner.

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I then used Multipar to index each individual file of the decrypted Imgburn-based folder structure.  I verfied it.

Then I copied those .par files over to the FTP-derived folder structure and ran a verify.

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The files--each and every one of them--are identical.

So even though my rip fails the IRD check, it is identical to an FTP-derived copy, which has to be correct--no?

This makes me believe that IRDs only work as a guide to which sectors are encrypted.  My retail copy of The Last of Us differs from the one that the IRD was made from.  If it was file-by-file, then I would have files that failed a comparison between the non-matching IRD and the FTP copy.

So did I just get lucky with The Last of Us, or can I proceed to save wear-and-tear on my CFW PS3 by ripping via pc blu-ray drive, and ignoring any mis-matches with the IRD?

1. Technically there should be no difference, since you're got same checksums.
2. All it does - writes decryption key in reserved area in ISO. You simply can overwrite it.
3. Technically, when ps3 is running gameOS it should decrypt disc contents, so...And it's simpler to use PS3 because in that case you get gamedata already decrypted.
4. All i did was basic tool, which writes decryption key in specific ISO area. Unfortunately, i have no idea about complete IRD topology structure.

You can use reverse way to check, what's wrong - build encrypted ISO from decrypted files + IRD, and compare them with your untouched ISO. If encrypted files is different - then it's definitely something wrong with decryption keys in IRD.