Thanks to everyone for the replies. I believe I have now produced a DVD which works (plays in Linux, Windows and my DVD player - something that I haven't had before) and I've asked some other people to test it to check if it works on their players. This was produced by following Joerg's instructions.
If that doesn't work, I think I now understand what might be going wrong and how to further investigate and then hopefully fix the problem - so thanks everyone. Regards, Bob 2008/6/2 Andy Polyakov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hi, > >> I'm really struggling with this whole compatible DVD thing. >> >> For my amateur dramatics group, I have produced a DVD of our show, >> including menus and all sorts of fun like that. The DVD plays >> perfectly with "xine dvd://video/dvd". >> >> I have burned the DVD in many different ways, such as "growisofs >> -dvd-compat -dvd-video -Z /dev/scd1 ." and most of the ways I burn it >> will work perfectly on my panasonic DVD player. >> >> However, when I distributed these DVD's to other people, I have >> received reports that they don't work on Windows machines (they >> apparently show up as a blank DVD), Mac's (similar I guess - but no >> detail on that) or some DVD drives (which just refuse to read them). >> >> I believe the DVD that was written that works on Linux and my DVD >> player is using the UDF file system, but several real DVD's I have use >> iso9660. > > Well, if a disk gets mounted as iso9600, it doesn't mean that there is no > UDF directory structure. What you're likely to see it bridge-formatted disk > containing both ISO9600 and UDF directory structures, and ISO9600 gets > mounted by default. For reference, mkisofs -dvd-video produces layouts just > like that. > >> I tried burning it with iso9660 (actually using gnomebaker) >> and that fails to play on my DVD player, but it is recognised and can >> be played by a windows computer. > > Right, real DVD players can and some actually do refuse to play ISO9660-only > media. While Windows can simply not care about file system, it sees just a > bunch of media files to be played. > > What you're more likely to suffer from is incompatibility at media format > level (see below), not file system or video content. > >> I'm currently using DVD-R disks, which I understood to be more likely >> compatible with DVD players (although I may have that wrong because >> http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/ suggests that DVD+R disks >> are more compatible). > > It doesn't really say it. It discusses DVD+ format merits, it discusses how > to improve compatibility of recordings, but the choice is left to individual > reader. > >> In case it is useful, I have pasted the output of dvd+rw-mediainfo for >> one of the burned DVD's at http://pastebin.com/m7479a9c > > For future I'd insist on including dvd+rw-mediainfo directly in message (as > well as versioning information and even output produced during recording). > On provided URL one can find: > > INQUIRY: [LITE-ON ][DVDRW LDW-451S ][GSB6] > GET [CURRENT] CONFIGURATION: > Mounted Media: 11h, DVD-R Sequential > READ DVD STRUCTURE[#0h]: > Last border-out at: 2045*2KB=4188160 > READ TRACK INFORMATION[#1]: > Track Size: 2247216*2KB > READ CAPACITY: 2247216*2048=4602298368 > > For -dvd-compat/-video recording "last border-out," "track size" and > "capacity" would normally be the same. Inconsistently low "last border-out" > value is known to confuse some players rendering such media unplayable in > this players. Question is why is it low? I used to account it to media > defects in lead-in area. At least if advised to try different media or media > brand in such situation, other users seem to confirm that failure is not > reproducible. However! As I realize now they all reported value of 2045... > Common media fault? Hardly... Common firmware deficiency? Can be... Common > usage pattern, such as interference with auto-mounting facility? Can be... > At least it's least likely recording program's fault, because last > border-out position is pure firmware domain, i.e. recording program has > nothing to say about it (not to mention that it's generally known to come > out right, i.e. equal to last written block + 1). > >> Could anyone suggest how I should be burning these DVD's to ensure >> they are compatible with both windows and more DVD players? > > If you want to try DVD+R, then do make sure that you instruct your unit to > burn it with so called DVD-ROM book-type with 'dvd+rw-booktype -dvd-rom > -unit+r /dev/dvd'. Lite-on should allow you to do that. As for DVD-R. There > was a case of malformed border-out position mentioned in > http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/hcn.html, look for BTC. If your > firmware can't correctly handle incremental recording, then > -use-the-force-luke=dao might be solution even for you. A. > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]