Greg Russell wrote:
> I was given a DVD(+RW) made for us that we watched using a hardware DVD
> player, and we're unable to open the DVD in Windows XP. Explorer is very
> slow to respond, and eventually (after several minutes) shows only a blank
> window.
>
> The person that recorded the DVD from a digital camera download says that he
> used Windows Vista to create the DVD.
>
> What kind of filesystem might this be? UDF? Compressed UDF? ISO9660? Might
> the owner have accidentally included some sort of copy protection that
> precludes viewing the directory structure?
>
> The DVD won't even play in XP, although it plays on a normal hardware DVD
> player with output to a television screen.
>
> Maybe the DVD+RW wasn't "closed" after writing, or some such thing?
>
This isn't going to help you very much, but there is a "disktype" utility
you can optionally install on a Linux system. I have Knoppix on a USB
flash drive, which I pop into the back of the computer and boot from,
to run Linux software.
I have a home made DVD here (dual layer), and this is what the command
disktype /dev/sr1
returns, when it sees my home made DVD. The DVD was burned by Imgburn,
which knows that the DVD should have two file systems on it, for
maximum cross-platform compatibility. Some how or other, I ended up
with UDF 1.02, which should be readable by WinXP (and is). Vista likely
defaults to some later version of UDF, which could cause problems. It
may depend on the burning method, as to what is recorded on the DVD.
--- /dev/sr1
Block device, size 7.076 GiB (7597457408 bytes)
CD-ROM, 1 track, CDDB disk ID 02000001
Track 1: Data track, 0 bytes
UDF file system
Sector size 2048 bytes
Volume name "VACATION_2009"
UDF version 1.02
ISO9660 file system
Volume name "VACATION_2009"
Application "IMGBURN V2.5.0.0 - THE ULTIMATE IMAGE BURNER!"
Data size 7.076 GiB (7597410304 bytes, 3709673 blocks of 2 KiB)
It is too bad that utility hasn't been ported to Windows, but I
don't see that as an option listed here. In Knoppix, I just go to
Synaptic Package Manager and fetch "disktype" from the repository and
it installs automatically, without having to be compiled. I then run the
command from a terminal windows (looks like the MSDOS window in WinXP).
http://disktype.sourceforge.net/
UDF 1.02 is listed here, as the choice for "DVD-Video discs".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format
*******
In Windows, I can run Nero Infotool. Infotool will report the
contents of the currently inserted disc in the drive. Nero Infotool
is available for free download. It also ships as part of the toolkit
accompanying the various versions of Nero. (The copy I used for this,
came with my DVD burner.)
General
Type DVD Video (DVD+R DL)
Capacity 7.08 GB
Extended information
Layers 2
Version 1
Track Path Opposite Track Path (OTP)
Disc size 12 cm
Copy Protection n/a
Content
File systems(s) ISO9660, UDF
Title VACATION_2009
Date February 6, 2010
Publisher n/a
Application IMGBURN V2.5.0.0 - THE ULTIMATE IMAGE
Video format NTSC 4:3 (Mpeg2, 720x480)
Region(s) All
Play Time 7 minutes (00:07:18)
The "Play Time" field is wrong, and it is reporting the time of the
first chapter.
You can get Nero Infotool here. The author of this, was also distributing
it from his own web site (for a number of years), but I think has since
stopped. This appears to be newer than the version I'm using.
http://majorgeeks.com/Nero_InfoTool_d120.html
Good luck,
Paul