- Windows 98 freezes - when trying to access recorded DVD

avond

Hello anyone

I have been unable to locate answers to the following any where else, so thought I'd try here?

I am unable to access any DVD recorded on my cheap Recorder/Player. When the disk is inserted the drive lights blink for a lot longer than normal DVD access, then the PC freezes and will not even respond to Ctl/Alt/Del, requiring a hardware reset to restart.

The recorder automatically formats any disk inserted and I get the same results whether or not the disks are Finalised or have no video on them. Pre-recorded DVD's are OK, as are those made on the PC. If running ISObuster when the DVD is inserted I get the following directory structure before a freeze. This happens on two different W98 machines but I haven't yet been able to try it on a later operating system -

Sonata
|-----Video_Rm
|-----Video_Ts
|-----Audio_Ts
Sonata
Video

I can see the first Sonata and 3 sub-directories under pure Msdos but can only access the Audio one, which shows empty, the others producing Invalid response.

A Google search suggests the above format has caused problems for some Mac users but can find nothing relating to Windows. I assume it’s a disk or file format incompatibility but it would be nice to find a fix so I can put these disks in my computer.

Any suggestions?

coolcolors

Is the media create on a standalone recorder/player or on computer? And you didn't mention what the make and model was to give more help on. If you can give more detail as to the unit and what product it is would help out alot and also what kinda of media you using to burn to? Media quality and type makes alot of difference in making good burn and making good coasters.

avond

Thanks for your interest. The media is created on a DSE G1845 (Dick Smith Electronics) standalone recorder/player, which I suspect is manufactured by Mustek. It only records on DVD+R/RW and I have tried a number of differing brands of both +R and +RW with same problem. Mitsubishi, TDK, Imation and house brands.

From internet searches I suspect it is a problem with the Sonata file system which appears to have caused some problems on Mac computers. However, this is only a guess as I am not really familiar with the details. The machine always formats any new media and this seems to cause the problem, as a formatted disk without video, also causes the computer to freeze.

Again it is only a cheap machine without harddrive and I thought I might be able to edit out commercials, etc. on my computer. Even if it can't be fixed it would be nice to know the cause?

pinto2

Welcome to cdfreaks avond.

IIRC dvd's burned on standalones are in UDF format so please make sure your win98 is able to handle this.

To be able to edit dvd's on your "cheap machine" you'll have to add a harddrive.
But, you better get a new compu to avoid all the hassle in future.

avond

Ah, thank you. so the computer needs to be able to read UDF file system.

Thats probably what I needed to know?

Yes, I know I'm working in the 'dark ages' with W98 but I'm a cheap shate and am like this OS.

Thanks for yor help.

agomes

Hi
Looking at your disc structure, the Video-Rm is the one out of a DVD-video structure, but you may not find it strange because Audio_TS is empty because that is the way it uses to be.
Did you check your home recorder setup menu, looking for format options?
Besides doing it when you insert a disc, there is a chance (or not) you can define what format type it will perform (DVD-video or DVD+VR). If that's the case you can try with DVD-video, because your disc's structure indicates it is using a proprietary format or DVD+VR.

avond

Hello
Yes, my computer reads the usual Video_TS/Audio_TS DVD's Ok.
Unfortunately, the recorder is pretty basic and has no recording options, not even any language options. You just take what's there.
I have looked at Firmware updates for Mustek but am only guessing about this and can't confirm a model?

I did download some UDFreader s/w but it makes no difference. Unfortunely, I don't know what I'm doing in this area and will do some swat on file formats in the next few days.