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DVD reading under OS/2 Warp 4.52

Started by digimaus, 2011.06.03, 02:56:57

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digimaus

Hi, everyone.

I'm running Warp 4.52 (pretty much stock) on an old AMD Duron 800-powered machine.  I recently installed my Sony DVD-RW drive in it for backup as I already have a DAT drive in that machine but wanted an additional solution.  I installed DVD Toys and all of the associated drivers and software.  That program works wonderfully, but I'd forgotten that OS/2 can't read DVDs directly.  What do I need to install to get the OS to see the DVDs?  Note that the drive works fine for CDs but won't see DVDs.

Thanks,
Sean

ivan

Hi Sean,

I assume you are using the DaniATAPI.FLT and a reasonably up to date CDFS.IFS in which reading DVDs should not be a problem - writing them is an altogether different game.

Note when using the Dani FLT you should remove the IBM ones.

ivan

Blonde Guy

I've been on eComStation so long that I forgot there might be issues with MCP reading DVDs.

Maybe DaniATAPI is required, but I don't think so. More likely adding DVD Toys broke something that was already working. If you have access to the fixes for MCP, then there are several that are significant like IDEDASD.
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

Pete

Hi digimaus

You need the latest IDEDASD update plus the UDF update - if it is not included in the IDEDASD package; The file system used for DVD is UDF.

Regards

Pete

DougB

QuoteThe file system used for DVD is UDF.

Well, UDF is ONE of the options, but it is a very poor option. You will wear out your disks very quickly if you use UDF formatted disks as if they were an additional, very slow, hard drive. Just reading them should be no problem.

CDFS is another option (same as for CDs), but you can't use them like you would an additional hard drive. Reading CDFS DVDs should be no problem, and should work if you can read CDs. Writing them requires additional software. I use DVDDAO, with no problems.

There are also some special formats used with video, and audio, that may appear to be blank, and may require special software to be able to read them.

Pete

Hi Doug

I thought UDF.IFS was required in order to read commercial DVDs? - they are udf format.

Regards

Pete

DougB

If the DVD is written in UDF format, you would need to use the UDF driver to read them. In the past, I have found that UDF for eCS, and UDF for windows, aren't always compatible. In fact various CD drive manufacturers (before there were DVDs), each supplied their own (windows) UDF driver, and they weren't always compatible either.

I have no idea what format "commercial" DVDs use. I would be very surprised if all (or even any) of them use UDF. In fact, I have a couple of old "commercial" DVDs (videos), and they are in CDFS format, not UDF format. Checking another one, that is only a couple of years old, I find that it too is CDFS format.

The OP's problem sounds like he doesn't have the proper driver installed, for the format of the DVD that he is trying to use. It has been many years since driver support was available for DVDs. If the drive can read CDs, it should also be able to read DVDs, as long as the proper driver is available to match the format used on the DVDs. If the DVD is in CDFS format, it should use the same driver that CDFS format CDs use.

Pete

Hi Doug

If a DVD is formatted CDFS then it is not a DVD but a CDVideo.

Stick a commercial DVD (film or music) into a dvd drive and then open the Properties for the drive and check the file system on the Details page: UDF.

Hence you need UDF.IFS loaded in order to read the disc.


Regards

Pete




DougB

QuoteIf a DVD is formatted CDFS then it is not a DVD but a CDVideo.

Uh, no... Every DVD video disk, that I have (6 of them), is readable with CDFS.  The one that I am looking  at now has 4.3 GB of data on it, and the Properties says that it is CDFS. I don't leave UDF enabled, at all, and I can read all of them without it.

Every DVD that I create myself is also CDFS (I use DVDDAO to write them). Of course, that doesn't mean that UDF can't be used, but as I said, I would be very surprised if that is actually used very much.

Pete

Hi Doug

If a disc uses CDFS (no idea why a DVD would; none that I have do) then UDF is not required to read it.

I should probably have added a url or 2 to my previous post such as:-

http://askville.amazon.com/UDF-file-system/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=1207101

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format

Regards

Pete


DougB

I think the first link has some really BAD information on it. The second link describes UDF, but makes no claim to be a preferred file system for DVD (I have never seen a "commercial" DVD with UDF, but I won't say that they don't exist).

My personal experience with UDF is that it wastes a LOT of disk space when used with "R" media. When used with RW media, it can be used as if it is a very slow hard disk. The main problem with that is that the directory structure seems to be rewritten every time you change anything on the disk. Since the directory structure occupies only a small, fixed, area, it is rewritten many more times than the rest of the disk is written. Since optical RW media has a limited number of r/w cycles, that area of the disk gets worn out a lot faster than the rest of the disk. There is a way to move that area around, to reduce that effect, but it does mean that you need to do it, and after three moves, you have run out of places to move it.

When I tried UDF as a place to write backup files, I ended up with a few DVDs that had a bad spot, right in the middle of the disk, after about 100 backup cycles. Even moving the directory structure wouldn't fix that problem. All I could do was try to get a known file into that area, and never access it again. Then, I would need to reformat after about 50 more backup passes, moving the directory structure again, and fiddling around to get a known file into the bad spot. Even if you do move the directory structure, before it goes bad, you can't get much more than 300 backups to a DVD, before it starts to fail, and you can depend on it failing when you try to do a restore. If you write the DVDs using CDFS (using DVDDAO), you can get much closer to the 1000 (or so) writes that are claimed for RW media. In fact, most RW media is capable of doing many more writes, if you can manage to not scratch it. Of course, you don't have the lifetime problem if all you do is read the disk (you can still scratch it). It is essential to do a write verify, to be sure that nothing went wrong (it often does, even with no scratches). Of course, video, and audio, generally doesn't get too upset if it can't read the disk. Backups are a different story.

The answer to the problem? If you are doing backups, don't use optical media. I also avoid tape, and use an external hard disk drive. I have one that is a USB drive (1 TB), which works pretty good, but is painfully slow. I have another one, that has both USB and eSATA (640 GB). USB is painfully slow, but eSATA is just as fast as SATA I. Of course, you do need an eSATA port to use that feature. After using both of them, I have decided that I probably should have a NAS drive, with a Gb interface. Of course, you then need to find one that is OS/2 friendly.

Of course, the OP's problem is probably that the disk has some format that he doesn't have the driver for (or, it is blank, or he didn't format it as UDF, or he forgot to close it out, or ???). I am not familiar with the "Toys" package, so I don't know how it works. I do expect that it uses the CDFS file system.

Pete

Hi Doug

Would that "BAD information" be:-

"DVD-Video media use UDF version 1.02."

Which is backed up on the 2nd link:-

"After the first version of UDF was released, it was adopted by the DVD Consortium as the official file system for DVD Video and DVD Audio."


Here are some more links for you to look at

http://www.dvdburning.biz/dvd-file-system-specifications.htm

http://www.burnworld.com/dvd/primer/filesystem.htm

Regards

Pete

ivan

Hi Doug,

Have a look at a D-Link DNS-320 or DNS-323 for NAS storage I have both here each set to RAID1 with the 320 backing up the 323 which is backing up all the computers.  Both have Gb network, the 323 uses Ext2 file system and the 320 Ext3 so there may be a problem with EAs - Ext2 has space for 4k EAs but OS/2 can have 64k EAs.

ivan

DougB

QuoteWould that "BAD information" be:-

I think it is just poorly worded in a few sections, but that may have something to do with being tired when I read it.

It seems that video, and audio, do use UDF, with back door support for CDFS too. I guess I should try out UDF again, but I am not sure that I see any real benefit from using it. Of course, any disk that is formatted UDF, without the back door support, would need UDF to have any hope of reading it. Then, there could also be problems if a later version of UDF is used on the disk, since the latest UDF for OS/2 is version 2.01.

Too many possibilities causes a very high maintenance file system to be somewhat unpredictable.

QuoteHave a look at a D-Link DNS-320 or DNS-323 for NAS storage

Thanks, I will look around. I am not so sure that EAs are really important, they are used only in limited ways by some of the stuff that is on the boot drives. Any others are optional. EAs can be stored by ZIPing (or otherwise compressing) files, or by using EAUTIL to save, and restore, them, but that is a bit of a PITA.

Pete

Hi Doug

In my limited experience later versions of UDF read discs formatted with earlier versions of UDF without problems.

However, if using UDF formatted discs for packet writing (ie using DVD RW as a backup medium) then problems can occur when trying to write to discs formatted with earlier versions of UDF. I found it necessary to copy data off the DVD and reformat the disc with the later version of UDF to avoid those problems.

These days I do my backups to a 1Tb USB drive and do not bother with UDF packet writing. Using this drive also avoids the EA problems that go with trying to use a linux based NAS  :-)

Regards

Pete