Autorun for PC and Mac

[Ronaldo]

I would like to make an autorun CD or VCD for both PC and Mac.

Is it possible?

Thanx

Ronaldo

[Cornucopia]

PC--Yes, fairly easily. See my previous posts.

Mac--Not easy at all. In fact, almost impossible (though not quite).

Hybrid--Harder still.

Do what you can...

Scott

[Ronaldo]

I agree, for PC is very easy.

I use Menu Studio 4.0.

But I have a client that wants (if possible), to run on both PC and Mac.

You say "almost impossible (though not quite)", what do u mean?

Ronaldo

[Cornucopia]

We know that Macs only autorun from an HFS filesystem.

Therefore, for Macs to autorun a VCD requires that the VCD be a shared Hybrid disc (ISO9660 required for Track1 of VCD, shared because it wouldn't recognize the VCD pointers on Mac otherwise, not multisession for similar and additional reasons).

Macs can autorun any file-not just a program-so long as it is in the root of the disc and is less than 12 characters long, and has a valid program to run it.

There are hardly any PC apps that can create even a shared Hybrid disc, much less a Hybrid VCD-possibly MacDisc or MacImage. So you're really left with creating a VCD on a Mac app, and one that supports adding files to the ISO track. Toast does NOT do this. Possibly Discribe can, but I don't think so. The only ones I know of for sure are Phillips' VCD2 Toolkit for the Mac and Query's VCDMaker/InternetDiscWriter Professional, both of which are EXTREMELY rare to find, much less buy.

If a PC app could be able to make Track 1 a shared Hybrid filesystem, then there are a couple of VCD playing apps available for Mac which could be inserted into the disc Image and set to autorun. This could include the QT reference movie created by the current Toast on VCDs.

Any takers???

I think the complexity involved with this process is partly the reason Mac developers are concentrating on DVD now and not VCD. With the High End PC tools, using NTFS, you can add Mac files with resource forks to the ROM portion of a DVD-Video disc Image.

HTH,
Scott

[Ronaldo]

Thanx for such detailed reply, and I'm convinced to NOT do a VCD for Mac.

I have Windows XP Pro, NTFS, Pioneer DVD A-04.

You say "you can add Mac files with resource forks to the ROM portion of a DVD-Video disc Image" - how do you do that?

So that means the DVD I author and burn on my PC will run on a Mac?

Ronaldo

[Cornucopia]

Hold on, I don't want to totally dissuade you. Remember, VCDs and DVDs are industry standard formats. Just because one doesn't incorporate an autorunning computer app ON DISC, doesn't mean it won't work on that platform.

If you create a standard DVD, whether on PC or Mac, it'll run on PC or Mac (as well as settop) as long as you have a capable, compliant app installed. You may have to start the app first, but that's not too major an inconvenience.

I've noted before, but again these are some of the VCD player apps for Mac:

• Quicktime Player (VCD v1.1, have to access manually)
  Apple Video Player (VCD 1.1)
  MacVCD (VCD 1.1)
  VCDPlayer (VCD 1.1)
  QuickVCD (VCD 1.1)
  freeVCD (VCD 1.1)
  Query Internetdisc Viewer (VCD 2.0, rare but still findable on Net)
  VLAN

and DVD player apps- Apple's DVD Player, Quicktime with MPEG2 Decoder plugin (but w/o AC3 audio), maybe VLAN also (haven't done much research into this lately).

Back to the other Q you had,
If you have a network w/ Macs and PCs, where an NTFS drive is shared and visible to Macs, you can "push" the files/apps from the Mac. This will retain the correct resource forks and Finder flags. Push them to a folder that is the default watch folder for your DVD disc Image's "other" contents, and after compiling the VIDEO_TS folder, create a disc image that incorporates the ROM material as well as VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS.

Apps that can do this:

Scenarist
Maestro

there may be others

Of course, it's easier if you are ON a Mac and using DVDStudioPro or Sonic DVDCreator, then you just put the files in a folder, add PC files if you want, and then create a disc Image. Then burn with that app or with Toast.

Good luck,
Scott

[Ronaldo]

Scott,

Thanks again for all the info you have given.

I use Sonic DVD IT PE, so I assume what I burn with my PC will work on Macs.

Unfortunately, I do not have Macs on my network, so NTFS drives could be shared, and tested.

I'll just create and burn a standard DVD, and take to my client's Mac.

This seems to be the best cross platform media for this job.

Thanx a million,

Ronaldo