Autorun on Mac and PC

[mrtunes]

I'd like to make a DVD-ROM of my music that plays on both platforms. I know there's a few programs out there but can anyone tell me the most cost effective way to do this? Basically all my ROM has to do is launch a .html file when inserted.

[Cornucopia]

Autorun on the PC is easy, see my past posts on the subject. Be forwarned that many users may have turned off autorun, though.

Autorun on the Mac side is a NO GO. Because of an old virus that utilized Quicktime's autorun vulnerability, old Mac (preOSX) users basically turned off autorun En Masse. Because of it's compromised feature set, Apple decided NOT to include autorun in OSX.

You can do it for the PC (and I could tell you how to do it for old Macs if you REALLY want it), but I'd still recommend you put a ReadMe.txt on the disc explaining what to do manually.

Scott

[mrtunes]

thank you. can you explain to me then why there are a few programs out there priced around $60 that create hybrid volumes? Macimage is one.

[Cornucopia]

Hybrid volumes made more sense in the pre-DVDwritable, pre-UDF days. Since all modern OS's support UDF, and it's not a "Lowest Common Denominator" like ISO9660 was, it should be able to do the trick for ALL the OS's.
However, there are still times where it makes sense.
1. Legacy OS compatibility (DOS/Win3.1/Win95 and MacOS 7-9)
2. Specialty OS features, such as MacOS's custom icon & desktop settings, are correctly/better supported in their native FileSystem than in UDF.
3. Sometimes specialty partitions, like Shared+Compartmentalized data, are easier to do with those more traditional tools. You mentioned MacImage, but Toast is another.

Obviously, if you're going to DVD, you are supposed to use UDF, but there's nothing stopping you from making a 3- or 4-filesystem image (UDF+HFS+ISO9660+Joliet). That should certainly cover all the bases.
Then it's just a matter of knowing which OS sees which Filesystem as their "preferred/default" layout.

Scott

[mrtunes]

Obviously, if you're going to DVD, you are supposed to use UDF, but there's nothing stopping you from making a 3- or 4-filesystem image (UDF+HFS+ISO9660+Joliet). That should certainly cover all the bases.
Then it's just a matter of knowing which OS sees which Filesystem as their "preferred/default" layout.

Scott

Can you make a 3-4 filesystem image in Nero6 on windows xp? I wonder how those magazines that come with a CD do it? I'm talking about Future Publishing for example which clearly has a large mac audience as well as PC when they make computer arts and music magazines.

[Cornucopia]

You maybe could, but you'd have to jump through hoops to do it. Most big houses do it with Toast on a Mac.

Scott

[mrtunes]

Thanks for your time with this issue. You seem to know a lot about it. I decided to just make the ROM normally and then put explicit instructions on the packaging for Mac users.