photo's to a Mac

[louyovin]

I need to burn some photo's to a CDROM for displaying on a Mac. This from a windows machine. I can convert the photo's (from Nikon) to jpeg, bitmap or make them RAW... What can a Mack "speak" and how should I format the CDROM, ISO? Any help appreciated.

[sheila]

Macs *should* be able to read Windows burned CDs without any trouble.

They do read jpg and bitmap files. I also read a discussion recently in the Apple Discussion forums (http://discussions.apple.com) that Macs also read Nikon RAW format files, although some people were saying that recent software upgrades on their system had produced inconsistent, problematic displays of such Nikon RAW files. But it was only a very few (possibly only one?) person making this claim, and the other people in the forum trying to help could not replicate the problem on their own systems.

I haven't burned very many CDs on Windows, but I don't think you want an ISO format? Maybe someone with more experience can field that part of the question...

[johnfl68]

Actually - some Macs have problems reading the ISO 9660 format (windows CD-R format). However most newer cd-r burning software have settings to burn a MAC (sometimes called HFS) format disc, and also a "Mac/ISO Hybrid" option that both Windows and Mac should read the same disc fine. This depends on what burning software you have.

As far as file format - jpeg seems to be prefered cross platform format.

John

[MichaelC]

Actually - some Macs have problems reading the ISO 9660 format (windows CD-R format).

Do you have a reference for this?

I have never experienced a problem reading a Windows-specific ISO 9660 disk since OS X (and few problems in System 9, aka "Classic").

MC

[johnfl68]

Do you have a reference for this?

http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq03.html

Subject: [3-35] How do I make my CD-ROM work on the Mac, WinNT, and UNIX?
(2004/08/31)

This can be tricky because of issues with long filenames and file attributes. Mac CD-ROMs are sometimes burned with an HFS or HFS Plus filesystem, not ISO-9660, and WinNT uses a different scheme for long filenames (Joliet) than UNIX does (Rock Ridge). Some variants of UNIX will recognize the Joliet names, but neither Windows nor the Mac understands Rock Ridge. You might be able to use an HFS CD-ROM on a platform other than the Mac, but if you're distributing software, it's not wise to assume that your customers will be able to do the same.

The easiest way to create a disc that will work on all platforms is to use plain level 1 ISO-9660, with 8+3 filenames and no special file attributes. If you need to include Mac applications as well as data -- or pretty much anything with a resource fork -- this simple approach won't work. Also, some older versions of Mac OS and HP/UX might not work as expected unless you record the disk without the usually-invisible version number (";1").

There is an Apple-defined extension to ISO-9660 that allows the Mac file and creator types to be present on an ISO-9660 filesystem (see (3-5-3) for a URL to an Apple tech note with implementation details). This allows most of the features of the Mac filesystem on an otherwise plain ISO-9660 disc. It's not clear how many of the software products in section (6-1) take advantage of this, but "mkisofs" (section (6-1-10), now includes the older "mkhybrid") can create an ISO-9660 disc with Joliet, Rock Ridge, and HFS extensions all on the same disc.

A common way to construct a disc for the Mac and PC is as a "hybrid" disc that has both an ISO-9660 filesystem and an HFS filesystem. To save space, the data itself is shared by both sections of the disc. This is possible because the ISO-9660 directory entries use an absolute block offset on the disc, so they can point at data residing in the HFS filesystem.

There are various applications that will do HFS/ISO-9660 hybrids. The most easily accessible to Macintosh owners is the Mac OS X Finder. Roxio's Toast for the Mac and "mkhybrid" for the PC are other examples. Search for "hybrid" in the list of software in section (6-1) for more examples.

The issue of Joliet vs. Rock Ridge can also be solved, by including both kinds of extensions on the same disc. The "mkhybrid" program can include Joliet, Rock Ridge, and HFS extensions all on the same disc. You can even have files appear on one kind but not the other, and rename files on the fly, allowing you to have a "readme.txt" with different contents for Mac, UNIX, and Windows.

I have never experienced a problem reading a Windows-specific ISO 9660 disk since OS X

It is not good to assume that every Mac user has OS X, or that every PC user has XP.

John

[MichaelC]

Thanks for the link. Now I'll see if I can decipher what the heck they're talking about. I'm always skeptical when a writer doesn't refer to specific Mac OS versions but instead just refers to "Mac."

It is not good to assume that every Mac user has OS X, or that every PC user has XP. Fortunately, Mac users don't harbor the resentment of OS X that a lot of PC users have towards XP. :wink:

Indeed, the biggest problem the Mac has with ISO 9660 is with disks burned on NT/98 using the Romeo filename system. A Joliet (Windows standard) disk will mount just fine in a post-1994 Mac OS, and there's even an extension for Systems 8 and 9 to make the files look pretty (http://www.tempel.org/joliet/).

The bottom line: if a hybrid option is available, it doesn't add any burn time to speak of, so it definitely won't hurt. If one is not available or the disk is already burned, don't sweat it.

MC

[Phil Chaney]

Fortunately, Mac users don't harbor the resentment of OS X that a lot of PC users have towards XP. :wink:
Do you have a reference for this? :wink:

[louyovin]

I need to burn some photo's to a CDROM for displaying on a Mac. This from a windows machine. I can convert the photo's (from Nikon) to jpeg, bitmap or make them RAW... What can a Mack "speak" and how should I format the CDROM, ISO? Any help appreciated.
Thanks for all the replies. Since I have no idea what level of "Mac" they have, the boss (wife) decided to go with hard copy 35mm slides, which was also an option... Costs more but safer.
Sorry, I have no reference for that... :)

Experience: Recognizing a mistake the second time you make it.

[DogAndPony]

FWIW, I've never had any trouble reading a PC-burned CD on my Mac(s)... although I have had trouble with certain brands of stock from time to time -- rarely. In the years I've been using Macs and reading CDs of all kinds, I've only had trouble with about 4... and 2 of those were just the other day. Two discs burned on a newish iBook, on TDK blanks. I could mount one and copy 6 of the 60 files within the single folder, but only if I didn't open it. If I opened it, the Finder hung on the bad directory. The second disc wouldn't even mount. I asked the guy to use a different brand of blank and try again... He used Memorex, and it worked fine.

So far, it hasn't been platform issues for me... only blank stock issues.

YMMV, definitely, but be sure your stock is good. :yeah:

[Randall]

Here's a good example. This weekend I spent a lot of time trying to get the Qemu (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/) emulator up and running on my new Mac, with varying levels of success.

But the one thing that never gave me any trouble was reading the CDs, which included Windows 95, 98 and 2000. If Microsoft's own CDs -- probably never intended to be read by anything other than a PC -- worked without a hiccup, you can expect a good-quality Windows CD to work with OS X if nothing else.

Randall