Recently copied several home movies onto a dvd via camcorder.
Plug camcorder into dvdrecorder that is attached to TV,
watch movies and record at the same time.
Recorded dvd works great.
Oringinal movies and camcorder are gone. Daughter and family went home.
However, can not make copies of dvd for other family members.
Error message is:
[root@192 don]# mount /mnt/cdrom2
/dev/hde: Invalid argument
mount: /dev/hde: can't read superblock

Is there anyway to make copies of this dvd?
'dd' or something like it?

I'm suspecting that your /etc/fstab lists /dev/cdrom2 as of type iso9660. DVDs use UDF filesystem, so you can edit /etc/fstab and change "iso9660" to "iso9660,udf".

That will let you mount it, but it's not necessary to mount a DVD to copy it:

dd if=/dev/hde of=dvd.iso bs=32k

That will copy from /dev/hde to the file dvd.iso in the current directory (assuming /dev/hde is the DVD drive).

To make a copy, put a blank DVD into the DVD burner and:

dd if=dvd.iso of=/dev/hde bs=32k

[root@192 don]# dd if=/dev/hde of=dvd.iso bs=32k
dd: reading `/dev/hde': Input/output error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
[root@192 don]#

I changed /etc/fstab as suggested with iso9660,UDF and get the following;
[root@192 don]# mount /dev/hde
mount: fs type UDF not supported by kernel
[root@192 don]#

OK, two things. It appears your DVD drive is not /dev/hde or it is not recognizing the media, and your kernel was compiled without support for the filesystem used on DVDs (which is unusual these days).

However, like I said, you don't need to mount the DVD to copy it. Your first order of business is to verify which drive is your DVD burner. Try this:

eject /dev/hde

Did the DVD burner tray open? If not, check your /etc/fstab for alternative removable media drives. Issue the eject command for it to verify that you have the correct drive, insert the DVD into the burner, and retry the dd command.

eject /dev/hde is correct.
/dev/hde has the dvd in it.
eject /dev/hdc is also correct.

With a dvd in /dev/hde I get:
[root@192 don]# dd if=/dev/hde of=dvd.iso bs=32k
dd: reading `/dev/hde': Input/output error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out

It must not be recognizing the media.

Are you sure that you are not using a blank disc because it will give you the same error.

dd if=/dev/hde of=dvd.iso conv=noerrors bs=2048

The above will do a real sector by sector copy. If the disc does not work in your drive, I suggest buying a different DVD-ROM brand or use another computer that has one. You could have DVD-R or DVD+R disc brand that does not work well for your drive. Your family members will also have the same problems.

Its udf not UDF. Mandrake should have support for it. It is better to use auto instead of iso9660,udf.

Results from two different cd/dvd-rw's.
Below is /etc/fstab

[root@192 don]# dd if=/dev/hde of=dvd.iso conv=noerrors bs=2048
dd: invalid conversion: `noerrors'
Try `dd --help' for more information.
[root@192 don]# dd if=/dev/hdc of=dvd.iso conv=noerrors bs=2048
dd: invalid conversion: `noerrors'
Try `dd --help' for more information.

There are two cd/dvd-rw's in this box.

# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdd1 /data ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto umask=0022,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,noauto,exec,users 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0022,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat umask=0022,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hde /mnt/cdrom2 auto umask=0022,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0

Have you tried the disk in the other drive (hdc)?

Yes.
With the same results.

Then media incompatibility is likely the problem. Your drives may simply not be compatible with the type (DVD+-R DVD+-RW, DVD-RAM) or manufacturer of the DVD you are trying to copy.

I've used both to write many CD's and DVD's.
Both '+' and '-'.
The brand DVD+R I'm trying to write to is Memorex.
I'll try later today at a friends house.

Would the TV dvdrecorder be the cause?
It is an Emerson.

If the disk plays in a standard DVD player, it should not be anything unusual. The name on the disk (Memorex in this case) has little to do with the manufacturer. Memorex DVDs are made by CMC, Richoh, Fuji, MBI, MCC, Princo, Prodisk, Ritek, Taiyo Yuden, TDK, and others. Each DVD has a media code that the drive must recognize, or it will refuse to use the disk.

You can try looking at the web sites for your DVD drive manufacturer, to see if they have a firmware update available for either (or both) of your drives. Updating the drive firmware will usually update the media list in addition to fixing any major bugs.

I just reread this entire thread, and it then struck me that you twice mentioned dvd recorder. If the disk was not finalized on the recorder, then you will have significant trouble reading it.

My best suggestion is to reinsert the dvd into the recorder and finalize it. If that fails to yield any results, I would then suggest trying to rip the vobs from the dvd. The dvd does not need to be mounted (or playable) to do this (I think). Here's where I get myself in trouble...I can't really tell you how to do this. I do it weekly with dvds I've recorded, but I do it in Windows using TDA. Under linux, vobcopy comes to mind, but you would need someone with some experience with it to tell you how it's done. Once the vob(s) are ripped to your HD, you could use something like qdvdauthor or tovid to create a new dvd structure, and k3b to burn it.

Hope this helps.

PC DVD drives don't have a problem with disks that are not finalized. That's how multi-session disks are created. A standard-alone DVD player is where you will typically see a problem.

True in the sense that they don't have problems reading the disk structure, but the media player software can certainly have a problem with it.