Unfinalized DVDs are read as empty - icon does not display of desktop

I transferred some old VHS tapes (really sentimental stuff - my parents in the 1940's, my kids growing up) to DVD (CD -r) using a Samsung v-3500 several years ago. It wasn't until that machine broke that I realized that the discs did not finalize (they always played on the creating machine), and therefore can't be read by other DVD players. My iMac believes these discs are empty -- I get a "you inserted a blank DVD" message but the disc icon does not appear on the desktop. I therefore can't analyze them with disc utility, Hand Brake, or most other DVD readers. I did manage to get the following (parsed) error message using VLC:

dvdnav warning: cannot open dvdnav
main warning: no access_demux module matching "dvdnav" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 109.604 ms - Total 109.604 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 109.604 ms)
main debug: creating access 'dvdnav' path='/dev/rdisk2'
main debug: looking for access module: 0 candidates
main error: no access module matched "dvdnav"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.146 ms - Total 0.146 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.146 ms)
main error: open of `dvdnav:///dev/rdisk2' failed: no access module matched "dvdnav"dvdnav warning: cannot open dvdnav
main warning: no access_demux module matching "dvdnav" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 109.604 ms - Total 109.604 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 109.604 ms)
main debug: creating access 'dvdnav' path='/dev/rdisk2'
main debug: looking for access module: 0 candidates
main error: no access module matched "dvdnav"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.146 ms - Total 0.146 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.146 ms)
main error: open of `dvdnav:///dev/rdisk2' failed: no access module matched "dvdnav"

I tried playing them on a different v-3500... no luck. I sent the discs to a media shop ... no luck. But since I can't even get the icon to appear on my desktop I can't figure out how to use "fixit" software to try and extract the contents in some sort of viewable format. Any suggestions on (1) how to get the disc icon to display (2) if that is successful, what software might be able to reach these unfinalized DVDs??