Having problems playing your DVD .ISO/.IFO back-ups?, Report all your "ISO & IFO" file playback issues here Options

[patvr]

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING: By SeeMoreDigital

• Please remember ISO (and IFO) playback is "experimental".
• Full disc ISO (and IFO) back-up's require a viable DVD menu (ie: complete with VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.VOB, VTS_01_0.IFO, VTS_01_0.VOB, etc files)
• Movie-only ISO (and IFO) back-up's require a viable DVD menu (ie: complete with VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.VOB, VTS_01_0.IFO, VTS_01_0.VOB, etc files)
• Please post all the tools you used to create your DVD-to-ISO back-ups

General Advice
As you may or may not know (or understand), DVD manufacturers and distributors are constantly improving and tweaking DVD security systems. So in order to keep pace with these changes you'll need to use the latest "backing-up" tools!

There's a free application called DVDFab Decrypter, which is constantly being updated and now offers backing up to an .ISO file.... Some of you might like to give it a try with those tougher DVD's

Fellow Admins: Please keep this thread "pinned" in the "Audio & Video Encode Help" section of the forum.
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And now... on with patvr's post: -

As you know, firmware version 1.4 added Experimental support for ISO files (emphasis on "experimental)".

I have been playing around with this and am interested in the results of others. I will share what I have experienced so far (which I am happy with, I might add). But for those files that don't play, I am keenly interested in the reason(s).

Let me first say that I am a novice when it comes to the technicalities but am very interested in working to improve my understand of the many issues related to video. For my personal use, beside the music and picture functionality of the Z500, my primary goal is to back up all of my DVD collection and store and play these backups from my Infrant ReadyNas NV (4 - 500 Gig drives) network drive.

From what I have read and tried, it appears that creating a backup of the DVD in ISO format is the most practical way to accomplish this goal. I have used (and continue to use) DVD Decrypt, DVD Shrink, and Copy To DVD (for various functionality).

Thus far I have created ISO backup files for The Matrix, Ray, Moulin Rouge, Five Easy Pieces, Guess Who and discs 1 & 2 of Chicago and EWF at the Greek Theater (picked randomly from my collection). Of these, all play (with full menu control) except Moulon Rouge and Guess Who. I stream directly from my NAS using Windows SMB. I have a wired system and have version 1.4.2 in my Z500.

I have spent some time working with the two that don't play. Thinking it may be file size related, I have reduced the size of the Guess Who ISO file with DVD shrink but it made no difference. I have since created ISO backups (Ray for instance) that are larger than Guess Who and that are just slightly smaller than Moulon Rouge. So I ruled out file size as a cause. The failure mode is that the initial screen(s) come up (FBI, MPAA, etc.) but the DVD Menu screen to start playing the movie does not come up.

With Guess Who, the display on the front of the Z500 shows Loading DVD, then moves to 00:00:00, then the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment splash screen starts (with audio) as the timer increments to 00:00:13. From here nothing happens but the Z500 is NOT locked up. I can pause, play (but it does not move from 00:00:13). I had a suggestion to hit the Menu button on the remote (thought this was it!) but this did nothing (and neither did fast forward). When I hit the stop button the Z500 returns to the Z500 Main Menu screen.

With Moulon Rouge, the display does not move from 00:00:00 although it cycles through the FBI, Attention, then MPAA screen (it never increments). From here it's the same as with Guess Who once the timer is a 00:00:13.

I created both files that do not work with both DVD Decrypt and then with DVD Shrink (no compression) and get the same results.

As I stated earlier, I am not at all upset with this. After all, ISO is experimental so I am fine experimenting. I just need some suggestions to point me in the right direction to try to understand what the issue may be.

Again, please post your experiences so we can share what is and is not successful.

This post has been edited by SeeMoreDigital: May 20 2007, 12:03 AM

[mscox]

It's funny that you mention 00:00:13 seconds as the point at which some of your ISO's stop as I also have several of these. I have also seen the behaviour of freezing at 00:00:00. I'm waiting for 1.5 to be released to see if this changes anything and if not, then I'll likely start extracting out the first vob for Zensonic to analyse. One additional thing I have done as a test is to burn the extracted ISO image which doesn't work via SMB to a DVD-R and noticed that this happens to work just fine with the Z500.

Also, with respect to filesize, the Z500 does not appear to have any problems playing a single 8.5Gb ISO image file via SMB. In fact I have gone further than this and even tested a single 18Gb TS (high bitrate mpeg-2) file which plays without problems.

cheers,

MSC

[patvr]

It's funny that you mention 00:00:13 seconds as the point at which some of your ISO's stop as I also have several of these. I have also seen the behaviour of freezing at 00:00:00. I'm waiting for 1.5 to be released to see if this changes anything and if not, then I'll likely start extracting out the first vob for Zensonic to analyse. One additional thing I have done as a test is to burn the extracted ISO image which doesn't work via SMB to a DVD-R and noticed that this happens to work just fine with the Z500.

Also, with respect to filesize, the Z500 does not appear to have any problems playing a single 8.5Gb ISO image file via SMB. In fact I have gone further than this and even tested a single 18Gb TS (high bitrate mpeg-2) file which plays without problems.

cheers,

MSC

Good idea. I will burn a +R DVD DL with the ISO and see if it plays (I think I tried this earlier but, you know how it goes). I have to record everything (as I am doing now) or I forget what I did when.

This post has been edited by patvr: Oct 5 2006, 06:44 PM

[Werder]

One reason for me to own the Z500 is to play ISO files. A large number of our collection of DVDs (last count around 600) sits in boxes under the bed or in the garage; if we want to rewatch some of the movies it always ends in a big search... so the basic idea is to put ISO copies of a large number of the (legally owned) movies on an USB directly attached to the Z500.

Recently I tested 18 random picked DVDs pulling a full copy of the ISO file onto the USB drive. 4 didn't play at all, the rest played perfect. The ones that failed the Z500 was always hanging in one of the intro screens, before the DVD content menu was displayed. To recover I need to press the stop button for an entended time (but no reboot needed).

But I found a workaround. Instead of having these 6-8GB files, I reauthor (Shrink) to keep only the main movie (100% quality). As known the Z500 doesn't play ISO movies without menu, so I create a simple menu with TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 around the stripped movie and - so far I converted about 20 - it plays perfectly with all chapter markings preserved. PS. I set the TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 to start playing immediately, so the menu doesn't show, however if I press menu button the (simple) DVD menu will show and I can select whatever chapter I want.

Best is I end up with 2-4GB ISO files (instead of 6-8GB), which means I can put twice as many movies on the same USB drive.

[GregiBoy]

Why not use AutoGK/FFDShow and encode the movies to around a 1Gb AVI file with DD5.1 sound and then you save 4 times the space (at least). ?

How to do this is described in the encoding section of the forum.

Or after release of 1.5 firmware use Nero Recode and do the same thing?

[cyberdude]

One reason for me to own the Z500 is to play ISO files. A large number of our collection of DVDs (last count around 600) sits in boxes under the bed or in the garage; if we want to rewatch some of the movies it always ends in a big search... so the basic idea is to put ISO copies of a large number of the (legally owned) movies on an USB directly attached to the Z500.

Recently I tested 18 random picked DVDs pulling a full copy of the ISO file onto the USB drive. 4 didn't play at all, the rest played perfect. The ones that failed the Z500 was always hanging in one of the intro screens, before the DVD content menu was displayed. To recover I need to press the stop button for an entended time (but no reboot needed).

But I found a workaround. Instead of having these 6-8GB files, I reauthor (Shrink) to keep only the main movie (100% quality). As known the Z500 doesn't play ISO movies without menu, so I create a simple menu with TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 around the stripped movie and - so far I converted about 20 - it plays perfectly with all chapter markings preserved. PS. I set the TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 to start playing immediately, so the menu doesn't show, however if I press menu button the (simple) DVD menu will show and I can select whatever chapter I want.

Best is I end up with 2-4GB ISO files (instead of 6-8GB), which means I can put twice as many movies on the same USB drive.

This is VERY interesting, can you give us (me) a bit more on the process so I can try this myself please. DO you reauthor to TS files or to an ISO and then use Author?

[dixitr]

the only issue i see with avi files is - lack of chapters. couple this with seek function not working 100%, and you get the reason why i choose to rip to iso.

sometimes for some reason the xvid rip has broken/corrupt index due to many reasons. i had recently such a xvid rip of a home made video of around 2 hours. around 40 minutes in viewing, by error i pressed stop button on the remote. due to corrupt index, i could not seek to 40 minutes (or any other point) in the avi file, and i had to make a choice - spend 2-3 hours re-running the avi thru div-fix or autogk; or spend 40 minutes seeing the same video again. i decided to go for latter.

so, till the seek function within avi is fully-functional, or some method of putting chapeter marks in avi files is invented - i would stick to ripped dvd as iso.

till now i have tried around 20 DVD, and have had no issues. i have ripped them as IFO (not ISO), and they play fine if you select the main bup/ifo file.

[Werder]

This is VERY interesting, can you give us (me) a bit more on the process so I can try this myself please. DO you reauthor to TS files or to an ISO and then use Author?

Sure. In Shrink your reauthor main movie and create a new iso file (backup in Shrink). Mount the new iso file with Daemon tools... from there TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 can read it... (1) extract it with chapters, (2) create menu, (3) write VIDEO_TS folder, (4) create ISO file (all in DVD Author). Takes about 10min on my computer.

PS. Shrink can read both a VIDEO_TS folder or a DAEMON mounted iso file. Many of my movies I have already have as a stripped iso file, because I travel a lot and the laptop battery lasts much longer playing from harddrive (via VLC) then using the DVD drive (on my current laptop using the DVD drive on a plane typically the battery is empty just before the ending of the movie - grrrrh).

This post has been edited by Werder: Sep 7 2006, 01:09 PM

[GregiBoy]

Nero Recoded MP4's contain both chapters and subtitles. Firmware 1.5 will support this.

Patience, patience !!!!

[dixitr]

Nero Recoded MP4's contain both chapters and subtitles. Firmware 1.5 will support this.

Patience, patience !!!!

well, i will wait & wait. i am not sure whether z400 supports nero format mp4. does tversity transcode nero files to play on z400 ?

-----------------------

by the way, beer is good, scotch is better - but scotch with beer (chaser) is BEST

[GregiBoy]

Firmware 1.5 of the Z500 will support Cinema profile nero encoded MP4's. I am not aware of what the Z400 can do.

I don't know about TVersity.

[cyberdude]

Sure. In Shrink your reauthor main movie and create a new iso file (backup in Shrink). Mount the new iso file with Daemon tools... from there TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 can read it... (1) extract it with chapters, (2) create menu, (3) write VIDEO_TS folder, (4) create ISO file (all in DVD Author). Takes about 10min on my computer.

PS. Shrink can read both a VIDEO_TS folder or a DAEMON mounted iso file. Many of my movies I have already have as a stripped iso file, because I travel a lot and the laptop battery lasts much longer playing from harddrive (via VLC) then using the DVD drive (on my current laptop using the DVD drive on a plane typically the battery is empty just before the ending of the movie - grrrrh).

By the way. I have tried this on a few movies, some that worked just fine with a full .ISO backup and some that have not worked with full .ISO backup. I am VERY happy with the results. Every backup I have attempted with this method has worked. This is really promising. A bit of leg work, but simple enough.

As I see it, I get the best of both worlds; Reduced footprint on the server (movie only is approx. 4MB), AND no reencoded/transcoded content. Plus, I still get my chapter navigation.

WOO HOO!

So far, I belive this is my solution: After backing up my original disks, I archive the .ISO to a storage drive, I then create a "movie only" image and go through the motions. That new .ISO image goes on the media server.

[Werder]

By the way. I have tried this on a few movies, some that worked just fine with a full .ISO backup and some that have not worked with full .ISO backup. I am VERY happy with the results. Every backup I have attempted with this method has worked. This is really promising. A bit of leg work, but simple enough.

As I see it, I get the best of both worlds; Reduced footprint on the server (movie only is approx. 4MB), AND no reencoded/transcoded content. Plus, I still get my chapter navigation.

WOO HOO!

So far, I belive this is my solution: After backing up my original disks, I archive the .ISO to a storage drive, I then create a "movie only" image and go through the motions. That new .ISO image goes on the media server.

Actually you can skip the Shrink step (create a "movie only" image). Daemon mount the original ISO backup file and in TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 you can directly select the main movie! ...and the other steps are the same. All you give up is to conviently remove unwanted audio streams as you can in Shrink.

[cyberdude]

Actually you can skip the Shrink step (create a "movie only" image). Daemon mount the original ISO backup file and in TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 you can directly select the main movie! ...and the other steps are the same. All you give up is to conviently remove unwanted audio streams as you can in Shrink.

Sweeeeeet.

[patvr]

Good information above . . .

Now, back to the topic - ISO Full DVD Playback

After backing up 32 of my DVD's to ISO files, six (6) do not play on the Z500. Of these six, 3 are from Sony Pictures and 1 is from Sony Classics. There may be something to this but I have no clue how to determine if this is related to Sony distributed DVD's

Any ideas are welcome.