ISO file

[erdna]

I quite often use the ISO workflow in X2 and MF7 as well. Not only for multi copy work (with Nero or the free Imgburn program), but also because my mediaplayer plays ISO's flawlesly. ISO is as far as I know the only way to get a real preview of what is going on the DVD when a menu is involved. For playback on my PC I use a "vitual drive": the free HD DVD-ROM drive from Slysoft which allows me to mount my ISO files and play them back by playback programs for DVD media, in my case I use PowerDVD 8. Also AVCHD creations including menu's can be perfectly veryfied before burning.

[Ken Berry]

ISO is as far as I know the only way to get a real preview of what is going on the DVD when a menu is involved.

DVD Folders can most definitely be used for exactly the same purpose. It is, after all, the full DVD including menus. What is more, you don't have to worry about mounting virtual drives in order to play it back.

[erdna]

Sorry for the misleading information, you are right Ken. Indeed one can open the video_ts folder and go to the .ifo file to get it all. I still prefer to hit the "mount" button on a single file (just like I hit the "play" button with a physical disc) and play the video. For my media player there is even more need for the iso route because my wife and (grand)childeren don't like/forget the container approach where they have to go to the video_ts and then hit the .ifo in order to watch a video containing menu's.

[Ken Berry]

Indeed one can open the video_ts folder and go to the .ifo file to get it all.

Why would you do that? If you want to play back the entire DVD Folder, with menu, just to see it or to check it all, then you simply open a software DVD player, like PowerDVD or WinDVD, point it to where the Video_TS folder is, and play it as you would a DVD. No mounting of virtual drives, and no need to hunt and peck inside the folder...

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

Unfortunately I don’t really understand about virtual drives.

I use VCL Player to play my ISO Files. They play as a normal DVD would, menu’s and all.
I set VCL as the default player for ISO files. Now i simply double click the ISO

[erdna]

Thanks Ken and Ron, you both learned me something I didn't know : the direct Video_ts folder playback, and the VCL route for iso playback. A virtual player "simulates" a real player, and if it is an HD version it can also act as a BD/AVCHD player. Ron, if the direct folder playback works, why do you need an iso file. Do you use it in a mediaplayer?

[Ron P.]

Ron, if the direct folder playback works, why do you need an iso file. Do you use it in a mediaplayer?

I don't use ISO files. In fact I had to run through DVD Factory 2010, just find out how Corel arrived at the screenshot they provided to you. I knew that it was capable of creating DVD Folders. It was new to me, that it could produce a Data ISO file. I use the DVD Folder route, and point one of my media players to the VIDEO_TS folder.

[erdna]

With what I learned last week thanks to Ken and Ron in mind, I really ask myself for what iso files are good for afterall. Up to now I think I will leave the iso route.

[erdna]

Now, while creating an AVCHD DVD, I understand why I was giving wrong info about "DVD with menu" playback and ISO: I was so used to make AVCHD DVD's were my experience was (is) that the ISO route is the only way to veryfy the hybridDVD content (including the menu functionality), that I forgot that "DVD" and AVCHD DVD are different . Playback the BDMV folder with a SW player doesn't work for me...up to now.

[Ken Berry]

Yep, that would explain it!! And as you have found, some software players have difficulty playing back BDMV folders. However, I use ArcSoft's Total Media Theater 3 which can play them successfully. Windows Media Center will also play them, though it appears to piggy-back off the ArcSoft program to play them. I only have an older version of PowerDVD on this computer, and while it will play individual clips from a BDMV STREAM folder, it will not play the folder itself. I don't know if a more recent version will play them. I also don't have a recent version of Corel's own WinDVD, so also can't comment there.

Incidentally, did VS produce a BDMV folder for your AVCHD hybrid discs, or a BDAV folder? I thought it would only produce the latter, as my own home-made hybrid discs have BDAV. I understand that some software media players are blocked for copyright reasons from playing BDMV folders (as opposed to Blu-Ray discs in a computer Blu-Ray drive).

[erdna]

My MF7SE produces BDMV (in fact an AVCHD folder containing the BDMV folder) which I can playback with VCL player. When the folder contains more video files and a menu, files are being played back in VCL, one after the other - no menu like I get when playing back the Hybrid DVD (or the ISO file). On these DVD's I only get BDMV. I am still a bit confused about the BDMV/BDAV stuff...but I thought that AVCHD and BD folders are always BDMV these days. BDAV was needed when (in the past) the BD players (also SW players?) needed to "see" an encryption file in BDMV, but this requirement has been removed as far as I remember.