Does Sage seriously not support ISO in anything? Seriously?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by htpcmaniac

In terms of who supports it? There's a plug-in for both MCE and MediaPortal (the latter being entirely free).

Neither support ISOs natively, ie neither can play them without mounting them first. As for plugins, as has been stated several times in this thread (and should have come up in your extensive searching) SageTV does have a plugin for mounting ISOs.

However MediaPortal doesn't have any extenders to contend with, and MCE extenders don't work with ISOs at all (AFAIK.

There are several streaming devices that support it.

Streaming device is a totally different class of product than SageTV.

VLC does a great job of playing it.

Like I said, two apps I'm aware of, XBMC and VLC.

I should blame myself? What for? I chose a format that works better.

And happens to be unsupported by the vast majority of HTPC apps out there.

I can or I could just not buy the Sage software.

If that's the only thing holding you back, I don't see why you wouldn't. Sounds kind of like you really don't want to buy a SageTV system, which is fine.

In my experience over the last year watching probably 100 DVD's streamed from a server to an mXBOX via a wirelessly bridged network, ISO's are far more stable than VOB's. I get no stuttering with them. The same can't be said for VOB's.

Sounds like the implementation of XBMC likes ISOs better, that doesn't mean ISOs themselves are better or that folders are worse.

I have to say, I'm rather surprised to see a large group of people who are backing a company that charges for the software,

Frankly I think that says a lot about the attitude. You seem anoyed that the best SW for your use is not free (or that the free software doesn't meet your requirements).

...but in this case is completely ignoring a large number of development request from a large number of current and potential users. You have to ask yourself, what other features could be in the product if they were spending more time listening to their customer base.

If Sage didn't listen to their customer base, they wouldn't have one. SageTV is one of the best companies out there at listenning to their customer base. Of course all development time is finite and they can't implement every request.

Sage is the only media center app with extenders that support DVDs at all.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by htpcmaniac

FYI, no uncompressing ISO's into VOB's is NOT a viable option. I really couldn't care less if they support VOB files or not. Any input would be appreciated.

As someone who had a large collection of *.iso files before discovering Sage, plus a media player which handle *.iso files just fine, I too was initially surprised Sage did not have native support for it.

(I also used Daemon Tools to mount iso images in the past when using them on a PC, but my former media player could use them natively.)

However, after switching to Sage, I decided to just convert the iso images to folders instead of messing with the ISO mount plugin. And I for one am real glad I did. In fact, hindsight being what it is, I wonder why I ever bothered with ISO images in the first place.

Here is what I like about having them in folders vs ISO images:

• No delay while images are mounted or unmounted
• Multiple extenders do not require multiple concurrent mounts
• Few things support ISO; everything supports Folders
• Rips are faster and don't need a temp folder
• Burn archival copy is faster with folder than ISO
• Covert art can just be stored in folder too
• Defrag operations have more flexibility for packing in vacant areas

In short, virtually everything is faster and easier.

The only disadvantage I've found is so minor it really doesn't matter much. Since I use 64K clusters on my media drives, having typically 12+ directory entries instead of 1 means there is more "slack" space on the drive. But if you take an average of 32K slack per file, that is still under .5 MB per 4-8GB used. So we are talking in the order of 0.01% additional wasted space. Even if you took a 1TB drive and filled it with 4GB rips, you're still in the range of an extra 125MB total. Compared to 1TB capacity, it just doesn't matter. Smaller drives make even less difference.

[jchong]

I haven't tried this yet but it looks like ISO support is being built in:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29528

[othy]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Ho hum. With this sort of attitude, I wouldn't want him on Sage anyway because he would be a big pain in the @$$ to help/support.

+1

I'm really put off by people who insist that their own personal priorities should jump to the top of the development roadmap. If seen people asking about ISO support, but I don't recall any sort of large outcry. I'd hate to think the the folks at Sage are putting important stuff on the back burner to focus on this.

Of course, I can't imagine passing on SageTV for lack of ISO support, of all things. For me, that would be like not buying the perfect house because the mailbox is the wrong color. ISO support just seems so tangential to the core functionality of the software, and alternative solutions are trivial to implement.

Tim

[Khristopher]

Originally Posted by othy

I'm really put off by people who insist that their own personal priorities should jump to the top of the development roadmap. If seen people asking about ISO support, but I don't recall any sort of large outcry. I'd hate to think the the folks at Sage are putting important stuff on the back burner to focus on this.

Of course, I can't imagine passing on SageTV for lack of ISO support, of all things. For me, that would be like not buying the perfect house because the mailbox is the wrong color. ISO support just seems so tangential to the core functionality of the software, and alternative solutions are trivial to implement.

Tim

Well put!!

[voidpt]

Originally Posted by htpcmaniac

I have to say, I'm rather surprised to see a large group of people who are backing a company that charges for the software, but in this case is completely ignoring a large number of development request from a large number of current and potential users. You have to ask yourself, what other features could be in the product if they were spending more time listening to their customer base.

If you are suprised by this, you do not understand the dynamic of company / products / support forums. I expect you do understand, but are for some reason not able to get past the fact that SageTV does not fit your worldview perfectly. And by that you need to went on this forum. Throwing away time that could be used to construct solutions. I shouldn't even be writing this, it's wasted time on my part too.

Back to my point. You should be able to recognise a forum were there is a high volume of competent people helping each others, finding solutions, creating customizations/plug-ins, instead of bickering and complaining. And belive me, we do not back the company blindly. We give feedback about complaints and wishes. We send support requests. Which gets written responses from SageTV.

I got to say I'm actually dreading the day if/when SageTV gets really mainstream. The influx of people that have no patience, no contribution, no manners will kill much of the forums. As it is now, I could not ask for better people to share this forum with.

You have your answer. No support directly for ISO. But creating VIDEO_TS structure will give the excatly same desired usability. Actually better, because there is no 2nd layer (ISO) that needs to be read to get to VIDEO_TS data.