Final word on DVD .ISO support?

[toricred]

I think the comments were more along the lines of: Folders work now. ISOs might be nice, but not a priority right now because of folder support.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by toricred

I think the comments were more along the lines of: Folders work now. ISOs might be nice, but not a priority right now because of folder support.

...and there are other, much bigger fish to fry.

[TwistedMelon]

Supporting ISO files on any platform is largely trivial. It's a disk image. And archive format. Once you mount it (like a virtual disc) its structure is exactly the same as it would be if it were on a CD, DVD or within another folder. Same Video_TS hierarchy.

Not supporting it is short-sighted. ISO is still the de-facto method of bundling and moving ripped DVD content. Forget the argument about images in a zip file. That's apples and oranges.

How about this... Instead of an AVI file, would you prefer to move around a folder containing a separate video stream, audio stream and subtitle track? For the same reason the Matroska (MKV) container is convenient, so too is an ISO. Not the least of which is since it's an image of a disc, you can be assured that it's going to burn back to disc if you so choose.

That said, I'm pretty sure I had been able to auto-mount/play ISOs a while back during the last beta round. As I recall I just had the ISO file in the video import directory and then browsed DVDs where it appeared. I'll have to check again, but I can't believe it's something I was dreaming.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by TwistedMelon

Supporting ISO files on any platform is largely trivial.

No it's not. Not in Windows at least as there's no built in support for mounting images. It requires third party software. As for Sage, Sage relies almost entirely on DirectShow for media playback on Windows, and AFAIK there are no filters that support reading/mounting ISOs on Windows.

It's a disk image. And archive format. Once you mount it (like a virtual disc) its structure is exactly the same as it would be if it were on a CD, DVD or within another folder. Same Video_TS hierarchy.

But it requires mounting.

Not supporting it is short-sighted. ISO is still the de-facto method of bundling and moving ripped DVD content.

I think you'll get some disagreement on that. Most PC apps only support folder rips. I think that says a lot about what the "de-facto method" is.

Forget the argument about images in a zip file. That's apples and oranges.

No it's not. Zip files are the "de-facto method of bundling and moving" almost anything you download on the internet (eg applications), but do we normally leave our content in a zip file? I don't.

How about this... Instead of an AVI file, would you prefer to move around a folder containing a separate video stream, audio stream and subtitle track?

That all depends, if it were the native format and supported by 95% of media applications, it wouldn't bother me.

For the same reason the Matroska (MKV) container is convenient, so too is an ISO.

It's only convenient if it's support by everybody.

There's another format for DVDs out there, RatDVD, it's a single file that supports re-encoded DVD content (mpeg-4 video). Sounds great doesn't it, single file, smaller size than DVD, full functionality. But nobody supports it.

It's not some philosophical opposition to ISOs, it's completely pragmatic. Folders are supported by everything natively (even Windows Media Player), ISOs are not. Sage supports folders very well and with full functionality. Those of us who oppose ISO support only oppose the redirection of development time from other features that would have a larger impact (like a new UI, or UPNP server support, or any of a large number of other features people have been clamoring for).

[amccrea]

I too would like to see .ISO suppport. If for no other reason, than to expand the userbase. I personally delayed my purchase of SageTV and an extender by about a year because I had my library of 100 movies in .ISO format already and was basically happy using MyMovies on MCE (But wanted something I could customize more and hardware extenders that supported DVD menus). I finally got everything converted to Video_TS and then made the SageTV purchase. Sage would have had my money a year earlier if they supported .ISO.
Also, I initially decided against using SageTV at all because of the lack of .ISO support. I have since realized that Video_TS works just about as well, but when I was a newbie, I didn't know what to call "Support for full DVD Rips including menus" when searching the web for different media platforms out there. I looked at MythTV, XBMC, Windows MCE, Media Portal, numerous Set top boxes, and many others. Until I had looked at them all and learned a lot (hours and hours reading forums), .ISO support was on my list of "must have" features. Even though I don't really need it anymore, I know there are lots of other people that would try Sage if it supported .ISO.

Sage seems to usually lean toward supporting most every file format they can, so it makes sense that this be one of them.

[MrFusion]

Hi,

I created a thread on how to implement support for DVD .ISOs in Sage (simple, quick, transparent, works with extenders, clients, on windows servers, etc).

You can find it at: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45531

Have a look and see if it helps.

[stanger89]

See, Sage doesn't need ISO support