(Windows) What will play an iso video file? Topic is solved

[dedanna1029]

I've got some of my movies backed up as .iso files for convenience. It used to be that VLC at least would play back an .iso file, but it's not doing it now. I've tried others as well; SMPlayer for Windows, MPlayer for Windows, my paid version of Nero Video, Nero MediaHome, PowerDVD that came with this computer when I got it, Windows Media Player, among others. Anyone know of anything that will play back a video .iso file?

Thanks.

[viking60]

Maybe this:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/odsupport/ar ... -disc.aspx

[Snorkasaurus]

ISO files are not actually video files, but rather are CD/DVD image files. If you mount the image with an application like VirtualCloneDrive or Daemon Tools (I recommend v3.47) you can use VLC to play it as a disc. Alternatively you can use archiving software such as 7-Zip to extract the contents and play the VOB files with VLC. I guess most of that is an abbreviated version of (b) and (c) from v60's link. :-)

s.

[Snorkasaurus]

Crap. I just tried Daemon Tools on Win7 and it barfed completely. Pismo (mentioned in v60's link) blue screened me because I tried to run it without rebooting after the install, but worked fine after the reboot.
s.

[dedanna1029]

In fact Snork, VLC and Xine both used to play straight off the .iso file. It evidently isn't any more. Mplayer and SMPlayer both boast that they can, but they don't.

This has been a major disappointment today.

viking, I don't want to extract the files. I want to play the .iso. Thanks though.

I've even tried mounting an .iso with Virtual Clone Disk today. It eventually played the .iso back, but it was choppy as hell.

If someone could check in the Linux version of VLC and see if it plays back an .iso file I'd be grateful. Then I'd know it's this fscked-up OS and that in this fscked up OS, they don't want to provide this feature in players any more.

I've been looking through a ton of these links today looking for what to do with the latest version of SMPlayer, MPlayer, and VLC all three. Nothing worked.

[R_Head]

Has to be a plug in to play ISO. In the way I see it, ISO is like a ZIP file and you use a plug in that can Un-Zip/View the content without "un-packaging". The world of MS is either pay for it or find a pirate copy somewhere with some 1,000 mile long key.

Have you tried running a live distro; you might get lucky though....

[dedanna1029]

Every distro I've had so far has done it, no plugin needed. All iso is, is a container for files, which in this case are video files. I haven't tried Mageia 5 though, but am expecting the same results with it.
Something has changed with this, and it's not good.

[dedanna1029]

So my question(s) remain:
Is there anything that will play back a video iso file?
Has anyone tried this on their Linux versions lately?

[R_Head]

Have not tried to be honest. All my entertainment is streaming and never found the need. Beside all my video is either MP4 or AVIs

[dedanna1029]

But to back up a dvd that one has bought, one really needs the .iso, as it backs up the entire dvd.

I thought Jean-Baptiste Kempf a good one to ask, as he's taken over development of libdvdcss, libdvdnav, and libdvdread. He's also working on VLC. The question is awaiting review.

[R_Head]

When I back up a DVD, I use the Disc to Disc copy feature.

Nothing wrong using ISO format, that is just another way.

[dedanna1029]

That's to put it onto a dvd though, aye?
Copy disk to another dvd...