Can SageTV v7 play ISO Blue-Ray?

[oajungen]

I have installed Virtual CloneDrive to play ISO DVD files and this is working perfectly. Last I night I made an ISO from Blue-Ray, but SageTV can't find the file. Is this supported? I am using the HD300.

If I look at the specifications of Virtual CloneDrive, they only talk about CD / DVD..... so probably this isn't supperted (yet.... hopefully).

[madpoet]

It works fine. Where did you look for the ISO? Are you sure media scan had run to pick it up? Is it in a monitored folder?

[oajungen]

Yes it is in the default folder for movies. I have to check meaby the ISO file is corrupted if it should work. Going to give it an other try. I started to get doubts because on the website of Virtual CloneDrive they only spoke about CD and DVD's

[oajungen]

I am running the SageTV server on Windows 2003. 2003 doesn't support Blue-Ray. Can that be the cause of the problem?

[stanger89]

If you're just starting, don't waste your time with ISOs, they're a huge pain to work with and at this point completely unnecessary (unless you're "stuck" using PowerDVD).

[TwistedMelon]

ISO files (disk images) are quite a bit more convenient than a loose folder structure for holding your disc rips. Instead of "not bothering" it would probably be better to bother, test and report any issues to Sage so that they can be fixed.

IMO, dealing with open/loose folders of VIDEO_TS files is a PITA and "not worth it."

What would be nice would be the removal of the reliance on an external third-party tool to mount ISOs. Just grab some open source code and throw it right into Sage.

[madpoet]

stranger hates ISOs Personally I love them. Since you are playing back on the 300 I don't think it matters that your server is 2003. Not positive though.

Have you looked through the different views for it (DVD/BD, Folders, etc) and it just doesn't show anywhere?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by TwistedMelon

ISO files (disk images) are quite a bit more convenient than a loose folder structure for holding your disc rips.

I've never understood how one ISO is "more convenient" than one folder, either way it's one file system object with a bunch of files and folders in it. Only thing an ISO does is make it harder to get at the contents.

Instead of "not bothering" it would probably be better to bother, test and report any issues to Sage so that they can be fixed.

BD folder structures work perfect in Sage without having to deal with VCD. That's why I say don't bother.

IMO, dealing with open/loose folders of VIDEO_TS files is a PITA and "not worth it."

How so? I put my rip on my server once, and never look at it again. Sage presents it as a single media object in the GUI. So I never deal with "open/loose folders".

Originally Posted by madpoet

stranger hates ISOs

For reasons like the above. I've seen countless threads/posts on this an AVS asking for help with ISOs, problems with getting the auto-mounting to work, needing 2 or 3 software packages installed. All so you have a different icon on the file system and can't double-click to open it.

Personally I love them.

I understand the historical need for them, for applications that are in early development or artificially limited (PowerDVD). But when Sage and TMT, and numerous other applications support folder structures natively, I don't see any benefit to ISOs and plenty of drawbacks (like needing a Rube Goldberg machine to play them).

Since you are playing back on the 300 I don't think it matters that your server is 2003. Not positive though.

It doesn't, I've got a lot of BD folder structures that work perfect and my server is Server 2003.

Have you looked through the different views for it (DVD/BD, Folders, etc) and it just doesn't show anywhere?

They will be displayed in the DVD/BD view, not the Videos view.

[derelicte1]

I don't see the need for iso's either, especially if you are using something like clownbd to rip just the main movie. it is just one more unnecessary step, it requires extra sw to use (vcd) and takes longer to start movie playback.

I'm with stanger. the _only_ reason to use iso's are if you need to use pdvd.

[madpoet]

I'm lazy. I rip my BDs to full iso because I like it that way. My DVDs and HD-DVDs I rip to file/folder. Honestly it's not a big deal to me, but each to their own.

[TwistedMelon]

If the filesystem had support for a bundled folder class it wouldn't be such an issue. In Mac OS for instance bundle folders (applications for instance) appear as single files even though they're not. That's convenient for file management and it works over the entire OS.

Since that's not possible in Windows, having at least an ISO helps to keep the file system cleaner. It's trivial to support an ISO and you don't need to fiddle around with multiple applications. Especially if the player application includes native support for disk images (like many do).

I don't use PowerDVD or any other Windows-based playback software. Playing back files in Windows is what I did in the 90's.

I've mentioned this in another thread that you participated in LONG ago. An ISO is useful for the same reason an MKV or other container is useful. To keep things together. It doesn't matter if you don't see it. You're not being forced to use it. I'm not trying to convince you to start using ISO files - I don't care how you store or play back your media. Personally, I don't think Sage's media support is strong enough to use it as a library browser anyway, so I only use the filesystem browser.

But... enough people want that feature that Sage felt it worthy to add. If it has problems, Sage needs feedback to get it working 100%. Telling people to give up on it just because there's a potential bug in Sage is completely counter-productive, and IMO, a little offensive. That's not what this forum is about. This is the beta forum for helping to fix beta versions of SageTV.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by TwistedMelon

Since that's not possible in Windows, having at least an ISO helps to keep the file system cleaner. It's trivial to support an ISO and you don't need to fiddle around with multiple applications. Especially if the player application includes native support for disk images (like many do).

Obviously it's not trivial or so many people/apps wouldn't have so much trouble with it.

I've mentioned this in another thread that you participated in LONG ago. An ISO is useful for the same reason an MKV or other container is useful.

ISO and MKV are completely different things. I look at ISO like a zip file.

Telling people to give up on it just because there's a potential bug in Sage is completely counter-productive

That's not exactly what I said, I told them that (if you go back and re-read), "If you're just starting out", ie if you don't have anything ripped to ISO already, I don't see any point in making your life difficult by ripping to a format/container that's more trouble than simple folders.

Sage doesn't need ISOs, and works better/simpler/faster (even if ISO support is working 100%), with folder structures, so I recommend not going down the ISO path when there's no functional benefit, just added complexity and opportunity for problems.

[derelicte1]

I don't see how you could state that sage can handle isos if it requires another app like vcd. myth, xbmc, etc. can handle isos natively. sage can't.

[Fuzzy]

This is most likely due to the lack of UDF 2.5 support (which BluRay uses) in Windows XP and 2003. There is a UDF2.5 driver from Toshiba floating around the net for XP, but I don't know if it works with 2003. Of course, you don't NEED UDF 2.5 for sage to read from plain folders... ;-)

[oajungen]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

This is most likely due to the lack of UDF 2.5 support (which BluRay uses) in Windows XP and 2003. There is a UDF2.5 driver from Toshiba floating around the net for XP, but I don't know if it works with 2003. Of course, you don't NEED UDF 2.5 for sage to read from plain folders... ;-)

Thank you for the information. I solved the problem with:
http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=15597

Installed the Toshiba drivers and it is working at this moment with Server 2003.