It seemed obvious to me that protected ISOs of UHD discs, because they are undecoded bit-for-bit copies, should be perfect copies and that the version of AnyDVD used to create the protected ISO shouldn't matter.
However, in the interest of completeness, and in the full knowledge that software bugs do exist even in the simplest code, I have tested the theory.
I created a protected ISO backup of the American Assassin UHD disc that I mentioned in my first post, above, after downgrading to AnyDVD v8.2.2.0. That version is known to have the problem of decoding Dolby-Vision playlists. I then mounted the protected ISO using VCD and AnyDVD 8.2.2.0 recognized and decoded the disc. CloneBD was then unable to read most of those playlists from the mounted ISO, because of this known bug.
I then exited CloneBD and unloaded AnyDVD, and then upgraded to the latest beta of AnyDVD, 8.2.2.2. I remounted the same protected ISO, which AnyDVD 8.2.2.2 also decoded, and started CloneBD which now had no problems reading any playlists. All playlists seemed to preview just fine.
Belt and suspenders testing, I know, but I thought it was worth the exercise to confirm that AnyDVD is, in fact, just as fabulous as we think it is!
Cheers,
--michael