ISO or VOB?

[Roundtree]

Greetings. I am new to this forum & to dvd burning. I am using anydvd & dvdnextcopy to copy movies to my C drive and to make backups of my dvd films.

My question is this: the VOB format plays well on my pc but will it play on a
stand alone dvd player (which I do not have at the moment)?

If I copy movies to my C drive using the ISO format can I play them in Windows Media Player 11?

Thank you.

Roundtree.

 

[mike20021969]

a VOB file by itself burnt onto a blank dvd disc will almost certainly not play in a dvd player.
a dvd player will look for other files and directories on the dvd before the disc will play.
other directories and files include VIDEO_TS,AUDIO_TS,.BUP,.IFO.

 

[James]

If I copy movies to my C drive using the ISO format can I play them in Windows Media Player 11?

Yes, if you mount them in a virtual drive like CloneDrive.

 

[Roundtree]

OK. Thank you. What you are saying is that movies saved in the ISO format can be played on a stand alone dvd player and that they can also be played on a virutal drive in a pc. Is that correct?

 

[Webslinger]

What you are saying is that movies saved in the ISO format can be played on a stand alone dvd player

No.

That's incorrect.

and that they can also be played on a virutal drive in a pc

Yes

 

[Roundtree]

OK. Movies saved to my pc in ISO must first be converted to another format before being played in a stand alone dvd player? And that format cannot be VOB? What format then?

 

[Webslinger]

OK. Movies saved to my pc in ISO must first be converted to another format before being played in a stand alone dvd player?

Yes . . . well, the .iso is a disc image. Basically the disc structure/files needs to be extracted from the .iso first.

And that format cannot be VOB?

No. Dvd players play .vob files (but not in isolation; the .ifo files, and the .vobs from the original disc do need to be present). If you want to play backups in your standalone .isos are useless.

 

[Roundtree]

Thank you for your patience. If I understand you correctly - if all of the files present on the original (or purchased) dvd movie such as the VIDEO_TS,AUDIO_TS,.BUP,.IFO files are also present on the backup copy then the backup copy will play on a stand alone dvd player.

 

[Webslinger]

Thank you for your patience. If I understand you correctly - if all of the files present on the original (or purchased) dvd movie such as the VIDEO_TS,AUDIO_TS,.BUP,.IFO files are also present on the backup copy then the backup copy will play on a stand alone dvd player.

Yes, that's right.

 

[Roundtree]

This has been quite a lesson for me.

I will continue to backup my original dvd movies in the VIDEO_TS,AUDIO_TS,.BUP,.IFO formats. Actually when the ISO option is not chosen, dvdnextcopy does this automatically.

I am glad I joined this forum.

 

[Roundtree]

Webslinger, would you help me to understand, in short, why someone would choose to make dvd backups using the ISO format? You cannot play such a dvd in a stand alone dvd player so what good is it? And it requires the installation of a virtual drive on your pc if you play it on your computer.

If anyone else viewing this post has something to say, please do.

Thank you.

 

[James]

Webslinger, would you help me to understand, in short, why someone would choose to make dvd backups using the ISO format? You cannot play such a dvd in a stand alone dvd player so what good is it? And it requires the installation of a virtual drive on your pc if you play it on your computer.

If anyone else viewing this post has something to say, please do.

Thank you.

If you write the ISO to a disc using CloneCD or CloneDVD, you can of course watch them on a standalone.

 

[Webslinger]

If you write the ISO to a disc using CloneCD or CloneDVD, you can of course watch them on a standalone.

Yes, but in that case the files being written are no longer .isos

Roundtree, are you asking why create an .iso if your goal is to burn a blank disc that will play in a standalone player?

I can see no reason as creating an .iso first is an extra unnecessary step.

 

[Roundtree]

Greetings,

This is a direct quote from Wikipedia defining what ISO is:

Better performance is achieved by running an ISO since there is no waiting for the drive to be ready and the hard drive I/O speed is many times faster than the CD/DVD drive. Along with the ability to avoid disk failure (Shattering) which may be expensive to rectify.

It's Wikipedia's comment concerning disk failure (Shattering) that particularly catches my eye. I am viewing my dvd backups on my pc. I have saved them in the VOB format. However if backing up and viewing them in the ISO format is better for my C drive than I will certainly do that.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience that would shed some light on Wikipedia's comments?

 

[Webslinger]

Greetings,

This is a direct quote from Wikipedia defining what ISO is:

Better performance is achieved by running an ISO since there is no waiting for the drive to be ready and the hard drive I/O speed is many times faster than the CD/DVD drive. Along with the ability to avoid disk failure (Shattering) which may be expensive to rectify.

It's Wikipedia's comment concerning disk failure (Shattering) that particularly catches my eye. I am viewing my dvd backups on my pc. I have saved them in the VOB format. However if backing up and viewing them in the ISO format is better for my C drive than I will certainly do that.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience that would shed some light on Wikipedia's comments?

I believe the distinction being made is only between dvd backups and hard drive files. Using an iso on one's hard drive in no way guarantees that hard drive failure won't affect/wreck .iso files on one's hard drive.