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[richard-ec2]

I've spent hours on this without success. When I try to play an ISO in Windows MC23, it goes haywire, with the display/action window flashing on and off, the top ribbon flashing on and off and saying "Live 1 0f 2, Live 2 of 3" etc etc and apparently trying to load and play hundreds of copies of the ISO. I can't shut it down once it starts - even with task manager it's very difficult. The same file plays on another PC with MC23 so it's not the file. But if I load the settings from the other MC on the other PC, it still doesn't fix it. I'm mystified.

[richard-ec2]

Any help with this please? The following may be a clue.

The ISOs I am trying to play are video ISOs. So I disabled the "Audio only mode" of course. I also went into Tools/Options/File Types and enabled all video types AND Disk Image Files under Data. However, when I attempt to play an ISO, JRiver goes crazy, apparently trying to load the image hundreds of times and not starting playback. Here's the clue: after using Task Manager to shut it down, I find that JRiver has DISABLED Disk Image Files and has also disabled about half the video types.

I have tried reinstalling JRiver without success. As I said before, these ISO files play successfully on another JRiver on another PC. However, if I import the JRiver library and settings from that PC, it still will not play on this PC.

[richard-ec2]

I just tried another experiment. I did a complete uninstall of JRiver, then installed a new 64-bit Windows MC23 and left it with all the defaults except for one thing: I went into Tools/Option/File Types and checked Disk Image Files. I then tried to play my ISO file and it still went haywire as before. So either I am missing some setting that I have to apply OR there is something else on my PC that's stopping MC working properly. Can someone help me please?

[RD James]

If it's not an SACD, Media Center won't play ISO files. All it does it pass them to whatever your system's assigned application for ISO files is.
If you're on Windows 8 or 10, it should mount the ISO to a virtual drive.
If you're on Winodws 7, you will need a tool like Virtual CloneDrive.

[richard-ec2]

If it's not an SACD, Media Center won't play ISO files. All it does it pass them to whatever your system's assigned application for ISO files is.
If you're on Windows 8 or 10, it should mount the ISO to a virtual drive.
If you're on Winodws 7, you will need a tool like Virtual CloneDrive.

Thanks but I don't understand - there are lots of threads and a wiki about playing Blu-ray ISOs eg:

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/ISO_Files

But I can't make it work.

You say MC should mount the image to a virtual drive in Windows 10 but my Windows 10 will not do that. I have to mount the image externally before I stand any chance of playing it.

You say playback is only possible using an external app but I don't see that in the wiki - it only talks about using an external app for the mounting.

So I am VERY confused!

[richard-ec2]

I have isolated the "going haywire" problem. It happens if I select JRiver MC23 as the default application for opening ISO files. If I do that, then anytime I attempt to play the file in MC, it goes haywire. The only way I can prevent this is by selecting Windows Explorer as the default application for opening ISO files. I can then play them in MC.

I'm guessing the problem is as follows. When I choose a default app for opening an ISO file, I'm choosing a default app for mounting it, not for playing it. But MC automatically mounts the image anyway if I try to run it in MC. So if I try to mount the image with MC before playing it with MC, I end up trying to mount it with MC twice over!

OK, so I have set Windows Explorer as the default app for opening ISO files. This enables me to open files in MC without it going haywire. But it's still not quite right. Every time I try to run an ISO file in JRiver, it opens up an Explorer window with all the disc contents in front of the main screen. It still plays but I don't know why Explorer is opening up each time - I think Explorer is mounting the disc before MC is playing it. It all seems a bit of a muddle - I think MC should be mounting the disc AND playing it but I don't think this is happening.

[RD James]

As I said: Media Center cannot play ISO files. It can only send them to whatever application you use to mount/open ISO files.
That explains why it was going haywire when you associated ISO files with Media Center. You were essentially telling Media Center to open ISO files with itself in an endless loop.
 
I generally convert files from ISO to MKV using MakeMKV now, but if you install Virtual CloneDrive and use it instead of Explorer, it should mount silently without opening an Explorer window.
It also gives you a dedicated virtual drive, rather than creating a new virtual drive for every ISO that you mount.
 
There are autoplay settings in the CD/DVD/BD options if you want Media Center to start playback automatically.

[richard-ec2]

Many thanks for replying again. I see what you mean about the endless loop.

I think the main problem here is the wiki which misses out important information and which in some places is misleading or wrong.

As I see it, there are two separate issues: first, how to mount the image, and second how to play it when mounted.

First, about mounting an image:

The wiki says in Instruction 1 that the first thing to do is go to Tools - Options - File Types and check the box next to Disk Image Files. It says that if you leave the default setting at Automatic, MC "will mount the .iso into VCD (Virtual Clone Drive)." No it won't! Because it now turns out that Virtual Clone Drive is not an integral part of MC but has to be obtained from an outside source and downloaded and installed by the user. Also, having done this, will I then need to select External Program (Custom) and select Virtual Clone Drive or is MC pre-programmed to use Virtual Clone Drive by default, if the user has downloaded and installed it?

Another thing that doesn't make sense is that if I check the Disk Image Files box, every time I play a file, the system unchecks it again anyway! So it's impossible to keep the box checked and it appears to be pointless since it doesn't make any difference to the ability to play back an image.

Second, how to play back the mounted image:

At risk of being cheeky, it still doesn't seem to me that MC is using an outside app to play the image - it looks to me as if MC is playing the image. I say this because the playback occurs within the display window of MC, not in a separate window, and because if I go into Windows Task Manager when a video is playing, no other video-related app or background process is running apart from MC. Also, I don't have another app that's capable of playing a video from a Blu-ray image anyway! Unless there's an inbuilt process in Windows that I don't know about.

Another thing the wiki should do is tell users that they have to disable AnyDVD before playing back a Blu-ray image. MC recommends installing AnyDVD to play Blu-rays so it should also tell people they need to disable this if they want to play back an image. I found AnyDVD messes everything up and prevents ISO playback.

I know, I know - if the wiki is so bad, write a better one! But I don't know enough about it and can't get the thing running properly myself so I'm not the right person. Maybe one day...

Meanwhile thank you very much for the advice to download Virtual Clone Drive. I will do that and hopefully that will solve some of these problems.

Finally, is it the case that I can't stream multichannel over a home network to another PC? I want my Blu-ray images on the hard drive of one PC and I want to be able to play them back using MC on another PC connected to the same home network. (Not DLNA - just selecting the files for playback in Explorer.) Is this not possible in multichannel? Only stereo?     

[RD James]

An ISO file is a disc image.
When you mount a disc image to a virtual drive, programs on the system can access the files as though you had put a real disc in the PC.
 
Media Center cannot read files directly from a disc image (except SACD ISO which has special file handling).
So when you "play" an ISO file, MC sends it to whatever the default system handler for ISO files is.
If that's Explorer it will mount the image to a new virtual drive, if that's Virtual CloneDrive it will mount to the fixed virtual drive, if it's another program like 7-zip it will open in 7-zip etc.
Once it is mounted to a virtual drive, MC can access the files as though it is reading a disc. It doesn't know that it's reading from an ISO file.
 
It should not be necessary to disable AnyDVD for video playback to work in Media Center, however the way that AnyDVD scans the disc may be interfering with auto-play.
I don't use auto-play on my system so I don't know, but I do notice that what happens if I open an ISO file in Explorer (completely independent of MC) it mounts the image and displays the files, disappears when AnyDVD starts scanning the new 'disc', and reappears once it has finished scanning and removed any copy protection.
I imagine that process doesn't work too well with auto-play. If you wait for the disc to be scanned and then play it in Media Center, it should work just fine.
 
If you use AnyDVD's "Rip video disc to hard disk" option rather than "Rip to image", Media Center's own disc ripping option, or use a tool like MakeMKV to convert your ISO images to an MKV video file - which is my recommendation - you will find that video playback goes much smoother.
Video files will stream over the network without any problems, and will be multichannel if you are playing to another Media Center client.
I'm not sure what you mean by "selecting the files for playback in Explorer" but that sounds like DLNA playback to me, which probably means there is a video conversion taking place - and that may convert the audio to stereo.
 
Your Media Center license covers all PCs that you personally own (within reasonable limits) so you should be able to install it as a client with the same license.
I believe that if you try to 'play' an ISO file on a client PC, Media Center will transfer the file and mount it locally but it's been some time since I have dealt with ISO files in MC now.
If you're looking to stream video across the network, don't use ISO files.
 
I do see the appeal of ISO files - it's a single contained file which stores everything on the disc. They're just a pain to work with.
And if you're storing Blu-ray - or worse, UHD Blu-ray discs - ISO files can take up as much as double the disk space as ripping out the relevant video & audio tracks with MakeMKV.

[richard-ec2]

Ah, OK - I did have the correct understanding of the way MC "plays" an ISO image but I realise I should have used a more precise terminology. I do understand that the image has to be mounted before MC can play the files within.

The problem with AnyDVD is as you describe - it interferes with autoplay so if you double click on a video file in MC, all you get is the disc folder opening up in Explorer and you then have to start digging through all the folders and sub-folders looking for the stream you want. It seems to be easier to just disable AnyDVD.

I have downloaded and installed the Virtual Clone Drive and it does work but not as well as I'd hoped. It does indeed create one fixed virtual drive - but on my PC, whenever I click on a disc image, it opens up an additional virtual drive for that disc and every subsequent disc I open up, which rather defeats the purpose! All of these have to be closed down manually so I'm left wondering how it's any better than any other virtual drive app, eg Daemon Tools Lite.

It's interesting what you say about MakeMKV and maybe I will give it a try.

The way I'm trying to play over a network is as follows. Let's say I have Big PC and Little PC. They are not server and client - they are independent PCs on the same home network with their own libraries of files - they do not share libraries. Each has MC. Let's say I want to play a video on Little PC but the ISO is on Big PC. So I make the ISO image available for sharing on the Homegroup and then, on Little PC, I load the ISO image into the MC library and try to mount and play it. It mounts and plays, but only in stereo.

[RD James]

all you get is the disc folder opening up in Explorer and you then have to start digging through all the folders and sub-folders looking for the stream you want. It seems to be easier to just disable AnyDVD.

You should be able to select it from "Drives and Devices" in the tree on the left pane of Media Center.

I have downloaded and installed the Virtual Clone Drive and it does work but not as well as I'd hoped. It does indeed create one fixed virtual drive - but on my PC, whenever I click on a disc image, it opens up an additional virtual drive for that disc and every subsequent disc I open up, which rather defeats the purpose!

That sounds like ISO files are still associated with Explorer rather than VCD.

I'm left wondering how it's any better than any other virtual drive app, eg Daemon Tools Lite.

It's basically the same thing, except it's free of the adware/malware that Daemon Tools started bundling years ago.

It's interesting what you say about MakeMKV and maybe I will give it a try.

The way I'm trying to play over a network is as follows. Let's say I have Big PC and Little PC. They are not server and client - they are independent PCs on the same home network with their own libraries of files - they do not share libraries. Each has MC. Let's say I want to play a video on Little PC but the ISO is on Big PC. So I make the ISO image available for sharing on the Homegroup and then, on Little PC, I load the ISO image into the MC library and try to mount and play it. It mounts and plays, but only in stereo.

Enable Media Network on both PCs (in Media Center) and connect to "Big PC's library" as a client on "Little PC".
What you're describing is just copying the file and playing it back locally rather than networked playback though. Check your playback settings on that PC. Sounds like a big hassle though.

[richard-ec2]

All thanks to your help, RD James, things are looking up. You were right about Virtual Clone Drive - I had indeed forgotten to change the file association in Windows to make Virtual Clone Drive the default app for mounting ISO images. I've now corrected my mistake and the whole setup is working much better. The images open smoothly in MC without that annoying Explorer window popping up at the same time, all the images use a single, fixed virtual drive instead of creating multiple ones, and the icing on the cake is that I now find I can leave AnyDVD enabled at the same time and still get ISO playback!

I think I need to go away and play around with this for a while and see how it works out. I've also been experimenting with MakeMKV and I was pleased to find it creates a single container, not a folder full of files, and it is a lot quicker and smoother because you don't have that intermediate step of having to mount every image before you can play back the files within. So I will try that too.

There's one thing still puzzling me. The wiki, as well as other threads, says the first thing to do if you want to play back files from an ISO is to go into Tools - Options - File Types and check the box labelled Disk Image Files (.iso etc) under Data. But this would only make sense if JRiver had the capability to open a disk image file, and since it doesn't, checking that box messes everything up. So my question is: why does that box even exist if MC does not have the capability to mount or play an ISO file?