Just seen this thread now it has been "declassified"!
For what it's worth, as someone who has used both methods of ripping bluray for 5 years now I think.
- it is a no brainer that MC should be able to assign .iso as a video mediatype at import. This way we don't have to change the type for all isos. It should also mean the movie name is picked up from the folder name instead of having to rename all isos.
- I would not waste time creating a new iso mounter. Daemon or VCD should be picked up and used automatically (as seems to be the case already). There are more important things to do than reinventing the wheel. Also, VCD, being closely tied to Slysoft has adapted quickly in the past to attempts to prevent bluray isos from playing. Best leave this to the 'experts'!
- Using .iso is still best practice amongst AnyDVD diehards, for good reason. A protected iso rip will be able to adapt to any necessary changes in AnyDvD in the future. AnyDvD decrypts each time the disc is played using the latest methods. This may or may not affect MC's own player (it could and does if you rip a new release before Slysoft are fully on top of it), but it will certainly affect external players, which are a wholly legit way of using MC, e.g. For 3D. A player update might (and in the past has) break old rips. If AnyDVD is updated then isos will work again - not true if already ripped to a folder.
- The above being the case, it would be great if MC could optionally rip to Iso.
- If iso metadata was properly parsed on import not only could we have duration/resolution etc info in our libraries, but it would also be possible, presumably, to play using MC for 2D and automatically launch an external player for 3D! That would be fantastic.
All in all, please do not write off iso as some historic irrelevance! Some of us have been round the block a few times on this one