Iso files and VOB

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

what is the difference between an ISO file and a VOB file what are the advantages and disadvantages. I have currently saved all my movies 500 of them into the VOB format and since the Live plus with DVD menu the latest ones have been including dvd menu  all these with no compression.

Thanks Terry

2

An ISO is an IMAGE of a disk.   It’s one big file.   It can be mounted by the host, and the underlying application then sees the original file structure as if the physical disk was actually available.

There usually isn’t single VOB, there’s a bunch of them (5 to 10 or more; I have one disk with the maximum legal number of VOBs:  99.)

Basically, an ISO contains VOBs, IFOs, and BUPs, which are all the components inside the DVD File System.

If ALL you have is a single VOB file, I’m guessing DVD menu navigation will not work.

3

One of the advantages is that you only have one file (the .iso) and you just play it. No special folder (VIDEO_TS) required and you will always get menu’s. If you play the VIDEO_TS folder with your vobs etc in you will not get menus. You have to go into the folder and play before the unit goes into menu mode. Therefore image (iso) files are less complicated to play. If you need the vob version at any time you can always extract them from your image.

4

Wow so would doing iso files eleviate my pause because of separate vob files some movies are pretty smooth but some are horribly choppy because of the many vob files. As far as menu with the HD plus I now have menus but I had to start copying them that way befor the plus I was just saving movie only for hard disc space. I will try an iso and see how that works for my browsing and stuff

5

If you have a VOB collection, you MUST put them into a folder called VIDEO_TS.   

Each DVD VOB collection must be in its OWN VIDEO_TS directory.

Example:

\movies\Movie 1\VIDEO_TS\ (files)

\movies\Movie 2\VIDEO_TS\ (files)

etc.

By the way, VIDEO_TS *should* be in UPPER CASE.   The other parts don’t matter.

That does three magic things:

  1. It clues the WDTV that it IS a DVD and will allow DVD navigation. 

  2. It also fixes the pause when changing files.  Supposedly.  I’ve not tried it because I use ISOs.

  3. The Movie Title will show on the navigation bar instead of the present VOB’s File Name (whatever you named the directory, eg. “Movie 1”

6

I have a copier that doea iso so I was going to start with a new dvd not try and attach to all my other vob copies I will leave them as they are at least for now if this iso works out better I will eventually redo all them thanks for the heads up

7

For what it’s worth, I run all ISO on my units and I’ve haven’t had a problem at all, plus there is a huge advantage, if my daughter screws up her DVD copy of a movie, I can easily restore from the ISO using Nero, really a clean way to organize and maintain your collection.

8

ISO and VOB is practically the same thing, the difference is that the VOB files are packed into a file call “ISO”.

When you play a ISO movie or file with the WD Box, the ISO files are unpacked and converted to VOB again in order to be played. The file size it’s also the same.

One movie with 5 VOB files is converted to One ISO file.

when you play this trough the WD box:

The ISO file becomes 5 VOB files and it is played one by one. No difference!! 

9

Hi,

I am trying to create an ISO file for a home made DVD but WDTV won’t recognize it (I don’t see it in the list of content that can be played). Can anyone recommend how to create an ISO file which will be recognized by WDTV Live?

Thanks,

Yuval.

10

Yuval wrote:

Hi,

 

I am trying to create an ISO file for a home made DVD but WDTV won’t recognize it (I don’t see it in the list of content that can be played). Can anyone recommend how to create an ISO file which will be recognized by WDTV Live?

 

Thanks,

 

Yuval.

How are you trying to play the ISO. Is it by any chance via a media server. If it is then that is one of the limitations of media servers. Try Network Shares or via a directly connected drive.

11

I found ISO navigates more reliably than VOBs-in-folder.  While most of my movies work (navigate) ok in as VOBs,  I did ran across a few with navigation issues.  Whereas, I have found only one of my movie with navigation issues as ISO.  (Darn it, I forgot which one it is!)

With VOB in folder, it must be organized in specific way:

…\ My_Movie \ VIDEO_TS \ the_vob/ifo/bup_files

Apart from that, you also have to arrow down to VIDEO_TS.VOB and play that one for the menu to work.  That is too confusing for many.  I know my wife and daughter is going to get confused.

Since I was facing with creating VIDEO_TS folder for each movie and then move the files into the VIDEO_TS folder, I choose to ISO them.  It also have one more plus: With one of my movie, I lost of the VOB file by mistake.  I only uncover that when I tried to shrink it to 4.5gb to burn to a DVD for a trip.  With ISO, I know I have the entire disk making management easier.

I personally use DVD Shrink for “run of the mill” ISO conversion.  It has two advantages: (1) It strips the user-prohibitions and (2) I found a way to batch it with a cmd/bat file for me to do my initial mass conversion.  Not a reliable batch (using hot-key keypressor), but it did make the task easier.

In some cases, I use Nero to include additional files such as notes to my self.  Nero allows me to add additional folder but much more complex comparing to DVD Shrink’s click and go.

Good luck with your choice.

Rick

12

Rick-in-NJ wrote:> I personally use DVD Shrink for “run of the mill” ISO conversion.  It has two advantages: (1) It strips the user-prohibitions and (2) I found a way to batch it with a cmd/bat file for me to do my initial mass conversion. Not a reliable batch (using hot-key keypressor), but it did make the task easier.

Well, you could have used MultiShrink for batch conversion instead which is reliable and has been around for ages.

13

Hi,

Yes, I  am trying to use it  as a media server. How can I set WDTV Live to connect to a network share? My NAS is WD MyBook World Edition.

Thanks,

Yuval. 

14

Instead of going to Media Server, just go to Net shares (the next selection down).

Assuming your NAS is connected and shared properly you should see it in the list and be able to connect to it (use the default username/no password to connect and if you don’t want to do this every time turn on “auto connect” in your settings).