Ideas for VCD Handling Media Type Correctly...

[jmone]

I think that the basis of selecting media type (CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray) by size of the ISO instead of it's content not a great idea. In reality the Size of a ISO does does not define what media format it is so:
1) No way of telling HD-DVD's from Blu-rays
2) A small Blu-ray ISO will appar as a DVD
etc
etc

I know that the DVD tag file allows AnyDVD HD to then mount the ISO correctly but in thinking about this some more the issues are:
1) You have to have created the ISO with a later verion of AnyDVD HD
2) You have to mount the DVD tag file NOT the ISO (causes problems with lack of file associations in Media Managers)

Couple of Ideas -
1) AnyDVD HD can obviously "see" what is in the ISO and determine if it is a HD-DVD / Blu-ray / DVD etc so it can do it's magic (which we all love!). So when an ISO is mounted and AnyDVD HD does it stuff why not have it also "fix" the Media Type to the correct media format as well?
2) Use some of the AnyDVD HD code that can determine the content of an ISO into VCD so it can select the Media Type based on the content instead of just the size?

Workaround - I think the easiest workaround (for now), let us mount the ISO's as normal (instead of the DVD file) but have VCD just check if there is an associated DVD file of the same name in the same directory and let it set the media type based on the MEDIATYPE setting in that associated files. This lets us:
1) Keep mounting / managing ISO files as normal
2) Have your DVD file for additional information as created by AnyDVD HD
3) Allows us to manually create DVD Files for ISO's created prior to the recent AnyDVD HD or with other progs.

Anyway my 2cents....
Thanks
Nathan

[James]

I think that the basis of selecting media type (CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray) by size of the ISO instead of it's content not a great idea. In reality the Size of a ISO does does not define what media format it is so:
1) No way of telling HD-DVD's from Blu-rays
2) A small Blu-ray ISO will appar as a DVD
etc
etc

I know that the DVD tag file allows AnyDVD HD to then mount the ISO correctly but in thinking about this some more the issues are:
1) You have to have created the ISO with a later verion of AnyDVD HD
2) You have to mount the DVD tag file NOT the ISO (causes problems with lack of file associations in Media Managers)

Couple of Ideas -
1) AnyDVD HD can obviously "see" what is in the ISO and determine if it is a HD-DVD / Blu-ray / DVD so it can do it's magic (which we all love!). So when an ISO is mounted any AnyDVD HD does it stuff why not have it also "fix" the Media Type to the correct media format as well?
2) Use some of the AnyDVD HD code that can determine the content of an ISO into VCD so it can select the Media Type based on the content instead of just the size?

AnyDVD is owned by SlySoft. VCD is owned by Elaborate Bytes AG. And we won't give the SwissBoys our code. At least not for free. :p


Workaround - I think the easiest workaround (for now), let us mount the ISO's as normal (instead of the DVD file) but have VCD just check if there is an associated DVD file of the same name in the same directory and let it set the media type based on the MEDIATYPE setting in that associated files.

Well, I like it better the way it currently is, as with the current system the files don't need to have the same name (remember those poor suckers who can't see file extensions because of the default settings of Windows) and you can split the files, *even on different source discs* - Hint, hint! One dual layer source disc on two single layer destination discs? No problem!

[jmone]

AnyDVD is owned by SlySoft. VCD is owned by Elaborate Bytes AG. And we won't give the SwissBoys our code. At least not for free.

OK then - how about having AnyHD DVD fix the media type up to the correct one? It's your code, you know whats on the disk, you can already change media type already to "recordable versions"....

[jmone]

Well, I like it better the way it currently is, as with the current system the files don't need to have the same name (remember those poor suckers who can't see file extensions because of the default settings of Windows) and you can split the files, *even on different source discs* - Hint, hint! One dual layer source disc on two single layer destination discs? No problem!

How about supporting both methods?

[James]

How about supporting both methods?
Difficult. Imagine you have file bla.iso and a file bla.dvd, but this references file foo.001 and foo.bin. What now?

[James]

A good solution would be a simple program "create .DVD file from .ISO".
Anybody can write such a thing. Should even be possible with a simple VBS script.

[jmone]

I see your point....the problem is that ISO is pretty std as a file type which DVD is a "wildcat". Eg my HTPC front end allows me to assign coverart to ISO, track, manage and play them. Now I may be able to add (or get the developer to add) "DVD" as a format but now I have TWO items showing up in my HTPC front end for each movie, one is the DVD file and one is the ISO.....not really handy.

How about the "get AnyDVD HD to fix it up" solution suggested above?

[shadow07]

My problem with using the .DVD file is with HD-DVD ISOs, TMT and MyMovies. Currently, Brian does not support the .DVD file extension, but advocates the use of TMT. We all know that mounting the HD-DVD ISO with VCD will present the ISO as a BD disk, which then breaks TMT. I have requested Brian to add this change, with no response. I would rather VCD present the ISO correctly to Windows, without having to resort to using the .DVD file extension. Plus, I don't want to go back to Daemon Tools, and using their SPTD driver.

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

My problem with using the .DVD file is with HD-DVD ISOs, TMT and MyMovies. Currently, Brian does not support the .DVD file extension, but advocates the use of TMT. We all know that mounting the HD-DVD ISO with VCD will present the ISO as a BD disk, which then breaks TMT. I have requested Brian to add this change, with no response. I would rather VCD present the ISO correctly to Windows, without having to resort to using the .DVD file extension. Plus, I don't want to go back to Daemon Tools, and using their SPTD driver.

This would require the addition of a UDF parser in VCD to differentiate between the types of discs by detecting it from the original ISO without needing the information from the .dvd file.

This decision is up to Elaborate Bytes and could prove to be more complicated than it seems at face value.

[shadow07]

Well, that would explain why VCD has this limitation. I also guess I never understood that Elaborate Bytes and Slysoft were two different companies.

I hope that Brian at MyMovies can then add support for the .DVD file extension to support HD-DVD ISOs.

[James]

Well, that would explain why VCD has this limitation. I also guess I never understood that Elaborate Bytes and Slysoft were two different companies.

I hope that Brian at MyMovies can then add support for the .DVD file extension to support HD-DVD ISOs.
maybe adding an optional .ini file would be fine. I'll talk to the SwissBoys.

[PrincipalityFusion]

Looks like Brian has added handling of the .dvd files that Virtual Clone Drive uses in his next release.

http://www.mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=9053

[shadow07]

MyMovies 2.48 can now mount the .DVD file when specified as the disk. This resolves my issue with MM, TMT and HD-DVD ISO's.

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

MyMovies 2.48 can now mount the .DVD file when specified as the disk. This resolves my issue with MM, TMT and HD-DVD ISO's.

Glad to hear it. :)

[James]

Surprise!!!!!

.dvd files are no longer needed:

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=22376

[jmone]

Surprise!!!!!

.dvd files are no longer needed:

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=22376

Thank you James - this is fantastic! I can confirm the HD-DVD ISO now play fine in TMT V125 when mounting the ISO. FYI I notice that AnyDVD HD reports the media as DVD

Summary for drive E: (AnyDVD 6.4.7.9)
ELBY CLONEDRIVE 1.4
Drive (Hardware) Region: 1

Media is a DVD.
Booktype: dvd-rom (version 1), Layers: 2 (parallel)

while BluRay disks are reported as

Summary for drive E: (AnyDVD 6.4.7.9)
ELBY CLONEDRIVE 1.4
Drive (Hardware) Region: 1

Media is a Blu-Ray disc.

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

FYI I notice that AnyDVD HD reports the media as DVD

As it should. The .DVD file for HD-DVDs has always set the mediatype to DVD and any image over 8.5 GB was assumed to be a BD when the ISO was mounted without using the .DVD file or the mediatype wasn't defined in the .DVD file. Now it can do this without using the .DVD file. Note the bolded text, however. That's obviously different than a standard DVD. :)

Summary for drive W: (AnyDVD 6.4.8.1)
ELBY CLONEDRIVE 1.4
Drive (Hardware) Region: 1

Media is a DVD.
Booktype: dvd-rom (version 1), Layers: 2 (opposite)
Size of first Layer: 6903072 sectors (13482 MBytes)
Total size: 13806144 sectors (26965 MBytes)
Video HD DVD label: TRANSFORMERS_D1_NA
Media is not AACS protected.

[shadow07]

This is indeed a surprise. Thank you James and the EB team!

[jmone]

Thanks again James / Swiss Boys for listening!