Guide for unprotected Blu-ray ISO for PowerDVD

[Tony1M]

This morning I connected our HP Slimline HTPC to the internet -- a rare event reserved exclusively for downloading updates -- and downloaded a program "update" from HP.

After that I opened the program and, sure enough, it asked if I wanted to check for an update. So I figured what the H, and clicked "yes" and was taken to a Cyberlink page that was set up for the exclusvie purpose of updating HP's version of PowerDVD that it calls "HP DVD Play".

I downloaded and installed the available update and once again opened the program, whereupon I was presented with the same "check for update?" option. I again clicked "yes" and was told that there is no update available.

So now I'm pretty sure I have the latest and greatest, and probably last, version of this program.

To test, I popped in an HD-DVD disc of "The Pianist" and, in short, it played back perfectly with a cpu usage of between 10 and 14%. Wonderful!

I then popped in a BD disc of "Apocalypto" and the same thing.

Wonderful, right? No, not right, because then I loaded up a BD iso into Virtual Clone Drive. The virtual drive was created as normal with the appropriate folders and files visible, so I started DVD Play and was immediately confronted with a "Format not supported" message.

In short, now I cannot play back any of our multitude of BD iso files on this program (although I have installed the latest version of MPC-HC with good results).

(This reminds me of Oppo's capitulation to the movie industry when it removed iso playback from its players.)

Is there any way, short of burning all my isos to disc, to get DVD Play (PowerDVD) to play either iso images or the m2ts files within them?

BTW, I'm using either version 5.4.0.1, or 5.4.0.6 of VirtualCloneDrive.

Thanks.

[Tony1M]

Well, I should have downloaded and installed the latest version of VCD, because after doing that I now have playback of BD ISO files in HP's version of PowerDVD.

Thanks very much to Slysoft for such a great free program.