I ripped all my seinfeld dvd’s as iso files on my computer’s hard disk. Can I play them using Plex?
Thanks
Only if you install the Plex Server and Plex Media Centre on the same machine and watch the media on that machine. If you want to stream then to a client on another machine/device then they are technically not compatible. (some people have had some success, most have not)
Could you use the iPhone PLEX client and Airplay it to your Apple TV (in that case the Apple TV doesn't use the PLEX client)?
That will work for any media compatible with streaming - it is still streaming though so for ISO's and other streaming incompatible formats it won't help.
See this link, and read the Note to see which formats are incompatible with streaming.
http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/PlexNine_PMS_Naming_Guide#ISO.2C_IMG.2C_or_VIDEO_TS_Movies
I know this thread is a little dated, but has anything changed in terms of ISO streaming? I recently purchased a Roku 2 and using the Plex Client is great. The only issues that I have is that I can not stream my 500+ ISO’s of movies that I have made from my DVD collection. Is there a way to make this happen? I have looked into making MP4 and MKV files, but I have only had success with lost quality, which is what I don’t want. Everything in my network is 1gb Ethernet so bandwidth isn’t an issue.
Does anyone know how to make loss-less conversions? Storage space is not an issue, so I don’t really care about compression. I have used hand break in the past for conversions to my ipad and ipod, but I can not find a way to make a loss-less conversion.
Thanks for the help!
No, ISO's still cannot be streamed. You could use something like MakeMKV to convert them all to mkv files, this does not re-encode any of the audio/video just repackages so results in zero quality loss.
Worth noting that mpeg2 (the video format dvd uses) won't natively play on IOS devices so at some point something is going to convert them into H.264 video anyway (either you doing it manually with something like Handbrake, or the Plex Media Server doing it for you with on-the-fly transcoding)
Great, thank you for the reply. I have looked at MakeMKV before but passed it because I couldn't find a queue option like Hand Break. Do you know if MakeMKV has that option, or another program?
Thanks.
MakeMKV can be driven from the command line, so you can batch it up -> http://www.makemkv.com/developers/usage.txt
I have just installed PMS on a ubuntu box, i too have a lot of iso’s - and have been reading this thread with interest… IF the iso’s were mounted in a folder i presume that PLEX could stream them… - i am supposing that would work as PLEX seems to be able to stream the video files it would find in my auto-mounted folders.
I would be pleased if anyone who is a plexpert might comment on this…
see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountIso
so there are plenty of tools to script with, just got to parse the directory that they are put in and then automatically create a folder in the media store - mount the iso and get PMS to rescan.
I really do not want to have to re-process my pristine top copys
There is more too it than just "mounting" them, you also need to be able to navigate the menu structure - which only the OSX and windows clients can do (though even that may change one day given it is technically un-supported). Also, it is not just ISO's that won't stream, VIDEO_TS is also not compatible with HLS streaming - so even when mounted, you still cannot stream them.
Thanks… yes, as you said, i can on my mac and pc… and not on my apple tv and iphone… have to think about this a bit more… so many ISOs, only so much time to spend on this - what to do what to do.
If I convert my .iso files (I've made complete backup of my DVDs, with menus and extra materials), will I be able to display the menus and choose subtitles as I could with the DVD?
if you convert them to something like mkv or mp4 you can have subtitles embedded and selectable but “dvd menus” will not be there. will just be the main movie and subs. plex does not handle “extras” material, you can remux those out to separate files too and import them in a home movies section if you want but Plex does not have a “nice” way of keeping those with the main movie
I know this thread is ancient, but in case anyone (like myself) stumbles in here looking for answers…
Plex at this point does support movie extras in the same folder as the movie. See the following links:
Wow that’s disappointing I liked Plex.
I can understand plex limiting your playability but to just forget about it really keeps it from being an all in one player. Limiting as hell…
Another bounce for this ancient (but super useful) thread!
Any developments since 2014, 2017 or more recently on the ISO playing abilities of Plex?
Nothing will change in this regard.
