Noob!! The reason I am here it that my old school Kdlinks media player decided to croak; it was wired to my network and has a 4T internal and a 4T external drive containing mostly ISO movie files.
Plex Player was suggested by a geek-squad member ( I was trolling for info ) ; thought that I would find out if this is a good idea or not. My player as networked to my smart TV and to my Win 11 PC.
So if I mount the two drives onto the PC ill this work for me.
I have downloaded the plex player and the plex server but I am holding off installing.
Thereās not much harm in trying it out 
Some thoughts:
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Plex doesnāt support disc images (e.g.
.isoor.dvdmedia) and raw disc folder structures (e.g.VIDEO_TS) ā Plex is focusing on the actual movies and will present local extras you add to your files in its own UI
Why are ISO, VIDEO_TS, and other Disk Image Formats Not Supported? | Plex Support -
Beyond those not-supported formats, itās worth to spend a moment in reviewing your file naming / folder structures. This will help Plex to recognize your media as the movies / tv-shows they are and automatically load their respective metadata and artwork. If you feel this is too much effort, thereās apps thatāll help you fixing your organization automatically (e.g. Filebot).
Naming and organizing your Movie files | Plex Support
Naming and Organizing Your TV Show Files | Plex Support -
If youāve wired your machine through HDMI to your smart TV, you might want to check out Plex HTPC (the to-be successor of Plex Media Player which has a number of new features not available in Plex Media Player)
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It might be worth to check if your Smart TV has a native Plex client app in which case you can use that instead of wiring the PC to theTV (unless you want to use it as a HTPC)
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Thereās a whole load of helpful support articles on how Plex works (from technical guides to feature overviews and comparisons between the regular/free version and Plex Pass features)
Support Articles | Plex Support
I have been a busy guy; even so I managed to install Plex server and Plex player on my pc; installed Plex on both the Smart TVs; moved my 4T inside the PC and plugged in the 4T passport usb3. Set up three movie libraries and one music library; these were on the original Media Player.
And hot damn and Bobās your uncle, both TVs after a bit of time, saw everything. I will likely make some changes in there but so-far-so- good.
Plex DOES support ISO files which is of paramount importance to me as 90% of my 5T of movies is ISO. Played several to test this issue out. Big sigh of relief .
I know that I have a long way to go yet to get anywhere close to proficient .
Thanks for the help. Plex support articles will be great for this NOOB!! 
I hate to disappointā¦ but Plex most certainly doesnāt play full-fledged disc images like .iso files. It does play video files ripped from such images in original quality ā so you do get the same quality but without the āDVD / Blu-Ray experienceā of ever changing menu structures, forced trailers / introsā¦
I donāt understand; I have watched several ISO movies to test and all are playing just fine. They of course will not play from a usb stick plugged into the Samsung TVs; mkv and mp4 will.
Are you sure you played that video through your Plex Media Server and a Plex client?
As far as I can tell, yes. I am opening the ISO files from within the Plex Media Player through the Samsung TV and I have not made a link to any other player that I know of. Other than the libraries I created, all is a stock install. When I want to look at any of them on the PC I choose my VLC Media player.
My error; was getting files from wrong folder; Plex does not play ISO files which means that it is useless for me.
If I may askā¦ whatās the benefit you get from using the raw disc images?
In my experience, those menus and forced previews/trailers were quite a pain ā though I donāt claim that my experience is the same as yours.
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Iād have to agree with this. Stop using ISO and embrace the UI or if you are so inclined to continue to use ISOās, then perhaps Plex isnāt the product and service for you. The whole reason Plex exists is to not have to worry about those disk interfaces. While they are sometimes creative for the esthetic, they add little to no value when viewed. Plex is meant to unify all that content off the ISO into a standard unified presentation amongst all media. Extras can be found automatically and also be added if need be. You are harming yourself in the long run by not stripping the content off the ISO. You can always save the ISOās on other external storage or other data backup systems but for the use case of Plex, where everything can be unified, it makes absolutely no sense for you to put yourself through that nonsense.
My method ended up with me only imaging the MOVIE; not menu or trailers. I havenāt done ISO for a few years now as MKV etc have improved. Nevertheless I have a huge number of ISO files that I donāt want to lose. I will continue looking for something else and will use Plex to access the readable files and maybe music. I have other options for sending music up to the surround system.
If you had read my content, you would have seen that I no longer (for a couple of years) use ISO other than the files I have accumulated over the last 7 years. ISO was my go-to format because my previous media player viewed them perfectly. Now ( for some time )I am acquiring MKV, MP4 etc. which I can see using Plex. Working on libraries now.
Still leaves me with all my older files that I can now only view on my PC. So, I am still looking for optional software.
You might be able to run those ISOs through MakeMKV and decide which extras to keep alongside the main movie. Just an option, not sure you want to make that effort.
Yup. Thereās that keyword. EFFORT. Being on a Mac environment, and having multiple Mac Miniās around, I just use MDRP as my tool to save ISO disk images and back them up on external drives for emergencies and they remain intact, menus and all. The neat part of MDRP is that Iāve taken many of my 480p 4:3 films that still arenāt in HD yet, and managed to get really good decent upscaled versions out of the software technology thatās in it. It takes on average 5 to 8 hours per film to upscale but the effort involved when viewing the finished copy in Plex, streamed, is worth the effort on its own. Iām not advocating or advising to get rid of any of your ISOās but the fact that the whole selling point of Plex is to have a universal UI for all content, across multiple platforms, not just on a USB stick or PC. Iāve managed to get 480p films upscaled to 1080p, just by putting in the effort instead of waiting for another decade to be disappointed by the lack of urgency of the studios.
What do you find about the built-in upscaling capabilities of HD/UHD TVs so deficient?
Some TVs are admittedly better than others but you hit the same practical limits on what upscaling can accomplish when your source is DVD.
https://www.blu-ray.com/Shirley-Temple/88177/#Bluray
I have a relative who is in her 80ās who loves Temple. Iāve managed to purchase and collect dvds that are fine, but she has been able to view those DVDās in upscaled quality in Plex without having to have a DVD player or 4k BR player hooked up to her TV. She has been on the Plex UI for the majority of 10 years now and is doing just fine. Iām not arguiung against whether or not a TV or BR player can do a better job. The mere fact that my relative doesnāt have to worry about pulling out disks, waiting for the machines to load the menus, and then make sure to eject those disks from her machine makes her have a better experience. She knows and has gotten accustomed to the Plex interface and can simply search for her favorite actors via search. She doesnāt even care nor watches the film extras and interviews.
In the case of upscaling, for at least Temple films, it makes more sense for me because Iām exhausted waiting for the studio to launch a proper BR release. They stall and are hoping old people die off knowing full well, that Temple should be properly released but there have been no signs of release dates of any signature Temple films. There are 45 films listed and only 7 of those films are in BluRay format, in which Temple is a supporting actress, not featured like her main catalogue. Yep, SEVEN. How pathetic. I have exactly 35 of the 45 films already on DVD. By the time it takes the studio to do what I want, my relative will be 6 feet under and I will no longer be interested in handing my money over anymore. I personally want ease of use across multiple platforms without the use of physical media. I can ALWAYS go back to the original ISO and update the file itself if software technology advances to accomplish a better quality of upscaling later. Iām more worried about NOW. I am not here to purchase another TV with better upscaling features with the use of a 4k player. I am simply stating my use case, but it may not align to someone elseās interest or predicament.
Finally did some file sorting and I have 581 files that will function on Plex just fine. I will separate the ISO files to a different folder and start working on that issue. I donāt want to lose them.
As I progress through Plex I come upon some issues, like if I add 10 new movies to a specific folder on my server how do I get the media player to see them; reload doesnāt do it; deleting the library doesnāt do it (canāt see the files at all). These are MKV so that should show up. Any ideas please!!
ThePlexDance
And making sure you follow along the folder structure necessary for Plex to identify them correctly.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-movie-media-files/
Iām reminded of any number of crime-fighter movies or TV shows where our heroes have some grainy security footage of a car they need the license plate from.
āZoom inā¦enhance!ā and itās crystal clear. Except that it doesnāt work that way. You canāt get additional detail that wasnāt captured in the first place.
If the studios havenāt figured out how to improve DVD quality of old move transfers short of a digital remastering from the best available source materials, thereās nothing on earth you can do with your PC thatās going to make them look better.
But your time is your own.
Iām not here to convince you and it sounds like you made up your mind on the subject matter. You do you, bud.
