ISO Support (as a folder, not ISO playback)

[Peckmore 23]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

OK where is the source for this? I can help take it a little further. Thanks.

Hi Luke,

Thank you so much for your time on this!

The source can be found here:

ISO Container Playback

Anything else that I need to do on it, just let me know and I’ll have a crack at it!

[kurtgschumacher 36]

On 8/14/2024 at 6:56 AM, ebr said:

Hi.  I'm afraid that optical media (what ISO files are trying to replicate) is all but dead so, never say never, but I don't see much payback on us spending resources to support it when the entire industry is moving away from it.

I'm just coming into this discussion, and this statement made me laugh my ass off. Optical media may be dead for the masses who only watch video on their phones, but there are a lot of people who collect movies of specific types and prefer DVDS because they will always be higher quality than streaming. I'm on a social media site for fans of horror, and I could show you dozens of pictures of people with walls full of DVDs, and they'll get movies on DVD and then on Blu-Ray and on 4K and 8K and on 16K when that comes out. And there are video companies specializing in niche markets that specialize in niche markets like horror and science fiction and action and exploitation movies, who restore and remaster movies.

I just got a two-volume set of Folk Horror movies from such a company comprising 20 DVDs with movies and supplemental material. They're pretty much the Criterion Collection for horror. I would absolutely love to have them on my Emby server, but the only way to do that is to rip all the individual files. The company is Severin Films, and they're not the only such distributor, there are many more. Look them up and then tell me that the "entire industry is moving away" from DVDs when it's the big studios that are doing it.

So maybe collectors like me are not your target audience. But what's the "payback" you're looking for anyway?

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  You feel DVDs (480p) are higher quality than current streaming formats?

In any case, there are easy ways to rip your DVDs to a supported format instead of having to save the entire thing as a legacy disc image.

[Antrox 0]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

Hi.  You feel DVDs (480p) are higher quality than current streaming formats?

In any case, there are easy ways to rip your DVDs to a supported format instead of having to save the entire thing as a legacy disc image.

4k bluray has a lot of more quality than any platform. And this is something that no will change in long term. 
No talking about how to play dolby vision second layer that only isos can be played. 
 

So for some people that cares about image quality having duplicated same film is no option. 

[Neminem 1516]

Guess use you BR player + avr system to its fullest potential.

[kurtgschumacher 36]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

Hi.  You feel DVDs (480p) are higher quality than current streaming formats?

Sure, let's get picky about terminology. In common usage these days, people use 'DVD' to refer to DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K, 8K and everything else. So I'll just try to say "video disk" from now on. Will that work for you?

[RanmaCanada 494]

4 minutes ago, kurtgschumacher said:

Sure, let's get picky about terminology. In common usage these days, people use 'DVD' to refer to DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K, 8K and everything else. So I'll just try to say "video disk" from now on. Will that work for you?

No, no one uses DVD to refer to anything but DVD's. That would be like using CD to represent music files..which again no one does.

[kurtgschumacher 36]

Just now, RanmaCanada said:

No, no one uses DVD to refer to anything but DVD's. That would be like using CD to represent music files..which again no one does.

I love when people say "everyone" or "no one" does something. Because a statement like that is always wrong.

[ebr 16169]

2 hours ago, kurtgschumacher said:

Sure, let's get picky about terminology. In common usage these days, people use 'DVD' to refer to DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K, 8K and everything else. So I'll just try to say "video disk" from now on. Will that work for you?

In my experience, videophiles use the exact terms but no biggie.  As I said, the discs (save dual layer DV) can be ripped to streaming friendly formats in full quality.  There is really no reason to try and replicate the disc image these days.

[Peckmore 23]

On 11/2/2024 at 7:32 PM, ebr said:

In my experience, videophiles use the exact terms but no biggie.  As I said, the discs (save dual layer DV) can be ripped to streaming friendly formats in full quality.  There is really no reason to try and replicate the disc image these days.

I think (as I've no doubt said previously! ) sometimes it's nice to also be able to have that disc "experience", and being able to store a single copy of something rather than the disc + remuxes just aids convenience?

@LukeWas the plugin code I created of any use in the end? I appreciate you guys are busy, and that this is a niche feature, so there's no expectations or anything like that, but if there is anything else I can do with regards to the plugin, I'm happy to help where I can! 

[Luke 42077]

On 11/6/2024 at 8:48 AM, Peckmore said:

I think (as I've no doubt said previously! ) sometimes it's nice to also be able to have that disc "experience", and being able to store a single copy of something rather than the disc + remuxes just aids convenience?

@LukeWas the plugin code I created of any use in the end? I appreciate you guys are busy, and that this is a niche feature, so there's no expectations or anything like that, but if there is anything else I can do with regards to the plugin, I'm happy to help where I can! 

Hi, it's on my list for review. Thanks.

[deibit 18]

I would love to see this feature working! I only use emby to cast ISOs to a external player, which works fine-ish but integration with mobile devices or TV clients would be a nice add-on!

Ps- I always wonder about the "nobody uses physical media anymore", where do people get the the movies from if not from the physical media? (i must live i a parallel reality)  

Edited November 21, 2024 by deibit

[ebr 16169]

6 hours ago, deibit said:

I always wonder about the "nobody uses physical media anymore", where do people get the the movies from if not from the physical media?

Even if it originates on a disc, people rip it to a streaming-friendly format because all modern devices are designed for playing content in that format because they are targeted at online streaming services.  I cannot really think of an advantage to storing an exact copy of a disc format.  You already have a physical backup.  The only thing I can think of is for people who want the disc menu experience and, in that case, you are probably better off with a physical disc player.  Our system provides most (and more) of that menu experience.

[deibit 18]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

Even if it originates on a disc, people rip it to a streaming-friendly format because all modern devices are designed for playing content in that format because they are targeted at online streaming services.  I cannot really think of an advantage to storing an exact copy of a disc format.  You already have a physical backup.  The only thing I can think of is for people who want the disc menu experience and, in that case, you are probably better off with a physical disc player.  Our system provides most (and more) of that menu experience.

I guess depends on the usecase.. in my case (i just recounted them) I have 1162 physical blurays (2k and 4k) plus several for series (that I do not catalogue, so no idea how many i have).. they occupy LOT of space, so I cannot have them in my room.. i can't even have them at home so they are off site.

ISO backups are my main media source. On the other side, it's also not correct to say that you don't miss anything with ripping.. you miss features that's a fact, like menus, extras,  seamless branching and DoVi FEL in MKV is far from being optimally ripped (or at least it wasn't in the past)... in the end I also paid for all that crap for god's sake

Yes, I agree that a good library wall might give a good experience.. but honestly I prefer the menues in the Game of Thrones BluRay  (to say an example) than using Emby / Kodi or whatever..

In the end I use both.. i use the Emby as cataloguer and remote control in my iPhone and use a physical external hardware Bluray player.. best of both worlds.

Two things I miss for full experience.

1- Audio/Video Metadata parsing for ISOs (i know, challenging)

2- Being able to play the "main movie" of the disc directly in emby (for the times when I'm lazy to go through the menues or when I want to use the internal player in whatever emby client)

With those two features emby would be the perfect solution..

Edited November 21, 2024 by deibit

[Antrox 0]

I think this topic has been halted.

[Luke 42077]

10 hours ago, Antrox said:

I think this topic has been halted.

Hi,  I wouldn't say that. User demand is just pulling us in other directions.

[Termindiego25 5]

Hi everyone!

I saw this project and I'm excited to see how it develops.

@PeckmoreThanks for trying to offer a solution for those who want to keep their ISO files.

I'll be keeping an eye out and hope it's available soon

[RanmaCanada 494]

22 hours ago, Termindiego25 said:

Hi everyone!

I saw this project and I'm excited to see how it develops.

@PeckmoreThanks for trying to offer a solution for those who want to keep their ISO files.

I'll be keeping an eye out and hope it's available soon

You can keep your iso files on a separate drive/NAS. Rip them, name them, rip the extras, etc. There is no reason to be streaming the discs themselves as you will be missing so much metadata that it's a serious step backwards. I say that as someone with over 200TB of "stuff". All you're doing is stealing resources to go backwards. We should be moving forward. There is a literal handful of people who would use this, move on and get with the times.

[Peckmore 23]

On 7/30/2025 at 8:48 AM, Termindiego25 said:

Hi everyone!

I saw this project and I'm excited to see how it develops.

@PeckmoreThanks for trying to offer a solution for those who want to keep their ISO files.

I'll be keeping an eye out and hope it's available soon

No problem at all! I'm happy to try and help if it means we can get this feature, but no pressure on the Emby team, as I know how busy they are! But if this feature could ever be introduced I think it would be great!

3 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

You can keep your iso files on a separate drive/NAS. Rip them, name them, rip the extras, etc. There is no reason to be streaming the discs themselves as you will be missing so much metadata that it's a serious step backwards. I say that as someone with over 200TB of "stuff". All you're doing is stealing resources to go backwards. We should be moving forward. There is a literal handful of people who would use this, move on and get with the times.

I think we've gone back and forth on this a few times in this thread, but you don't lose anything by doing this, as you'll still have all your metadata, etc., in NFO files alongside the ISO files. This just gives the flexibility to be able to play either an ISO as a disc (using something like Kodi), or play the video files directly from within the ISO using Emby, without having to have 2 copies of each video - it's literally the best of both worlds!  And for discs that use branching to support multiple versions of a film, this helps save additional space as you don't need to rip the film multiple times.

Ultimately I think it's just a choice thing - should we ever be able to complete and implement this feature, it gives people like myself who want to use ISOs the ability to do so, but it's not forcing anyone else to use the feature, and people who don't want to can just carry on as they are. I think ultimately that's the best solution?

Edit: Just to add to the conversation on metadata - at least on my part, there is no expectation of Emby fetching metadata for ISO files. My hope is just for the ability to play video files directly from within an ISO, and I'm happy to create/manage the metadata/NFO files manually. For anything that I take the time to rip directly as an ISO, I'm happy to "curate" the metadata accordingly through manual means. Truly, for me the goal would be to have the ISOs (and associated metadata) on a read-only volume, representing my "perfect" archive of my discs.

Edited July 31, 2025 by Peckmore

[Luke 42077]

If someone could do a test for me on the beta server that would be helpful. Thanks.

[Termindiego25 5]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

If someone could do a test for me on the beta server that would be helpful. Thanks.

Hi @Luke! I installed the beta server in Docker using the beta tag, but the ISOs still give me a playback error.

I checked the plugin catalog to see if there are any new plugins to install, but I didn't find any related to the ISO. What should I do to test it?

Edited August 6, 2025 by Termindiego25

[Luke 42077]

On 8/6/2025 at 2:29 AM, Termindiego25 said:

Hi @Luke! I installed the beta server in Docker using the beta tag, but the ISOs still give me a playback error.

I checked the plugin catalog to see if there are any new plugins to install, but I didn't find any related to the ISO. What should I do to test it?

Can you put this in your server plugins folder:

IsoMounter.zip

Then try refreshing metadata on an iso, followed by attempting to play. Thanks.

[HappyZombiSlayr 10]

Hi @LukeI was just looking at converting all of my DVDs to ISOs, and saw this post for the IsoMounter with Emby Server Beta.

I installed the plugin, restarted my server, and was able to play a DVD without fail. It loaded really quickly.

It doesn't seem to grab any of the metadata information, unless the file is named similarly to the title of the media, in my case a movie: The Martian. 

What does fail, however, is any Blu-Ray disc. Not sure if that's supported yet, or not.

Upon trying a second DVD, The Iron Giant, Emby plays (some portion of it), but I can't figure out what title it's playing. All it does is play a 28-29 second piece before stopping, and looking at any similar length titles doesn't match up with what is played. I think the title it (attempts) to play is the trailer: Title 8, which is only 2:24 in length. Not sure why it only manages 30 seconds of it though.

Edit: I suspect my trouble with DVD ISO playback is happening more with older DVDs. Still ripping more, so I'll update this as I expand my tests.

Edited August 9, 2025 by HappyZombiSlayr

[HappyZombiSlayr 10]

I found one DVD ISO that I ripped, which when played on Emby works up to a point, then it gets pixely like there was a scratch on the disk before giving up due to "too many errors." Playing the same file on VLC Media Player has no issues.

Is there any place to look at for logging of the ISO player?

[HappyZombiSlayr 10]

Additionally, it seems about half of my DVDs so far (4/8) find the right title to play.

Of the ones that have the right title, they all seem to encounter errors if skipping or playing around 20 minutes or so. Some could make it to 22, or 23 minutes, but all would fail to load 25 mins. I tried letting it play naturally, as well as skipping directly past the freezing time, but it seems something just goes wrong at 15 - 25 minutes.