Set-top Blu-ray player that can play IFO

[AndyRough]

Hi,

I have a bunch of ripped DVDs (ripped them myself) which are ripped in their "own original" format, i.e. VIDEO_TS folder containing IFO, BUP, and VOB files. Playing the IFO file on my Tvix (external media player) enables me to use the full navigational structure of the original DVD. It is as if the DVD is in a player. I can navigate to language, subtitles, special features etc.

Now I want a new set-top Blu-ray player with DLNA capabilities. The one I have tried, a Sony, can play avi, divx, mkvs but it cannot recognize the actual IFO-file and thus cannot play it. It does find the actual VOB files but that means the DVD navigational functionality is lost as I need to have the subtitles for my children for example.

Does anyone know of a Blu-ray-player that can read and play IFO files in order for me to get the "DVD experience"? And, secondly, the technology must exist in the player as it plays DVD discs fine. It just a question of that the DVD isn't physical. Doesn anyone know ehy this isn't a regular feature?

Thanks

Andy

[dannyboy48888]

short answer no, disc based players look for a signature at the begining of the disc to identify it as either a dvd, BD, audio CD, or a data disc. if the DVD signature is not there then it treats the disc as a data disc and only shows the file extensions it is programmed to handle. the models that have a usb port default to a "data disc" mode and therefore will not display the IFO's for playing. media centers (i.e WD live, tivix, oplay) on the other hand work backwards and look at the directory structure and determines what media is suppose to be emulated. some will not show the IFO's if you browse the directory, but will 'load' them like a dvd when you play the whole folder. so for the time being your gonna need both.

You said It supports MKV's? try MakeMKV to put the VIDEO_TS folder into a mkv file with chapters and subs and see if your player respects that. if so consider it a bandaid until these to items actually meet in the middle

[AndyRough]

Thanks dannyboy48888,

I appreciate the time you took to enlighten me - unfortunately with a depressing answer. Do you have any idea why this is so hard for manufaturers to include - also I am looking for a LED which would understand IFO but to no avail?

Also, I have found an LG that at least play a format called .TS - it is also labeled as "MPEG2 TS". I am not familiar with this format but hoping as the folders are called VIDEO_TS when ripping that this is the same format. Is this correct? What is the .TS format?

Thanks again dannyboy.

Andy

[AndyRough]

Also dannyboy, do you know of any work-arounds?

[Case]

Also, I have found an LG that at least play a format called .TS - it is also labeled as "MPEG2 TS". I am not familiar with this format but hoping as the folders are called VIDEO_TS when ripping that this is the same format. Is this correct? What is the .TS format?

MPEG2 TS is quite different from VIDEO_TS. VIDEO_TS refers to an authored DVD file structure. MPEG2 TS refers to an MPEG-2 Transport Stream, which is mainly used for broadcasts, and is a format that a Tivo-like recorder might write to disk.

[AndyRough]

Thanks Case,

Appreciate a very clear answer - not what I wished for but in line with what I expected.

The world is a hard place to live in with all these really important problems

//Andy