ISO or DVD-Video: Which is better?

[mrhata]

What is the difference between an ISO file and just making a regular DVD-Video file?
I have made both using Nero and Image Tool. I have a portable dvd player which will only play the ISO discs and original DVDs. Are there advantages other than this in making the ISO files?

[Metaluna]

If you were to burn a DVD-Video disc in Nero except you selected the Image Recorder as your destination drive instead of your actual DVD burner, you would get a file on your hard drive that was something like an ISO file. An ISO file is just a raw image of what will go on the DVD-R during the burning process, including your video data as well as data relating to the on-disc file system and so forth. When you create an .ISO file with e.g. ImgTool and then burn it with Nero, you are bypassing Nero's built-in DVD-Video creation function, which is known to be problematic if you don't set it up just right.

So in short, the advantage of using an ISO file is that it ISOlates you (pun intended) from any DVD-creation bugs in your burning software. Of course there could still be bugs in the program that creates the ISO file but ImgTool is known to be pretty reliable (at least I haven't heard of many problems). So by burning from an ISO, you should get the same results whether you are using Nero, DVD Decrypter, Recordnow, etc.

[Gazorgan]

I am Coaster free using IMG Tools then burning the ISO. I know it's an extra step. But, You can mount the ISO file in Daemon tools and verify it looks okay before burning. Real useful when you have heavy transcoding or some tricky backup work.

[northcat_8]

Exactly what Gazorgan said....I too am coaster free. I only burn ISO's mostly because that's what I get when I convert the PDI files out of IC7, and I only burn with Decrypter. But I have done some movie only discs and have used IMGtools.

I also only use ISO files because I can play the ISO using Daemon Tools to check the DVD before burning.

[mrhata]

So I'm not really losing any quality or other things by burning ISO's then right? For me I guess the extra step of converting to ISO is better so I can play them on my portable also. And also play them on Daemon Tools so I can decide if the movie is a keeper or not.

Thanks All.