PowerDVD playing from Hard Disc with menus etc

[SydneyGuy]

We just purchased a new Dell laptop and it came with PowerDVD pre-installed. It plays DVD discs fine and all functions work as expected. However, we want to be able to play from the hard drive. The laptop is being used as a presentation machine and in the past we have found that playing discs is fraught with danger as they can be a bit unreliable or they get lost etc.

My plan was to copy the contents of the discs to the hard drive (these are presentations created by us so we own the copyright and there is no encryption etc) and setup shortcuts on the desktop so the user of the machine at the time could easily run the presentations. PowerDVD seems incapable of doing this while retaining menuing features etc.

If I tell it to play from files it only allows me to select one or more VOBs which it will then play in order but without the menus. I was expecting it would allow me to select VIDEO_TS.IFO and run from that but it doesn't even display the .ifo files in the selection window.

Does anybody know how to make PowerDVD play files from the HD just like it is playing from a real DVD disc?

[Bodysurf]

Does anybody know how to make PowerDVD play files from the HD just like it is playing from a real DVD disc?

Generate an ISO file from the files using something like ImgTools. Then mount the ISO file with something like Daemon-Tools. This mounted ISO file will appear and function just like the real deal to any software DVD-Video player.

[bigshotceo]

PowerDVD 4 and 5 both allow you to do exactly what you wish. Simply click on the "select source" button and choose "open dvd file from hard disk", then select your video_ts.ifo

[jimmalenko]

Use Open DVD File on Hard Disk Drive in PowerDVD to open VIDEO_TS.IFO.

[SydneyGuy]

I don't have an "Open DVD file from Hard Disk" option. I think this is probably a cut down version that Dell have supplied. I can't even find where to get it to tell me what version it is. It's certainly been modified by Dell as it has their name all over it. I have a "Select Source" button which allows me to select the DVD drive or to bring up the playlist editor which only allows me to select the VOBs.

I have WinDVD on my own laptop and it does exactly what we want to do so maybe we will just have to spring for that instead. I guess you can't expect too much from the bundled software.

[jimmalenko]

Does sound like an OEM version or something.