Silly question: ISO vs Folders for storage

[TooNice]

I have just ripped about half my modest DVD collection. My goal is to keep everything on my HD, so that I can save having to switch discs, and save some room in my living space.

So far, I have ripped all my DVDs to ISO format. But it just occurred to me, is there any reason why I wouldn't want to simply rip them into folders instead? So instead of Movie.ISO, I would have [Movie\VIDEO_TS\etc. and Movie\AUDIO_TS]. I can think of at least one advantage to this: I am using Media Player Classic as my main (sole) player, and while I can just drag and drop a DVD movie folder to start normally, I need to mount an ISO before I can play via MPC (if I drag and drop an ISO to MPC, I end up with the problem described here: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1140477/media-player-classic-want-dvd-menus-to-auto-load). One additional (insignificant) advantage is that I put a cover in a folder but not in the ISO (or at least I've not found how to easily do that once the ISO has already been created). To be fair, I don't really plan to spend time scanning the covers of my collection, so this might not be an advantage I'll benefit from.

But before I go unpacking all my ISOs and deleting them, is there any reason why I want to stick to leave them alone?

[Chetwood]

Get a decent player then. VLC plays ISO without them being mounted.

[Sparktank]

If you're willing to throw some money into it and want to free up your PC/Laptop...

A friend of mine bought a $100 Diamond external media player (to hook up to TV) for her parents.
It could read off external HDD's loaded with ISO's.

She ripped their whole collection of DVD's and family recorded events, as well, for them.
She said it worked perfectly for them and they never had any issues with it.

you can check out NCIX (http://www.ncix.com/products/?minorcatid=1331&po=0&ps=2) for some ideas of what's out there.

[TooNice]

Thanks for the replies so far :)

@Chetwood: I like my MPC-HC+LAV+madVR setup though. If I must, I'd rather mount (or extract all my ISO) than switch (back) to VLC.

Sparktank: So those network players can only handle ISO files, and would not work if I had a bunch of folders and VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS subfolders?

I don't think that is too much of an issue in the near future as my PC is likely going to be my main player.. even if I was to hook it to a projector (as I have done before) for a home cinema experience.. still, it is one thing to keep in mind. Do most people here prefer to store their media as ISO then?

[Sparktank]

Sparktank: So those network players can only handle ISO files, and would not work if I had a bunch of folders and VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS subfolders?

I don't think that is too much of an issue in the near future as my PC is likely going to be my main player.. even if I was to hook it to a projector (as I have done before) for a home cinema experience.. still, it is one thing to keep in mind. Do most people here prefer to store their media as ISO then?

I think some of them should be able to handle both.
You'd have to spend some time reading up on different products.

I personally prefer ISO images, much cleaner. Single file (albeit large; 1+GB).
Folder structure is nice if you want to defrag (since file size is usually limited to 1GB splits for VOB files) or to use with software that can't handle ISO images.

With external media players, you would need two devices (external media player + external HDD with movies).

With PC/Laptop, it's all one device.

If you're going to use PC as the main media device, VLC sounds like best choice.

[SeeMoreDigital]

If you use the newer versions of Media Player Classic with LAV Filters and are running Windows 8, your DVD.ISO files will automatically mount and play fine ;)

[TooNice]

Hmm, I am on Win7, my MPC-HC/LAV is pretty recent and, ISO doesn't play properly (without manual mounting). Either it gets stuck in the Menu, or it only plays part of the movie. I think it only plays one of the VOB on the disc. Is it the OS or my MPC-HC/LAV setting?

[Ghitulescu]

ISOs require anything else than FAT, because they will generally be larger than 4GB.
Most, in particular older but also some new, mediaplayers cannot mount and read NTFS, let alone ext2/ext3.
For maximum of compatibility, do not choose ISO. Another reason against is that you might need to work upon them (add subtitle, remove audio etc.).