[Jakobkraft]

Okay, in MediaBrowser, to set up mounting a Blu-Ray ISO and mounting it from WITHIN MediaBrowser is stupidly simple -- MediaPortal, while quite different, is also very straight forward, with all the options you need easily found WITHIN the main configuration menus.
But why is all this playercorefactory.xml nonsense needed with XBMC? Why not just simple ISO setup options within XBMC main configuration? I know XBMC can play a movie-only Blu-ray ISO but the Blu-rays I have, more often than not, have extras that I'd like to access occasionally, therefore I need full menu support. So ALL I WANT is to click on an ISO WITHIN XBMC, then have XBMC automatically mount, then launch my Blu-ray program (PowerDVD11) and then have it play. I have been at this for hours, using all different types of playercorefactory.xml settings that I have found from searching--and the most I've been able to achieve is to have PowerDVD11 launch. Nothing plays back.
I already have VirtualClone Drive installed and have been successfully mounting and watching BD ISOs for ages using WMC and then MediaPortal. But I love the responsiveness and speed of XBMC so I really would like to switch over but this is getting ridiculous!

Could someone PLEASE, in painfully simple terms, tell me how to achieve this?

[Jakobkraft]

OKay, I think I FINALLY figured it out. But seriously...?

A PlayBDMV.bat file
A PlayDisc.bat file
A PlayISO bat file
and, of course, the ever-necessary playercorefactory.xml. All this just to mount ISOs from within the program?

In-program ISO mounting config options, again--why not just include them? If there was an easier way to do this, if I missed something obvious, someone please tell me...

[Jakobkraft]

Well, scratch that. ISO's auto-played first few times, then stopped. Restarted XBMC, tried again. One ISO autoplayed, then the second ISO caused XBMC to crash.
I guess looking streamlined, and actually BEING a streamlined app are two very different things...

[bluray]

Download the files from here- Another External Player Code, but Very Simple to Setup and follow the instructions....

[Ned Scott]

Could someone PLEASE, in painfully simple terms, tell me how to achieve this?

You're honestly going to bitch and moan about not being able to easily open an encrypted, DRM-encrusted, bluray ISO in an external player from within XBMC? And who told you that using an external player was "streamlined"? We don't support those players directly, and you should be happy that the (advanced) external player feature is there at all.

What I would do is strip the DRM from the ISOs so that XBMC can play all the movies with no external player needed at all.

EDIT: Some people have asked if it is okay for me to suggest that someone strip DRM from an ISO. I should point out that making the ISO in itself is bypassing what DRM is meant to do (prevent making a copy), so an ISO with DRM is no more legal than an ISO without DRM. This also all depends on your local country and laws, which is up to the end user to follow, etc etc.

[jjd-uk]

Frodo Alpha 3 snapshot plays bd iso's with full HD audio within XBMC, stream selection is also now possible for accessing main movie or extras, personally I'm not interested in slow java menu's so no external player needed anymore for me, and if direct retails disk playback is needed then install Anydvdhd.

[Jakobkraft]

Could someone PLEASE, in painfully simple terms, tell me how to achieve this?

You're honestly going to bitch and moan about not being able to easily open an encrypted, DRM-encrusted, bluray ISO in an external player from within XBMC? And who told you that using an external player was "streamlined"? We don't support those players directly, and you should be happy that the (advanced) external player feature is there at all.

When MediaPortal AND Mediabrowser AND MyMovies have this capability with almost no tinkering at all needed, then yes, I think it's worth a moan or two. And by streamlined, I meant setup as simple and direct as this for MB -- http://imageshack.us/f/515/724201273636am.jpg/

MediaPortal is similarly straightforward and MyMovies, if I remember correctly, automatically allows you to do this if you have VirtualClone Drive (or another mounting app) installed with no extra configuration at all. They have other limitations admittedly, but I didn't expect to struggle for functionality that I got in seconds with those other apps.

[pecinko]

Keep in mind both MP and MM run on windows only, which allows for more platform specific hacks. In fact, MM would be lost without external player as they would have WMPlayer only.

[Jakobkraft]

Keep in mind both MP and MM run on windows only, which allows for more platform specific hacks. In fact, MM would be lost without external player as they would have WMPlayer only.

I know -- truth be told, that was one reason why I was trying to get away from it. But given my kids love of PIXAR blu-rays and the tons of extras they access on a regular basis, I need the internal ISO mount to work consistently, and identically, every time. So I guess MP is the best solution for me. Thanks anyway.

[jjd-uk]

When MediaPortal AND Mediabrowser AND MyMovies have this capability with almost no tinkering at all needed, then yes, I think it's worth a moan or two. And by streamlined, I meant setup as simple and direct as this for MB -- http://imageshack.us/f/515/724201273636am.jpg/

There's a difference because those are primarily designed to work with external players & codecs where as XBMC seeks to keep things simple for the user by doing everything internally with it's own players & codecs, thus all the development effort thus goes into making the internal players the best they can be whilst maintaining cross platform support.

XBMC can mount iso's with absolutely no config but this seems restricted to the internal players, when launching a external player everything is handled externally thus it's a similar process to what would be need when launching the file from the desktop. For some reason it's only when using external players that XBMC doesn't mount the iso then pass the file structure to the player, although there is probably a very good reason for this like there is no cross platform way of doing this.

[spiff]

The isos are never mounted on the os level we just read them through our virtual filesystem classes

[Jakobkraft]

When MediaPortal AND Mediabrowser AND MyMovies have this capability with almost no tinkering at all needed, then yes, I think it's worth a moan or two. And by streamlined, I meant setup as simple and direct as this for MB -- http://imageshack.us/f/515/724201273636am.jpg/

There's a difference because those are primarily designed to work with external players & codecs where as XBMC seeks to keep things simple for the user by doing everything internally with it's own players & codecs, thus all the development effort thus goes into making the internal players the best they can be whilst maintaining cross platform support.

XBMC can mount iso's with absolutely no config but this seems restricted to the internal players, when launching a external player everything is handled externally thus it's a similar process to what would be need when launching the file from the desktop. For some reason it's only when using external players that XBMC doesn't mount the iso then pass the file structure to the player, although there is probably a very good reason for this like there is no cross platform way of doing this.

I can respect that, I actually thought that MediaPortal was also cross-platform, so I initially didn't understand why XBMC couldn't work in the same way. It's too bad, because I love how fast and responsive XBMC is, but full internal ISO mounting is something I really need, for the kids and the WAF.