In this article, we are going to investigate ISO files. We will talk about what an ISO file is and the quickest way to open an ISO file. There is one method that is quicker than all of the others.
I just sat down at my computer to watch a movie that I have in.ISO format. As you may or may not know, the.ISO format is known as an image file. These.ISO files contain an exact image of what is found on a DVD.
Most of the time the file will have an exact replica of the contents of a DVD. However, in today’s world, we have two DVD formats: DVD5 and DVD9. Most of today’s DVD Movies New Releases come in DVD9, the newer format which contains much more data than DVD5. When people want to copy DVD to DVD, they need to shrink the data from DVD9 size down to DVD 5 size because most people do not have DVD9 DVD burners.
Thus, even though we say that an.ISO image is an “exact” replica of the original, it’s often not. If you have downloaded something-especially a newer movie-there is a good chance that that movie has been compressed to fit on a DVD5 disc.
When most people download an.ISO, they think that they have to burn it to a DVD. This makes sense if you want to watch the movie on your home theater system. But it seems like a waste, doesn’t it? You might just watch a movie one time so burning it to a blank DVD is a waste of time and also a waste of the blank DVD.
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So, there is a much better way to do this. I’ll tell you how you can watch an.ISO file directly on your computer or even watch it on your home entertainment system. In this way, you do not waste the time burning the DVD nor do you waste the blank DVD.
So, how do you open an.ISO file on your computer without burning it to a DVD?
Well, when you search the Internet for how to open an.ISO file, you will find many tools that will allow you to open an.ISO file and view the contents of the file. For example, you will read that a program called WinRAR can open an.ISO. In fact, it can and it does a very good job at it (I have it installed on my machine). WinRAR allows you to see the data within the.ISO file and then you need a program that mounts the.ISO file so that your computer will see it as a DVD drive, even though it’s actually in a file. Many people use a free product called Daemon Tools to mount the DVD and watch on their computer.
But there is even a much better way to do this and it’s much easier and quicker.
You can use the VLC Media Player to open.ISO movie files directly and watch them on your computer. There is no “extracting” or “mounting” that needs to be done by you. You simply open the file within VLC as you would any file. It’s very easy!
Now, suppose that you want to watch this.ISO file on your television. How would you go about doing that? That’s not hard either. Read the article connecting your laptop to TV which details the rather simple and inexpensive (a cable $5 or less) method of hooking up your computer to your LCD TV.
For more information on DVDs, visit the how to copy a DVD page and also learn how to copy DVD to hard drive now in a matter of moments! Your author, Richard Tyler, is a technologist, traveler, and senior editor at ThisIsHowYouDoIt.com.
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This post has been contributed by a guest poster. Their details, if any, appear at the end of the above article.
What about daemon tools? This programm is also free for private use (Lite version) and there is an additional free tool called Astroburn Lite which allows you to directly burn the ISO-Image.
this is really eye-opening for those who don’t know about the .iso extension. this would have been VERY useful for me 5 years ago but i think there are still thousands who’ll be grateful for article, most of my friends will see this!