requesting help converting video files

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I have a program that is able to convert some .ISO files to MP4, but there are some files that the program doesn't recognise as video files and I have no clue why.

1) not porn

2) files are pro wrestling DVDs, mainly Japanese (some Mexican)

3) want to put the file onto a USB stick and watch through a Blu-ray player, player does not play .ISO files, and this would be much cheaper than buying blank DVDs

4) yes, I know it's fake

Are there any recommendations for programs that can help me?

[Buzzard]

The .iso format is basically the entire disc, ready to burn to a new disc. The ISO's you're looking would seem to be pure video, not any kind of video file.

Options that come to mind:
Get 1-2 rewriteable DVDs to burn and watch. (burn 1 while watching the other)

(I used to have one, but can't find it anymore) There are utilities that will mount an ISO as a virtual disc, which would act like a physical disc in a drive. From there, you could use whatever video ripping utility to make a copy of the video in MP4 or even AVI formats.

[EricKei]

VLC Player can read ISO files, so try that (it's free). There isn't much it CAN'T read and play back You can also mount it as a virtual DVD drive on your computer.

And yeah, the ISO is just an image file containing the DVD's files as a single unit (kinda sorta like a ZIP but without compression, IIRC). If you were to extract that, you'd see the VIDEO_TS, AUDIO_TS, and other similar folders in the directory listing.

[Deserted]

VLC Player can read ISO files, so try that (it's free). There isn't much it CAN'T read and play back You can also mount it as a virtual DVD drive on your computer.

And VLC can convert between formats, too. It's not automated, but it works. If you want video files on a USB drive, this is an alternative to what you're already doing. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Maybe my intentions are unclear... I get a collection of shows from someone, each show is it's own .ISO file. Rather than having to burn each show to a DVD, I was looking for a cheaper alternative.

1) I was looking for a way to convert an .ISO file to a different format like .MP4 or .MOV or .AVI that I would be able to put onto a USB thumb drive and play on my Blu-ray player.

2) Buzzard, I have tried burning to rewritable DVDs and my BR player won't accept them, just refused to play.

3) I have a program that is able to convert some of the shows to other formats but I have other shows that it won't convert and I don't know what the difference might be. (for instance, one file is the "Best of ZERO-1 2006 Vol.2" that I was able to convert to .MOV and another is the "Best of ZERO-1 2006 Vol.3" that the program won't recognize)

I'll look into this VLC, thank you.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

OK, tried VLC and while I was able to convert one file, several others that I could not would not work. So I went online to see if there was a solution for VLC and found a couple of people who gave up and recommended a different program called Handbrake. Downloaded it (it's free) and it's worked for me. A 2-hour wrestling program took about 2-1/2 hours to convert to an .M4V file which my BR player can read. If the video is made up of clips linked together, then the program makes an .M4V file for each clip, and the player plays them in sequence.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, and maybe this will help someone else.

[RealUnimportant]

Maybe my intentions are unclear... {snip} I was looking for a way to convert an .ISO file to a different format like .MP4 or .MOV or .AVI that I would be able to put onto a USB thumb drive and play on my Blu-ray

Your intention wasn't unclear, it's just that your intention isn't possible as written; it's like asking what stylus your gramophone needs to play CDs. ISOs aren't movie files, they're direct copies of the data held on another physical disc. The fact some are playable is more surprising than that some of them are not.

Handbrake's good, and you should be able to combine the smaller clips into a single long file once you get more adept with it.