Can Plex Play ISO? How Can I Play ISO Files with Plex?

An ISO Image is a disk image of an optical disc. By converting DVD to ISO image, we can make a complete backup of DVD and save as a single ISO image file into computer's hard drive, external hard drive, NAS, or somewhere we would like. ISO file can be played with VLC, 5KPlayer, and some other media players on computer. However, some people want to play ISO movie files with Plex. Can Plex play ISO files? How to Play DVD ISO files with Plex? This article will give answers.

Part 1. Can Plex Play ISO File?

No. The fact is that Plex refuses to play any ISO file natively. According to Plex support, Plex doesn't support disk image formats including ISO, IMG, VIDEO_TS folder, and BDMV^[1].

Why Plex can't play ISO and other disk image formats?

These formats do not fit the idea behind the ecosystem of Plex. Disk image files like ISO hide the video content behind the menu system. Users need to interact with the menu interface to access content, but we do not have a good way to present the menu on Plex apps of some devices such as iOS and Android. For an ISO file of TV series, it will contain many episodes. As a result, it is difficult for users to jump directly to specific episode to watch. No one would like to fast-forward through 9 episodes if he or she just wants to watch the tenth episode.

So, to let Plex play ISO files or other files from DVD discs, you need to convert ISO to Plex-supported format first.

Part 2. How to Make Plex Play ISO Files?

According to the suggestion from Plex, we can convert ISO to Plex compatible formats or remux ISO for Plex media server. To transcode ISO image or remux ISO files, you always need a 3rd party DVD ripper program. Needless to fiddle about with options, here we pick up the top free DVD rippers for Plex to make ISO image playable in Plex.

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is able to convert ISO file to Plex supported formats like MP4 H264 while maintaining original quality. Supporting GPU hardware acceleration, multi-core CPU, and hyper-threading tech, it can finish this in a few minutes.

Beyond transcoding ISO to Plex, this DVD ripper for Plex can rip any copyright protected DVDs (CSS, region code, Sony ARccOS, Disney X-project DRM...) and VIDEO_TS folder (which is also not supported by Plex) to MP4, AVI, WMV, MOV, TS, FLV, and more media formats.

If you want to preserve lossless quality, it also gives you "remux" option to backup DVD main/full title with 1:1 quality.

Step 1. After you click the download button above, install it, and then open it. On the main interface, click the ISO Image button to browse and select the ISO image file you want to convert for streaming via Plex. And click OK to start importing the ISO file into this DVD ripper.

Step 2. Output Profile window will show up. You need to choose a format that Plex supports. For example, we can go to General Profiles and choose MP4 Video (codec: H.264+AAC).

This software will auto detect the main title for movie ISO file. For ISO files stored with TV shows, it will select one title only by default. You need to check other titles (episodes) manually if you want to convert all of them for playing with Plex.

Optionally, if you prefer remuxing ISO image file without codec transcoding, you can opt for "DVD Backup Mode" to clone DVDs with main/full title without any quality loss.

Step 3. Click the Browse button at the bottom to specify a destination folder and hit RUN to begin converting ISO file to Plex playable format.

Disclaimer: Digiarty Software does not advocate ripping/copying copy-protected DVDs for any commercial purpose and suggests referring to the DVD copyright laws in your countries before doing so. And do not use WinX DVD Ripper to rip DVD rentals.

MakeMKV

On top of converting ISO to MP4 Plex supported format, you can also choose to remux ISO to MKV format using MakeMKV with highest possible quality kept. This top free Plex DVD ripper has the knack to convert ISO to MKV file, preserving most information but not changing it in any way. The MKV format can store multiple video/audio tracks with all meta-information and preserve chapters.

Certainly, compared with the afore-mentioned WinX DVD Ripper, there is still some room for MakeMKV for improvement. Chief among them is the ability to handle copyright protected ISO image file and DVD discs, since MakeMKV can only deal with the usually protected DVD discs (like CSS or region codes). As for DVD or ISO image with UOPs, RCE, Sony or Disney DRM, it gives you nothing but a "not reading disc" error.

Therefore, if your ISO image is protected by commonly used DVD encryption tech, you can follow the below guide to use MakeMKV to remux ISO to MKV without transcoding.

Step 1. Free download and install MakeMKV package on your Windows 10/11 > launch MakeMKV and load your ISO image into MakeMKV. This world-renowned Plex DVD ripping software will recognize your ISO image automatically and all the info. will show up on the interface. Click the big DVD disc button, MakeMKV will add and analyze all the titles of ISO image.

Step 2. All DVD titles and chapters will show up after the ISO image scanning job is done. And the highest possible right titles will be listed as a tree structure with a MPEG2 video file, several audio and subtitle files in each title. Since not all checked titles need to be backed up, it's advisable to backup the title with relatively larger size.

Step 3. Under the "Output folder" section, choose where you would like to save the DVD copy video. As MakeMKV will remux ISO image to MKV format, the output MKV video will take as large as the original DVD. Thus, you need to make sure that the hard drive on your Windows 10/11 PC has enough free space.

Step 4. Click the "Make MKV" to start converting ISO image to MKV on Windows 10 PC. Then a window pops up where source DVD name/size, read rate, output file/size, free space, elapsed/remaining DVD backup to MKV time and the operation progress can be viewed. Smartly, the DVD backup to MKV task can also be canceled at any time the orange pause button is clicked.

When the ISO to MKV remuxing job is accomplished, you can eventually import the final MKV file to Plex media server and watch your ISO image anywhere anytime in Plex without geographical or temporal limits.

Part 3. Plex ISO FAQs

1. Can Plex play ISO file?

No. Files such as ISO or IMG and folder structures such as VIDEO_TS or BDMV (including Blu-ray ISO file) are generally referred to as "disk image" formats because they're basically "cloning" the structure and content from a DVD or Blu-Ray optical disc. Such formats are not supported in Plex.

2. Can I display the menus and choose subtitles if I convert ISO file?

If you convert ISO to MP4 and the like, DVD menu will disappear and subtitle will be embedded if you didn't disable subtitle when ripping.

3. Can Plex read Video_TS?

No. Video_TS is also a DVD file that cannot be recognized by Plex.

4. Can Plex play DVD rips?

Yes. As long as you rip DVD to MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, etc. with right codecs via WinX DVD Ripper Platinbum, Plex can play the DVD files.

5. How do I add an ISO to Plex?

Step 1. Download and install Plex Media Server, and then sign in.

Step 2. Run Plex and click "Add Selection" and "Movies" to add the ripped DVD ISO file to Plex.

Step 3. Install Plex app on any of your devices to stream and watch the ISO file.

References:

1. "Why are ISO, VIDEO_TS, and other Disk Image Formats Not Supported?". plex.tv. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
2. "What media formats are supported?". plex.tv. Retrieved 23 June 2020.