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[Z0001]

Hi

I just wanted to ask about the best format to save Blu Ray rips. I currently use mkv (from an iso backup) as I can deselect foreign soundtracks. However it's very hit and miss with English audio options and subtitles. Eg I selected stereo soundtrack and it came up with an audio description and forced subtitles are very hit and miss.

Would the folder structure ripped by MC from the iso be any better in these regards?

Many thanks
Z

[jmone]

I rip as folder structure and import those into MC (or if you are using AnyDVD running in the background I let MC do the rip as it will copy, tag, and import the files all in the MC GUI).  Now we have BD Menu playback you are all good to go even on problematic discs.  Given you have them in ISO, just copy the content out to a folder and import the index.bdmv file into MC.  Try one and see how you go.

[wer]

I think MKV is the best format to use.  You can do so much with it, and MakeMKV has been bulletproof for me.

What I do, especially if I'm unsure as to which extra sound tracks or sub tracks I might want, is I initially include them all, and then you can use MKVTookNix GUI to add the NAME property to each track, so you can label it with a name that makes sense to you once you've identified which track is which.  JRiver will honor and display those NAME labels when you're selecting.

MKVToolNix GUI also includes MKVMerge, which will let you drop whatever tracks you ultimately decide you don't want, reducing the size of the file.

It will also let you set sub and audio tracks as default or not, forced or not, and change their order.  MC doesn't really respect the forced flag on sub tracks, but some other apps do.

[RoderickGI]

I rip folder structures because I want the Blu-ray menu sometimes, and play the movies on a TV directly connected to my HTPC.

Blu-ray folder rips can't be played directly on a Client, although I think if you set up MC so that it can find the movie folder structure as if it was a local file/folder structure, i.e. by using URIs instead of paths in the MC Library, then it will work. Tha is what you do isn't it Jmone?.

Of course you can still play Blu-rays on a Client by telling MC to convert to a suitable format in Client Options, and then the server will convert before streaming the movie. But that just gives you the movie Title, and not the menu. Well, it does when you convert to a Transport Stream. So you don't get subtitle or soundtrack selection. I tried converting to MKV to see if that worked, but it stalled playback, and I didn't pursue it further.

Just a few things to be aware of. Best to try with a copy of one movie and see if you can get what you want.

[Z0001]

Very helpful, thanks

Had a go with Solo, and got the forced subtitles in the alien language without needing to select a stream like I would have to in mkv (and then still not reliable).

I found the blu ray menu access a bit slow … is that usual? mind you not a slow as my early stand alone player!

can folder structures be streamed to a client? how does one do that?

thanks!

[jmone]

MC Clients: I setup all my Library Server clients so they have the same network share / path as the Library Server = All can play the full BD Structure just fine or the main movie (just set your option in Tools--> Options--> Video--> Play Blu-ray discs using Menu.... I use "Ask" and on playback decide if I want the Menu or just the main file playback).  This works very very well.
MCWS Remote Clients: aka JRemote / MO / EOS etc get a transcoded copy of the BD (so you need a reasonable rig for your server).  You don't get the menu just the main movie streamed
DLAN Clients: Same as above

[syndromeofadown]

After years of ripping to folder structures I have switched to mkv. For most discs anyways, I still like to rip concerts to folders.

I find the biggest benefit is getting rid of corrupted menus and Playlist Obfuscation. I have bought way too many movies that are essentially broken. With makemkv I can get the movie off and not have to deal with the discs annoyances ever again. You can use MKVToolNix to change the default subtitle track to the forced subtitles. I don't find forced subtitles to be more reliable on any one ripping format. One final note is that anydvd and dvdfab have given me many corrupted rips over the years where makemkv has been perfect every time.

[wer]

Agree completely with this.

[jmone]

Keep in mind if you use full folder rips and MC's new BD Menu function there is not guessing about playlists, forced subs etc.  It just works as it is controlled by the Menu and we now have that working in MC.

[wer]

Just add the names to all the tracks in mkvtoolnixgui, and no more guessing in MC.  If you actually like navigating through all the menus that's fine, but I just want my movie to play.

[jmone]

....sure, but it depends what you want.  With a full copy of each disc, I can also get Alt Versions, Extended Editions and Extras. 

[tij]

....sure, but it depends what you want.  With a full copy of each disc, I can also get Alt Versions, Extended Editions and Extras.

mkv suports alt versions, extended editions etc through ordered chapters ... dont know of any players that support that feature though (apparently there is security risk in implementing it)

since disk space is cheap these days ... i just rip all alt version of movies to separate mkv

... never really cared about extras ... so mkv was choice for me from the beginning to remove pain of navigating through menus

only real use of disk menu i ever found was adult content ... where you can see which chapter is which scene ... so can skip window dressing and jump right into action lol

[blgentry]

I see both sides of this.  I think MKV is generally the right solution, as it removes encryption, removes reliance upon a menu implementation in your (software) player, and let's you choose what you want to keep size reasonable.  Almost everything I have that came from optical disc is an MKV now.

On the other hand, special features are a giant pain to deal with as separate files.  It also feels like quite a waste to rip a 35GB movie twice:  Once as the regular cut and once as the Extended cut.  So I use twice the disc space (at least) that I should have.  I just did this for "Now You See Me".

There's also something satisfying about keeping everything together in one package as an ISO.  So I understand.... but I just CAN'T get past the proprietary nature of the encrypted video and menu system on an ISO... so I suffer with my own compromises instead.  All MKVs.

Brian.

[wer]

Alternate versions are the lone downside for me.  It's supposed to be supported in MKV, but I could not get Xin1generator to function for me AT ALL.  It just generates an error and does nothing; seems to be no longer maintained either.  Generating alternate versions in one file without it would be a pain.

[TheShoe]

I've been doing both now.

I find however that given MC's weak support for mobile client or devices such as Shield or AppleTV, having an MKV is necessary (for me).  There is no suitable client on those devices that will play folders back reliably if at all.

Best to experiment a bit and see what works for your setup.

I do know that since I started ripping some to folders, I find myself watching a lot of extras now

[syndromeofadown]

MC doesn't really respect the forced flag on sub tracks, but some other apps do.

I have wondered about this. It's likely been discussed to death in the past, but it would be nice if forced flag was respected. A work around for this is to set forced subtitles as 'default' in MKVToolNix. The you play the video in MC it's easy to choose the right subtitle because it will be displayed as "eng (default)".

I find however that given MC's weak support for mobile client or devices such as Shield or AppleTV, having an MKV is necessary (for me)

My family watches a lot of videos on Chromebooks and high end tablets like S3 and S4. They don't play nicely with folder rips of blurays. They aren't too bad with dvd rips, but mkv is still preferred.

I do know that since I started ripping some to folders, I find myself watching a lot of extras now

When I rip to mkv I also rip extras. My views are setup for them. For some extras they are missing context though. At least with most recent releases extras have titles within the fist 10 seconds of the video.

With a full copy of each disc, I can also get Alt Versions, Extended Editions and Extras.

I rarely see alt versions but whenever I have the option for theatrical and extended I just rip the extended. I don't care about the having multiple versions. My MC views are setup for them though.

Probably the biggest downside to using mkv is the time spent ripping and sorting through extras. It's much quicker to simply rip the whole disc to a folder. Another upside to mkv is scraping metadata for individual episodes of TV without using particles.

[Hendrik]

MC doesn't really respect the forced flag on sub tracks, but some other apps do.

MC respects the forced flag on subtitle tracks just fine. If such a track is present, it'll be pre-selected when you start the file - unless you previously changed the subtitle selection on that file.

[wer]

Maybe on your installation, but on mine, the "Subtitle Mode" setting from Video options seems to override.  If the Audio Language is English, and the Subtitle Language is English, and the option is "...different from audio language" then the forced subtitles will not show; it defaults to null.

This happens with for example all Star Wars movies, that have Alien Language subtitles.  The audio track is Eng, the Sub track is Eng, and MC defaults to Null on such movies, even though the track is forced.  If you're English/English(forced) you get null.

If I change the Sub track language to Art (artificial) so that it is not Eng, then I get the behavior you say.

Changing the subtitle option to any of the other choices does not produce desirable results.

Basically, I think MC only planned for the possibility of say a Japanese Movie with English subtitles, or an English movie with French subtitles. An English Movie with English forced subtitles (which is all English language movies with subtitles only for foreign/alien parts) seems to slip between the cracks of the options.

This has been mentioned in the past by people other than me; it's an actual problem.  But I don't want to go so far off topic on this thread and argue about it.  Sorry for the digression.

[Hendrik]

I just tested that particular scenario on that particular movie even, in latest MC24, and it worked just as expected, as long as the alien-subtitle track is marked as forced. If its not flagged forced, then it is not selected, as it should be.
This is the only scenario when I personally would ever want subtitles, since I don't like watching movies/shows where I don't understand the audio, so I would definitely have noticed if it was broken.

Alien/Foreign forced subtitles are annoying me when they don't show up, so I take great care when ripping Blu-rays to ensure I get the right stream and mark it as forced, to ensure that it does in fact work properly during playback without manual intervention. And if that scenario would not work with MC, then I would've long fixed it. So this is definitely a scenario MC was designed for, because I ensured it is.

The subtitle selection logic is pretty straight forward, too. The option in the settings only controls when to select a "full" subtitle stream. If no stream is selected due to the settings there, it'll always try to select a forced stream instead, so as long as you have any forced stream, you should never end up with "Null" being selected. There was a bug in earlier MC24 versions that may have prevented that in some corner-cases, but in the recent version it should absolutely make sure of that.

[wer]

I believe you; you should know.  The behavior must be different for your later version as you say due to the fixed bug.  I'm quite certain of what I'm saying for my system, as I have a lot of movies with forced subs and I have to go and on first play nudge it from null over to the forced track with almost every new moview with those characteristics I rip.  Glad to hear it's fixed in the latest version.

[darky]

Hello

you might give this a go

https://www.makemkv.com/faq/item/4

[CountryBumkin]

I take great care when ripping Blu-rays to ensure I get the right stream and mark it as forced, to ensure that it does in fact work properly during playback without manual intervention.

How do you "mark" the stream as forced? Is this done in some other software (MKV)?
I have not had this problem, but would like to know what to do if it ever comes up.

[darky]

MKVtoolnix   can do that ( make forced tracks)

https://www.videohelp.com/software/MKVToolNix