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[6233638]

I have a number of films (not TV shows) in my DVD collection that are split over two discs for whatever reason (length, I suppose) and I was wondering what the best way was to handle that inside Media Center.
Similarly, I was wondering what to do about films that have a second disc with a feature-length documentary attached to them. I don't want those showing up as "films" in my library, but I do want them linked to the film itself somehow.

Stacks don't seem to be useful, because it only plays the first file in the stack.

Similarly, there are often end credits and another title card for each disc, and it would be nice to join them together seamlessly.

[csimon]

Similarly, I was wondering what to do about films that have a second disc with a feature-length documentary attached to them. I don't want those showing up as "films" in my library, but I do want them linked to the film itself somehow.
Similarly, there are often end credits and another title card for each disc, and it would be nice to join them together seamlessly.

Search for "multi-disc sets", "boxed sets" etc.

Basically, one answer to this is to create an extra tag (or tags) to define an extra level or category (or two).  Your added extras would be in the same "collection" or "box" as the main movie. Your main movie view would only show one entry for the movie but when you select it (drill down) it expands into all the extras, including the main movie itself. The anlogy is exactly the same as a boxed set, for example

Alien Quadrilogy
> Alien
>> Theatrical Release
>> Director's Cut
>> The making of...
> Aliens
>> Theatrical Release
>> Special Edition
>> The making of...

etc

[6233638]

Well that's what I'm hoping to avoid really. These are not entries in a series, but one film that is split over two discs.

While grouping them together is helpful, I was hoping to link them so that they appear as one file, and play from start to finish without interruption. (preferably without the end of the first disc, and start of the second)

[Hendrik]

If they are Matroska, you could setup some Ordered Chapters to give them a virtual timeline of one movie (and skipping unwanted parts in the process), and rely on the latest LAV to play them as one (latest LAV not part of MC yet, but soon)
There isn't really a nice automated way to do this however, and you would have to ban the second file from the library manually from showing up, and rely on LAV loading it on its own (and it only works with filesystem access, so not when streaming through the Library Server)

Personally, i would probably cut-off the unwanted end/start sequences and mux them into one file. Thats what i did with the multi-disc LOTR EE Blu-rays, one 60-70gb MKV hooray.

[Neco]

If you want to playback multi-disc films the best option is to, unfortunately, do a little manual work on your part.

How much work I suppose depends on how you want to rip your discs, and whether you want to maintain DVD menus or not (assuming MC can play DVD menus, etc),  or if you just want the content streams and a simple way to select them.

You could do it all in one file with a bit of cutting and splicing, and then use ordered chapters.  Or you could split it up into however many files you want and build a view / expression that displays them the way you want.

It really depends on how much work you want to do and what your desire as an end result.

[CountryBumkin]

Well that's what I'm hoping to avoid really. These are not entries in a series, but one film that is split over two discs.

While grouping them together is helpful, I was hoping to link them so that they appear as one file, and play from start to finish without interruption. (preferably without the end of the first disc, and start of the second)

You can make a single MKV file of both discs. You create two mkv files first (one for each disc), then just append the second disk to the end of first. You can even start the second disc a few seonds into the movie so it doesn't have any introduction/credits show. I did this for Gone With the Wind and it worked perfectly.

[6233638]

Thank you for the suggestions. Ripping to MKV and merging them seems like the best solution.

I've done a couple of tests using MKV Merge and that seems to work, but with some issues:

• Chapter numbers are retained, so I have Chapters: 1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 rather than 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13.
• I can't see where to set the out/in point for the two files. In the one I'm testing, I need to cut off about 3 seconds from the end of part 1 (black screen & silence) and about 17 seconds from part 2 for it to be seamless. Furthermore, I would prefer to set exact timecodes/frames, rather than just the approximate "01:02:42" and "00:00:17" - how would I find those?

And if I am appending one file to the other like this, is it happening destructively, or are those 20 seconds still inside the file, but skipped over during playback?

[Hendrik]

Chapters simply have names, and the tool wouldn't know that its supposed to increment some number in some string, so you will have to fix that manually.

For the cutting, the way i did it was in two steps, first mux the two parts and split off the parts i didn't want anymore (you can pass frame numbers if you want, for splitting from the start thats fine, from the end finding the right frame number is a bit harder), and then the two perfect parts without any extra content i merged. This is destructive and obviously deletes the parts you didnt want anymore.

You could also merge them without removing the parts, and then use ordered chapters to skip them, but it'll require manually crafting the ordered chapter layout, which may require some more time.

[6233638]

Chapters simply have names, and the tool wouldn't know that its supposed to increment some number in some string, so you will have to fix that manually.

Ah, I see. I assumed that if there was no "name" specified it would simply be based on their order. I suppose MakeMKV is actually naming the chapters "Chapter 01" etc.

For the cutting, the way i did it was in two steps, first mux the two parts and split off the parts i didn't want anymore (you can pass frame numbers if you want, for splitting from the start thats fine, from the end finding the right frame number is a bit harder), and then the two perfect parts without any extra content i merged. This is destructive and obviously deletes the parts you didnt want anymore.

While this seems like it would work, I'm always concerned about making "destructive" edits to files, even if it seems like I wouldn't ever need those 20 seconds.

You could also merge them without removing the parts, and then use ordered chapters to skip them, but it'll require manually crafting the ordered chapter layout, which may require some more time.

I think this seems like the best solution actually. It's only about five or so films that are like this, so I don't mind manually creating an ordered chapter layout - I'm going to have to edit chapter files no matter how I do it anyway.

My biggest issue right now is finding the exact frames/timecode for where I want to join the files. I don't mind taking the time to go frame-by-frame and find the right point, I just don't know what (preferably free) software to use to find them.

[mojave]

If I use the Playback Range tag to stop the first disc before the credits and start the second disc at the right place, then on my system there is a split second of black screen between the two. If you do a Series/Season type of view, then Watch All will play both discs in succession.

[csimon]

Well that's what I'm hoping to avoid really. These are not entries in a series, but one film that is split over two discs.

While grouping them together is helpful, I was hoping to link them so that they appear as one file, and play from start to finish without interruption. (preferably without the end of the first disc, and start of the second)

Yeah, I was responding to your second question about linking additional features to the main movie, as opposed to the first question about joining together a movie that is split over two discs. This method won't give you separate items in your movie list as you'll only see one entry for the "box". It's only when you've chosen a movie and drilled down that you'll see the additional entries.

[JustinChase]

Personally, i would probably cut-off the unwanted end/start sequences and mux them into one file. Thats what i did with the multi-disc LOTR EE Blu-rays, one 60-70gb MKV hooray.

this is also how I handled these discs (the only ones I own that span multiple physical discs).  I used this site to help me with it, and it talks about handling the chapters on the second disc also.


http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?p=316084#post316084