I'd go ahead and buy MakeMKV if...

[robpdotcom]

These features were added:

1) An option to rip the HD audio tracks by default.
2) It were possible to name titles and streams.
3) It were possible to set default and forced flags (actually, this should be automatic when extracting forced subtitles).
4) It were possible to name output files.
5) Ability to split output by chapters (great for music only discs).
6) Less important, but would certainly sweeten the deal: ability to add chapter names from online databases.
7) Also less important, but it would be nice to be able to create multiple edition mkv's from discs that contain multiple versions of a movie.
And
8) I know that re-encoding is not what MakeMKV is meant for, but converting LPCM to flac would be nice as well.

MakeMKV is a great program, but these things keep it from being a "one-click" alternative to the many free programs out there. I do have to admit, already owning AnyDVD-HD is a large factor, but the fact that all the things I listed are possible with free programs is what's really stopping me from buying MakeMKV.

I'd also like to see MakeMKV be the program that ushers in the use of Matroska menus (it has to start somewhere). The possibilities of Matroska files are vast, yet so much of it's potential is being ignored.

[Smithcraft]

I believe that #4 and the second #7 are already there.

You can name your output files how ever you want, or you can have MakeMKV sort of auto name it for you.

When you select what you want from the selections menu, you can select everything there, which would include multiple versions of movies. I've done this with blurays and DVDs.

SC

[robpdotcom]

How do you name the files? MakeMKV let's me select the directory, but it always names the files: "title00.mkv", title01.mkv", etc.

For #7, I'm talking about mkv's with more than one version of the movie in one file. I recently ripped a movie with two versions: Theatrical and Extended. Each version would take about 14-15GB if ripped separately (about 29GB total). But I was able to combine them into one mkv, which only took 17GB. That's not possible with MakeMKV, yet (though I do remember a thread where one of the admins expressed an interest in it).

BTW: The point of this is not to bash MakeMKV - it's a good program, and if I hadn't already purchased another program which allows me to rips my discs, I would certainly buy it. I'm just pointing out what I think is desirable, possible, and missing.

Right now, it doesn't offer anything I need, or enough things I want, so I can't justify buying it. If it had the features I mentioned, that would make me want it enough to buy it, even though I don't need it.

[Smithcraft]

In the window where it has the file path, just edit the name of the file. For multiple rips, it should just add the 00, 01, 02 suffix. After it's done ripping I go and rename them to what they are. I would rather do it this way than from the selection menu since I don't necessarily know what's what from the selection menu.

For multiple versions - Terminator Skynet Bluray Edition has three versions of the movie. Each one is saveable by just selecting it. The new Stripes DVD has the extended version and the regular version, and I saved them both by just selecting them. Of course it depends on how the DVD is setup as to whether it can be ripped.

SC

[philnort]

In the window where it has the file path, just edit the name of the file.

SC

Don't think that's possible....only directory selectable. I was told last year naming the output FILE was coming...BUT

[robpdotcom]

For multiple versions - Terminator Skynet Bluray Edition has three versions of the movie. Each one is saveable by just selecting it.

That results in, if you keep one subtitle track and only the lossless audio, about 74GB's being used. The method I am talking about allows you to have all versions, in one file, and takes up about 28GB's. T2 is a seamless branching disc - it has three versions of the movie, but most scenes are common to all versions. Those scenes need to be be saved 3 times if each version is ripped to it's own file - they only need to be saved once if you use ordered chapters.

[Cyruz]

And that kind of answers my question about output being bigger than the complete dvd, I had my suspision that different titles could share some scenes...

[robpdotcom]

Yes, it can be much bigger. T2 is 44.6GB on the disc. My example of 74GB was with only 1 of the 7 audio tracks. If you ripped all titles to separate mkv's, with all audio/subtitle tracks, it would take about 95GB.

[rogerdpack]

6) Less important, but would certainly sweeten the deal: ability to add chapter names from online databases.

What database would you use?

[captain]

wrote:

1) An option to rip the HD audio tracks by default.

YES!! PLEASE!!

2) It were possible to name titles and streams.

Sure, but this needs to also come with some smarts that let MakeMKV intelligently name the files - at the moment then, the current paradigm doesn't totally suck.

3) It were possible to set default and forced flags (actually, this should be automatic when extracting forced subtitles).

I'm not sure what this means, but I think forced subtitles in the user's preferred default languag(es) should be set to automatically be ripped.

5) Ability to split output by chapters (great for music only discs).

I would rather have the chapter markers embedded in the MKV file. Searching is one of the major lacking features at this point, for me.

6) Less important, but would certainly sweeten the deal: ability to add chapter names from online databases.

Yes, and see #5 above.

7) Also less important, but it would be nice to be able to create multiple edition mkv's from discs that contain multiple versions of a movie.

YES!!! Another example is the English vs. French versions of "Tangled" / "Reponce" (Rapunzel). About the only differences are the audio tracks, and a handful of words in the movie. As it is, I have 60GB devoted to one movie, instead of 30GB. Of course, this isn't a common occurrence, but it would be a nice feature. The Big Blue has about 4 different versions and it would be nice to have them all in one file, but I don't know if that's possible.

I would like to add:

PS3mediaServer integration, please! I don't know if it is PMS, or MakeMKV that screws the pooch more often than not, but when it works it is spectacular. I would like to see it work *every time*, with every rip. And/or just integrate a PS3 media server into MakeMKV so that it can serve it's own MKV files over to the PS3 for flawless playback.

[rogerdpack]

PS3mediaServer integration, please!

Which files don't play with it? What do you use to stream it from within ps3ms? Seems like it's either a bug in those programs, or in makemkv

-roger-

[robpdotcom]

Naming titles and streams:

This is part of the mkv header. So, instead of a track showing "3+2.1", you could manually name it (maybe you have a commentary track, and you want to name it "Commentary"). You can do this already with mmg's header editor, but it would be nice to do it with MakeMKV. Not asking for anything automatic, just control over what the names are. Titles are just the title of the file. I like it for episodes of a series: The title could be Heroes: Season One, Episode One - "Genesis". It's nice to include that info, but I wouldn't want the file name to be that long - plus, you can use characters not allowed for file names.

Naming chapters:

There is a program called Chapter Grabber that will load chapter files from a disc, download the names from one of two databases (not all movies are available), and save it as an xml file that can be added to an mkv.

Multiple editions in one file:

Already possible with a program called Xin1Generator. See my post above about T2. I have 3 versions of the film in one 27GB file. Ripping each separately takes 70+GB. Xin1Generator is free and easy to use, however, you must rip the streams separately, and mux them afterwards. MakeMKV could do this as it rips the disc, speeding up and further simplifying the process.

Default and forced flags:

Forced flags will ALWAYS load a specific stream. So, if you have a forced subtitle stream, it will always load without needing to be manually selected. On the other hand, if there are no forced subtitles, no subtitle track will load unless done so manually.

Default flags will play a specific track by default. So, maybe you rip the lossless track and a lossy track. You can specify which track will load by default.

[trondmm]

For multiple versions - Terminator Skynet Bluray Edition has three versions of the movie. Each one is saveable by just selecting it.

That results in, if you keep one subtitle track and only the lossless audio, about 74GB's being used. The method I am talking about allows you to have all versions, in one file, and takes up about 28GB's. T2 is a seamless branching disc - it has three versions of the movie, but most scenes are common to all versions. Those scenes need to be be saved 3 times if each version is ripped to it's own file - they only need to be saved once if you use ordered chapters.

That's true, but support for ordered chapters in players is still pretty poor, and support for editions (where you want some soundtracks to be available only in one branch; you want to set different default soundtracks depending on the branch, or you want to automatically select a subtitle track when you switch audio) is practically non-existant.

I'd love to see tools like MakeMKV get both ordered chapters and editions right though, as that would hopefully inspire the player developers to add support as well.

[trondmm]

... and a nice introduction to ordered chapters and editions is here:
http://mod16.org/hurfdurf/?p=8

[Smithcraft]

Looks like the seemless branching/ordered chapters feature in Matroska only works when using a specific playback library. So I think this feature is really a request for the Matroska team and not for MakeMKV.

SC