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Hi,
I have a problem with several Series discs (Arrow, VampireDiaries, ...).
The episodes are not in cronological order on the disk and the episodes don't display the episode name.

Is there a way for MakeMKV to read the correct order from the disc?

-- Tolotos

Many TV series have episodes on disc out of chronoligical order.

To me knowledge, the best you can do is hope for a production code at the end of the credits for each episode and check this against the listing at thetvdb.com

This is certainly the case for The Vampire Diaries.

Other series have no production codes, there your only option is to view the episodes on disc and match the rips. Watch out for spoilers!

I'm sure if somebody has a better way, they'll reply to this thread.

The method that I have used on other series that don't ID the episodes properly is to just watch the first few minutes of the rip and then watch the first few minutes from the disc and compare. That has always worked for me. It takes more time than I would like, but it does work. Good Luck.

To add to Rivey's post, having the wikipedia episode list up for the series is my favorite method. The title is in the first segment AFTER the opening credits, most of the time.

In general, though, disks will have the episodes in increasing M2TS file name order. That is not necessarily the order MakeMKV will list them (that depends on how the disk was authored), but the INFO window shows the file name as you highlight each title. I then modify the MKV file name to match before starting the rip.

Woodstock wrote:...
In general, though, disks will have the episodes in increasing M2TS file name order. That is not necessarily the order MakeMKV will list them (that depends on how the disk was authored), but the INFO window shows the file name as you highlight each title. I then modify the MKV file name to match before starting the rip.

Thats do the trick - Thanks.

Maybe this file-name to track-name / sort-order can be added as a new feature?

-- Tolotos

It's worth asking for, at least as a "sort this list" button. Some of use have asked about it in the past.

It's become less of a problem for me - the two distributors that did it the most (Sentai Filmworks and Funimation) stopped doing it a year or so ago.

I've found that while tracks are often out of order, the mpls files are. For example, I have a disc of a particular TV series that I'm ripping now. For Disc 1, the playlists are 800.mpls, 801.mpls, and 802.mpls. However, they are track 5 (Game_Of_Thrones_Season_6_Disc_1_t05.mkv), 1, and 2. The various shows related to Arrow (Arrow, Flash, Supergirl) had this issue, as did Person of Interest. What I do is make a note of the mpls file names compared to tracks and keep that information in a spreadsheet and use it to tag the files later after they are ripped and processed.

Using the code only works on shows (Supernatural comes to mine) where the ending credits include the production code. Not every show does that.

You can also check sites like Amazon and try to match episodes by time. For a show carried on a broadcast channel (NBC, etc.) that hardly ever helps because they are all edited to fit a specific time slot. For a premium channel (HBO, etc.) it can help because for example Game of Thrones episodes are hardly ever the same length. You can research this from IMDB.com as well.

I use the "watch a few minutes" of the episode as a last resort, primarily because I don't want to see spoilers for a show I haven't watched yet...

Another variation on the "watch a few minutes" theme is to open the disc in VLC and select the episode from the DVD menu. then select Playback, Title and see which title corresponds to the particular episode. You can then switch over to MakeMKV and enter the correct filename in the file dropdown for the individual title. Rinse and repeat. It takes a bit longer on series that are out of order, but saves you from spoilers.

I used production codes exclusively on The Flash and Supergirl. Interesting enough, Season 5 of Supergirl seemed to be in the correct order as was Season 1 of Batwoman which is odd for BD. The prod codes are about the only way to order the crossover episodes provided in the DC superhero seasons. I'm glad they do that, too. It's nice to have all the episodes of the crossover events no matter what you buy.

Keep in mind that due to MakeMKV trying to find the main title for movies, it may also end up reshuffling the episodes on a TV disc and MakeMKV’s listed order can be different than the numerical playlist authoring order, which may be correct.

Which is why I append {_s:SN} for Source ID to the end of my Default Output File Name Template.

I usually find checking these against the rips to be fastest, I’m not sure I’ve ever had to play back a disc to check it:

- Episode title if on-screen at Act 1 start
- Production code at end of episode
- Writer/Director in opening credits

Wikipedia’s episode listings are a good source for the credits, and epguides.com is a good source for a shorter list without the potential for spoilers in the descriptions, and usually includes the production numbers.