Ripping AC3 and Remuxing Audio
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 10:07 pm
Hi all, long long time registered user of MakeMKV. Best tool, ever. Recently ran into a problem and wanted to ask for opinions since I've researched this in-depth and there doesn't appear to be an easy solution.
So, I've been ripping my DVD and Blu-ray collection since about 2011 and then processed them using Handbrake. I usually just went with default profiles in Handbrake for audio, which means I got a stereo/dolby pro-logic AAC 160kbps file. It didn't really dawn on me until recently with our new more serious home theater setup that this kind of sucks. The gear does a respectable Dolby pro-logic / DTS Circle Surround job of things but listening to recent discs I've ripped with AC3/DTS pass-through makes it obvious that the AAC default audio is lacking. I stream all our media using a dedicated PLEX server though multiple rooms using Roku devices.
What I'd really like to do is take all of my processed MKV rips and simply remux in the AC3 or DTS track alongside the existing AAC. I know I can do this easily with MKVToolNix, which I've used for many years. The difficult thing here is ripping just the audio track I want from the disc. MakeMKV shows all the audio tracks under the movie file but refuses to rip just the audio track. I've found maybe a few programs in Windows that might do this but nothing in Linux, which is what I use exclusively for our home computers and our media server. I would hate to have to completely rip all my discs over again from scratch (especially the Blu-rays, sheesh) so any help is appreciated.
So, I've been ripping my DVD and Blu-ray collection since about 2011 and then processed them using Handbrake. I usually just went with default profiles in Handbrake for audio, which means I got a stereo/dolby pro-logic AAC 160kbps file. It didn't really dawn on me until recently with our new more serious home theater setup that this kind of sucks. The gear does a respectable Dolby pro-logic / DTS Circle Surround job of things but listening to recent discs I've ripped with AC3/DTS pass-through makes it obvious that the AAC default audio is lacking. I stream all our media using a dedicated PLEX server though multiple rooms using Roku devices.
What I'd really like to do is take all of my processed MKV rips and simply remux in the AC3 or DTS track alongside the existing AAC. I know I can do this easily with MKVToolNix, which I've used for many years. The difficult thing here is ripping just the audio track I want from the disc. MakeMKV shows all the audio tracks under the movie file but refuses to rip just the audio track. I've found maybe a few programs in Windows that might do this but nothing in Linux, which is what I use exclusively for our home computers and our media server. I would hate to have to completely rip all my discs over again from scratch (especially the Blu-rays, sheesh) so any help is appreciated.