MakeMKV FAQ
Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 4:55 am
Welcome to MakeMKV!
Please read this FAQ before you post. This FAQ contains answers to many common questions and links to many resources on this forum.
FAQ Last Updated: Mar 7, 2021
What is MKV and MakeMKV?
Why MKV?
MKV is a "container" format for packaging video, audio, and subtitles. It has fewer restrictions and is more flexible than other formats such as MP4. It is capable of multiple audio tracks, multiple subtitle tracks, chapter breaks, and 3D. It supports video tracks from DVDs, Blu-ray discs and 4K UHD discs with varying codecs, resolutions, and framerates including NTSC, PAL, Dolby Vision, HDR, VC-1, AVC, MVC. It supports audio tracks with varying codecs including Dolby Digital, DTS-HD Master Audio, 7.1, 6.1, 5.1, Surround, Stereo, Mono, etc.
Why MakeMKV?
MakeMKV transfers an exact, lossless copy of the content on your disc into the MKV container. It doesn't change or compress the video and audio (with the exception of some audio options), so that your MKV file will reflect the original quality of your DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K UHD. If you wish to compress your MKV file after ripping it, you can do so with utilities such as Handbrake.
How do I play MKV files?
Common playback software includes http://mpv.io or http://mpc-hc.org as well as http://madvr.com for 10 bit playback on SDR monitors. VLC is also capable of playing MKVs but isn't as robust as the other players. Windows Media Player is also capable of playing MKVs but isn't recommended, as it won't play properly and will display video distortion (see here and here).
Does MakeMKV create ISOs?
No, but MakeMKV does have a Backup feature for Blu-ray and UHD, which allows you to create a copy of the entire disc, with an option to decrypt the video files.
Does MakeMKV handle 4K UHD discs?
Yes! Read the dedicated UHD FAQ.
Does MakeMKV handle 3D Blu-rays?
Yes! Read the dedicated Blu-ray 3D FAQ.
Does MakeMKV handle HD-DVDs?
Yes, although some are problematic and supporting them isn't a current priority of MakeMKV. According to a list in the Blu-ray.com forums, only a handful of HD-DVDs haven't been released on Blu-ray.
Does MakeMKV rip CDs?
No. Audiograbber or EAC are recommended.
Forums
Where should I post my question?
Please read the Attention Shoppers thread as a guide to these forums.
Ripping Questions
I'm seeing errors about Volume Keys or HK downloading, how can I fix this?
Please refer to the dedicated UHD FAQ.
While ripping, I see Read or Medium errors such as "corrupt or invalid at offset" even though my disc is perfectly clean?
These errors result from the drive not being able to read the disc, often due to the disc requiring cleaning even if it looks perfectly clean. For more details, please refer to the rip errors thread.
Which playlist do I choose?
Here are the most common multiple playlist situations:
- Disney discs (including Marvel and Star Wars, and some other studios have followed) will have multiple playlists for the main movie in order to localize different languages for credits and other text in the movie. Playlist 800 will be English, with 801, 802, etc being other languages.
- Sometimes discs will have 2 playlists for the main movie. One will have audio and subtitles for languages such as English, French, Spanish, etc, while the second one will be for Japanese language options.
- Some discs will use a second playlist for playback with audio commentary, instead of having the audio commentary and the primary audio options all available in the same playlist.
- Some discs will use a second playlist for playback of other regionalized differences, such as audio description with different accents (MIB III), or minor changes within the movie itself (MIB International, Independence Day: Resurgence).
- If you see a title with chapters and another title without chapters, you are seeing the mpls playlist with chapters, which is the one you want, as well as the original m2ts stream file, which the playlist is created from.
- Some discs use playlist obfuscation, and will show up to hundreds of false playlists. For discs with Java, MakeMKV will attempt to identify the correct playlist and it will be noted with a comment of "(FPL_MainFeature)" next to the title, although in most cases MakeMKV will be incorrect. Your best bet in this case is to search the forum for the title of the movie, and to read through the thread. You can read more on this topic here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14330
What are AV Sync errors?
AV Sync errors occur when MakeMKV detects a synchronization offset between the video and the audio, due to the authoring of the disc, usually caused by audio gaps or by overlapping frames of audio, which are common in playlists that use "seamless" branching of multiple m2ts files. MakeMKV works to correct these errors, and starting with 1.15.4, MakeMKV offers improved handling of TrueHD streams in particular.
MakeMKV will keep track of the ongoing amount of audio "skew" and once it reaches a certain tolerance, it will drop audio frames in order to reduce the synchronization offset. In this case, you will see log messages like this:
There's also a false AV sync message that will occur due a bug in MakeMKV. When you see this message, you can ignore it:
What are child/indented core audio tracks?
Lossless audio formats have a lossy core for compatibility. You don't have to check this child/indented track in order to get the lossless audio. If you do check it, you'll get a separate lossy audio track in your MKV file. 7.1 cores are 5.1, so some users may want the lossy 5.1 depending on their playback setup.
What are "forced" child/indented subtitle tracks?
Subtitles can have a "forced" flag, such as English translation text for non-English dialogue in an English movie. MakeMKV doesn't pre-scan for this, so if it encounters them, it will output them to a separate subtitle track. In practice though, discs don't tend to be authored this way.
DVD special features are missing?
Some DVD special features not showing up in MakeMKV is a somewhat common issue. Manual DVD Mode is an advanced feature that you can use to manually access all content on the disc.
What about Cinavia Watermark Protection?
Please see the Cinavia thread if you encounter this protection scheme.
MakeMKV Settings
Minimum Title Length
If you set the minimum length to X seconds, all titles that are shorter than X seconds will not be shown in the list of available titles after MakeMKV has loaded the disc. In the log, MakeMKV will report skipping titles because they are shorter than the minimum length setting. Examples of short titles include copyright notices and title cards. However, some trailers or introductions can be short, so you may wish to use a lower setting than MakeMKV's 120 second default.
Further Reading
- Why is MakeMKV beta software, and why do I need a beta key that keeps expiring? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20579
- What is the current beta key? viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1053
- Where can I buy a permanent key to support the development of MakeMKV? https://www.makemkv.com/buy/
- Default Output File Name Template: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18313
- I add {_s:SN} to the end of mine.
- Changing Track Order in Output File: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4566
- Changing Default Track Selection Rules: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4386
- Sample Selection Rules that I use: -sel:all,+sel:(favlang|mvcvideo),-sel:(core)
- On The Fly Audio Conversion: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4776
- 4K Releases Spreadsheet: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22992
- Downmix to Stereo?
Please read this FAQ before you post. This FAQ contains answers to many common questions and links to many resources on this forum.
FAQ Last Updated: Mar 7, 2021
What is MKV and MakeMKV?
Why MKV?
MKV is a "container" format for packaging video, audio, and subtitles. It has fewer restrictions and is more flexible than other formats such as MP4. It is capable of multiple audio tracks, multiple subtitle tracks, chapter breaks, and 3D. It supports video tracks from DVDs, Blu-ray discs and 4K UHD discs with varying codecs, resolutions, and framerates including NTSC, PAL, Dolby Vision, HDR, VC-1, AVC, MVC. It supports audio tracks with varying codecs including Dolby Digital, DTS-HD Master Audio, 7.1, 6.1, 5.1, Surround, Stereo, Mono, etc.
Why MakeMKV?
MakeMKV transfers an exact, lossless copy of the content on your disc into the MKV container. It doesn't change or compress the video and audio (with the exception of some audio options), so that your MKV file will reflect the original quality of your DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K UHD. If you wish to compress your MKV file after ripping it, you can do so with utilities such as Handbrake.
How do I play MKV files?
Common playback software includes http://mpv.io or http://mpc-hc.org as well as http://madvr.com for 10 bit playback on SDR monitors. VLC is also capable of playing MKVs but isn't as robust as the other players. Windows Media Player is also capable of playing MKVs but isn't recommended, as it won't play properly and will display video distortion (see here and here).
Does MakeMKV create ISOs?
No, but MakeMKV does have a Backup feature for Blu-ray and UHD, which allows you to create a copy of the entire disc, with an option to decrypt the video files.
Does MakeMKV handle 4K UHD discs?
Yes! Read the dedicated UHD FAQ.
Does MakeMKV handle 3D Blu-rays?
Yes! Read the dedicated Blu-ray 3D FAQ.
Does MakeMKV handle HD-DVDs?
Yes, although some are problematic and supporting them isn't a current priority of MakeMKV. According to a list in the Blu-ray.com forums, only a handful of HD-DVDs haven't been released on Blu-ray.
Does MakeMKV rip CDs?
No. Audiograbber or EAC are recommended.
Forums
Where should I post my question?
Please read the Attention Shoppers thread as a guide to these forums.
Ripping Questions
I'm seeing errors about Volume Keys or HK downloading, how can I fix this?
Please refer to the dedicated UHD FAQ.
While ripping, I see Read or Medium errors such as "corrupt or invalid at offset" even though my disc is perfectly clean?
These errors result from the drive not being able to read the disc, often due to the disc requiring cleaning even if it looks perfectly clean. For more details, please refer to the rip errors thread.
Which playlist do I choose?
Here are the most common multiple playlist situations:
- Disney discs (including Marvel and Star Wars, and some other studios have followed) will have multiple playlists for the main movie in order to localize different languages for credits and other text in the movie. Playlist 800 will be English, with 801, 802, etc being other languages.
- Sometimes discs will have 2 playlists for the main movie. One will have audio and subtitles for languages such as English, French, Spanish, etc, while the second one will be for Japanese language options.
- Some discs will use a second playlist for playback with audio commentary, instead of having the audio commentary and the primary audio options all available in the same playlist.
- Some discs will use a second playlist for playback of other regionalized differences, such as audio description with different accents (MIB III), or minor changes within the movie itself (MIB International, Independence Day: Resurgence).
- If you see a title with chapters and another title without chapters, you are seeing the mpls playlist with chapters, which is the one you want, as well as the original m2ts stream file, which the playlist is created from.
- Some discs use playlist obfuscation, and will show up to hundreds of false playlists. For discs with Java, MakeMKV will attempt to identify the correct playlist and it will be noted with a comment of "(FPL_MainFeature)" next to the title, although in most cases MakeMKV will be incorrect. Your best bet in this case is to search the forum for the title of the movie, and to read through the thread. You can read more on this topic here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14330
What are AV Sync errors?
AV Sync errors occur when MakeMKV detects a synchronization offset between the video and the audio, due to the authoring of the disc, usually caused by audio gaps or by overlapping frames of audio, which are common in playlists that use "seamless" branching of multiple m2ts files. MakeMKV works to correct these errors, and starting with 1.15.4, MakeMKV offers improved handling of TrueHD streams in particular.
MakeMKV will keep track of the ongoing amount of audio "skew" and once it reaches a certain tolerance, it will drop audio frames in order to reduce the synchronization offset. In this case, you will see log messages like this:
Code: Select all
AV synchronization issues were found in file...
AV sync issue in stream 1 at 0:08:40.394 with duration of 10.458ms : encountered overlapping frame, audio skew is +10.458ms
AV sync issue in stream 1 at 0:10:19.243 with duration of 9.916ms : encountered overlapping frame, audio skew is +20.375ms
AV sync issue in stream 1 at 0:10:19.264 with duration of 10.666ms : 1 frame(s) dropped to reduce audio skew to +9.708msCode: Select all
AV synchronization issues were found in file...
Forced subtitles track #_ turned out to be empty and was removed from output fileLossless audio formats have a lossy core for compatibility. You don't have to check this child/indented track in order to get the lossless audio. If you do check it, you'll get a separate lossy audio track in your MKV file. 7.1 cores are 5.1, so some users may want the lossy 5.1 depending on their playback setup.
What are "forced" child/indented subtitle tracks?
Subtitles can have a "forced" flag, such as English translation text for non-English dialogue in an English movie. MakeMKV doesn't pre-scan for this, so if it encounters them, it will output them to a separate subtitle track. In practice though, discs don't tend to be authored this way.
DVD special features are missing?
Some DVD special features not showing up in MakeMKV is a somewhat common issue. Manual DVD Mode is an advanced feature that you can use to manually access all content on the disc.
What about Cinavia Watermark Protection?
Please see the Cinavia thread if you encounter this protection scheme.
MakeMKV Settings
Minimum Title Length
If you set the minimum length to X seconds, all titles that are shorter than X seconds will not be shown in the list of available titles after MakeMKV has loaded the disc. In the log, MakeMKV will report skipping titles because they are shorter than the minimum length setting. Examples of short titles include copyright notices and title cards. However, some trailers or introductions can be short, so you may wish to use a lower setting than MakeMKV's 120 second default.
Further Reading
- Why is MakeMKV beta software, and why do I need a beta key that keeps expiring? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20579
- What is the current beta key? viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1053
- Where can I buy a permanent key to support the development of MakeMKV? https://www.makemkv.com/buy/
- Default Output File Name Template: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18313
- I add {_s:SN} to the end of mine.
- Changing Track Order in Output File: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4566
- Changing Default Track Selection Rules: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4386
- Sample Selection Rules that I use: -sel:all,+sel:(favlang|mvcvideo),-sel:(core)
- On The Fly Audio Conversion: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4776
- 4K Releases Spreadsheet: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22992
- Downmix to Stereo?
Enable expert mode, and select AAC-stereo profile . For each audio track you will have an option to save the original AND/OR stereo copy. And you can do this for already existing MKV file, just open the MKV file in MakeMKV.