www.makemkv.com

Bought at Amazon & ripped to mkv with makeMKV. Things seemed to go as planned. I noticed there were 3 files present: 1 file was smaller & appeared to be typical of smaller files that show up. However, the other 2 seemed to be full fledged full feature film. I expected just 1. The files sizes were not that different. Usually this happens when there are 2 different versions like a theatrical cut & a director's cut, but there is no hint of multiple cuts that I can find. Video & audio specs are identical, at least to Plex. They both register as 4h UHD, 2160 resolution

Anyone have a clue what the difference in these 2 files might be or why there should be 2 such feature length files?

Did the packaging say anything about "includes theatrical release", or similar? Was there a difference in run time?

I see this sort of thing on a lot of animated films, where one copy is for US-customers, with a "separate" Japanese version (same file, just different audio set as default). Not usual for English original movies, though.

The packaging said nothing about multiple releases, nor did the Criterion web site. I tried a google search which uncovered nothing. That is why I posted the question. It seems peculiar. The runtimes are exactly the same, at least as reported in Plex & VLC. One of the files is about 200k larger than the other, but at a file size of 60G, it would seem that this difference is nothing. The only included language (either file) is English. Aside from academic curiosity, I suppose I could use either one. Is it really worth my effort to re-rip the disc or order a new one? Just seems strange.

If you look at the title in MakeMKV, what does it say about the playlist and the streams? When I just put my copy in one of my BU40Ns and looked at it, it shows 3 items, one of which is 1.2 GB and 2 chapters, the others of which are the same stream, but one has the chapter metadata, while the other doesn't. I always use the one with the chapter metadata if available (it pretty much always is).

Yes, I checked that out with the same results. I decided to go with the chaptered version. Thanks for the tip.