How to playback movie spread over many files

[Thomaspin]

I have had success ripping Blu-Ray discs and simply selecting the largest 'm2ts' file in the BDMV->STREAM folder. I use VLC with OS X Lion. Typically the large file is over 30GB and contains all I need.

However, a recent rip of 'The Expendables' has many small files in that directory and I am at a loss as to how to play back the complete movie, as the files appear to be in random order and include all the extras which I do not want. There are some 75 files in that folder, so it's not a simple matter to find the ones to play and I would like to play them contiguously, like a regular movie.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Smithcraft]

When you put a disc in the drive, in MakeMKV there is a big disc drive icon. Click on that. MakeMKV will analyze the playlists, and then present you with a list of titles to rip. You can rip the movie from there, including selecting/deselecting specific streams, to a mkv file.

If you only want to try the streaming option, and when there are numerous obfuscation playlists, then you might need to see if the disc in the BDInfo db listed in my sig to pick the correct playlist. You might also have to do this if MakeMKV doesn't figure out the correct playlist and gives you a bunch of options for ripping the movie.

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[Thomaspin]

Thank you very much, Smithcraft. I would never have thought of clicking the disc icon and could not find anything in the instructions.

It worked perfectly. I was presented with two large file choices. The slightly larger one turned out to be the voiceover one with the stars and director, the other was the main movie and all the files were joined seamlessly.

I did likewise with the remastered 'Once Upon a Time in the West' with the same satisfactory result.

In both cases the 51 minute full disc rip time dropped by 7 minutes.

In neither case did I have to resort to picking and choosing files manually, though I did check your link, downloaded the spreadsheet and checked out a few of your links to AVSforum. Invaluable and a tremendous resource, thank you.

In the event I ever have to resort to picking and choosing files, is there an app (Mac OS X) you recommend which will join the constituent files?

[Smithcraft]

Mkvtoolnix.

SC

[Thomaspin]

Thank you. I downloaded it here for OS X: http://www.downloadbestsoft.com/MKVToolNix.html.

[Thomaspin]

Thank you, again. MakeMKV is a fabulous product and one for which I am glad to have just paid the subscription price.

[Smithcraft]

One of the great things about the Matroska container is that you can do so many things with it, and the main tool to do things(mkvtoolnix) can be used to do simple things and complex things. So MakeMKV is a great way to get content into that container. I think it's well worth the lifetime subscription!

SC