Possible to rip tywo versions of the same movie with one MKV file aka seamless branching

[merrick97]

I have used the search and I can't find a clear cut answer, nor have I seen a youtube video on it.

Anyway, I have several films The Abyss, Aliens, and Alien that have multiple versions of the same film and I wanted to know if there is a way to rip those into one file, where something like Kodi would allow me to select between the two versions without having to rip both versions separately? Alien is really the film I care about most as that film has both versions I like.

My playback is done on a Ugoos AM6Bplus with CoreELEC.

There seems to be very little information on this, so I am skeptical that it is possible. It seems like the best option would be to rip the 4K BD as an ISO.

[Radiocomms237]

I believe it's possible to do seamless branching within a Matroska file using chapter editions.

Somebody here was talking about it not so long ago but I can't seem to find the thread now. From memory it was reasonably complicated to set-up though.

The problem you may find is whether your player of choice will recognize and allow you to select different editions from within the same file. I would certainly do one title first and then a lot of testing before launching into a huge project to convert your whole database.

I myself take the easy way out and just create two separate .mkv files and name each edition using the Plex convention (seeing as I'm using Plex that is)! I know it wastes a little extra hard drive space on my media server
to do it that way, and I may have to look at saving some space one day (I am a little obsessed with collection all the different editions of any title I own), but for now I'm more interested in getting my optical disc library digitized and don' really have the time for such luxuries.

[merrick97]

Yeah, that's why I was thinking that an ISO rip might be the better option in terms of space.

[Radiocomms237]

Don't quote me on this but...

It was something like adding all the individual segments (.m2ts files) into MKVToolNix from a decrypted backup, then creating a chapter edition for each edition of the movie, and linking each chapter to a particular segment via the UID.

Except I recall it was a little more 'technical' than that.

The other thing is, if doing it this way you're relying on the player to handle all those sync issues that MakeMKV typically deals with when ripping a title with seamless branching.

Yeah, that's why I was thinking that an ISO rip might be the better option in terms of space.

Is your player capable of playing an ISO of a disc? If so, then that would be by far the easiest (and most economical, storage-wise) way to go. But only worth doing when you have a disc using seamless branching, otherwise it swings the other way and costs you storage space!

[merrick97]

Don't quote me on this but...

It was something like adding all the individual segments (.m2ts files) into MKVToolNix from a decrypted backup, then creating a chapter edition for each edition of the movie, and linking each chapter to a particular segment via the UID.

Except I recall it was a little more 'technical' than that.

The other thing is, if doing it this way you're relying on the player to handle all those sync issues that MakeMKV typically deals with when ripping a title with seamless branching.

Yeah, that's why I was thinking that an ISO rip might be the better option in terms of space.

Is your player capable of playing an ISO of a disc? If so, then that would be by far the easiest (and most economical, storage-wise) way to go. But only worth doing when you have a disc using seamless branching, otherwise it swings the other way and costs you storage space!

I’m using CoreELEC on my Ugoos AM6B plus. I would think it would work just fine.