What is a good way to view chapters within a blu-ray backup file (hard drive) on a Mac?
I burned a backup copy of Spartacus - War of the Damned to my hard drive. It has ten episodes and three blu-ray discs. I want to make an .mp4 out of the episode which does not contain a preview of the last episode if possible.
How can I view the beginning of the individual chapters to determine which one to burn?
Viewing Blu-Ray Chapters
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Radiocomms237
- Posts: 405
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 12:23 am
Re: Viewing Blu-Ray Chapters
I have ripped that title but it was quite a while ago so I don't remember the specific details (I may be able to dig out my notes if you're really stuck but I've been playing 'musical hard drives' in my NAS for a while now and it may take me some time to find the right drive).
The first question I'd ask is: Is the "Previously on..." the only content in the first chapter? If so, you can use a third-party program like MKVToolNix to trim the first chapter from your files, otherwise you could trim by timecode.
I use Windows so I can't verify whether this works on Mac, but if I make a decrypted backup, I can play the transport stream files (*.m2ts) in VLC Media Player directly from the "STREAMS" folder.
This may help you find the content of the chapters, and/or timecodes at which to split? Bear in mind that you will occasionally encounter tracks that are out-of-sync when playing transport streams directly (MakeMKV re-syncs these when muxing).
The first question I'd ask is: Is the "Previously on..." the only content in the first chapter? If so, you can use a third-party program like MKVToolNix to trim the first chapter from your files, otherwise you could trim by timecode.
I use Windows so I can't verify whether this works on Mac, but if I make a decrypted backup, I can play the transport stream files (*.m2ts) in VLC Media Player directly from the "STREAMS" folder.
This may help you find the content of the chapters, and/or timecodes at which to split? Bear in mind that you will occasionally encounter tracks that are out-of-sync when playing transport streams directly (MakeMKV re-syncs these when muxing).
Re: Viewing Blu-Ray Chapters
I would open the backup in MakeMKV and create .mkv files of the episodes. They will be created as fast as your Mac's storage can go, so it shouldn't take much time at all.
You could play the .m2ts files directly out of the backup with VLC or MPV, but chapter information isn't stored in .m2ts files. It is stored in a title's associated .mpls file. MakeMKV will merge all that together in a single .mkv file. You can then determine the suitability of the chapter breaks with your favorite player.
You could play the .m2ts files directly out of the backup with VLC or MPV, but chapter information isn't stored in .m2ts files. It is stored in a title's associated .mpls file. MakeMKV will merge all that together in a single .mkv file. You can then determine the suitability of the chapter breaks with your favorite player.