Open a Blu-ray Manually or show ALL segments?

[Radiocomms237]

I've been searching the forum and I know that the "Open DVD manually" option doesn't appear when I insert a Blu-ray, but how can I do something similar with a BR?

I'm trying to rip season 1 of "Ironman: Armored Adventures", problem is, all 13 episodes are in one huge "Play all" mpls file and separated by chapters, 52 in all, so each episode is 4 chapters.

If I had access to a manual mode I'd simply rip it as 1:1-4;5-8;9-12;13-16 (and so on).

Also, this "Play all" title has 13 segments, one for each episode, but the m2ts files don't appear in the list, otherwise I'd simply rip the individual segments.

So I guess my question is, how can I force MakeMKV to display these "hidden" segments so I can rip them separately?

[Woodstock]

Mike would have to answer whether or not a "manual BD mode" is possible, but...

Have you tried breaking the big file up, using either the mkvtoolnix GUI or (my usual tool) handbrake? Both work well for splitting MKVs at chapter boundaries. You also only have to rip once, then determine where to split using VLC or similar to find the break points.

(it's a pain to find series where the split points aren't convenient 4-, 5-, or 6-chapter per episode chunks)

[dcoke22]

If you make a decrypted backup, you'll gain access to all the .m2ts files (in the BDMV/STREAM folder). You can't use MakeMKV to convert a .m2ts into a .mkv. However, I think the MKVToolNix tools or ffmpeg can do it. Your favorite search engine can help you figure out how. Personally, I've never had to try this method.

If it were me, I'd try Woodstock's method first.

[Radiocomms237]

Thanks for the suggestions...

I've been using MKVmerge/ToolNix for years and never knew it could split files (you learn something new every day)!

I've also found a program called "Lossless Cut" (https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut). It will split by chapters but it's not particularly accurate frame-wise, however it does preserve all tracks including subtitles and chapters.

Thanks again!

[Radiocomms237]

Back on the topic of MakeMKV...

It does seem to hide some .m2ts files (I'm guessing it's files that are the only segment of a playlist), is this something the program is doing or is there some flag on the disc/file itself to hide these segments?

I can see a need for a "verbose" mode where MakeMKV lists all .m2ts files on a blu-ray, is this worthy of a feature request?

[dcoke22]

By default, MakeMKV has a minimum length in seconds. It ignores stuff shorter than that. That setting, however, is adjustable on the Video tab in Preferences.

[Radiocomms237]

No, it's nothing to do with that setting (I have mine set to 6 seconds).

The segment (or .m2ts) files that aren't being listed, regardless of size, do appear in the segment maps of the playlist (or .mpls) files so I know they do exist.

If a segment is used by multiple playlists then it seems to get displayed, or if a segment is not used by any of the playlists then it also seems to get displayed, but if segments are only used by one single playlist then those segments seem to get hidden.

It's these 'hidden' segments (or m2ts files) that I want to rip individually.

[Radiocomms237]

I ran across this situation yet again just this morning while ripping the Watchmen Motion Comic BR disc, every episode in the series lumped together in one single huge playlist file.

Each episode is an individual transport stream file according to the segment map... Only MakeMKV won't display them so I can rip the episodes separately!

We really need some kind of "Manual Mode" for Blu-ray (similar to the DVD Manual Mode). I would much rather rip the episodes as they were intended straight off the disc rather than "split" them with some third-party app.

[jinx100]

Woodstock and dcoke22 have given good answers to your question in the first two replies in this thread.

1. Use mkvtoolnix to break the large combined MKV file into separate pieces at the chapter boundaries (Woodstock).

2. Use MakeMKV to create a decrypted backup and use your file browser to access the individual .m2ts files in the stream folder. (dcoke22).

Have you tried these methods?

[Radiocomms237]

Please re-read my last paragraph above.

Yes, I can get the separated files using MKVToolNix, but muxing the transport stream directly with ToolNix doesn't re-sync the various tracks, or remove audio gaps, or insert silences like MakeMKV does. And splitting the single playlist file by chapter/timecode with ToolNix after ripping is not particularly accurate frame-wise, at least nowhere near as good as ripping the individual transport streams.

Also, MakeMKV sometimes does some strange things as far as 'hiding' certain segments that are needed, this may even be a good thing for the novice user (less clutter equals less confusion), but it's really frustrating when you know the files you need are there and MakeMKV just won't let you rip them.

That is, after all, MakeMKV's prime directive!

[jinx100]

The decrypted backup gives you full access to everything on the disc including each segment. Don't blame MakeMKV if the publisher of the disc does not make an individual playlist for each episode.

[dcoke22]

If I understand Radiocomms237 correctly, they're suggesting that MakeMKV muxes transports streams (.m2ts files) into .mkv files better than the MKVToolNix tools. I can't say if this is accurate or not, but let's assume for a moment that it is.

I think Radiocomms237 is asking for a 'super advanced mode' that surfaces all the transport streams on a disc (longer than the set minimum length) so that a user can take advantage of MakeMKV's superior muxing capabilities.

I don't know how much actual work this would be for Mike. On the surface it seems straight forward. Perhaps it could be something that's only possible on the command line, thus requiring no GUI work. It seems like a reasonable request, assuming the supposition that MakeMKV's muxing capabilities are superior to all others.

Over in the big DV thread, I'm pretty sure the steps there require the use of tsMuxer (and usually one the recent nightly builds) because of bugs in other muxers, including MakeMKV. There are probably other muxing tools out there too.

In the end I'm left with two things. I think Radiocomms237's feature request is a reasonable one to make. I think the problem it solves is not a problem for most users. I think the likelihood that Mike chooses to do it is low, but it never hurts to ask.
The other thing is as has been suggested in this thread before, Radiocomms237 can achieve their goal now by using MakeMKV to make a decrypted backup to gain access to individual transport streams and then using another tool to mux those transport streams into .mkv files. If MKVToolNix is insufficient for the task, perhaps another tool like tsMuxer can do it.

[Radiocomms237]

I have not found any other program that does everything that MakeMKV does when muxing.

I've muxed m2ts files directly from the backup folder with ToolNix before and found that certain tracks are way out of sync.

One example: Some TV episodes (mainly seems to be old British TV shows) have a title slate at the beginning of the video that's not played by a regular Blu-ray player, and I've found that the timecodes on the subtitles sometimes don't include the duration of this slate. In other words, "00:00:00" in the subtitle file is actually "00:00:30" in the video file, MakeMKV re-syncs these two tracks.

I've muxed these files with ToolNix and found that the subtitle track plays 30 seconds ahead of time, which kinda sucks. No, it's not all that difficult to fix, but you have to remember to fix that first before trimming the slate from the video otherwise you lose the first 30 seconds of the subtitles!

I recently made a report elsewhere (see this thread) which would be a workaround for this problem, and, I think, very easy for Mike to implement. That is, if we could use the "Open files" button to load m2ts files individually (or in batches) directly from the backup folder, then they wouldn't necessarily need to be displayed when opening an entire disc.