If you want a great "case study", then Iron Giant - Signature Edition Bluray was the worst rip I've ever multiplexed

[Jellyfan]

Hello!

Just to offer a little preface/disclaimer, I want to say I LOVE makeMKV and am tremendously thankful for the untold development hours that have gone into making it what it is. So, don't read any of this as complaints about the software. I'm only writing out these details in case it might help future development.

I've ripped and organized over 100 movies from my collection at this point, so I'm pretty well-versed in the various quirks that can appear when a movie is ripped with MakeMKV. Nothing else I've done so far has held a candle to Iron Giant Signature Edition, so I'm outlining some of the things I ran into in case you wanted to obtain this movie and use it as a "case study":

1) It's expected to have two movie files, since both the theatrical and signature edition are available on the disc, but each version of the movie was ripped three times, resulting in 6 full-length films (total rip size was over 150GB). The reason it ripped three times is because one film would have all of the typical language tracks and subtitle tracks, another film would have only the english and japanese tracks (I'm fairly used to Japanese being partitioned off on its own), but then the third movie would have the commentary track only. Typically commentary would rip with the first tile (the non-japanese tracks).
2) Playlists didn't rip correctly at all. The "play all" file for the deleted scenes only included 5 of the 6 deleted scenes. The 6th deleted scene ripped separately and had to be appended to the other file to have a true "play all" file and the chapters edited to account for the addition. The "play all" for the score special feature was non-existent, so the three individual files had to be appended together and chapters created for them.
3) Special features regularly included 11 copies of the english audio track (when there should be only 1), so the 10 extra tracks had to be manually removed for every special feature.
4) The Japanese files regularly had two subtitle tracks for Japanese and as far as I can tell they're duplicates.

That's all I can remember. This was a tough one to multiplex! Hope this helps you track down some bugs with MakeMKV. Thanks for all of your effort!

[Radiocomms237]

Not trying to make light of your experience but I'm over 1,600 titles into my optical media collection (many of those titles have multiple discs, some as many as 40-odd in a box set ("The X Files" for example)) and what you describe sounds like just another day at the office to me.

1) ~ the third movie would have the commentary track only. ~

A lot of times I've found that when the commentary is in a separate playlist, it's usually because there is a Picture-In-Picture video track (hidden by MakeMKV) associated with it and/or a unique chapter edition specifically for the commentary/behind-the-scenes content, typically indicated by a much higher chapter count on the playlist containing the commentary.

2) ~ The "play all" file for the deleted scenes only included 5 of the 6 deleted scenes. ~

It's reasonably common for playlists not to include all the files (I just ripped the "Monty Python" movies which were like that) and there are a few reasons for it. Other times, as you've found, there isn't a playlist at all as it's done within the code for the disc menu instead.

Sometimes it's because the files may have different parameters (codecs, etc.) and need to be re-encoded, rather than simply muxed together.

3) Special features regularly included 11 copies of the english audio track (when there should be only 1) ~

Again fairly common, depending on whoever formatted the disc. It's done so that there is always a track in the same position for each file (even if that track is duplicated). So that if you selected audio track #7 in the movie, then go back to the menu and play a special feature, then go back to the movie, all files would play track #7. Otherwise, when you get back to the movie, it may have reverted to track #1?

I think it's an old school way of doing things carried-over from the early Blu-ray days (or maybe it's a contingency for really out-dated players), either way, it's not done on all discs nowadays so probably not strictly necessary.

Like you, I usually just un-check all the duplicate tracks, although you have to be a little careful because they sometimes slip a commentary track into one of those slots (over Deleted Scenes for example). Sometimes there's no way to tell without ripping the file with all the tracks, then extracting them to compare the file sizes (or CRCs).

4) The Japanese files regularly had two subtitle tracks for Japanese and as far as I can tell they're duplicates.

I really don't know why Japanese language tracks get such special treatment (maybe it's because a Japanese company (IE "Sony") owns the studio (IE "Universal Pictures")? Whatever the reason, it's a PITA!

Japanese languages usually get an "on-screen text only" subtitle track that gets selected by the disc menu automatically with the Japanese audio, as well as having a full dialogue track, and often there are Japanese commentary translations, even when there aren't for other languages.

This was a tough one to multiplex!

BTW, just going by memory, I'd say S1D1 of "Game of Thrones" takes my prize for most difficult disc. What a mess that was!

[Jellyfan]

That all makes sense. Blurays are the goofiest things. 1000s of hours of work just to get them back into something resembling a clean presentation. Ah well, just hoping to offer my two cents, but sounds like it's nothing new.

...often there are Japanese commentary translations, even when there aren't for other languages.

I've run into this too. I always find it funny when it's an English movie with English commentary and the only commentary subtitles available are Japanese.

[PaulCB]

Ripped about the same number as Radiocomms237 and agree that Iron Giant was a relatively straight-forward disc relatively speaking. Just have to run into all the different ways things can be done a few times and titles like this won't trip you up anymore. As for the work, do remember pretty much nobody is designing these discs with even two seconds of consideration for how easy it will be to rip so most of the time, any strangeness or issue is simply because they aren't spending a second thinking about how whatever choice they made in the disc structure might screw us up.

[MastaG]

Just a thought, it would be nice if there was some kind of a database that holds the playlist information for each bluray disc (for lazy people like me).
Especially when ripping series, it would be nice to know which playlist represents a certain episode.

[Radiocomms237]

Ask and you shall receive... https://thediscdb.com/

Also, I've found this site lists most of the files needed from most discs... https://www.dvdcompare.net/

And the reviews on this site are also usually helpful... https://www.blu-ray.com/