Subtitles always on / Wrong chapters / Languages not set

[Scythe42]

I tried the latest version of makeMKV and came across the following issues:

1: Subtitles are muxed in as default tracks resulting that they are automatically turned on on playback. They should be optional unless they are forced.

2. The chapter information derived from a DVD does not remove all wrong chapter information. It looks like it skips the last chapter if it's smaller than a few seconds. But if there is a small chapters at the beginning it does not skip it. Example is R1 of Devil Wears Prada DVD where there is a two second chapter at the beginning. So what makeMKV does for the last chapter it should also do for chapter 1 as well. If it's smaller than x seconds skip it. Should be an easy fix.

3. Languages are not set. If I check the resulting MKV with mkvinfo the language of an audio or subtitle track is not set. Since this information can be derived from the DVD there is no reason that this information isn't present in the resulting MKV.

Right now I am forced to remux all files with mkvmerge once again to turn of the subtitles and set the languages accordingly. I also reparse the chapter information to remove the short chapters as well.

Beside this three issues I didn't came across any other problems so far.

Once nice thing is if there would be an option not to set any titles for audio tracks. I don't like the default with channel information "3/2+1" or" 2/0". Too cryptic information for "normal" people. If I have an MKV with multiple 5.1 tracks, and language are not set I only see the channel information in the above format. Quite useless in my opinion because it doesn't help me to select the correct language.

I propose the following option for the audio titles:
- no titles for audio tracks (like it is currently the case for subtitles)
- title set to channel information and/or audio stream type

[mike admin]

I tried the latest version of makeMKV and came across the following issues:

1: Subtitles are muxed in as default tracks resulting that they are automatically turned on on playback. They should be optional unless they are forced.

MakeMKV does not put any default/forced flags for any tracks. Apparently some players take the absence of the flag as default indicator. This will be corrected.

2. The chapter information derived from a DVD does not remove all wrong chapter information. It looks like it skips the last chapter if it's smaller than a few seconds. But if there is a small chapters at the beginning it does not skip it. Example is R1 of Devil Wears Prada DVD where there is a two second chapter at the beginning. So what makeMKV does for the last chapter it should also do for chapter 1 as well. If it's smaller than x seconds skip it. Should be an easy fix.

There is exactly that logic, but I believe the maginc number of seconds is set for "1.5" and it looks like it is too small.

3. Languages are not set. If I check the resulting MKV with mkvinfo the language of an audio or subtitle track is not set. Since this information can be derived from the DVD there is no reason that this information isn't present in the resulting MKV.

Are you sure? That makes no sense - MakeMKV should put correct language code from DVD and/or blu-ray for audio and subtitles if it is present. Please provide IFO (or *.mpls+*.clpi) files and mkvinfo output for any disc where you think language is present on the disc but is absent in mkv.

Also, just for information, MakeMKV extracts and preserves title and chapter names if they are present on the disc (DVD_TEXT or Blu-ray metadata).

Thanks.

[Scythe42]

Are you sure? That makes no sense - MakeMKV should put correct language code from DVD and/or blu-ray for audio and subtitles if it is present. Please provide IFO (or *.mpls+*.clpi) files and mkvinfo output for any disc where you think language is present on the disc but is absent in mkv.

Every DVD I ripped so far with makeMKV has no language information. Verified with mediainfo and mkvinfo. The languages are properly detected in the MakeMKV GUI and therefore this information is present on the DVD. But no language codes are present in the final mkv.

Here's an example from 24 S01E01 I ripped yesterday:

Code: Select all

 EBML head
|+ Doc type: matroska
|+ Doc type version: 2
|+ Doc type read version: 1
+ Segment, size 1984787610
|+ Seek head (subentries will be skipped)
|+ Segment information
| + Muxing application: libmakemkv v1.4.4 beta (0.7.7/0.8.0) darwin(x86-release)
| + Writing application: MakeMKV v1.4.4 beta darwin(x86-release)
| + Duration: 2563.694s (00:42:43.694)
|+ Segment tracks
| + A track
|  + Track number: 1
|  + Track UID: 1
|  + Track type: video
|  + Lacing flag: 0
|  + Codec ID: V_MPEG2
|  + CodecPrivate, length 164
|  + Default duration: 33.367ms (29.970 fps for a video track)
|  + Video track
|   + Pixel width: 720
|   + Pixel height: 480
|   + Display height: 480
|   + Display width: 853
|   + Display unit: 0 (pixels)
| + A track
|  + Track number: 2
|  + Track UID: 2
|  + Track type: audio
|  + Lacing flag: 1
|  + Codec ID: A_AC3
|  + Default duration: 32.000ms (31.250 fps for a video track)
|  + Name: 2/0
|  + Audio track
|   + Sampling frequency: 48000
|   + Channels: 2
| + A track
|  + Track number: 3
|  + Track UID: 3
|  + Track type: subtitles
|  + Lacing flag: 0
|  + Codec ID: S_VOBSUB
|  + CodecPrivate, length 506
|+ Chapters
| + EditionEntry
|  + ChapterAtom
|   + ChapterUID: 1
|   + ChapterTimeStart: 00:00:00.000000000
|   + ChapterDisplay
|    + ChapterString: Chapter 01
|  + ChapterAtom
|   + ChapterUID: 2
|   + ChapterTimeStart: 00:00:02.502500000
|   + ChapterDisplay
|    + ChapterString: Chapter 02
|+ Cluster

All language information is missing. It should be present for the video and subtiles track. There's not even the default of "language: und" for undefined present. Happens with every DVD under MacOS (haven't tried Windows yet) I ripped so far.

There's also a chapter that shouldn't be there in the above example. The 1.5 seconds threshold is definetly too short (configurable value in the Beta until perfect threshold is found?)

I also encountered some DVDs makeMKV can't rip but all other software can. Should I post IFOs and debug information for them in here?

Anyway. MakeMKV is a great tool. It's exactly what I need to archive all by DVDs in an MKV container. I would pay for a commercial version in a second once it had every feature I need!

What would be nice, if there were more automation features for track selection. I already can select the tracks by the minumum duration. If there were something similar for audio/subtitles tracks based on languages it would make me perfecly happy. Rips when DVD is inserted, Ejects when done and plays a sound. That would be awesom. I have to through 750+ DVDs for my media archive (done the same for 500+ CDs some time ago). Daunting task...

For me there are only three ripping scenarios:
- DVDs with no Commentary Track: rip best English Audio and English subtitle (no default subtitles)
- Commentary Tracks present: rip all English Audio and all English subtitles (no default subtitles, first ripped audio track set as default)
- DVD is not original in English: rip best quality audio track regardless of language and English subtitles (English subtitle set as default)

There are a couple of special scenarios or badly mastered DVDs but I can handle them manually. I have to go through 750+ DVDs and could group them for each profile. And then just slide in one after another and deal with the problematic ones in the end. If I could do that with makeMKV it would be awesome,

PS: I have not tested it with BRs because I use eac3to and mkvmerge in an automated process and I only have a handful of BRs that I already ripped an converted HD audio to multi-channel Flacs.

[fixxture]

I tried the latest version of makeMKV and came across the following issues:

1: Subtitles are muxed in as default tracks resulting that they are automatically turned on on playback. They should be optional unless they are forced.

MakeMKV does not put any default/forced flags for any tracks. Apparently some players take the absence of the flag as default indicator. This will be corrected.

I'm running the latest edition of this wonderful software (1.4.8 beta) and I am still having problems with the subtitles always showing by default in any player. When I open the file in MKVMERGE, the first S_VOBSUB always has "default track flag" marked as "yes." The only way I can stop players from automatically playing subtitles by default is by remuxing the file and changing the default track flag from "yes" to "no."

Is it possible for your wonderful program to prevent the resulting .mkv from automatically flagging the first subtitle track as the default track?

Thanks for your assistance and your hard work.

[mike admin]

When I open the file in MKVMERGE, the first S_VOBSUB always has "default track flag" marked as "yes." The only way I can stop players from automatically playing subtitles by default is by remuxing the file and changing the default track flag from "yes" to "no."

Is it possible for your wonderful program to prevent the resulting .mkv from automatically flagging the first subtitle track as the default track?

Some players will not play MKV correctly if no single subtitle track is marked as default - that's why MakeMKV always marks the first subtitle track as default. What player do you use? Doesn't it have some sort of button to disable subtitle track?

[fixxture]

When I open the file in MKVMERGE, the first S_VOBSUB always has "default track flag" marked as "yes." The only way I can stop players from automatically playing subtitles by default is by remuxing the file and changing the default track flag from "yes" to "no."

Is it possible for your wonderful program to prevent the resulting .mkv from automatically flagging the first subtitle track as the default track?

Some players will not play MKV correctly if no single subtitle track is marked as default - that's why MakeMKV always marks the first subtitle track as default. What player do you use? Doesn't it have some sort of button to disable subtitle track?

Thanks for the speedy response.

Well, on a computer I use VLC and MPC HC to view the files I made with MAKEMKV. Both of those players play the subs by default. When I remuxed them by disengaging the default track flag, both stopped playing them by default. I thought that was the solution. However, when I try to play the remuxed files on the WDTV, strange things happen. I don't know if that is what you meant by "some players will not play MKV correctly if no single subtitle track is marked as default." For example, the remuxed file will take upwards of 10 seconds to begin playback and fast-forward and rewind are not smooth at all. On the other hand, if I play the resulting MAKEMKV file in WDTV without tweaking the default track flag, the file will begin playback within 2 seconds and fast-forward and rewind are very smooth.

WDTV does indeed allow subtitle disabling, so I suppose it is not a big deal after all. Any thoughts as to why remuxing and changing the default track flag with MKVMERGE would cause WDTV those problems mentioned above?