Aspect Ratio and other questions (please help)

[Morgolking]

Hi,

I'm new to makemkv and am not the most tech savvy person. I've been ripping my blu-rays for my personal use on my home cpu but when I play the mkv file using VLC, GOM or any of my video playback software the aspect ratio is strange.

The playback does not fill up all the way to the ends of the monitor horizontally. I can fill up the screen by choosing the option to "fill screen" with my player but every player automatically displays an aspect ratio that is smaller than the screen. Am I ripping incorrectly or losing quality from the original source?

My second question is: When I choose to rip a blu-ray sometimes the movie/tv show will be the largest file and I simply choose to rip that; however, sometimes there are multiple files that are pretty much the same size and are obviously the movie but with different language options -- do I need to select all boxes with the movie to make sure I don't lose video/audio quality?

Last question: What happens when I select HD audio and 5.1 audio to be ripped together? Will both be part of the file and what determines which audio is played back when watching the movie/tv show?

Thank you in advance.

Note: This is a repost from the Blu-ray error thread -- I think the question is more appropriate here. Thank you.

[Morgolking]

Just want to clarify. I rewatched the mkv file and the automatic ratio is 1908 x 959 for all my mkv rips is. It should be 1920 x 1080.

Why is that? Am I losing video quality with my rips?

[Devore]

Sounds like VLC is set to start up in a certain window size, and to rescale the video to fit the window. You can change that in VLC settings. When you go to Tools->Codec Info, what do you see there for your MKVs? If MakeMKV was re-coding the Blu Rays, you would notice, because it would take 10 times as long.

As for the title selection, it can be trial and error, because MakeMKV does not have a title preview feature (yet). You can go about this two ways: play the disc in a BR player, even better if it's software-based (such as PowerDVD) because it's easier to get at the info, and note the exact length and number of chapters in the movie, then select the title that matches it. If there are several titles with the same length and size, probably only one will have a chapter count. I see this often, I don't know what those other "copies" are there for. Usually, the main feature will be first title parsed out (with a _t00.mkv default file name). You have to use the preview method if your disc has actual multiple versions (such as theatrical and director's cut) to tell which is which.

I can't help with the audio question, I always take the HD uncompressed only, if available. However, for playback with multiple audio tracks, it is up to the player, mostly. VLC does not seem to obey the "forced" or "default" flags on tracks, it just plays the first one. This is very annoying behaviour, especially with subtitles, because VLC either always shows subtitles, or never. There is no setting to show subtitles only when they are forced, or when the audio track language does not match your default language. Other players might be smarter. Take a look at an MKV tag editor, such as JMKVPropertyEdit, or even MKVMergeGUI, there are flags you can set to tell the player which tracks are preferred, etc.

[Chetwood]

Actually, VLC shows subs when they are set to default:yes, forced:yes (since 2.0.8 ) or both. If default and forced is set to no, then it will play back no sub.