Combining multiple titles to one movie.mkv file

[megachirops]

For what it's worth, I just found your wonderful program and the very first title I tried to Rip had this problem: Jekyll And Hyde The Musical. ( Yes very obscure, but I'm a fan of the obscure )

It's a live play that was filmed and released on DVD in 2001. Act 1 and Act 2 are stored as 2 separate titles on the DVD. I did just merge them with mkvmerge after the fact, but it would be nice to be able to tell it to append all titles into a single .MKV.

So I guess consider this another vote

[NomadCF]

Joining MKV files correctly is not is not that simple. In order to join MKVs or for that matter join any 2 files with structures like movie files (VOB,TS,etc). You really need to "fix" them 1st. But let me start from the beginning.

DVDs,blurays,etc all support delays in both the audio and Video.
DVDs,blurays,etc all support support having a longer video Or audio stream then the other. Meaning you audio stream can last longer then the video stream or vise versa.

The MKV supports join any too files into what looks like a 1 clean long MKV. But this is due to the structuring of the MKV format. What really happens is that the MKV treats each joined file as separate "item" with it's own run times, delays, etc. But after the joining if you where to reopen the MKV and view the info. You wouldn't see 2+ joined files any more but 1. And while this will play just fine, you'll not me able to cleanly demux any of the streams. As the demuxing will out put only 1 file per stream. Not remembering to noting the needed delays between segments.

This same issue is true to software that claims to joins VOBs, or Mpegs together. They join to do it right, but in the end almost all of them basically just do a.

Code: Select all

copy /b file1.vob+file2.vob combined.vob

And while said file will appear to play cleanly, you never be able to covert it to anything else with out audio sync issues. Unless all the joined files where either fixed OR never had any run over or delays in them.

My favorite example of this is the lord of the rings extended edition. With these 6 discs you ended up having ALL the above issues. For example with discs 1 and 2 you had a longer audio stream then video. So you had to add a "delay" to the second DVD or lengthen the video stream of DVD 1 or cut the audio stream down on DVD 1.

So joining MKV while simple is only advisable, if you not ever going to want to cover it to anything else ever again. This includes simply just wanting to convert the video stream to h264 from mpeg2, or the audio stream to mp3, etc. Or even just wanting to convert it back to a normal DVD(s). I'll do a write up on how to go about "fixing" the files before joining them as soon as i get a chance.

[bigshot]

The UK DVD set of the TV series Hammer House of Horror has quite a few episodes that get split into two files. It would be nice to join them as I rip.

[ehutton]

My copy of Schindler's List has the movie split on Side A and Side B... so, merging would be useful in this case too

[yorgo]

Merging titles or .mkv files falls outside the scope of MakeMKV, which I personally prefer so that the software stays simple and contained; too many "tricks" adds potential for more points of failure and greater chance for user error. Given that Mike responded earlier (as in 2009) and has not implemented, I wouldn't hold my breath that it is a feature that will be added either. Your best bet would be to look at other software like mkvmerge as suggested earlier in the topic.

[Smithcraft]

The idea of combining all of the titles on a disc into one file is silly to say the least.

The next time you try to rip a Disney disc and you run out of space because each of the bogus titles is 20GB and there are twenty (or more) bogus titles, or titles with different language scenes, you'll really love this feature.

SC

[JustSomeGuy]

Just wanted to bring up this would be nice feature to have. On the title selection screen (with the checkboxes) just having a 'merge' or 'combine' checkbox would be awesome and it would combine all the titles selected.

I am running into an issue with a BD, part of a set, where even with full walk, this one disc will not show the 'all in one' title and instead will only show each 'chapter' as a title. Not awful, but it is a nuisance to work with 8 mkv instead of one.

[Lord_EDOX]

I use MKVToolNix. It was built for merging two MKV files and super easy to use. You can also break apart single MKV files by chapter if you want for those pesky TV shows that rip in a single file with episodes in chapters. MakeMKV is strictly for getting the files off the disk into an MKV container.

[JustSomeGuy]

Thanks, I'll give MKVToolNix a look!

I hear you and I agree, a narrow focus is a good thing. The only reason I bring it up again, is for convenience and greater user control. From what I understand, the MKV contents are a little arbitrary already, based on what MakeMKV "thinks" should be separate files, right?

To explain, MakeMKV is walking the disc and finds 4 titles, which is presents to the user, for extraction to 4 mkv files. Usually, it will find a 'play all' option and so present those same titles as a 4 chapter track as well. The data isn't changing right? I mean, the disc doesn't actually have 5 data sectors, one for each chapter individually and then 1 where they are all together? Correct me if I am wrong

So, MakeMKV is extracting the data and putting it into the mkv container. By letting us 'merge' I simply want a way to override MKV's guesses about what data should go into a single mkv file. I don't want to belabor the point, just clarify where I am coming from, with my extremely limited knowledge of how this is all working.

[dcoke22]

Thanks, I'll give MKVToolNix a look!

I hear you and I agree, a narrow focus is a good thing. The only reason I bring it up again, is for convenience and greater user control. From what I understand, the MKV contents are a little arbitrary already, based on what MakeMKV "thinks" should be separate files, right?

To explain, MakeMKV is walking the disc and finds 4 titles, which is presents to the user, for extraction to 4 mkv files. Usually, it will find a 'play all' option and so present those same titles as a 4 chapter track as well. The data isn't changing right? I mean, the disc doesn't actually have 5 data sectors, one for each chapter individually and then 1 where they are all together? Correct me if I am wrong

So, MakeMKV is extracting the data and putting it into the mkv container. By letting us 'merge' I simply want a way to override MKV's guesses about what data should go into a single mkv file. I don't want to belabor the point, just clarify where I am coming from, with my extremely limited knowledge of how this is all working.

MakeMKV has an option of make a decrypted backup of a blu-ray. Try it and look at the resulting folder it creates. The directory and file structure on a blu-ray is fairly well defined.

Inside you'll find a bunch of .m2ts files. These have audio and video in them. You can open them up and play them in VLC. There might be one giant one that's the whole movie. Or, the movie might be divided into an arbitrary number of .m2ts files. Sometimes when a movie is split up it is for a useful purpose; sometimes it is just for the purpose of making the movie harder to rip. In North America, Pixar movies often have 3 versions of the movie; one in English, one in Spanish, and one in French. Pixar renders the titles, credits, and often background things in the three languages. The .m2ts files are chunked up so that each title is a playlist of .m2ts files such that the localized parts and the common parts are all in there in the right order (without having to have 3 full copies of the movie on the disc, which wouldn't fit anyway).

A playlist of .m2ts files is contained in a .mpls file. Interestingly, chapter information is also contained in the .mpls files (not in the .m2ts files). A blu-ray might have a lot of .mpls files. If there's a 'play-all' choice, there's almost assuredly a .mpls file that lists all the .m2ts files that make up whatever 'play-all' means. Some 'behind-the-scenes' stuff is multiple .m2ts files. Sometimes it is just one .m2ts file, but it has chapters defined, so there's an associated .mpls file.

Or, there's something on the disc that does not have a .mpls file. It is only contained in a .m2ts file. Like the FBI warning. Or a preview. Or the trailer for the movie. Or a making-of documentary. All those things, perhaps accessible individually via the blu-ray's menus, might not be mentioned in a .mpls file at all.

All this is to say that what constitutes a particular title that you can check or uncheck in MakeMKV can be more complicated than it seems on the surface.

[dcoke22]

To explain, MakeMKV is walking the disc and finds 4 titles, which is presents to the user, for extraction to 4 mkv files. Usually, it will find a 'play all' option and so present those same titles as a 4 chapter track as well.

MakeMKV doesn't decide if there's a play-all option. If the disc author created a 'play-all' playlist (in a .mpls) file, then MakeMKV will find it and show it to you. If the disc author did not create it, then there isn't one. MakeMKV will not 'invent' it for you.

[JustSomeGuy]

Thanks for the info, it is clear that it is more complicated underneath than I understood.

It is weird, the BDs I have must be missing that play all track. I haven't actually checked though, since I do not own a bd player or software. I only ran across the issue with two of the discs, the other 18 discs are fine, so those two must be missing that 'play all' .mpls file.

[george14215]

Great info. I too was going to request a "join" feature on the individual titles that MakeMKV detects, but after reading this thread, I agree that it's best to keep the program simple and use mkvtoolnix to orchestrate whatever more you want to do.