Too many subtitle tracks reported by -r info?

[BitJam2]

When running makemkvcon -r info disc:0, the number of subtitle channels reported seems to be twice the number found by the player (in this case xbmc). It appears that every subtitle channel is reported twice, once with StreamFlags="0" and then with StreamFlags="6144". The audio channels are fine. Here is an example of the French subtitles being repeated from the first track of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone":

Code: Select all

SINFO:0,17,1,6203,"Subtitles"
SINFO:0,17,3,0,"fra"
SINFO:0,17,4,0,"French"
SINFO:0,17,5,0,"S_HDMV/PGS"
SINFO:0,17,6,0,""
SINFO:0,17,7,0,"HDMV PGS Subtitles"
SINFO:0,17,22,0,"0"
SINFO:0,18,1,6203,"Subtitles"
SINFO:0,18,3,0,"fra"
SINFO:0,18,4,0,"French"
SINFO:0,18,5,0,"S_HDMV/PGS"
SINFO:0,18,6,0,""
SINFO:0,18,7,0,"HDMV PGS Subtitles"
SINFO:0,18,22,0,"6144"

I've written a program that takes the "-r info" output and creates a .asx playlist and an HTML page listing the audio and subtitle tracks. I could arbitrarily select one set of subtitle tracks to display based on the StreamFlag value, but I was hoping there might be a systematic way to choose. The number 6144 corresponds to the flags:

DerivedStream and ForcedSubtitles

IIUC, I should probably only display subtitle tracks that don't have the forced bit set.

[BitJam2]

I hit another StreamFlag issue. This time on "Blade Runner, the Final Cut" (BLADERUNNER_FINAL). The 2nd and 3rd audio channels are commentary. I would expect them to have StreamFlags of 1 and 2. for DirectorsComments and AlternateDirectorsComments. But they actually have flags of 1024 (=HasCoreAudio) and 2304 (=DerivedStream + CoreAudio).

Out of seven audio channels those are the only two that have non-zero StreamFlags and are also the only two commentary channels.. I don't know if the problem is with the Blu-ray disc, makemkv, or my expectations. It would be very cool if I could show which channels contain commentary but it is no big deal if I can't.

[mike admin]

It all works as supposed. Each subtitle track on blu-ray could have a forced-only traack, and some tracks are reported twice - as full stream and core only.

[BitJam2]

Okay. I'm ignoring tracks with the ForcedSubtitle flag and the output looks good. Thanks.

But what about the missing DirectorsComments and AlternateDirectorsComments flags? Are those just simply missing from the Blu-rays?

[mike admin]

Okay. I'm ignoring tracks with the ForcedSubtitle flag and the output looks good. Thanks.

But what about the missing DirectorsComments and AlternateDirectorsComments flags? Are those just simply missing from the Blu-rays?

No, they are there but are used rarely.

[BitJam2]

Thanks for the info. I've got my program that creates an html guide from the "makemkvcon -r info" output working. I've attached a sample of the output. I also start up streaming on a unique port and create a playlist to the available streams.

I ran into a minor snag. I was planning on using the title of the Blu-ray as a unique key (so "resume" functionality would work for each Blu-ray) but unfortunately many Blu-rays used the exact same title: "LOGICAL_VOLUME_ID". I'm going to now try to make a hash from the title, track durations and channels to make a unique key for each Blu-ray.

Gosh, I sometimes get the feeling the publishing companies are purposefully trying to make it difficult for us to read Blu-rays.

[mike admin]

Blu-ray discs do have sort of unique id. MakeMKV outputs it in a full log as DISCID=X, but not in -r output.

[BitJam2]

Would it be possible/easy to add that DISCID line to the -r info output? I'll use my own hash for now but the DISCID would be much better.