A Better Way To Find The Correct Playlist/Segment Map

[Mat1926]

This method did not work for me. The issue is the "CloseFile" operation, it is not in the drop down menu, and typing "CloseFile" does not help...

The only way was a tutorial on YouTube using ProcessMonitor + PowerDVD + filtering Path only "mpls"...This lead to the correct play list... and then I used makmkv to extract that one only...

Okay, guys! Just a quick update...

The method I described above (not mine BTW), is the perfect starting point. It saves you a lot of trouble if you have many playlists, because you don't spend time searching for the correct playlist if you followed the OP method. And searching for .mpls instead of .m2ts served me well until last night!

I have this BD where the correct .mpls according to M$ Process Monitor does not show entirely in the MakeMKV list. So I thought of giving the .m2ts method a go...and guess what as expected I was able to find the correct playlist. However, maybe it is because I am on Win 10 X64, or because my Process Monitor is the latest, the only difference is that instead of "CloseFile", choose "IRP_MJ_CLOSE" from the combo box/drop down menu. That is the only difference...

Good luck, and thnx to OP for the help

[jhedlun]

So been using the procmon process for awhile with powerdvd12, usually works, but not always, the latest movie had hundreds and the playlist just kept jumping all around and would not settle, the one I picked was wrong in the end. I found this post!! and I did what you said above and added those three query items as well as keeping the .mpls line (was not sure it would work) I already had (did not want to lose it). I did the fast forward thing and wrote down the segments into notepad as well as the output file and it worked. What I noticed is once it ended the movie and closed out, it captured the correct playlist on exit, the one that I wrote all those down and searched for. So maybe it was coincidence but maybe all you have to do is fastforward to the end or just play the end credit to let it close and the current playlist is revealed. Will keep trying for future discs with the four query items. So add the procmon .mpls search line from the video if you do not know what I am talking about. Thanks!!

Example output this from the beginning to end fast forward.
last two
8:10:47.7847739 PM PowerDVD.exe 2252 CloseFile D:\BDMV\STREAM\00513.m2ts SUCCESS
8:13:50.5447584 PM PowerDVD.exe 2252 CloseFile D:\BDMV\STREAM\00510.m2ts SUCCESS
8:13:55.2318504 PM PowerDVD.exe 2252 CloseFile D:\BDMV\PLAYLIST\00667.mpls SUCCESS
and then return to menu .mpls shown.

[YourMomDebugs]

Next thing I do is dump out the disc data from MakeMKV to a text file using this command on the command line (Windows). Modify it for your purposes as needed.
"C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV\makemkvcon.exe" --robot --messages=C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\MakeMKVOutput.txt info disc:0

Then I open up my MakeMKVOutput.txt file from my Desktop in Notepad and I do a search (Edit>Find) for the segment map which again in this example is "520,530,523". I click (Edit>Find Next) to make sure there is only one title that is found with that segment map. It actually is possible that more than one title/playlist has the same segment map (and that's OK).

Anyway, if you look at the line in Notepad that was found with your segment map ("520,530,523"), look a couple of lines just above it for the name of the playlist (.mpls) for that title. The line will read something like "TINFO:0,16,0,"00943.mpls"". So in this example you know to go to playlist "00943.mpls" in MakeMKV instead of hunting through hundreds of titles/playlists. Click it in MakeMKV to make sure the description matches your segment map, and if it does, rip away.

Is this something that doesn't work if you don't have a fully registered copy/purchased code/non eval period program? I'm in the 30 day eval and can't get this to work.

I get this output:

Code: Select all

MSG:1005,0,1,"MakeMKV v1.14.2 win(x86-release) started","%1 started","MakeMKV v1.14.2 win(x86-release)"
DRV:0,3,999,0,"DVD+R-DL  HL-DT-ST DVDRAM ","","D:"
DRV:1,2,999,12,"BD-RE HL-DT-ST BD-RE BP50NB40 1.01","KIN","E:"
DRV:2,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:3,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:4,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:5,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:6,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:7,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:8,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:9,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:10,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:11,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:12,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:13,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:14,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:15,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:0,0,999,0,"DVD+R-DL  HL-DT-ST DVDRAM ","","D:"
MSG:3007,0,0,"Using direct disc access mode","Using direct disc access mode"
MSG:5053,776,1,"This functionality is shareware. You may evaluate it for 30 days after what you would need to purchase an activation key if you like the functionality. Do you want to start evaluation period now?","This functionality is shareware. You may evaluate it for %1 days after what you would need to purchase an activation key if you like the functionality. Do you want to start evaluation period now?","30"
MSG:5010,0,0,"Failed to open disc","Failed to open disc"
TCOUNT:0

[unab0mb]

Is this something that doesn't work if you don't have a fully registered copy/purchased code/non eval period program? I'm in the 30 day eval and can't get this to work.

I don't believe there's a limitation there, but I do have the purchased version so I can't test otherwise right now. The program, as long as you input the license code (free and posted elsewhere in the forum) works just like a paid version.

This actually just looks like there's a problem with your drive or disc. Try another disc, make sure the one you're using is clean, etc. If you can't open the disc via command line, the UI will probably say the same thing.

[YourMomDebugs]

Is this something that doesn't work if you don't have a fully registered copy/purchased code/non eval period program? I'm in the 30 day eval and can't get this to work.

I don't believe there's a limitation there, but I do have the purchased version so I can't test otherwise right now. The program, as long as you input the license code (free and posted elsewhere in the forum) works just like a paid version.

That was the issue. I used the code on the site here for now, and it started working properly. I only changed ' info disc:0' to 'info disc:1' since my drive is a secondary external usb drive. All good now, thank you

[thedigitalhobo]

Just felt the need to add a huge "thank you" here. This method was actually much easier than I expected.

One suggestion / addition, in case it isn't obvious to everyone. If using 3 of the segments doesn't find your playlist, just keep adding segments.

I had one disc that had so many fake playlists that it didn't find a match until I entered every segment. My output file was 35000 lines long!

Oh, and there's also an extra quotation mark in your command line. Shouldn't have a quotation mark after the makemkvcon.exe. That one took me a few tries to figure out what was causing the error.

c:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV>makemkvcon.exe --robot --messages=C:\Users\YourUser\Desktop\MakeMKVOutput.txt info disc:0

But again, HUGE HUGE Thanks.

[ChrisCaPWN]

Next thing I do is dump out the disc data from MakeMKV to a text file using this command on the command line (Windows). Modify it for your purposes as needed.
"C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV\makemkvcon.exe" --robot --messages=C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\MakeMKVOutput.txt info disc:0

Then I open up my MakeMKVOutput.txt file from my Desktop in Notepad and I do a search (Edit>Find) for the segment map which again in this example is "520,530,523". I click (Edit>Find Next) to make sure there is only one title that is found with that segment map. It actually is possible that more than one title/playlist has the same segment map (and that's OK).

Anyway, if you look at the line in Notepad that was found with your segment map ("520,530,523"), look a couple of lines just above it for the name of the playlist (.mpls) for that title. The line will read something like "TINFO:0,16,0,"00943.mpls"". So in this example you know to go to playlist "00943.mpls" in MakeMKV instead of hunting through hundreds of titles/playlists. Click it in MakeMKV to make sure the description matches your segment map, and if it does, rip away.

Ok, so I'm generally not stupid when it comes to computers, but this is throwing me. I have gotten the Process Monitor steps down with no issue, and have documented the segment map into a notepad. This is where I am getting stuck. Without being condescending, can anyone explain exactly how to dump the disc data from MakeMKV, so I can "find" the correct playlist without having to go line by line on the disc? I feel like it has already been covered a bit, but I still can't make sense of it. It's the command line stuff that is getting me hung up I think. Sorry if it is a redundant discussion, but I am just not getting it so far.

Thank you in advance to all who can help me.

-Chris

[thedigitalhobo]

Does this work with UHD/4k discs?

My PowerDVD kept crashing when trying to play UHD, and I'm pondering if I should upgrade from Pdvd14 to Pdvd18 (I think thats the latest), but don't want to lay out of the money if the main reason I'd be buying it doesn't work.

[thercrh]

Well I think I got this method to work with a couple of modifications.
1) I ripped the full disc to my hard drive as a backup
2) I used VLC to open the director (it reads the BD menu fine once its decrypted).
3) I used procmon with:
process name contains "vlc"
operation is "IRP_MJ_CLEANUP"
path ends with ".m2ts"

I hope this helps someone else.

[thercrh]

Well I think I got this method to work with a couple of modifications.
1) I ripped the full disc to my hard drive as a backup
2) I used VLC to open the director (it reads the BD menu fine once its decrypted).
3) I used procmon with:
process name contains "vlc"
operation is "IRP_MJ_CLEANUP"
path ends with ".m2ts"

I hope this helps someone else.

Well I'm not sure I have this working. Just for the heck of it I tried this process with MacGo Blu-ray Player and I got a different playlist. Grrrr.
I'm going to try a third time with kodi and we'll see what happens.

[djwilso]

The easiest method I have found to consistently find the correct Playlist for Blu-ray discs is to use AnyDVD HD.

Instructions:

1. Ensure AnyDVD HD is running and active.
2. Insert Blu-ray disc into drive.
3. Double-click the AnyDVD HD icon in the task tray.
4. In the Status section for the drive, the MPLS number is shown on the line that reads "Java BD protection good playlists:". If you have multiple Blu-ray drives, select the drive containing the Blu-ray disc you inserted in step 2.
5. Exit AnyDVD HD by right-clicking the task tray icon and selecting Exit.
6. Open MakeMKV and find the corresponding MPLS Playlist and save only that single title.

That's it. Finding the correct playlist number requires less than one minute using this method.

Screenshot of AnyDVD HD's Status window showing the playlist number:



In the above example, the playlist shown is 501, so in MakeMKV the playlist to locate is 00501.mpls.

I realize that AnyDVD HD is paid software, but I figured it would still be useful since the method described in this thread requires PowerDVD or some other software, which are also paid software.

[Mr_Orange]

The easiest method I have found to consistently find the correct Playlist for Blu-ray discs is to use AnyDVD HD.

Instructions:

1. Ensure AnyDVD HD is running and active.
2. Insert Blu-ray disc into drive.
3. Double-click the AnyDVD HD icon in the task tray.
4. In the Status section for the drive, the MPLS number is shown on the line that reads "Java BD protection good playlists:". If you have multiple Blu-ray drives, select the drive containing the Blu-ray disc you inserted in step 2.
5. Exit AnyDVD HD by right-clicking the task tray icon and selecting Exit.
6. Open MakeMKV and find the corresponding MPLS Playlist and save only that single title.

That's it. Finding the correct playlist number requires less than one minute using this method.

Screenshot of AnyDVD HD's Status window showing the playlist number:



In the above example, the playlist shown is 501, so in MakeMKV the playlist to locate is 00501.mpls.

I realize that AnyDVD HD is paid software, but I figured it would still be useful since the method described in this thread requires PowerDVD or some other software, which are also paid software.

Is this method still working for you?

I installed a trial of the latest version of AnyDVD HD and the Status tab does not show the "Java BD protection good playlists:" line. I have tried this with Venom which has multiple playlists.

Note that I have already ripped Venom with the correct playlist based on information in another thread so I am just trying to verify the AnyDVD HD method actually works.

TIA.

[Poker354]

This method has been working great for me. I thought I would post a few tips to make things a bit easier to get started.

1) This method needs to be done with the original disc before decryption. Do not backup and decrypt or run any “on the fly” decryption when doing this.

2) The original post uses “Operation” is “CloseFile” as a filter. This option does not seem to exist in current versions of Process Monitor. The working filters are:

"Process Name" contains "DVD"
"Operation" is "IRP_MJ_CLEANUP"
"Path" ends with ".m2ts"


3) Using the command prompt to create the text file dump of the disc info. The original post seems to assume you have experience using CMD. It’s a bit confusing as written in the original post.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV\makemkvcon.exe" --robot --messages=C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\MakeMKVOutput.txt info disc:0

I would have written like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV" makemkvcon.exe --robot --messages=C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\MakeMKVOutput.txt info disc:0

*if you have more than 1 drive you may have to change the disc id to 1 etc. to correspond

A “For Dummies” copy/paste version would be a 2 step command line:

First change directory to MakeMkv:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV\

Next run the dump command line:

makemkvcon.exe --robot --messages=C:\Users\Desktop\YourUserName\MakeMKVOutput.txt info disc:0
*obviously replacing YourUserName with your account user name

4) Now that you have written down the segment order and have the “dump” text file, open the .txt file and go to the Edit tab at the top and select “find” from the drop down menu. Type in your segment order and press enter. The match will be highlighted and the playlist will be just above it.

[d00zah]

makemkvcon.exe --robot --messages=C:\Users\Desktop\YourUserName\MakeMKVOutput.txt info disc:0

You inadvertently transposed:

C:\Users\Desktop\YourUserName\

should be:

C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\

or even better, to make it REALLY generic:

%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\

[mgutt]

I think everyone needs multiple methods to find the correct playlist. A "best" method does not exist. For example the German Blu-Ray of X-Men: Days of Future Past has two relevant playlists. Finally it differs in two m2ts streams. One where you can see the nacked backside of Wolverine and one where this scene has been censored. You will never know which one is the "correct" one if you do not open both decrypted M2TS files.

And what about intros in different languages. I would never trust a command line or AnyDVD selecting the proper playlist in my language (fe Star Wars Intro Text). The only method that would be ok for this scenario is PowerDVD with 32x speed as you can see the Intro. But it could be possible that you forget to select the correct language in the disc menu and then you end up with the English version that you maybe never wanted as the relevant sequence was shown somewhere in the middle of the movie.

Because of that I think PowerDVD etc is the best solution for obfuscated playlists only. Not if you have two or three playlists with minor differences in the segment list. And you won't save time in this scenario as creating a backup costs nearly as much time creating the MKV. The only time you loose is opening two or three m2ts files in VLC and the final MKV creation and this costs as much time as using PowerDVD, but ending with the knowledge what really differs between the M2TS files / segments.

EDIT: Again a nice example. "Trance - Gefährliche Erinnerung" has 6 relevant playlists. 2 of them miss the german audio. 4 are left. Those four differ as follows:
- one clip (00801.m2ts) shows the word "strawberry" while Vincent Cassel is whispering, the other does not (00802.m2ts)
- one clip (00805.m2ts) shows Rosario Dawson completely naked and the other censored here intimitate area (00815.m2ts)

Good look to find those details while the video runs with 32x speed.