Identifying the first chapter of an episode

[m_x_a]

Hi there

In the TV series, Shameless, they've packed three episodes into a single title consisting of 33 chapters.

I know how to use manual mode, but being new to this, I wondered whether there's a best practice for identifying the first chapter for each of the three episodes please?

Many thanks

Max

[Woodstock]

"Best practice" is "whatever works."

Typically I just let MakeMKV rip the whole file, then note the chapter ranges by playing the file in VLC. That then lets me construct a command line for handbrake to generate individual episodes.

Sometimes, the authors will have the same number of chapters per file. Other times... not so much. I have had examples where episodes were always 5 chapters long, except when they were 4, 6, or 7 chapters. And I've also had cases where, if you rip the "big file", you won't have the opening or closing themes... They're in separate large files, and the episodes are created by linking between them. THAT is a pain to deal with. But, those USUALLY have a group of play lists, one for each episode.

[m_x_a]

Thanks so much. I'm pretty sure I could live without the credits etc if that is the case, but I'll give this a try later today (working in UK time).

[m_x_a]

Is there a shortcut syntax for creating a separate file for each of the 33 chapters in Title 1? Or is it:

1:1 1:2 1:3 1:4 etc.?

[d00zah]

I'd recommend 'mkvtoolnix' for this task... unless your intent was to re-encode w/ Handbrake anyway.

- Drag the .mkv file produced by MakeMKV into the UI.

- On the 'Output' tab, under 'Splitting':

-- select 'Before chapters' for 'Split mode'
-- enter 'all' in the 'Chapter numbers' field.

- Select 'Start multiplexing'.

This will quickly produce individual files for each chapter.

If you know which chapters make up each episode (determine w/ any player), you could also specify chapter ranges & just produce the individual episodes in one crack.

i.e instead of 'all', I believe the 'Chapter numbers' syntax would be '1,12,23' where epi 1 included chaps 1-11, epi 2 includes chaps 12-22, etc..

[m_x_a]

Many thanks, I'll try that then.

The reason I'm doing the exercise in the first instance is to discover which chapters belong to which episode. They've packed 3 episodes into 1 title consisting of 33 chapters.

[d00zah]

Any player which allows you to 'jump to...' a specific chapter would allow you to quickly determine which (probably sequential?) chapters make up each episode. My example assumes sequential chapter groups. YMMV

[m_x_a]

Great thanks. I’ll try with VLC.


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