Newbie - Questions and problems

[Big-Gee]

Hello...

New to this community and I just tried using MakeMkV for first time, somewhat unsuccessfully and I have a few questions to start with.

1. in the BD+ support in the news and announcement forum, there is a reference to downloading dsall.svq under topic. and placing it in the " MakeMKV data directory".
- with current download of program, is this necessary as a separate task, or is it included in the current download?
- where is this directory as I cannot find it after searching entire computer?

2. Where is the logfile for a run? I cannot find it under Users where it says it is supposed to be. in C:\Users\myname/MakeMKV_log.txt

3. In the program preferences then is a place to enter "dtsdecoderdll.dll location". What is this and where would I find it?

Ok so now the problems I encountered:

Trying to convert BLU-RAY disc Lone Survivor with DTS sound to MKV. Protection shows as AACS v36

File size is around 44.4 GB (dual Layer BLU-RAY) in the output folder STREAM. According to the message at the end, it looks like this part worked.

Problem #1.
Tried to use handbrake to convert file to MP4 from the STREAM folder to reduce size. Got part way thru then crashed after about 40 minutes. File was partially created but unreadable using VLC player. Log showed errors: Partial log from handbraske follows. Based on the contents of the log,where is the error? In what MakeMKV produced as input, or handbrake itself?

05:18:16] h264: "Chapter 1" (1) at frame 0 time 3754
[05:18:16] sync: first pts is 3754
[05:21:21] h264: "Chapter 2" (2) at frame 5351 time 20091602
[05:29:00] h264: "Chapter 3" (3) at frame 18211 time 68364827
[05:35:36] h264: "Chapter 4" (4) at frame 28831 time 108229652
[dca @ 00000000003aff80] Overread auxiliary data by 32 bits
[dca @ 00000000003b07a0] Overread auxiliary data by 32 bits
[dca @ 00000000003b07a0] error decoding block
[dca @ 00000000003aff80] error decoding block
[05:40:54] h264: "Chapter 5" (5) at frame 38356 time 143984121
[dca @ 00000000003aff80] Overread auxiliary data by 32 bits
[dca @ 00000000003b07a0] Overread auxiliary data by 32 bits
[dca @ 00000000003aff80] error decoding block
[dca @ 00000000003b07a0] error decoding block
[05:46:07] h264: "Chapter 6" (6) at frame 47670 time 178946548
[05:51:10] h264: "Chapter 7" (7) at frame 56996 time 213954021
[05:55:14] h264: "Chapter 8" (8) at frame 64803 time 243259547
[dca @ 00000000003b07a0] Overread auxiliary data by 32 bits
[dca @ 00000000003b07a0] error decoding block
[dca @ 00000000003aff80] Overread auxiliary data by 32 bits
[dca @ 00000000003aff80] error decoding block
[05:59:35] h264: "Chapter 9" (9) at frame 72196 time 271011021

Problem # 2
retried conversion with handbrake this time specifying output as MKV. Crashed again Log showed errors at around chapter 15 this time.
Attempted to open with VLC player version 2.1.5-win32 (not current version) and it opened and managed to play portion that was there. However, was unable to Fast forward (drag slider bar), use the faster playback, or jump to specific time... tried to get to the end to see if it was actually all there. it was not (had to let the movie play thru). Noticed here though, sound showed as stereo only no DTS.

Problem # 3:
Figured maybe problems with playing back were possibly due to outdated VLC player. Downloaded latest Version 2.2.1-win32 and tried watching the MKV file again. this time did not work at all... stuttered , froze and pixelated. FF attempts also failed as before. Removed this version and reinstalled old one at returned to at least be able to view what was there without any problems other than the sound not being DTS.


So then. based on on this, am I doing something wrong?

and finally, once MakeMKV finishes its decoding and creating the STREAM folder and its contents, how do you get just an MKV file on its own? Do you need to run a program like handbrake (or a better one?) to do that?

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to give enough information to whoever might be able to help.

Thanks for any help you folks can offer.

Big-Gee

[Woodstock]

1. Unless you disable it in the preferences (General tab, "Allow contacting web server for updates"), MakeMKV will automatically download any necessary SVQ files, if they exist. They will be copied to the "MakeMKV data directory" that is also set in the General tab.

2. If you have debug logging enabled ("Log debug messages" checked in that same General tab), when you start MakeMKV, the location of the log file is printed out in the status window, as in:

MakeMKV v1.9.7 win(x64-release) started
Debug logging enabled, log will be saved as C:\Users\XXXXXXXX/MakeMKV_log.txt

If it is not enabled, no log will be saved.

3. That depends upon where you obtained the dtsdecoderdll file, which is not strictly necessary to have. Mike started using a different library for doing the decoding, but that has a bug in the current version. And you do not really need to have either, if you're not trying to convert DTS to another format. NOT using it means that the track is copied to the MKV file unaltered.

As for how handbrake handles DTS... I can't comment on that. Their decoder should be able to handle DTS and DTS-HD tracks directly from the bluray, without conversion. Until you have the logs from MakeMKV's rip, though, it is hard to say what you're giving handbrake as an input.

The description of the problems with VLC read like an issue with bandwidth... VLC isn't getting the video stream fast enough to play it, or its decoder is taking too long to decode it.

[Big-Gee]

Thanks for you help Woodstock. Sorry it took so long to respond.

The Blu-Ray disc is Lone Survivor.

I've been trying things out and not having much luck. It seems I get an error which appears to make the job abend, but the file is in good enough shape for VLC player to open it and start playing it. (on desktop PC at this point, so bandwidth is not an issue with 8 core Intel CPU and 16 GB RAM).

However, I have no control over skipping ahead to different points in the movie either by dragging the slider or using the menu to skip to specific spots. So I have no idea if the movie is there in its entirety and in tact. The main movie (I'm guessing is the main movie based on it size of 28GB), appears to have problems as nether handbrake or another converter program can read this file. They both end almost immediately, but other files in the list are able to be processed; hence the conclusion the main movie file is corrupt.

So I have some questions about the setup of MakeMkv.
When the disk first loads I get a bunch of messages that look like:

Loaded content hash table, will verify integrity of M2TS files.
Title #00013.mpls has length of 118 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
File 00800.mpls was added as title #0
File 00304.mpls was added as title #1
File 00305.mpls was added as title #2
File 00306.mpls was added as title #3
File 00307.mpls was added as title #4
File 00308.mpls was added as title #5
File 00319.mpls was added as title #6
File 00207.mpls was added as title #7
File 00207.mpls(2) was added as title #8
Title #00018.m2ts has length of 25 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00019.m2ts has length of 14 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00020.m2ts has length of 59 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00015.m2ts has length of 25 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00014.m2ts has length of 25 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00016.m2ts has length of 59 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00017.m2ts has length of 59 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #50355.m2ts has length of 26 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00200.m2ts has length of 33 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00201.m2ts has length of 32 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00202.m2ts has length of 32 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00203.m2ts has length of 32 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00204.m2ts has length of 32 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00205.m2ts has length of 85 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00206.m2ts has length of 48 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
File 00300.m2ts was added as title #9
File 00301.m2ts was added as title #10
File 00302.m2ts was added as title #11
File 00303.m2ts was added as title #12
File 00309.m2ts was added as title #13
Title #00320.m2ts has length of 33 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00321.m2ts has length of 33 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00322.m2ts has length of 32 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00323.m2ts has length of 32 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00324.m2ts has length of 17 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00325.m2ts has length of 33 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00326.m2ts has length of 78 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Title #00327.m2ts has length of 32 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
File 00500.m2ts was added as title #14
File 00501.m2ts was added as title #15
File 00502.m2ts was added as title #16
File 00503.m2ts was added as title #17
Title #00504.m2ts has length of 5 seconds which is less than minimum title length of 120 seconds and was therefore skipped
Operation successfully completed

Q1. There is a settingin MakeMKv that lets you set this duration and the default is 120 seconds.
Can you please tell me what this means? why are there files being bypassed and what is the significance of the duration of 120 seconds?

Q2: When looking at the expansion on the tree structure to select those things I want to include/exclude how do I know what the other titles are / do other than the largest? Does it make sense, if just want the main movie, to deselect all the other titles? See the following screen shot for what's there - main at the top? but what is the 4.5 GB file further down? I'm guessing maybe special features?

and finally

Q3: Will all the files bypassed because of their shorter than 120 second duration have any affect on the output results? ( I see in the online help that there are some like this in the screenshot shown, so am guessing they are bypassed for a reason which hopefully you have answered in Q1 above and won't be detrimental to the outcome of the conversion..

This is all new to me so hopefully not overwhelming you with the length of the post.

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

Much appreciated.

[Woodstock]

Q1. There is a setting in MakeMKv that lets you set this duration and the default is 120 seconds.
Can you please tell me what this means? why are there files being bypassed and what is the significance of the duration of 120 seconds?

You need to explore the Preferences (icon that looks like a wrench). 120 seconds is the default minimum length to save, because a lot of people don't really want to keep the small files associated with things like menus or "textless endings". I set mine to 30 seconds, so I can at least review the small files... But, they're usually deleted shortly after ripping.

Setting the minimum to zero will mean MakeMKV defaults to letting you rip every title, even if it's only a fraction of a second long audio byte used for a game that is on the BD/DVD.

Q2: When looking at the expansion on the tree structure to select those things I want to include/exclude how do I know what the other titles are / do other than the largest? Does it make sense, if just want the main movie, to deselect all the other titles? See the following screen shot for what's there - main at the top? but what is the 4.5 GB file further down? I'm guessing maybe special features?

This can be a dilemma... and experimentation is the key to learning. Different companies author disks differently. "Most of the time", the largest file is the main feature, but that isn't 100% of the time. The rest of the files fall into "special features", "most of the time".

Two large files can be "theatrical cut" and "director's cut" versions. They can be the same version of the movie, but one has different audio tracks available. Until you know, the safe bet is to rip everything, and sort it out later by watching the files with something like VLC, to see what tracks are there.

Personally, I rip everything (all titles over 30 seconds, all tracks within each title), then process the episodes/movie using Handbrake to make it smaller, and remove stuff I do not need. But that is because my mix of purchases can have the language tracks and subtitles in the "wrong order" for my players, and some of the players can't handle MKV files very well.

Q3: Will all the files bypassed because of their shorter than 120 second duration have any affect on the output results? ( I see in the online help that there are some like this in the screenshot shown, so am guessing they are bypassed for a reason which hopefully you have answered in Q1 above and won't be detrimental to the outcome of the conversion..

Bypassed titles won't be copied to your hard drive, so the result is smaller. If you elect to remove unneeded audio or subtitle tracks from a title, the result will be a smaller MKV file.

Honestly, there is more "magic" in understanding this stuff than there should be, because of the many different ways a DVD or BD author can create a disk. I treat it all as an adventure game - try different things to get the results you want. You won't damage anything (assuming your drive is clean so it doesn't scratch disks), and it can be entertaining in its own right. And you can usually do other things while the "boring bits" (waiting for jobs to complete) are happening.

[Big-Gee]

Thanks very much for your response. I will play with it and ask you suggest, try different things.
Cheers!
Garry