The problem
If you rip these discs and name the files by MakeMKV's title number (t00, t01, ...), seasons 3 to 5 come out right but seasons 1 and 2 do not. On all six season 1 and 2 discs, MakeMKV lists the first two playlists the wrong way round: t00 is 00801.mpls and t01 is 00800.mpls, and the playlists are in true episode order. The clearest proof is disc 1 of season 1, where the pilot (92 minutes) is 00800.mpls but comes out as t01. On the other five discs there is no pilot to give it away, and I had five pairs of episodes mislabelled until I checked them by watching. In seasons 3 to 5 the title order matches the playlist order and the episode order on every disc.
What works instead
- On the season 1 and 2 discs, use the playlist number (the "Source file name" shown in MakeMKV's title info, for example 00800.mpls), not the title number. Playlists sorted low to high are in episode order on every disc. The one wrinkle is season 2 disc 1: playlists 00800 and 00801 run 2815.6 and 2816.8 seconds, so you can't separate them by length. They are E01 (00800) and E02 (00801), confirmed by watching, but match them by playlist number and not by duration.
- Each disc has a Play All playlist (2 to 4 clips, as long as the disc's episodes added together) that runs them back to back. Skip it.
- The episodes are the playlists with 7 to 10 chapters and a runtime of 40 to 65 minutes (the pilot is 92 minutes, the season 4 finale 76 and the series finale 87). The extras break that pattern. On season 3 disc 3, playlist 00252 is 41.6 minutes long, which looks like an episode, but it has only 5 chapters and is a bonus feature.
- Check runtimes against TheTVDB. For seasons 3 to 5 every episode is within about a minute of its listed runtime. For seasons 1 and 2 TheTVDB rounds to 5 minutes, so the runtime only narrows things down.
Season 1: 3 discs, 3 episodes each. Season 2: 3 discs with 4, 4 and 2 episodes. Season 3: 3 discs with 4, 4 and 2. Season 4: 4 discs, with 3 episodes on each of discs 1 to 3, and the finale (E10, 76 minutes) alone on disc 4 with the extras. Season 5 part 1: 4 discs with 2, 3 and 3 episodes on discs 1 to 3, and disc 4 holds only extras. Season 5 part 2: 3 discs with 3 and 3 episodes on discs 1 and 2, and disc 3 holds only extras. The finale of season 5 (E14, 87 minutes) is on part 2 disc 2.
Volume labels as MakeMKV reads them: "Yellowstone Season N Disc M" for seasons 1 to 4; "Yellowstone - Season 5 - Disc M" for part 1; "Yellowstone: Season 5, Part 2 - Disc M" for part 2. Publisher: Paramount. My set is the individual season releases (season 5 in its two parts) plus the 1-4 box set. UPCs: seasons 1 to 4 box set 191329222959; season 1 032429313010; season 2 032429328649; season 3 032429348050; season 4 191329202555; season 5 part 1 (4 discs, sold separately from the box set) 191329229392; season 5 part 2 (3 discs) 191329273883. No region code is printed on the case; the only related wording is "For sale only in the USA and Canada". Apart from the usual Paramount, Blu-ray and HDTV logos, each disc is printed only with the season and disc number: nothing about the content, no episode or title list and no mention of bonus material, so the disc print gives you no help in telling the episodes from the extras.
How the episodes were checked (the last column in the table)
- W = confirmed by watching. This is the season 1 pilot (S01E01, by its opening shot), five pairs of episodes that had been swapped (S01E04/E05, S01E07/E08, S02E01/E02, S02E05/E06 and S02E09/E10, each identified by the opening scenes against the episode summaries), the season 4 finale (S04E10, by its closing credits and ending) and the series finale (S05E14, by its dedication card to Bob Avila).
- R = matched by playlist order and runtime against TheTVDB (within about a minute for seasons 3 to 5) and not checked by watching. I think these are right, but I haven't proved each one.
Full map (disc, playlist, MakeMKV title number, episode, runtime, chapters). The "Title" column is the number MakeMKV puts in the default output filename (it starts at t00).
Code: Select all
Disc mpls Title Episode Name Length Ch Basis
--------- ------------ ----- -------- ---------------------------------------------- ------- -- -----
S1 D1 00800 t01 S01E01 Daybreak 92:30 11 W
S1 D1 00801 t00 S01E02 Kill the Messenger 53:08 8 R
S1 D1 00802 t02 S01E03 No Good Horses 48:48 8 R
S1 D2 00800 t01 S01E04 The Long Black Train 42:47 8 W
S1 D2 00801 t00 S01E05 Coming Home 51:17 8 W
S1 D2 00802 t02 S01E06 The Remembering 41:44 8 R
S1 D3 00800 t01 S01E07 A Monster Is Among Us 48:35 8 W
S1 D3 00801 t00 S01E08 The Unravelling, Part 1 41:00 8 W
S1 D3 00802 t02 S01E09 The Unravelling, Part 2 46:16 8 R
S2 D1 00800 t01 S02E01 A Thundering 46:55 8 W
S2 D1 00801 t00 S02E02 New Beginnings 46:56 8 W
S2 D1 00802 t02 S02E03 The Reek of Desperation 47:05 8 R
S2 D1 00803 t03 S02E04 Only Devils Left 45:46 8 R
S2 D2 00800 t01 S02E05 Touching Your Enemy 44:48 8 W
S2 D2 00801 t00 S02E06 Blood the Boy 48:59 8 W
S2 D2 00802 t02 S02E07 Resurrection Day 48:05 8 R
S2 D2 00803 t03 S02E08 Behind Us Only Grey 47:38 8 R
S2 D3 00800 t01 S02E09 Enemies by Monday 42:39 8 W
S2 D3 00801 t00 S02E10 Sins of the Father 47:09 8 W
S3 D1 00800 t00 S03E01 You're the Indian Now 39:57 8 R
S3 D1 00801 t01 S03E02 Freight Trains and Monsters 47:13 8 R
S3 D1 00802 t02 S03E03 An Acceptable Surrender 39:46 8 R
S3 D1 00803 t03 S03E04 Going Back to Cali 46:35 8 R
S3 D2 00800 t00 S03E05 Cowboys and Dreamers 43:10 8 R
S3 D2 00801 t01 S03E06 All for Nothing 37:09 8 R
S3 D2 00802 t02 S03E07 The Beating 43:39 8 R
S3 D2 00803 t03 S03E08 I Killed a Man Today 43:53 8 R
S3 D3 00800 t00 S03E09 Meaner Than Evil 43:13 8 R
S3 D3 00801 t02 S03E10 The World Is Purple 47:41 8 R
S4 D1 00800 t00 S04E01 Half the Money 57:49 7 R
S4 D1 00801 t01 S04E02 Phantom Pain 49:31 8 R
S4 D1 00802 t02 S04E03 All I See Is You 47:37 8 R
S4 D2 00800 t00 S04E04 Winning or Learning 49:46 8 R
S4 D2 00801 t01 S04E05 Under a Blanket of Red 45:56 8 R
S4 D2 00802 t02 S04E06 I Want to Be Him 49:05 8 R
S4 D3 00800 t00 S04E07 Keep the Wolves Close 55:25 8 R
S4 D3 00801 t01 S04E08 No Kindness for the Coward 45:39 8 R
S4 D3 00802 t02 S04E09 No Such Thing as Fair 57:13 8 R
S4 D4 00801/00802 t01 S04E10 Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftops 76:11 8 W
S5 P1 D1 00800 t00 S05E01 One Hundred Years Is Nothing 64:18 9 R
S5 P1 D1 00801 t01 S05E02 The Sting of Wisdom 59:34 9 R
S5 P1 D2 00800 t00 S05E03 Tall Drink of Water 53:59 10 R
S5 P1 D2 00801 t01 S05E04 Horses in Heaven 58:37 10 R
S5 P1 D2 00802 t02 S05E05 Watch 'Em Ride Away 51:59 9 R
S5 P1 D3 00800 t00 S05E06 Cigarettes, Whiskey, a Meadow and You 58:02 10 R
S5 P1 D3 00801 t01 S05E07 The Dream Is Not Me 62:09 10 R
S5 P1 D3 00802 t02 S05E08 A Knife and No Coin 50:46 8 R
S5 P2 D1 00800 t00 S05E09 Desire Is All You Need 54:41 9 R
S5 P2 D1 00801 t01 S05E10 The Apocalypse of Change 50:22 9 R
S5 P2 D1 00802 t02 S05E11 Three Fifty-Three 56:01 8 R
S5 P2 D2 00800 t00 S05E12 Counting Coup 47:48 8 R
S5 P2 D2 00801 t01 S05E13 Give The World Away 64:52 9 R
S5 P2 D2 00802 t02 S05E14 Life Is a Promise 87:13 10 W
Code: Select all
S1 D1 00803 194:26 3 clips 25 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S1 D2 00803 135:49 3 clips 22 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S1 D3 00204 24:49 1 clips 2 ch extras
S1 D3 00400 48:01 13 clips 14 ch extras
S1 D3 00805 135:52 3 clips 22 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S2 D1 00804 186:44 4 clips 29 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S2 D2 00804 189:31 4 clips 29 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S2 D3 00203 30:22 1 clips 5 ch extras
S2 D3 00400 130:40 21 clips 25 ch extras
S2 D3 00804 89:49 2 clips 15 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S3 D1 00804 173:33 4 clips 29 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S3 D2 00804 167:52 4 clips 29 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S3 D3 00252 41:34 1 clips 5 ch extras
S3 D3 00266 170:39 14 clips 18 ch extras
S3 D3 00802 90:54 2 clips 15 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S4 D1 00804 154:57 3 clips 21 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S4 D2 00804 144:48 3 clips 22 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S4 D3 00804 158:17 3 clips 22 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S4 D4 00252 37:08 1 clips 7 ch extras
S4 D4 00267 170:24 15 clips 21 ch extras
S5 P1 D1 00806 123:52 2 clips 17 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S5 P1 D2 00806 164:36 3 clips 27 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S5 P1 D3 00806 170:57 3 clips 26 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S5 P1 D4 00250 168:19 14 clips 21 ch extras
S5 P1 D4 00251 18:04 1 clips 3 ch extras
S5 P1 D4 00253 35:55 1 clips 4 ch extras
S5 P1 D4 00255 22:08 1 clips 5 ch extras
S5 P2 D1 00806 161:04 3 clips 24 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S5 P2 D2 00806 199:55 3 clips 25 ch Play All (all episodes on the disc back to back)
S5 P2 D3 00251 142:27 11 clips 14 ch extras
S5 P2 D3 00252 32:59 1 clips 4 ch extras
S5 P2 D3 00306 20:16 1 clips 2 ch extras
Encoding (HandBrake, NVEnc H.264)
- Video: NVEnc H.264, average bitrate 7500 kbps. I compared 6000, 6500, 7000, 7500 and 8000 kbps on a full episode that has a helicopter scene (S04E01). 6000 already looked very good, and 7500 looked best for the extra space. The finished files average about 7440 kbps.
- Audio: AC3 5.1 at 640 kbps, from the English TrueHD 5.1 track.
- Crop: automatic, which gives 1920x960 (2.00:1). Constant frame rate, same as the source, and no subtitles.
- Output: .m4v, named "Yellowstone SxxEyy Title".
This map is for the discs I have, listed above. If your set is a different release, the title and playlist numbers may differ, so match by runtime and chapter count before trusting the table. Corrections welcome.