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  1. Hello

    I am currently working through some blu-ray disc rips, and am trying to make a decision on the workflow to use.

    My current process involves using DVDFab to circumvent the copy-protection on the disc, and I use Teracopy to copy the entire contents (BDMV/certificate folders) to my system drive. I then use BDInfo to analyse the disc structure and identify the appropriate .mpls files for the streams that I want (main movie title, some special features etc). I then use eac3to to demux the .mpls files to raw streams (this takes care of joining of separate .m2ts files in the "STREAM" folder). I then feed these raw stream files (.h264, .dtsma, .sup etc) through the mkvtoolnix GUI to create a file .mkv file.

    However, this can be extremely time-consuming and I'm wondering if I can use a shortcut. I notice that the version of mkvtoolnix I am using (32.0.0) seems to be capable of simply reading the .mpls files from the "PLAYLIST" folder, and then creating the MKV file directly from that (obviously allowing my to select the AV streams that I want muxed in) - again joining all the .m2ts files referenced in the .mpls file automatically. So this cuts out the process of demuxing first with eac3to.

    The latter option is obviously a lot easier, but is it recommended? When I last tried using this method in 2016 (.mpls directly into mkvtoolnix), I noticed that mkvtoolnix struggled with some blu-ray titles and I'd end up with video corruption at the points in the movie corresponding to the joining of separate .m2ts files (see thread here). However, after another trial more recently, I note that the same issue no longer occurs and the output file doesn't appear to be different than if I had used .eac3to to demux first.

    I spent ages working through older versions of mkvtoolnix from around 2016 onwards to see which versions had the problem, and which didn't. After some testing, I found that the first version of mkvtoolnix that doesn't have the aforementioned problem with the video corruption is version 9.7.0. That version onwards works fine apparently, all older versions have the issue. However, there doesn't seem to be anything in the change log for 9.7.0 that indicates what has changed to fix the issue? Generally speaking, is it now safe to use mkvtoolnix with blu-ray titles that have the main movie, with multiple AV streams, split into many .m2ts files? Or should I still always use eac3to first?

    When using eac3to, the processing output log seems to explicitly make reference to "seamless branching", processing gaps in audio streams at joins etc. Is mkvtoolnix as capable now?

    Any feedback is much appreciated!

    Odaik.
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  2. I haven't read about any fixes concering mkvtoolnix' problems with seamless braching.
    https://gitlab.com/mbunkus/mkvtoolnix/issues/2051

    I would use MakeMKV.
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  3. Member netmask56's Avatar
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    Use MakeMKV much quicker process.
    SONY 75" Full array 200Hz LED TV, Yamaha A1070 amp, Zidoo UHD3000, BeyonWiz PVR V2 (Enigma2 clone), Chromecast, Windows 11 Professional, QNAP NAS TS851
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  4. Thanks guys!

    I did consider MakeMKV, but have had many issues in the past getting it to recognise certain titles/playlists on BDMV folders. It seems that in an effort to be as streamlined/user-friendly as possible, it is somewhat over-zealous in its 'automation'. This is reflected strongly in the user interface - there just aren't that many user-adjustable options. Googling seems to bring up a lot of results for bug reports referring to MakeMKV 'skipping' desired titles on blu-ray discs. The support team seem responsive, but I'd rather not have to go through that process every time an issue crops up (which it has every time I've used the trial for a blu-ray rip).

    I would really prefer something where I, as the user, have a higher level of control over the processing. eac3to and mkvtoolnix are great in this respect, but there is the obvious hassle of a workflow using eac3to essentially doubling the workload as the user needs to demux to raw streams and then remux the output to MKV. mkvtoolnix on the other hand has issues with blu-ray processing as you mentioned sneaker.

    Are there any alternatives that are similar to eac3to and which are capable of accurately processing blu-ray structures? I'm happy to learn relevant CLI commands, so I don't necessarily need something that has a fancy GUI (currently use eac3to with GUI). Maybe even some way of getting eac3to to pipe the output directly through mkvtoolnix?
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  5. Member netmask56's Avatar
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    Location
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    SONY 75" Full array 200Hz LED TV, Yamaha A1070 amp, Zidoo UHD3000, BeyonWiz PVR V2 (Enigma2 clone), Chromecast, Windows 11 Professional, QNAP NAS TS851
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  6. Thanks netmask56, but I already have the BDMV folder copied successfully. It's the processing of it that I'm looking to refine (remuxing of selected titles/streams to MKV).
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