MKVMerge Audio/Video And Chapters

[Elitoh7]

I am having a problem when removing an audio track from my MKV's. The following is the current method of ripping BD to MKV:

1) Disc Copy with DVDFAB to BD Folder
2) Convert to MKV using Handbrake/Vidcoder with settings to keep chapters and subs(learned my lesson about multiple audio tracks)

Previously I had multiple audio tracks encoded to the MKV, using MKVMerge to remove them for some reason screws up the Chapters on Multiple players, XBMC, VLC, and my Oppo BDP-95(my main player). Has anyone else encountered this type of issue. I did notice that when editing the original MKV with all tracks it doesn't show the chapters file in it, but the chapters work fine. Soon as I edit and try to play the new file chapters are gone. I even tried downloading a chapters file with ChapterGrabber and adding it to the mkv as well. No luck on the Oppo or XBMC but for what ever reason VLC does see the chapter markers. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

[Selur]

Have you tried the Options for improving playback on players that don't implement the full Matroska specification?

[Elitoh7]

Thank you for the reply Selur. I just tried that last night with mkvmerge. Atleast I think I did. While I was merging the video and audio I clicked on the "Extra Options" tab for each and selected "None" for compression. I ran a test on the file and it actually skipped the chapter but it took like 3 minutes to get to the next one. Its just weird that when I convert from BD backup to MKV using HB or Vidcoder it works fine but when ever I have to edit them it kills the chaptering.

Thank you for the link and any other info.

[Selur]

sounds like there is some sort of index missing,..
"--clusters-in-meta-seek" might be a good canidate
if you are using VLC as player, read: https://trac.bunkus.org/wiki/FAQ%3APlaybackDoesNotWorkVLCCannotSeekMkvmerge590

[Elitoh7]

Well I did end up figuring it out. Still not sure how HandBrake or Vidcoder(Based on HB) use or create chapters. It does have something to do with Track Compression. I have downgraded MKVMerge all the way back to 4.0 just to test it because that was all the info I could find. I demuxed some of my problematic MKV's and cut the audio that I didn't want and remuxed to MKV with only the selected files. Tested it on my Oppo and the chapters worked beautifully. I will have to see if burning in the forced subtitles in the original conversion will stay, should right? Crossing my Fingers. @Selur, seems like you know your stuff and thank you for the help. Do you know anything about MKV's and DD TrueHD? For what ever reason it doesn't like any of the MKV's that I put TrueHD track on.

[Selur]

Here's whats probably happening:
TrueHD like you encounter it on a Blu-ray is a dual stream. Meaning: it consists of a TrueHD and an ac3 stream. Both can be decoded on their own (without the other; for DTS-HD which consists of a DTS core and additional HD data this is not the case).
When you now multiplex a TrueHD (dual-) stream from a Blu-ray into an mkv file with mkvmerge the ac3 core is ignored and the TrueHd stream is muxed (if you use ffmpeg you have to specify which stream should be multiplexed, the ac3 or the TrueHD one).
So after muxing (with mkvmerge) you end up with a mkv file, which only contains the TrueHD stream. For Software Player and newer Hardware Player which support TrueHD this is not a problem.
In your case your player probably does not support TrueHD.
The idea behind the dual stream thing, was compatibility. Old player identify the dual stream as ac3 and playback the only the ac3 stream, to them the TrueHD stream looks like private data of the ac3 stream which should be ignored, since it's unnecessary for decoding.
Problem is without the ac3 stream these players (in example yours ) see the TrueHD stream and do not know what to do with it.
(at least this is what happens with up-to-date mkvmerge versions, no clue how mkvtoolnix 4.0 handles dual streams,...)
-> instead of going back to mkvtoolnix 4.0 I would recommend to figure out what is causing the problem and set the muxing settings accordingly. Why? Mainly because a look of fixes went into newer mkvtoolnix versions, especially when it comes to multiplexing stuff into mkv.

--------
About chapters:
Normally when reencoding and adding chapters, an encoder&multiplexer frontend should:
a. set the chapters in the container
b. enforce key frames on reencoding on the positions where the chapters are located (so that chapter positions and match up to key frames to allow better seeking the the chapter points)


Cu Selur

[Elitoh7]

Thank you again for your answers. I do agree that I need to go back to the latest version. Thank you for the answer about the chapters, that really does clear up some questions that I had. I have found that the Oppo BDP-95 does support TrueHD as long as it is not an MKV. If I use m2ts it runs fine over DLNA, downside of course.... no chapters, no subtitles. Of Course the BD itself also plays the TrueHD track. Obviously like you said this is a limitation of the player, but in this case (I think) just that it wont read it in the MKV container. Matter of fact when trying to play an MKV with TrueHD it says "Cannot Play this Audio Format" or something to that effect. Like you said the player doesn't understand it. Selur, thanks again. I move forward with more knowledge and a better understanding.

[Elitoh7]

Remuxing using the latest version of Mkvmerge with this "--clusters-in-meta-seek --engage no_cue_duration --engage no_cue_relative_position" Worked Perfectly. Thanks again Selur for getting me to the right spot.



For sake of being helpful and informative. To use these switches:


1) Open MKVMerge Gui
2) Click on Muxing from the file menu then click on "Add command line options"
3) In the "Command line options:" box copy and paste the following:
"--clusters-in-meta-seek --engage no_cue_duration --engage no_cue_relative_position" without quotes.
4)Click Ok.
5)Add Files to be put in the MKV Container and add the Chapters file on the Global Tab
6)Done