Subtitles are extremely small file size. It’s becoming more popularly to include them. Some movies the voice level is mixed low. Having option to select from player to turn on subtitles is helpful. Some shows have a song playing and the subtitles name the artist and title. If friends come over with hearing loss they would be very grateful
Yeah, I agree that having full subs is nicer than not. I find myself all the time not catching dialogue when watching something and zipping back 20 seconds with subs on. So not retaining them is a downside, but you if you want to keep full subs and make sure forced subs are flagged for proper playback, it's another level of hands-on work and complexity in this process.
Makemkv is the best ripping software I have used. It works every time, and it's just so easy and streamlined. I can cut out the audio and subs I want and get it done quickly.
Didn't even have to watch the whole video for it to be helpful. I had been using the builtin backup feature and didnt even know about clicking on the icon to direct access the disk. So much faster. Thanks!
Biggest issue I am having now that I’ve started to rip blu rays, is that I open the disc in Make MKV and there are like 100 different files that all look identical. Going through and unchecking all of the boxes under each main file is too tedious, and then trying to figure out which file set is the one I need to rip has me perplexed. Any suggestions?
See if this video helps. ua-cam.com/video/p9PbeVGXbY8/v-deo.html The other thing to do is set the default languages in settings to your language (ex. English) and then you won't have to uncheck other languages any more.
Sure thing, I'm now offering consulting help as well to help people get started with this and teach how to go about it. Check out the video that went live today.
Thanks. This was the way I have always done it but never unchecked anything, just let MakeMKV decide what to include. This was very helpful. Thanks again!
I solely use makeMKV and I've tried countless copying softwares. None of them comes close to the accuracy of reading & copying of Disks. Every blue moon I have a problem making a MKV then I make an ISO and it works,go figure. 99% of my Movies are MKV and the rest are ISOs. I've yet to have a Movie I haven't been able to read & copy. I so far haven't had a need to subtract or add subtitles or features from a made MKV but it's nice to know it's possible. Love your Videos! Even at my advanced age I'm still learning!!😄👨🏾🦲
So, if you've abandoned ISO what if you lose your MKV and your source disk is damaged? At least with the ISO you've still got a copy of the original disc and can do another MKV or burn a copy. 🤷♂️
ISO is just a file on the server, same as the MKV file. If the hard drives or server dies, either one is gone. I hadn't been keeping the ISO and the MKV. I pull the contents to MKV now and that is all.
Make mkv is how I did all my disks to use on my zappiti. I did notice on a couple of my movies there was like a jump cut wondering if there was a fingerprint or something on my disk. Clean disk is super important I did forget to use force subtitles so when I watched a quiet place the scenes with subtitles during sign language aren’t there lol. Maybe when I’m bored I’ll go back and redo it. Great video
OK, so is this strictly for keeping forced subtitles without switching on in the internal player (say PLEX)? I ask because I didn't word it right on my first question from your earlier video. If I put on a Sci-Fi or Anime Movie or TV show. If I keep both subtitle options checked, but change the "Forced" one to default/forced in MKV flags.....would I still see the forced when it should pop-up when watching? I do notice that in a lot of Anime TV shows....MKV does not know where the "forced" subtitles are. On most movies, they at least say (Forced), but most Anime does not and I own around 800 discs to know that is not the norm for them. I just heard about these forced subtitles, so I am always on the huhnt to make my content 100% correct, however, I do not want to not have regular subtitles in the MKV files, because sometimes I need to be quiet and will watch my content that way, but when on the Audio, i do want the forced subtitles or signs and what-not in Anime to show up without remembering which one to select in PLEX. Thank so much for adding an extra step in my process, but overall, it makes an improvement in the long run. I haven't tried this yet, but wanted to ask my questions before doing so. Just as a secondary question. Do you happen to know how to find Chapter titles or scene selections in Movies? Meaning that when you watch a movie....by default, it will always say Chapter 01, chapter 02 and so forth. In most DVD's, these are named. So, instead of Chapter 01, it is usually Main Titles, then Chapter 02 is another name. DVD's had a paper slip (or whatever they are called) inside the amaray case and in many cases...on the disc themselves (in the disc menu system). I own mostly Blu-ray and UHD discs and it's around 50% for Blu-ray's to have these chapter titles and UHD is very few. Just wanted to know if I am missing something simple, but I can find them sometimes at movies.fandom.com and I've been adding what little I have, but it seems there has to be an easier way to get these. That and get them in their intended versions. Halloween (1978) has 3 versions/cuts and each one is unique in it's naming structure. So it is imperative that each one should be correct. But that's another rant. Sorry for the long-winded stuff by me.
Here's a question really. Just a low talent level ripper here, with no fancy audio equipment. If my 100% of the time playback is through a standard digital TV, What should I be selecting for current or future audio quality. Techthusiasm always selects the highest grade audio. Should I? Or, should I select DD Surround, or DD Stereo? Should I select multiple audio audiostreams? You can see I am short on what is the best to do. Storage capacity on my home NAS is not a problem. Also, I play my media through Kodi.
Most playback devices should down mix, so in general, selecting the highest audio will decode and mix down to less channels and/or PCM audio. This is what happens with Infuse, my Apple TV, and my LG TV. Infuse decodes the lossless audio and outputs it as PCM via HDMI and then my TV send the 2 channel mix down out via optical to my audio processor. The only trouble you get into is if, say you have only a DTS audio track in a movie, but your processing devices doesn't support DTS. You're not going to get audio in that case. So it kind of all depends on your setup and what you might aspire for your setup to be. Give me more info exactly on what source, display, and audio devices are in your system, and I can give more a concrete answer.
@@Techthusiasm Thanks for the great info. Just ripped a BD title last night, to a thumb drive, and will play it via my standard (new) Kodi interface and home brew NAS. To see how it works. In the past, I have only ripped standard DVD, although last night I tried a standard BD. It does play on my Dell XPS laptop, without issue. Let me work with what you've provided.
Nice! Great idea to do a test rip and run some test playback. If audio handling is your concern, make sure to test rip a few movies with various audio tracks. Like, do multiple movies with different DTS or Dolby audio types.
Hey Thanks for the help! Im new to this and curious, my MakeMKV doesn't show a properties panel. So I'm not able to make the tweaks to file names like you do with the subtitles folder. I've tried googling it but cant seem to figure out what the deal is. any advice on how to bring up the properties area of the GUI?
Ah! I should have continued to listen to this video before pausing to make my comment. For any future people searching for the answer: Click View, Preferences, click on the General tab, under Miscellaneous tick EXPERT MODE.
Great stuff !!!! You just help me save a lot of time. I have 2 questions. 1. I have a mac mini the software you're using for the subtitle edit what is it call. I cannot find it in the App store. Maybe am looking in the wrong location. 2nd, Am still not grasping the subtitle forced "f" and default "d" trick. Also are there any other options that MKV does tell us. Thanks for your help.
Thanks! For the subtitle software I use, there is not a Mac version. I wish there was. So, I run that software in a Windows VM using Parallels. Regarding the f/d tags, those are the only ones I use. There might be more, but I'm not sure what they do.
I'm having an issue understanding the forced subtitles also. usually that is all I want is the forced and I assumed if you check the box for forced captions, you'll get those without having to put the f in that box. Please explain how I'm wrong because I just started using the MakeMKV program yesterday and trying to understand the tricks you point out. I ripped 3 bluray movies last night and they only took about 20 or 30 min each. I would walk away for awhile and came back to them being done.
Check out the whole collection of MKV-related videos on the channel. Getting the right forced subs on some movies is really a involved ordeal and requires manually checking you have the right output in your rip. I have it covered, I think pretty well, across a handful of videos. They are all in my physical media playlist.
@@Techthusiasm yeah - I hit on that right after I posted the comment. :D My copy of Shang-Chi now has the proper forced subtitles, and I'm double-checking my Black Panther files right now.
I purchased the entire Game of Thrones series on blu-Ray, I used MakeMKV to rip the Blu-Rays to mkv. The problem that I encounter is that when I import the mkv's into Plex, Plex bunches the episodes together, can't tell which is Season 1, Episode 1, etc. How can I rip Game of Thrones and other shows so that I can select which episode I want to watch in Plex? Thanks.
Great video, exactly what we all need!!! I had a question if you don't mind. I am trying to future-proof my rips for when my hearing fades when I'm an old man. Id like to: 1) Keep the main English subtitle track (for possible future use). 2) Keep the forced subtitle track for immediate use. Currently i am not interested in the main subtitles but 100% want forced subs on any movie i watch My question is what should i do with the default flag? Should i un-default the main track whenever a forced exists and give it to that? Thanks EDIT: Im looking at the Godfather Part II right now which has 3 unlabelled subtitle tracks. The first is the main and ive deduced (thanks to your video) that the 3rd is the forced.
I'd probably still leave the forced only as forced and then carry the main subtitles as a second item in the file that you can manually select during playback.
@@Techthusiasm Understood, but what about the default flag? Should only the forced subs be marked as default? I.e. i should un-default the full subtitle track
@@Techthusiasm Ive decided to rip the 'main' English subtitles and set as default. If there exists a separate forced subtitles ill set the flag to f and then rip that aswell. So usually ill just have the single main subtitle track with my rips but occasionally ill have two. I experimented with naming the subs in makemkv per your video but in the end opted against it just because plex shows adequate information about the subs for me to select what I need (or let it automatically play forced as I have it configured in my account settings), it was also another step in a long fiddly process that I could do without. Last question.... to increase efficiency by one more little step have you found it possible to overwrite your first mkv with your second refined mkv? For me makemkv doesnt like reading and overwriting the same file so i end up doing a little housekeeping after to remove the initial rip. Not a big deal, just anyway to save time is good
Thank you Jaremy !!! You explained the process clearly. No more AnyDVD like in the past, only MakeMKV. An important question of something you have not yet shown on your channel: I'm not a native English speaker like you. So I have to rely on subtitles from time to time. I buy movies and mostly view them from the disc because of this. But what would be your method if the needed subtitles are not on the disc. I've put you in the same situation. Let's say you got a Japanese bluray without English subtitles on the disc. Can you please show us the best method to solve this issue? Greetings
The Zappiti Support is poor, how can I get help with all the problems with mkv Movies in the video section from Zappiti? I.e. up to 20 identical cover from one movie and even more strange, movies which I have not seen before and which are not on the ripped hard drive? Zappiti is not answering.
Forced subtitles are used when foreign language characters speak in a movie differently from the native language. So, me as an English speaker, watching a movie with Spanish speaking characters speaking Spanish in a scene needs those lines subtitled or I else I don't understand the whole movie.
@@Techthusiasm I've asked you that before on you other video. I was asking if a subscriber new. But thanks for replying. I'm reripping Avatar with the forced flag method hoping the subs come up in the alien speaking parts.
Like you I had my collection stored as .iso files. Over the last few months I used MakeMKV to convert the majority of my .iso files to .mkv. However I did run in to some errors that MakeMKV couldn't get past. In some cases I used AnyDVD to convert the .iso files to a file folder structure first, and then used MakeMKV from there. In other cases I had to resort to using CloneBD to make .mkv files as no matter what I did MakeMKV would fail. The bottom line is there is no perfect tool. I find it best to keep a variety of tools handy.
Great video, question, would have it been better if two or more subtitles come up, would it be better just to leave one checke also I have dvds from china, will the makemkv still work? Finally, does the makemkv have updates or do I need to pay for lifetime?
DVDs are a little different from Blu-ray because they don't have forced subtitles. Still, there's really no substitute for fully inspecting the subs to make sure you really get what you want and/or need in your final file. There are updates regularly, yes. This tool has been in ongoing, active development for some time. As someone that works in the commercial software business, I would strongly recommend that you pay the $50 if MakeMKV ends up being software that you like and use regularly going forward. Let the developers profit from their work.
Is it true that you can't trim the videos? When I cut the intro of mine out the voice-over in the video is in slomotion while the footage is playing normally
To have both and be able to call up either is a bit more work. You'll need to end up with a file that either has them in separate tracks or has a single track with the forced flagged inside. The process to get this will really vary per movie.
MakeMKV doesn't rip PCM 5.1 files properly anymore. Years ago my media player use to play PCM 5.1 no problems but now ripping PCM 5.1 blurays my media player keeps saying Audio Unrecognised So MakeMKV have changed ripping PCM 5.1 process some how
Hmm, I'll have to check this sometime. Although, I don't find too many PCM soundtracks any more. I think I think just the one that happened to be shown in this video.
If this process is better than your prior process, you should remove the existing older video from UA-cam as this only confuses people who might not see THIS newer video. Too much confusion in this process. As I'm waiting for my new Zappiti to arrive, this new video is really appreciated and timely. Thanks for the newer streamlined process. As I'm sure that I will never need any other subtitles other than English, this could possibly save space on my drive therefore giving me more possible movies on one drive? Possibly quicker copying time?
Good point, I'll consider what to do with the earlier videos. Maybe I'll have to remake them to get the core concepts maintained, but take out the changed process parts. Dropping subs won't really save any space. It's like nothing compared to the size of the video and audio. The whole MKV thing is more about getting the movie ripped properly with all the correct parts you need and having them correctly flagged and set so that playback is accurate.
Good video. Tried your method using MakeMKV, Media Info and Subtitle Edit. I tried fixing Dances with Wolves which does not show the Souix subtitles in the MKV. After setting the proper subtitle name to Forced and MKV Flags to df (default & forced) I made a new MKV. Still no Souix subtitles. Have you tried this movie yourself?
I ran into this problem, for me I had two options. My Zappiti has a database of online subtitles with some forced tracks, I found one that works with the movie Dances With Wolves perfectly. However, the other option is to run that film as an ISO or BDVM. I also have this problem with The Revenant, I just run the BDVM for that.
Very informative 😁 I have a little question about audio track If you select only the Atmos audio track, no matter if it's contain the information for 5 - 6 -7 - 8 channels and want to play the file on a PC with VLC which use only a stereo setup or 2.1, then, do the sound will play without any problem? I mean, it will be downsample, right? Also, why MakeMKV seperate the lossless and the lossy information? In this case, it make no sense to grab the "DD Surround 5.1 English" if the "TruHD Dolby Atmos English" contain both information. My understanding is that you had to select both tracks, one containing the core information (lossy) and the other the extra information for a lossless signal. Can you elaborate a bit on that plz?
The audio should downmix no problem with capable software, which VLC usually is. You don't need to select both. The core will always be in the higher level only track. By selecting both, you'll get two separate tracks in the resulting file.
@@Techthusiasm Yep, I can see that all my mkv's files have 2 audio tracks per language (I rip English and French info). It's just that I don't see the added value of having the choice of selecting 2 tracks? Who will choose a inferior quality anyway? I supposed that a receiver that do not support Atmos won't be able to process the Atmos signal so the movie would be muted?
People might add that 2nd core track to have it for playback on devices that can't resolve the high fidelity main track. That's about the only reason to keep it.
I am brand new to this process and this video helps a lot. I successfully ripped a dvd but having issues with bluray. Everything copied over but the main title has no audio. The extras and outtakes/alternate ending has full volume.
I am still on the evaluation version, and there is not nearly as much information in the type and description columns for the subtitles and audio (to the left of where you set the output folder like at 3:26 of this video). Is that something that comes with the paid version?
Dude thank you!!!!! I really needed help with subtitles. Can you please help with TV episodes, that would be great since I am having touble putting them on Plex.
I have watched this an your original series. Great info. Subscribed. I have traditionally used MakeMKV then Handbrake to covert to mp4 to conserve file size. I retain original 1080 resolution and fps. Do you think going to mp4 looses quality? About to tackle my 4K discs. Would mp4 loose quality there? Also have do you get the iso onto a SSD on. Windows machine? I have some that will require that step. Thanks.
Thanks! One challenge question I would pose is if you are going to compress the disc farther to lower bit rate and smaller file size, why not just buy the movie on iTunes and stream it? You don't have to do any work and probably realize similar effective quality. It's also not really a question if MP4 loses quality, but what you are doing to the audio/video. Are you further compressing either one or both and what kind of bit rate are you using. The lower you go, the more you "lose" from the source file.
@@Techthusiasm So my NAS has decent space, but I like to be able to download files with the Plex app onto a portable device, iPad, iPhone maybe an Android device in the future. I do this for traveling.
MakeMKV is provided "free" as a perpetual beta. But to use it "free", you need to occasionally go get their new beta code, which they update and publish on their site/forums. If you are using the tool a lot though and getting value from it, I encourage you to pay the $50 and buy yourself a license (speaking as a software developer myself).
They don't really give out expired copies. The codes just expire every month or so. You can always get the current key here. forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053
I'm in the infancy stages of this. Been doing DVDs for years, but now with a growing collection of Blu-rays, I'm finding that I'd prefer to have those ripped as well. Looks like makemkv is the way to go, esp as it works on Mac. So here's a total newb question.... I don't even own a usb Blu-ray drive...so as of yet, cannot even take step 1. Do you have any usb drive/hardware recommendations for hooking to Mac???? Thanks for all of your vids!
Buy a drive from this guy on the MakeMKV forums. forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17831&sid=ec4f05c03f10a2a0894bbace1348942e It'll be flashed and ready to go and the LG in the Archgon works great. Tell him I recommended him. :)
Im relatively new at this and have been doing BDMV files out of simplicity. If the movie had forced subtitles or it's my first watch I'll play back as a disc, and if I know the movie has no forced subtitles I'll just play the movie. Not the most efficient approach but it was working. However, I ran into my first exception which was Bullet Train. It would not play the forced subtitles with the disc playback method. So, I figured the solution was properly making an mkv file which I have no experience with. Used your video to figure it out, so very much appreciated for the information. Now I'm going back and making MKV's for movies that I know have forced subtitles in order to make it where I won't have to think about. I may just do mkv files moving forward, not sure. There's something else I'm curious about though. Is there a way to string together favorite demo scenes from different movies? I'm pretty sure there is, but I have no idea how it gets done. Im not sure if it's something you have to put together manually on the computer or if its player based, either software or hardware.
I'm glad the content helped you! You can string stuff together using a tool like MKVToolNix. You have to cut and merge, but it works for that. It will be a manual process making selections and manipulating the files.
I am a happy user of MakeMKV. Thanks for many of your suggestions. My problem is that I want to end up with a .mp4 file with subtitles that I can turn on or off. I have not found a good converter or editor that will allow me to do that. Do you have any suggestions?
@@Techthusiasm - Thanks. I've been working with Handbrake all day but it doesn't work right either. I've tried to work with a .mkv file and convert it to a .mp4 while trying to maintain the subtitles that I could turn on and off. I couldn't get that to work. So I used Handbrake to rip the movie right from a Bluray DVD. It works but it is slower and I can't get that to work with subtitles either. That seems to be a real problem.
Most drives will require a firmware rollback, yes. Which drive and which firmware depends. You can find more info on drives, flashing, and buying already flashed drives on the MakeMKV forums.
Wow, I’ve added a 1,000 movies to my Zappiti using MKV but I didn’t do it like you have and of course my forced subs aren’t there ! Thank you so much mate. Cheers from Canberra, Australia.
Wouldn't they not be there if you unchecked them in MakeMKV? If all the subtitles are checked, but the forced subtitles are not set to default, you just have to go into the settings of whatever player and turn on the forced subtitles and they are there, just not defaulted to show the forced subtitles. I plan on going back with my Anime and turn on forced subtitles to default, but I retain any and all subtitles for all the discs I have.
1. Go to the MakeMKV forums and you can buy drives from folks there that are ready to go, properly flashed, and so on. It's the easiest way to get going. 2. You will learn this by experience. You can look at the release on Blu-ray.com to see what audio a given release has. It's easy enough to find it in MakeMKV.
Would you believe it Avatar won't rip bloody scrath in it. When I used the me5hod you used of forced I had to turn this off in plex. As the text was up. I thought the whole point of forced flags was for the English subtitles to show up when there are foreign speaking parts in English films.
Damaged discs are a pain. I would need more info to help you. Getting the right subs to play is based on making the proper selection of only those subtitles and flagged them appropriately.
@@Techthusiasm The bluray disc was Annabelle the creation only one set of English subtitles to choose from so I ticked this and only one lot of English forced subs to choose from so I ticked that. Then followed you video. Once the back up was created I put the film in Plex. The information under sound option was subtitles highlighted with forced next to where it said English. I played the film and subs came up automatically. I had to turn the subs off. Now I thought once you ticked forced subs they would only appear if any foreign language was spoken then the English subs would appear. Isthis not the case?
If you open a disc and there's one English subtitle track, what you want to do is uncheck the first entry. Leave the expandable entry under that one checked. Give it a name and add the "f" flag. Then rip the disc. If no forced subs are in that track, MakeMKV will include no subs in the output. If there are forced subs, MakeMKV will keep them and they will be flagged as forced for your player. I think maybe you kept the first line checked in the rip, which ripped all the subs?
@@Techthusiasm so in the expanded it had English sub then English forced? Do I only tick the english forced one and not the the English sub. I did name the forced one force and did the mkv flag as df.
Concerts. Some TV series that are a lot of work to break into individual episodes. Any time you want the entire disc contents, like all the special features.
Its an Archgon with an LG inside. I bought it from a seller on the MakeMKV forums preloaded with proper firmware. I'd recommend it. In some of my videos, you might see me holding a Buffalo model. That one didn't work well.
There are a number of other ripping tutorial/info videos on the channel. Subtitles though are one of the important elements that I fear many people get wrong, IMO.
Subtitles are extremely small file size. It’s becoming more popularly to include them. Some movies the voice level is mixed low. Having option to select from player to turn on subtitles is helpful. Some shows have a song playing and the subtitles name the artist and title. If friends come over with hearing loss they would be very grateful
Yeah, I agree that having full subs is nicer than not. I find myself all the time not catching dialogue when watching something and zipping back 20 seconds with subs on. So not retaining them is a downside, but you if you want to keep full subs and make sure forced subs are flagged for proper playback, it's another level of hands-on work and complexity in this process.
Makemkv is the best ripping software I have used. It works every time, and it's just so easy and streamlined. I can cut out the audio and subs I want and get it done quickly.
I agree.
Didn't even have to watch the whole video for it to be helpful. I had been using the builtin backup feature and didnt even know about clicking on the icon to direct access the disk. So much faster. Thanks!
You're welcome!
Biggest issue I am having now that I’ve started to rip blu rays, is that I open the disc in Make MKV and there are like 100 different files that all look identical. Going through and unchecking all of the boxes under each main file is too tedious, and then trying to figure out which file set is the one I need to rip has me perplexed. Any suggestions?
See if this video helps. ua-cam.com/video/p9PbeVGXbY8/v-deo.html The other thing to do is set the default languages in settings to your language (ex. English) and then you won't have to uncheck other languages any more.
@@Techthusiasm Thanks for your help!
Sure thing, I'm now offering consulting help as well to help people get started with this and teach how to go about it. Check out the video that went live today.
Thanks. This was the way I have always done it but never unchecked anything, just let MakeMKV decide what to include. This was very helpful. Thanks again!
I solely use makeMKV and I've tried countless copying softwares. None of them comes close to the accuracy of reading & copying of Disks. Every blue moon I have a problem making a MKV then I make an ISO and it works,go figure. 99% of my Movies are MKV and the rest are ISOs. I've yet to have a Movie I haven't been able to read & copy. I so far haven't had a need to subtract or add subtitles or features from a made MKV but it's nice to know it's possible. Love your Videos! Even at my advanced age I'm still learning!!😄👨🏾🦲
So, if you've abandoned ISO what if you lose your MKV and your source disk is damaged? At least with the ISO you've still got a copy of the original disc and can do another MKV or burn a copy. 🤷♂️
ISO is just a file on the server, same as the MKV file. If the hard drives or server dies, either one is gone. I hadn't been keeping the ISO and the MKV. I pull the contents to MKV now and that is all.
Make mkv is how I did all my disks to use on my zappiti. I did notice on a couple of my movies there was like a jump cut wondering if there was a fingerprint or something on my disk. Clean disk is super important I did forget to use force subtitles so when I watched a quiet place the scenes with subtitles during sign language aren’t there lol. Maybe when I’m bored I’ll go back and redo it. Great video
Thanks!
OK, so is this strictly for keeping forced subtitles without switching on in the internal player (say PLEX)? I ask because I didn't word it right on my first question from your earlier video. If I put on a Sci-Fi or Anime Movie or TV show. If I keep both subtitle options checked, but change the "Forced" one to default/forced in MKV flags.....would I still see the forced when it should pop-up when watching?
I do notice that in a lot of Anime TV shows....MKV does not know where the "forced" subtitles are. On most movies, they at least say (Forced), but most Anime does not and I own around 800 discs to know that is not the norm for them. I just heard about these forced subtitles, so I am always on the huhnt to make my content 100% correct, however, I do not want to not have regular subtitles in the MKV files, because sometimes I need to be quiet and will watch my content that way, but when on the Audio, i do want the forced subtitles or signs and what-not in Anime to show up without remembering which one to select in PLEX. Thank so much for adding an extra step in my process, but overall, it makes an improvement in the long run. I haven't tried this yet, but wanted to ask my questions before doing so.
Just as a secondary question. Do you happen to know how to find Chapter titles or scene selections in Movies? Meaning that when you watch a movie....by default, it will always say Chapter 01, chapter 02 and so forth. In most DVD's, these are named. So, instead of Chapter 01, it is usually Main Titles, then Chapter 02 is another name.
DVD's had a paper slip (or whatever they are called) inside the amaray case and in many cases...on the disc themselves (in the disc menu system). I own mostly Blu-ray and UHD discs and it's around 50% for Blu-ray's to have these chapter titles and UHD is very few. Just wanted to know if I am missing something simple, but I can find them sometimes at movies.fandom.com and I've been adding what little I have, but it seems there has to be an easier way to get these. That and get them in their intended versions. Halloween (1978) has 3 versions/cuts and each one is unique in it's naming structure. So it is imperative that each one should be correct. But that's another rant. Sorry for the long-winded stuff by me.
Correct, for forced subs.
Here's a question really. Just a low talent level ripper here, with no fancy audio equipment. If my 100% of the time playback is through a standard digital TV, What should I be selecting for current or future audio quality. Techthusiasm always selects the highest grade audio. Should I? Or, should I select DD Surround, or DD Stereo? Should I select multiple audio audiostreams? You can see I am short on what is the best to do. Storage capacity on my home NAS is not a problem. Also, I play my media through Kodi.
Most playback devices should down mix, so in general, selecting the highest audio will decode and mix down to less channels and/or PCM audio. This is what happens with Infuse, my Apple TV, and my LG TV. Infuse decodes the lossless audio and outputs it as PCM via HDMI and then my TV send the 2 channel mix down out via optical to my audio processor.
The only trouble you get into is if, say you have only a DTS audio track in a movie, but your processing devices doesn't support DTS. You're not going to get audio in that case. So it kind of all depends on your setup and what you might aspire for your setup to be.
Give me more info exactly on what source, display, and audio devices are in your system, and I can give more a concrete answer.
@@Techthusiasm Thanks for the great info. Just ripped a BD title last night, to a thumb drive, and will play it via my standard (new) Kodi interface and home brew NAS. To see how it works. In the past, I have only ripped standard DVD, although last night I tried a standard BD. It does play on my Dell XPS laptop, without issue. Let me work with what you've provided.
Nice! Great idea to do a test rip and run some test playback. If audio handling is your concern, make sure to test rip a few movies with various audio tracks. Like, do multiple movies with different DTS or Dolby audio types.
Hey Thanks for the help! Im new to this and curious, my MakeMKV doesn't show a properties panel. So I'm not able to make the tweaks to file names like you do with the subtitles folder. I've tried googling it but cant seem to figure out what the deal is.
any advice on how to bring up the properties area of the GUI?
Thanks! Check out the MakeMKV video series, part 1. You need to put it in expert mode. ua-cam.com/video/7cqCO6FPUV4/v-deo.html
Ah! I should have continued to listen to this video before pausing to make my comment. For any future people searching for the answer:
Click View, Preferences, click on the General tab, under Miscellaneous tick EXPERT MODE.
What do we learn, folks? Always watch UA-cam videos until the end. Your creators appreciate it too! :)
Great stuff !!!! You just help me save a lot of time. I have 2 questions. 1. I have a mac mini the software you're using for the subtitle edit what is it call. I cannot find it in the App store. Maybe am looking in the wrong location. 2nd, Am still not grasping the subtitle forced "f" and default "d" trick. Also are there any other options that MKV does tell us. Thanks for your help.
Thanks! For the subtitle software I use, there is not a Mac version. I wish there was. So, I run that software in a Windows VM using Parallels. Regarding the f/d tags, those are the only ones I use. There might be more, but I'm not sure what they do.
I'm having an issue understanding the forced subtitles also. usually that is all I want is the forced and I assumed if you check the box for forced captions, you'll get those without having to put the f in that box. Please explain how I'm wrong because I just started using the MakeMKV program yesterday and trying to understand the tricks you point out. I ripped 3 bluray movies last night and they only took about 20 or 30 min each. I would walk away for awhile and came back to them being done.
Check out the whole collection of MKV-related videos on the channel. Getting the right forced subs on some movies is really a involved ordeal and requires manually checking you have the right output in your rip. I have it covered, I think pretty well, across a handful of videos. They are all in my physical media playlist.
How did you read the sub titles??? What program was it? Am I missing things MakeMKV can do?
I used a program called SubtitleEdit.
How do you determine which subtitle is correct for the forced? Is it a lower count ?
Lots of trial and error, ripping and manual checking.
Out of curiosity - how are you getting the Properties drop-down to show up in MakeMKV? I've been trying, but haven't hit on the answer yet...
Put it in Expert mode in settings, I believe.
@@Techthusiasm yeah - I hit on that right after I posted the comment. :D
My copy of Shang-Chi now has the proper forced subtitles, and I'm double-checking my Black Panther files right now.
I purchased the entire Game of Thrones series on blu-Ray, I used MakeMKV to rip the Blu-Rays to mkv. The problem that I encounter is that when I import the mkv's into Plex, Plex bunches the episodes together, can't tell which is Season 1, Episode 1, etc. How can I rip Game of Thrones and other shows so that I can select which episode I want to watch in Plex? Thanks.
Great video, exactly what we all need!!!
I had a question if you don't mind.
I am trying to future-proof my rips for when my hearing fades when I'm an old man.
Id like to:
1) Keep the main English subtitle track (for possible future use).
2) Keep the forced subtitle track for immediate use.
Currently i am not interested in the main subtitles but 100% want forced subs on any movie i watch
My question is what should i do with the default flag? Should i un-default the main track whenever a forced exists and give it to that?
Thanks
EDIT: Im looking at the Godfather Part II right now which has 3 unlabelled subtitle tracks. The first is the main and ive deduced (thanks to your video) that the 3rd is the forced.
I'd probably still leave the forced only as forced and then carry the main subtitles as a second item in the file that you can manually select during playback.
@@Techthusiasm Understood, but what about the default flag? Should only the forced subs be marked as default? I.e. i should un-default the full subtitle track
Only one track can be default. I haven't ripped enough maintaining both all subs and forced separately to make a good recommendation.
@@Techthusiasm Ive decided to rip the 'main' English subtitles and set as default. If there exists a separate forced subtitles ill set the flag to f and then rip that aswell. So usually ill just have the single main subtitle track with my rips but occasionally ill have two. I experimented with naming the subs in makemkv per your video but in the end opted against it just because plex shows adequate information about the subs for me to select what I need (or let it automatically play forced as I have it configured in my account settings), it was also another step in a long fiddly process that I could do without.
Last question.... to increase efficiency by one more little step have you found it possible to overwrite your first mkv with your second refined mkv? For me makemkv doesnt like reading and overwriting the same file so i end up doing a little housekeeping after to remove the initial rip. Not a big deal, just anyway to save time is good
Thank you Jaremy !!! You explained the process clearly. No more AnyDVD like in the past, only MakeMKV.
An important question of something you have not yet shown on your channel:
I'm not a native English speaker like you. So I have to rely on subtitles from time to time.
I buy movies and mostly view them from the disc because of this. But what would be your method if the needed subtitles are not on the disc.
I've put you in the same situation. Let's say you got a Japanese bluray without English subtitles on the disc.
Can you please show us the best method to solve this issue?
Greetings
If the subs are not on the disc, then you need to maybe find them elsewhere like online or use a player/client that can download subs.
rip entire disc- export all video files greater than 100 seconds, ffmpeg to reduce file size
The Zappiti Support is poor, how can I get help with all the problems with mkv Movies in the video section from Zappiti? I.e. up to 20 identical cover from one movie and even more strange, movies which I have not seen before and which are not on the ripped hard drive? Zappiti is not answering.
Try Zappiti owner's threads on AVS or AV Forums, maybe.
Is MakeMKV capable of decrypting and copying every file on a 4K UHD disc? i.e. M2TS, all the 4K folders and files, etc.
Yes, you can do a "backup" of the disc, which is a folder rip.
Is anyone else getting an error with 'Audio Format not Supported' when trying to play it back through the USB on a Blu-Ray player?
Not me. Hopefully someone else can chime in.
what do you mean by forced subtitles?
Forced subtitles are used when foreign language characters speak in a movie differently from the native language. So, me as an English speaker, watching a movie with Spanish speaking characters speaking Spanish in a scene needs those lines subtitled or I else I don't understand the whole movie.
Hi does anyone know how to rip 3D bluray. Thanks.
I've not processed 3D discs, sorry. Not a 3D user.
@@Techthusiasm I've asked you that before on you other video. I was asking if a subscriber new. But thanks for replying. I'm reripping Avatar with the forced flag method hoping the subs come up in the alien speaking parts.
Like you I had my collection stored as .iso files. Over the last few months I used MakeMKV to convert the majority of my .iso files to .mkv. However I did run in to some errors that MakeMKV couldn't get past. In some cases I used AnyDVD to convert the .iso files to a file folder structure first, and then used MakeMKV from there. In other cases I had to resort to using CloneBD to make .mkv files as no matter what I did MakeMKV would fail. The bottom line is there is no perfect tool. I find it best to keep a variety of tools handy.
Sometimes you need the whole toolbox, for sure.
Great video, question, would have it been better if two or more subtitles come up, would it be better just to leave one checke also I have dvds from china, will the makemkv still work?
Finally, does the makemkv have updates or do I need to pay for lifetime?
DVDs are a little different from Blu-ray because they don't have forced subtitles. Still, there's really no substitute for fully inspecting the subs to make sure you really get what you want and/or need in your final file.
There are updates regularly, yes. This tool has been in ongoing, active development for some time. As someone that works in the commercial software business, I would strongly recommend that you pay the $50 if MakeMKV ends up being software that you like and use regularly going forward. Let the developers profit from their work.
Is it true that you can't trim the videos? When I cut the intro of mine out the voice-over in the video is in slomotion while the footage is playing normally
I'm not aware of how to trim or edit content in MakeMKV. I believe you'd need some other editing tool for that.
Thank you for the info! What if I do want to have the english subs available along with the forced ones?
To have both and be able to call up either is a bit more work. You'll need to end up with a file that either has them in separate tracks or has a single track with the forced flagged inside. The process to get this will really vary per movie.
MakeMKV doesn't rip PCM 5.1 files properly anymore.
Years ago my media player use to play PCM 5.1 no problems but now ripping PCM 5.1 blurays my media player keeps saying Audio Unrecognised
So MakeMKV have changed ripping PCM 5.1 process some how
Hmm, I'll have to check this sometime. Although, I don't find too many PCM soundtracks any more. I think I think just the one that happened to be shown in this video.
hi, what about the video quilt if one starts out with a 4k video does mkv keep that quality ? thank you
Yes.
i have all of the files for justice league snyder cut downloaded from a torrent its in disc 1 and disc 2 folders how do i convert all of it to an mkv
MakeMKV can load Blu-ray rip folders or ISO files. I don't encourage downloading, though.
If this process is better than your prior process, you should remove the existing older video from UA-cam as this only confuses people who might not see THIS newer video. Too much confusion in this process.
As I'm waiting for my new Zappiti to arrive, this new video is really appreciated and timely. Thanks for the newer streamlined process. As I'm sure that I will never need any other subtitles other than English, this could possibly save space on my drive therefore giving me more possible movies on one drive? Possibly quicker copying time?
Good point, I'll consider what to do with the earlier videos. Maybe I'll have to remake them to get the core concepts maintained, but take out the changed process parts.
Dropping subs won't really save any space. It's like nothing compared to the size of the video and audio. The whole MKV thing is more about getting the movie ripped properly with all the correct parts you need and having them correctly flagged and set so that playback is accurate.
Which subtitle edit program are you using. I downloaded the free version from Microsoft store, but it does not support mkv, only SRT or VTT.
I use a windows tool just called Subtitle Edit. :) It's not from the MS store. There are a ton of subtitle tools out there and most are no good.
Good video. Tried your method using MakeMKV, Media Info and Subtitle Edit. I tried fixing Dances with Wolves which does not show the Souix subtitles in the MKV. After setting the proper subtitle name to Forced and MKV Flags to df (default & forced) I made a new MKV. Still no Souix subtitles. Have you tried this movie yourself?
I have not tried that film. It's possible those subtitles are actually just burned in the video track and not in the sub tracks?
I ran into this problem, for me I had two options. My Zappiti has a database of online subtitles with some forced tracks, I found one that works with the movie Dances With Wolves perfectly. However, the other option is to run that film as an ISO or BDVM. I also have this problem with The Revenant, I just run the BDVM for that.
Very informative 😁 I have a little question about audio track
If you select only the Atmos audio track, no matter if it's contain the information for 5 - 6 -7 - 8 channels and want to play the file on a PC with VLC which use only a stereo setup or 2.1, then, do the sound will play without any problem? I mean, it will be downsample, right?
Also, why MakeMKV seperate the lossless and the lossy information? In this case, it make no sense to grab the "DD Surround 5.1 English" if the "TruHD Dolby Atmos English" contain both information. My understanding is that you had to select both tracks, one containing the core information (lossy) and the other the extra information for a lossless signal.
Can you elaborate a bit on that plz?
The audio should downmix no problem with capable software, which VLC usually is.
You don't need to select both. The core will always be in the higher level only track. By selecting both, you'll get two separate tracks in the resulting file.
@@Techthusiasm Yep, I can see that all my mkv's files have 2 audio tracks per language (I rip English and French info). It's just that I don't see the added value of having the choice of selecting 2 tracks? Who will choose a inferior quality anyway? I supposed that a receiver that do not support Atmos won't be able to process the Atmos signal so the movie would be muted?
People might add that 2nd core track to have it for playback on devices that can't resolve the high fidelity main track. That's about the only reason to keep it.
Thank you for the video, very informative. Could you provide a link to the Subtitle Edit program. There are a bunch of them out there.
I believe this is it, but of course download at your own risk. www.nikse.dk/subtitleedit
@@Techthusiasm Thank you.
I ordered a BluRay 4K external reader only to find out that it doesnt officially read 4K movies... Thank you for this tutorial man!!! I was going mad
Sure thing!
I am brand new to this process and this video helps a lot. I successfully ripped a dvd but having issues with bluray. Everything copied over but the main title has no audio. The extras and outtakes/alternate ending has full volume.
Check that you ripped the proper title and make sure the audio track(s) you wanted were checked.
I am still on the evaluation version, and there is not nearly as much information in the type and description columns for the subtitles and audio (to the left of where you set the output folder like at 3:26 of this video). Is that something that comes with the paid version?
You need to put the tool into Expert mode. Check out this video. ua-cam.com/video/7cqCO6FPUV4/v-deo.html
Dude thank you!!!!! I really needed help with subtitles. Can you please help with TV episodes, that would be great since I am having touble putting them on Plex.
You’re welcome! Check out my third of the prior MKV ripping series for info on TV discs.
I have watched this an your original series. Great info. Subscribed. I have traditionally used MakeMKV then Handbrake to covert to mp4 to conserve file size. I retain original 1080 resolution and fps. Do you think going to mp4 looses quality? About to tackle my 4K discs. Would mp4 loose quality there? Also have do you get the iso onto a SSD on. Windows machine? I have some that will require that step. Thanks.
Thanks! One challenge question I would pose is if you are going to compress the disc farther to lower bit rate and smaller file size, why not just buy the movie on iTunes and stream it? You don't have to do any work and probably realize similar effective quality.
It's also not really a question if MP4 loses quality, but what you are doing to the audio/video. Are you further compressing either one or both and what kind of bit rate are you using. The lower you go, the more you "lose" from the source file.
@@Techthusiasm So my NAS has decent space, but I like to be able to download files with the Plex app onto a portable device, iPad, iPhone maybe an Android device in the future. I do this for traveling.
I just downloaded MakeMKV and when I push that big button a popup says "Evaluation period expired" and something about purchasing a key.
MakeMKV is provided "free" as a perpetual beta. But to use it "free", you need to occasionally go get their new beta code, which they update and publish on their site/forums. If you are using the tool a lot though and getting value from it, I encourage you to pay the $50 and buy yourself a license (speaking as a software developer myself).
@@Techthusiasm I know that, but handing out expired 'evaluation copies' is rather unprofessional.
They don't really give out expired copies. The codes just expire every month or so. You can always get the current key here. forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053
@@Techthusiasm thank you. That's a huge help. I wish they'd make that more obvious!
Love the improvements! I'm struggling to find an app on the Mac to view subtitles of a MKV. Is there a known good app for this?
I didn't find one for Mac, so I just run Subtitle Edit in a Windows VM on my Mac when I need it.
Very interesting video. Can you post all the settings you use with MakeMKV? Thank you.
Check out this video and let me know if it helps. ua-cam.com/video/7cqCO6FPUV4/v-deo.html
Will an external Blu ray usb drive work on make mkv?
Yes. I use an external drive connected to my Mac via USBC.
Anydvd still around?
It is. www.redfox.bz/en/anydvdhd.html
I'm in the infancy stages of this. Been doing DVDs for years, but now with a growing collection of Blu-rays, I'm finding that I'd prefer to have those ripped as well. Looks like makemkv is the way to go, esp as it works on Mac. So here's a total newb question.... I don't even own a usb Blu-ray drive...so as of yet, cannot even take step 1. Do you have any usb drive/hardware recommendations for hooking to Mac???? Thanks for all of your vids!
Buy a drive from this guy on the MakeMKV forums. forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17831&sid=ec4f05c03f10a2a0894bbace1348942e It'll be flashed and ready to go and the LG in the Archgon works great. Tell him I recommended him. :)
Sweet!
I had no idea makemkv could open an mkv file. Thanks!
Glad I could help!
Im relatively new at this and have been doing BDMV files out of simplicity. If the movie had forced subtitles or it's my first watch I'll play back as a disc, and if I know the movie has no forced subtitles I'll just play the movie. Not the most efficient approach but it was working. However, I ran into my first exception which was Bullet Train. It would not play the forced subtitles with the disc playback method. So, I figured the solution was properly making an mkv file which I have no experience with. Used your video to figure it out, so very much appreciated for the information. Now I'm going back and making MKV's for movies that I know have forced subtitles in order to make it where I won't have to think about. I may just do mkv files moving forward, not sure.
There's something else I'm curious about though. Is there a way to string together favorite demo scenes from different movies? I'm pretty sure there is, but I have no idea how it gets done. Im not sure if it's something you have to put together manually on the computer or if its player based, either software or hardware.
I'm glad the content helped you! You can string stuff together using a tool like MKVToolNix. You have to cut and merge, but it works for that. It will be a manual process making selections and manipulating the files.
@@Techthusiasm Great thanks. Ill look into it.
I am a happy user of MakeMKV. Thanks for many of your suggestions. My problem is that I want to end up with a .mp4 file with subtitles that I can turn on or off. I have not found a good converter or editor that will allow me to do that. Do you have any suggestions?
I've only ever really use Handbrake when I need to re-encode something.
@@Techthusiasm - Thanks. I've been working with Handbrake all day but it doesn't work right either. I've tried to work with a .mkv file and convert it to a .mp4 while trying to maintain the subtitles that I could turn on and off. I couldn't get that to work. So I used Handbrake to rip the movie right from a Bluray DVD. It works but it is slower and I can't get that to work with subtitles either. That seems to be a real problem.
@@kkimes I'm very curious to learn how to use handbrake to rip Blue Ray discs. I have ripped hundreds of DVDs, but not blue rays
Do you still need to change the firmware of the drive first?
Most drives will require a firmware rollback, yes. Which drive and which firmware depends. You can find more info on drives, flashing, and buying already flashed drives on the MakeMKV forums.
Wow, I’ve added a 1,000 movies to my Zappiti using MKV but I didn’t do it like you have and of course my forced subs aren’t there !
Thank you so much mate. Cheers from Canberra, Australia.
Glad to help, sorry for the extra work. :)
Wouldn't they not be there if you unchecked them in MakeMKV? If all the subtitles are checked, but the forced subtitles are not set to default, you just have to go into the settings of whatever player and turn on the forced subtitles and they are there, just not defaulted to show the forced subtitles. I plan on going back with my Anime and turn on forced subtitles to default, but I retain any and all subtitles for all the discs I have.
1. Could you recommend an external blu ray ripping drive?
2. How do you know which English audio track is highest quality?
1. Go to the MakeMKV forums and you can buy drives from folks there that are ready to go, properly flashed, and so on. It's the easiest way to get going.
2. You will learn this by experience. You can look at the release on Blu-ray.com to see what audio a given release has. It's easy enough to find it in MakeMKV.
Do you lose anything video quality wise with MKV vs ISO?
No, not if its just a straight rip/copy. Same exact thing.
I've tinkered with it, and I'm not a super fan of DVDFab either.
Try out obs for your screen capture.
Thanks for the suggestion!
MKV sometimes makes noise in video.
Hmm, that's not something I have observed. Do you mean noise when you playback the content?
This is super helpful, thank you!
Awesome! I’m glad it helped.
Got it, great content once again.
Thanks!
Would you believe it Avatar won't rip bloody scrath in it. When I used the me5hod you used of forced I had to turn this off in plex. As the text was up. I thought the whole point of forced flags was for the English subtitles to show up when there are foreign speaking parts in English films.
Damaged discs are a pain. I would need more info to help you. Getting the right subs to play is based on making the proper selection of only those subtitles and flagged them appropriately.
@@Techthusiasm The bluray disc was Annabelle the creation only one set of English subtitles to choose from so I ticked this and only one lot of English forced subs to choose from so I ticked that. Then followed you video. Once the back up was created I put the film in Plex. The information under sound option was subtitles highlighted with forced next to where it said English. I played the film and subs came up automatically. I had to turn the subs off. Now I thought once you ticked forced subs they would only appear if any foreign language was spoken then the English subs would appear. Isthis not the case?
If you open a disc and there's one English subtitle track, what you want to do is uncheck the first entry. Leave the expandable entry under that one checked. Give it a name and add the "f" flag. Then rip the disc. If no forced subs are in that track, MakeMKV will include no subs in the output. If there are forced subs, MakeMKV will keep them and they will be flagged as forced for your player. I think maybe you kept the first line checked in the rip, which ripped all the subs?
@@Techthusiasm so in the expanded it had English sub then English forced? Do I only tick the english forced one and not the the English sub. I did name the forced one force and did the mkv flag as df.
Correct, uncheck main English track entry and only check the forced one per the video.
In which situations are ISOs preferred?
For me, some concert videos. Where you want to select specific songs or extras.
Concerts. Some TV series that are a lot of work to break into individual episodes. Any time you want the entire disc contents, like all the special features.
What drive did you use ?
Its an Archgon with an LG inside. I bought it from a seller on the MakeMKV forums preloaded with proper firmware. I'd recommend it. In some of my videos, you might see me holding a Buffalo model. That one didn't work well.
@@Techthusiasm Thanks
Thanks!
Super thanks for the super thanks! :)
Who cares about subtitles, too much time spent on subtitles!
There are a number of other ripping tutorial/info videos on the channel. Subtitles though are one of the important elements that I fear many people get wrong, IMO.