How can I help review and give feedback on the fully automated creation of lossless MKV files?
Answer:
Background
The fully automated creation of lossless MKV files is added to the My Movies for Windows software with the purpose of giving home theater owners who would like the best possible quality in their home theater an alternative to full BDMV, VIDEO_TS and ISO files, allowing for playback on more device types.
The functionality is initially added as part of the Video Converter function of the software, which means that the DVD or Blu-ray title must be copied to the server in BDMV, VIDEO_TS or ISO format, before the video converter can convert the titles to MKV, or, you can configure the disc copier to copy directly to the Video Converter function to copy directly to the MKV file.
Requirements and Notices
The process of creating MKV files consists of multiple processes combined, where the software initially extracts all content from Blu-ray titles, including all audio tracks and subtitles, where for DVD's, all video content is extracted, but only the configured subtitles is extracted for DVD's.
This full extraction is done to the internal temporary directory used by My Movies, which by default is placed on the primary drive of your service. Since this can be problematic due to the size of the drive, it is recommended that you configure the temporary directory using the advanced configuration in the video converter, before you start converting MKV files.
Once extracted, the MKV file is build directly in the target directory as a temporary file, and once finalized, moved to the final resulting filename. In case the MKV's are to be stored on external storage device, which is not the same as the server itself, the process of creating the MKV can take time due to heavy network traffic, and if the source title is also on an external storage, this time will increase even more, as the extraction is done to the servers internal storage, and then the MKV is created directly onto the final storage location.
Movie Disc Handling
Discs are by default handled as a movie disc, unless the meta-data specifically configures that the disc contains a TV Series.
For movie discs, the software will attempt to detect the main movie of the disc, using different approaches in the following order:
- The information in the meta-data of which title set contains the main movie is initially used. This information is defined in the meta-data by reading the disc title structure in the Collection Management programs disc editing area, and marking the main movie in the title and chapter editing section. It is recommended to contribute this information to the online service, to make the information available for everyone copying the same title in the future. This approach is only used if there is an exact match between the structure known in the meta-data and the read structure of the copied disc - therefore, if you add titles manually, it is important that you add the correct title by adding titles by barcode or disc id, and not by title searches.
- If the meta-data could not be used to determine the main movie, the software goes through all title sets on the disc, and reads the length of the title set. The title set that comes nearest the length of the running time specified on the movie profile is expected to be the main movie, and will be the one used.
- If the running time is not specified on the movie profile, the software goes through the titles, and selects the longest title set, which is expected to be the main movie. This is the same approach that you will find with players and software that supports BD-lite playback models without full menu playback. The difference between these players is that the first two approaches should ensure a better accuracy, and, you can always through the meta-data override any assumption the software will do.
Should you find that a movie disc is copied wrong, please always read the disc structure in the Collection Management program, and mark the correct main movie in the title and chapter editor, and contribute this information to the online service, which ensures that yourself and others copying the disc in the future will get a correct copy.
TV Series Disc Handling
Discs are handled as TV Series discs in case this is specifically configured in the title meta-data.
For TV Series discs on Blu-ray, it is currently required that the episodes are mapped in the Collection Management program's disc editing dialog, in the title and chapter editor.
Once a disc is mapped, a separate MKV file will be created for each episode.
For DVD titles, the episodes meta-data mapping is primarily used, but if not existing, the software will attempt to determine which title set that contains episodes, and create individual MKV files for each. If the episodes on a DVD cannot be detected, the full content of the disc will be copied to individual MKV files.
For Blu-ray titles, it is not currently possible to automatically detect episodes, or copy the entire disc content, if the meta-data does not contain the episode information. This is something we hope to be able to update the software with the ability to handle.
Handling of Audio Tracks
You can in the video converter preferences define a primary and a secondary audio language, and the software will with default configuration include both of these audio languages.
You can in the advanced configuration specify if you would like the software to include the first found audio language of the selected languages, if it should include both of the selected, or if it should include all audio tracks.
Currently, all audio tracks of the selected language(s) will be included, which means that titles having multiple audio track types (DTS, AC-3, etc.) will include all in the resulting MKV file. This is something we plan to create configurations for in the future, allowing you to specify which to include.
Audio tracks that are marked as directors comments or for visually impaired is by default never included. You can configure to include these in the advanced configuration.
Handling of Subtitles
As with audio tracks, you can for subtitles define a primary and secondary subtitle language, and as with audio tracks, the software will with default configuration include both of these subtitle languages. The software will not currently honer the settings of embedding and including, but will always include what is selected.
For DVD's, if there is subtitles that on the DVD mastering is marked as forced, and an audio track of the same language exist, the subtitle will be included in the MKV, and will be marked in the MKV as forced, no matter if subtitles are selected or not, as there should not be situations where one would not want forced subtitles to be included.
For Blu-ray's, subtitles cannot directly be marked as forced, but on the subtitle tracks, there can be either parts of, or an entire subtitle that is to be forced. In case such subtitle is detected, the software will split the forced subtitles from the subtitle track, and will include this in the MKV as forced when an audio track of the same language is present, while the original subtitle file including the forced parts will be included depending on the subtitle settings. This approach for forced subtitles means that if a subtitle contains only forced parts, and the subtitle language is set to be included in general, the subtitle will currently be included twice - once as forced, as one as standard, which is something we hope to improve.
For Blu-ray's, there are known to be discs on the market where subtitle parts are not marked as forced, but instead BD-J or other internal parts of the Blu-ray forced the player to display the subtitle track, despite it not being marked as forced. If you find examples of such discs, we would love to receive information about them for review, as we hope in the future to be able to handle this through manual markings in the meta-data.
Providing feedback
The primary focus on the Pre Releases containing the MKV functionality is to determine if there are titles that cannot be converted to MKV files, due to conversion failures, and, to determine if there are titles that are handled incorrectly in terms of detection of the main movie, correct handling of TV Series structures and correct handling of audio and subtitle selections.
There may be several scenarios that can be improved, and the focus is to determine where this is.
To provide feedback, use our forums, and include the conversion logs in the forum post, and write what you find could be handled better with the title. The logs are available on the server in the files:
C:\ProgramData\My Movies\log.txt
C:\ProgramData\My Movies\mkvprocess.log
To help us, add only one title at a time to the video converter, and delete these log files before you add the title, or restart a failed conversion, and wait for the conversion to finalize, or fail before you grab the log and provide them on the forum.