Need help making SINGLE mkv file from BLU-Ray

[bereid]

I'm new (one month) to the video ripping process, and my goal is to rip each of my DVDs and Blu-Rays to a SINGLE .mkv file (Important: with selectable subtitles), for storage on a NAS device, and subsequent streaming to a player (currently using WD MyBookLive NAS and WD TV Live Plus player).

For DVDs, I have found two ways to produce the desired result:
1) Use [other software] to rip the desired content (video, audio, subtitles) to VIDEO_TS folder, then use [other software] to transcode the video, and package all components in the desired SINGLE .mkv file.
2) Use [other software] to rip the desired content, and store the desired result (again, video, audio, and subtitles) without transcoding (saves time at the cost of disk space) in a SINGLE .mkv file.

For Blu-Rays, the only solution I have found is clumsy at best. If I use DVDFab Blu-Ray Ripper to rip the desired content (main title, English audio and subtitles), and choose the option to produce .mkv, I end up with [at least] 3 files (a .mkv file, a .idx file, and a .sub file). Though not desirable, I guess I could live with a folder containing these multiple files, if when I point my player at it and ask it to play, I could select subtitles, and see them displayed on the screen. This does not work - The video and audio play properly, but though the .idx and .sub files are present, and the player allows me to chose one (or more) subtitles, no subtitles appear on the screen when I select them.

The clumsy and VERY time-consuming workaround I have found is to use MkvMerge to merge the .mkv and .idx files produced by Blu-Ray Ripper into the SINGLE .mkv file I want. I have tested that approach, and found that the subtitles can now be selected, and displayed on the screen. However, the process of merging takes a VERY long time, and is therefore undesirable.

Can I configure DVDFab Blu-Ray Ripper to produce the SINGLE .mkv file WITH subtitle capability? I have searched, but cannot find any option to accomplish this.

If it is not presently possible, then I would strongly recommend that this be considered an important feature to add ASAP, and would be very grateful to see it implemented.

Thank you in advance for any help / advice,
Bruce

[AGJ]

Not sure what the finished product is like as I not use mkv but for DVD you can use DVDFab DVD Ripper and use the MKV remux option. In Conversion settings for Split select No Split and that should give you one large MKV if I'm correct.

As for the sub-title issue for Blu-ray it more the player not supporting the idx/sub file for subtitles. Look around for a player that support them as I think there are a free player that do. Otherwise will have to continue with what you doing until the DVDFab Developers add what you look for

[sunny]

Hi bruce,

If you choose BD Ripper- Mkv.remux, you will get subtitle extracted from video, which means there would be three kinds of files .mkv/.sub/.idx in your target location. Some players can not add external .sub files, that's why you got no subtitles appear on the player screen.

Please choose BD Ripper- mkv.h264.audiocopy or mkv.h264.ac3, just check one subtitle track, click on Edit button to open Conversion Settings, select subpicutre as "Direct render to video", then you will get just one single .mkv file which would play with subtitle in your player.

Note:If you chose several subtitle tracks, there would be only one choice, extract idx/sub files.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,
--
Sunny

[GregiBoy]

Anny, this is no good to the user as these subtitles are burnt in, not selectable as he requires.

This whole lack of support for other streams muxed into MKV files is a major downfall of Fab compared to FREE products.

[Yapps]

I'd have to agree, I was trying to do the same thing when I first started playing around with DVDFab DVD Ripper and after much testing ended up using another free software instead. As a long time user of DVD Copy I love the DVDFab product line but until they implement those extra mkv features then i'll just have to pass....waiting patiently...

[bereid]

Hi Sunny,

Thank you for your advice, but I believe this is not the solution I am seeking, for the following two reasons:

1) I planned to perform the operation you suggested before replying, so my comments would be more informed. I did attempt to do so, but as the process progressed far enough to show the estimated completion time, I was astounded to see that it was predicting about 5 hours (and this was after having chosen the 'fast' single-pass option.) I aborted the process, because even if the resulting .mkv file had worked as needed, the time required to process all of my Blu-Rays would be far to long to be feasible or tolerable.

2) The "Direct render to video" option you recommended sounds like it will behave as described by the two members who posted to this thread after your reply, and that is not what I'm looking for. I definitely want the ability to enable and disable subtitles at play time.

Since I have proven to myself that I can take the multiple files produced by DVDFab's Blu-Ray Ripper, and use free software to merge them into a single .mkv file with subtitles that can be enabled / disabled, I don't understand why Blu-Ray Ripper cannot do the job without help from another application. Even though the process of merging with the free application was time-consuming (as I described in my original post), it was on the order of 90 minutes, which is considerably better than the 5 hours Blu-Ray Ripper was threatening to take.

So the bottom line is that until Blu-Ray Ripper can do all these things, and do them in a reasonable amount of time, I am unlikely to spend any $$ to own it. I am willing to sacrifice disk space in order to gain processing speed, so it would be nice if Blu-Ray Ripper would offer an option to omit transcoding if possible, in order to produce a much larger .mkv file, but do it very quickly. I have seen that being done by the software I'm using to process my DVDs; each one takes less than 1 hour to finish, and the result is exactly what I am seeking for my Blu-Rays - a single .mkv file, with my chosen title, audio, and subtitles (selectable, not directly rendered in the video).

I hope Blu-Ray Ripper will one day be a feasible choice to solve this problem.

Regards,
Bruce

[GregiBoy]

I think we may be waiting a while...

I'm not going to hold my breath!!!

I originally requested this for DVD's over 18 months ago, and every time I raise a post about this and other shortcomings of Fab's transcoding options, the post is either deleted or heavily censored.

Fab's RIPPING (I use the proper terminology, not Fab's B/S COPY product name) is unsurpassed. Why cannot they get their transcoding options to a similar market leasing status has me perplexed.

Is it a lack of understanding/communication as evidenced in Sunny's post?

I'd have to agree, I was trying to do the same thing when I first started playing around with DVDFab DVD Ripper and after much testing ended up using another free software instead. As a long time user of DVD Copy I love the DVDFab product line but until they implement those extra mkv features then i'll just have to pass....waiting patiently...

[sunny]

Hi all,

This multi subtitles exporting feature has been added into our technicians' to-do-list. Please give us more days to accomplish it. Thanks for all your understanding.