DVD Ripper Issues with MKV Passthrough and inability to turn off Merge

[zapt]

I'm in the process of ripping my entire collection to set up a Plex server for the TVs in my house. I'm having a variety of problems with which I'm hoping you can offer some assistance:

1. I've been using the MKV.Passthrough setting to rip everything. When you select it on the Choose Other Profile screen, it's then shown as Custom (MKV.Passthrough). Or I can just choose Theater (MKV.Passthrough) from the drop-down menu on the main screen. Are these profiles identical?
2. Bug: One TV episode on a Deadwood DVD was repeatedly ripping at a very low bitrate (500 vs. the normal 4500-7200 for all the others I've processed), so I attempted to rip it several more times. After multiple tries, DVDFab started crashing within seconds of starting the ripping. It displayed a dialog box with the option to send a report to you, but then automatically did so on its own. The options to send additional details and/or view the report--although shown in the dialog box--aren't accessible. All you can do is close it. (Also, I'm unclear on bitrate. Does it have anything to do with the quality of the output, or is it just indicative of how fast or slow it processed the video?)
3. Suggestion: When using MKV Passthrough, it would be nice if the Info button showed the basic parameters used in the ripping process. Right now, I'm having to check them in Plex. The information provide by the I (Info) button isn't particularly useful.
4. I've also been trying unsuccessfully to merge (in Ripper) some movies that I previously split across two discs using an earlier version of DVDFab. The first try took over an hour for Ripper to scan the disk, but never managed to scan the second part of the split. (This may be related to your suggestion above, though, so I'll try again with Cloud Decryption disabled.
5. Because I aborted the Merge in #4, Ripper is automatically trying to merge every new TV episode disc I insert. Is there some trick to turning it off? This one is critical because I'm stuck until it gets disabled.

Thanks in advance!

Steve

[zapt]

Re: Disabling the Merge feature. (#4)
This feature needs to be much easier to cancel or perhaps it shouldn't automatically be implemented in all following rips as the new default profile option. I assume it's a "once in awhile" feature, rather than something most users will want to do repeatedly.

Perhaps my dilemma was caused by the failed merge (I let the last attempt run for 12 hours during which it still failed to read disc 1) and was complicated by the fact that the chosen unsupported MKV Passthrough profile (according to the dialog that appeared) was carried along as the new default. I eventually got past it by choosing a non-passthrough profile, letting it complete the unwanted merge, and then did something like changing profiles multiple times until Merge finally went away. If there's a simpler method to disable Merge (a CANCEL MERGE button or something similar would be a great help), let me know. Thank you.

[signals]

Try using Merge in Copy mode first, then use Ripper to make the MKV file from the merged DVD files. Note that Merge requires that both of the Source files be present continuously during the process, so if you only have one optical drive you will need to copy the second to a VIDEO_TS folder on your HDD.

You may be leaving the failed task in the queue, causing it to restart. Try deleting it.