[PLUG-TALK] MakeMKV

[John Jason Jordan]

Moving to PLUG-Talk with new subject

>On Sat, 21 May 2016 16:52:20 -0700
>Dale Snell <ddsnell at frontier.com> dijo:
>
>>The address you need is "www.makemkv.com".  That's what StartPage
>>gave me when I told it to search for "makemkv" (without the .com).

>It does help. I don't know why Firefox redirected me to Showtime when I
>typed just makemkv.com into the URL bar, but putting www in front gets
>me to the MakeMKV website - which is the same site I found with a
>Google search previously. 
>
>You have to go to the forums to find the Linux version (which I did
>not notice before), and you have to install it manually, but I did
>manage to get it installed. Taking it for a spin will have to wait
>until tomorrow, though.

OK, I have used it only a couple times so far, but enough to make some
observations.

First, it doesn't seem to have any way to control the size of the
output file. In the first instance the DVD had 4.4GB and the
resulting .mkv file was 4.3GB. In the second instance the DVD had 7.0GB
on it and the resulting .mkv file was 6.8GB. To get them down to
manageable sizes I had to re-rip with Handbrake. 

MakeMKV also has few other options; e.g., sometimes there are multiple
subtitle tracks, but I want only one or two, yet there is no way to
specify which tracks to include. Similarly, sometimes I want to add a
subtitle from an .srt file that I found on the net - but this is also
not an option. There are tons of other options to control things like
video resolution, sound quality, and many more, but all are missing.

Having said that I discovered that it has one really strong suit that
outclasses all other rip/encode software I have used - that is, it is
superb at ripping and encoding from a DVD of questionable condition.
And since I usually buy the cheapest copy I can find, many of mine are
used, and sometimes used way too much. 

In the two cases where I used it I first tried to rip and encode the
DVD with Handbrake, but Handbrake failed when it encountered a bad
spot on the DVD. Without even removing the DVD from the drive I
turned MakeMKV loose on it, et voilà! The file was huge, but it was all
there. 

So I can't see myself using it all the time, but still it's a keeper.
Thanks for turning me onto it.