default Settings for DVD

[Woodstock]

A lot depends upon your player.

I have two players that, no matter what the settings are in the FILE for subtitles, they always display the first subtitle track, and play the first audio track. If the audio happens to be English and the first subtitle track the "forced" subtitles, life is good... But that isn't always the case.

This is why I almost always post-process the MKV files (usually with Handbrake) to make sure my preferences are taken into account. First audio track English, and either NO subtitle tracks, or put them in the right order to accommodate the player. And that order has changed as I change players! (just spent the last two weeks reprocessing hundreds of MKVs into MP4s to work correctly with a new player).

In the settings for MakeMKV, you can tell it to default to ONLY ripping a particular language, without getting into the customized configuration.

[Chetwood]

I have two players that, no matter what the settings are in the FILE for subtitles, they always display the first subtitle track, and play the first audio track.

Which usually can be changed by turning off subtitles in the player's setup. I have yet to see one not providing this option.

[Woodstock]

Which usually can be changed by turning off subtitles in the player's setup. I have yet to see one not providing this option.

Then take a look at the Uebo M400 and the old Seagate FreeAgent Theater. I've checked every menu option on both, and neither will default to subtitles OFF. And the way Handbrake inserts chapter markers into MP4 files is to insert a special subtitle track... which is irritating when using either of these players.

The Uebo M100, on the other hand, defaults to subtitles off... Again, with no menu item to change the default.

The point being, though, that what gets displayed is player-dependent. Certainly, there are settings MakeMKV could change to fix some players, but it won't fix "all" players.

[Chetwood]

It's always amazing to see hardware manufacturers getting away with this kind of crap. I'm also wondering why so many people keep using Handbrake with issues like this. I just tried MKVtoMP4 and it does not use a subtitle stream for chapters.

[Woodstock]

I'm also wondering why so many people keep using Handbrake with issues like this. I just tried MKVtoMP4 and it does not use a subtitle stream for chapters.

From the man page for MKVtoMP4:

mkvtomp4: Uses mpeg4ip or GPAC's MP4Box, mkvtoolnix and ffmpeg to convert troublesome mkv files to mp4. The conversion does not re-encode the video and only re-encodes the audio if it doesn't use AAC codec (one can override this behaviour using --audio-codec). They will be playable on the Sony PS3.

This is great if you're fine with the video staying at DVD compression. Some of us want to take advantage of the smaller files resulting from recoding.

I just wish Handbrake would do something with PGS subtitles... But, given the state of support for PGS in a lot of players, just WHAT Handbrake should do is an open question!

[Chetwood]

Some of us want to take advantage of the smaller files resulting from recoding.

Right, and those might wanna drop Handbrake to use Staxrip, MeGUI or XMedia Recode.

[Smithcraft]

Or just use the Handbrake nightly releases which have support for PGS subs.

SC