Deselect closed captions when using makemkvcon

The place to discuss linux version of MakeMKV
Post Reply
keithhelms
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 10:34 am

Deselect closed captions when using makemkvcon

Post by keithhelms »

I've been merrily extracting dozens of DVDs using makemkvcon version 1.14.5 and then, boom, I ran into a disc that apparently has closed captioning subtitles. Makemkvcon gave me an error that it couldn't find ccextractor and aborted.

I want to extract the regular subtitles, but not the closed captioned ones. How do I modify the defaultSelection string to ignore those?

I'm using Xubuntu 18.04 and I checked and ccextractor is not in the Ubuntu repository.
keithhelms
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 10:34 am

Re: Deselect closed captions when using makemkvcon

Post by keithhelms »

The track selection rules supposedly support the following

N - matches if Nth (or bigger) track of the same type and language

But I couldn't find ANY examples of how to use that option. Since the closed captions were the 3rd subtitle, I figured if I could tell makemkvcon to only pull the first 2 subtitles that would get around the problem.

I tried the following combinations and all of them failed with invalid token

+sel:(subtitle*eng(2))
+sel:((subtitle*eng)*2)
+sel:(subtitle*eng*2)
+sel:(subtitle(eng|2))
+sel:(subtitle*2)
+sel:(subtitle*(2))
keithhelms
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 10:34 am

Re: Deselect closed captions when using makemkvcon

Post by keithhelms »

Okay, this is turning into a PITA. I found the deb file for ccextractor in the Ubuntu 18.10 repository, downloaded it and installed it on 18.04. The install didn't give any errors and when I run ccextractor from the command line with no parameters it gives a nice long list of options. It installed into /usr/bin, so I went into the MakeMKV preferences and set the ccextractor location to /usr/bin.

Now when I try to run makemkvcon against the dvd that has closed captions, I get the following error

MSG:4041,0,2,"Failed to execute external program 'ccextractor' from location '/usr/bin'","Failed to execute external program '%1' from location '%2'","ccextractor","/usr/bin"


In my opinion, this whole feature violates the standalone nature of MakeMKV, where the install procedure includes all the commands you need to get the product to work.
keithhelms
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 10:34 am

Re: Deselect closed captions when using makemkvcon

Post by keithhelms »

To end this conversation I'm having with myself, I got it working. Apparently the MakeMKV text box that prompts you for ccextractor location actually wants the ccextractor executable. I'll nitpick a little here because to me "location" means where something is, as in what directory. Even the error message "Failed to execute external program 'ccextractor' from location '/usr/bin'" LOOKS like it is trying to execute /usr/bin/ccextractor.

So now MakeMKV can waste cycles OCRing closed captions which I am not interested in in the first place, but there is apparently no way to make it NOT do that.
wmcclain
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2016 8:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Deselect closed captions when using makemkvcon

Post by wmcclain »

Using /usr/bin/true as the executable dummies out the operation. Not many cycles wasted.
Capsule film reviews: Strange Picture Scroll
Post Reply