www.makemkv.com

Ripped the blu-ray of Criterion Collection's "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," using a 2012 Mac Mini running MacOS Sierra 10.12. The video rips nicely but there is no audio track. I've checked and re-checked the settings and all is normal. Don't know why this is happening, and searching the FAQ and Forums showed other people were having a similar problem years ago but there was no answer / resolution. If anyone out there has the solution .... I'm all ears. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

"No audio" comes down to two primary issues.

You selected a "Preferred audio" language in Preferences, and there is no audio track on the for that language. You will have to manually select it, OR remove the preference.

The audio codec is one not supported by your player. You would have to use a different player that understands the codec in question.

I have had this happen to me a few times recently.

It's frustrating to not have audio on the first pass. Or having to habitually check that audio is enabled.

Why would the software be programmed to not rip any audio, just because there isn't an audio track in the preferred language?

Wouldn't it make the most sense to have logic in MakeMKV where, if there is only one audio track available, that it rips that it includes that audio in the rip, even though it doesn't match the preferred language?

Because who wants to rip a DVD without any audio whatsoever? Seems to me the answer to that question is "nobody" (or at least "extremely few people")

That comes down to user interface. What's the "perfect" interface that suits all users?

If you chose a language preference, it is usually because you don't want any other language in the resultant file. Should a program go against your wishes?

In actuality, I didn't choose anything. I'm pretty sure the language is the default setting. I don't recall ever adjusting that setting (didn't even remember its existence until seeing this thread).

Again, why would anyone want the user to end up with a rip with no audio whatsoever? Even if it's not the language that you speak, some audio is better than Zero audio. I think it's a safe guess that at least 99% of MakeMKV users would agree with that.

There is a recent topic on how to get MakeMKV to not save the video track, so what users want is hard to guess.

Some disks are authored "poorly". I've received DVDs from Malaysia that have English, Chinese, and Malay audio or subtitle tracks, all tagged as either "English", "Chinese", or "Unknown". The only safe setting for language preference is "None", and sort it out later after the file is on your hard drive. It's been so long since I initially installed MakeMKV I cannot say if it asked for language preference beyond the interface language the first time. I do know it will carry that forward on later update installs, from reading the preferences of the earlier install.

Personally, I'd prefer something like handbrake's tiered language preferences. You can get that in MakeMKV with the advanced Default Selection string, Changing default track selection. Yes, that's beyond the capabilities or desires of most users.

Maybe the "proper" way to handle it would be for MakeMKV to display a warning that "current selection includes no audio track", or maybe any track that would have no audio is expanded on the left menu to show that none is selected.