Music Media Helper (Tools for Multichannel Audio & Music Videos)

[paligap]

My understanding is HD-DVD can be ripped with MakeMKV using any BD drive.

That didn't work when I tried it. Neither Windows nor MakeMKV recognized a disc in the drive.

 

[HomerJAU]

That didn't work when I tried it. Neither Windows nor MakeMKV recognized a disc in the drive

Thanks for the confirmation. I gave away all my HD-DVDs to my son many years ago after I bought my first BD player. I’ve never tried to rip one.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I put the 3 files into 3 separate folders and used MMH to split, rename and create NFO files for each. I see how each song gets its own NFO file, but MMH also created one in each folder called "Concert.nfo". I was wondering if, when I move all the MKV and NFO files back into one folder, I need to create another Concert.nfo that contains info for all the songs.

Just to be clear, when you say "move all the MKV and NFO files into one folder" you are referring only to the files from a single concert video... correct? With each concert video in its own folder.

As long as all the chapter NFO files point to the same artist and concert name, the Concert NFO should still be valid, so just move one copy of it when you move everything else. It only provides info for concert name, artist, year, genre. .... the same stuff you enter when you create it.

Some releases are more challenging than others. IMO, there are 3 types of video releases... Ones where the primary target is the music... like The Jethro Tull, or the Doors box sets. They have one or two videos, each of which is stand alone. Then there are the true "music video" releases like The Essential Billy Joel and the McCartney Years where the point of the release are the videos... also each of which is standalone track. Its the full length live videos that are the toughest, like David Gilmoure Live at Pompey or Big Big Train Empire. For those I split it into chapters but also keep a full length version of the entire video. I do this because I dislike the blip it produces when it changes chapters. I'll continue to do this until i either run out of storage or find a better way.

Be careful how you name the artist folders. "The Beatles" works great for music tags, not so great for video NFO files, It will list "The Beatles" in the T's right along with every other band that includes "The" in its formal name.

Check out this thread for more info on all this

Using Kodi to play Music Videos


I still havent figured out the album are thing yet

 

[HomerJAU]

Just to be clear, when you say "move all the MKV and NFO files into one folder" you are referring only to the files from a single concert video... correct? With each concert video in its own folder.

Yes, all files from same concert into its own folder. One folder per concert.

 

[paligap]

Just to be clear, when you say "move all the MKV and NFO files into one folder" you are referring only to the files from a single concert video... correct? With each concert video in its own folder.

As long as all the chapter NFO files point to the same artist and concert name, the Concert NFO should still be valid, so just move one copy of it when you move everything else. It only provides info for concert name, artist, year, genre. .... the same stuff you enter when you create it.

Some releases are more challenging than others. IMO, there are 3 types of video releases... Ones where the primary target is the music... like The Jethro Tull, or the Doors box sets. They have one or two videos, each of which is stand alone. Then there are the true "music video" releases like The Essential Billy Joel and the McCartney Years where the point of the release are the videos... also each of which is standalone track. Its the full length live videos that are the toughest, like David Gilmoure Live at Pompey or Big Big Train Empire. For those I split it into chapters but also keep a full length version of the entire video. I do this because I dislike the blip it produces when it changes chapters. I'll continue to do this until i either run out of storage or find a better way.

Be careful how you name the artist folders. "The Beatles" works great for music tags, not so great for video NFO files, It will list "The Beatles" in the T's right along with every other band that includes "The" in its formal name.

Check out this thread for more info on all this

Using Kodi to play Music Videos


I still havent figured out the album are thing yet

Yes, this is the first concert video I've ripped that had the songs spread across more than one track, or whatever it's called. So there were 3 MKV files created, which I moved to separate folders before splitting and renaming. Honestly, fixing the time/chapter/title problems in these is going to be a pain, and I also kept the original files. I haven't tried to play them with Kodi or my Oppo or Sony players, but I wonder whether I'd be able to navigate among songs or stop and pick up where I left off later, maybe much later.

 

[HomerJAU]

fixing the time/chapter/title problems in these is going to be a pain

You may only have to fix a few chapter start times so it may not be too much work.

 

[HomerJAU]

INXS Kick and PF DSOTM were two BD releases I remember having to fix

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I have some multidisc concerts where I prefix the track number with a disc number:

1.01. First Song from First Disc.mkv
1.02. Second Song from first...

2.01. First Song from Scond Disc.mkv
2.02. Etc

EDIT: There’s a Disc Number prefix option you can youse to auto prefix the chapter numbers in the Split and Rename tool for this

I've run into this a couple of times as well. My best example is the Stones set Forty Flicks. Its 4 disks each with a concert. The venues are different and the set lists vary. I just treated each one like a seperate concert (which in fact, they are). So, Forty Flicks-Stadium Show, Forty Flicks-Arena Show, etc.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Yes, this is the first concert video I've ripped that had the songs spread across more than one track, or whatever it's called. So there were 3 MKV files created, which I moved to separate folders before splitting and renaming. Honestly, fixing the time/chapter/title problems in these is going to be a pain, and I also kept the original files. I haven't tried to play them with Kodi or my Oppo or Sony players, but I wonder whether I'd be able to navigate among songs or stop and pick up where I left off later, maybe much later.

My advise is to rip a handful of disks with both individual and continuous chapters. Get the chapter splits and NFOs done and try watching them in Kodi before doing any more. If you are setting something up wrong there will be less work going back and fixing it all.

Get MKVtoolnix. Its a free utility for MKV files. Its not difficult to learn how to use the basic functions. To fix the timing issues you need to append the end of one file to the previous one, then edit the combined file so that the song breaks in the right spot. Its not as hard as it sounds, but you do have to learn the software.

Also keep in mind that most videos contain more than one audio stream. Unless you direct MakeMKV to rip a specific audio stream, you will get them all. One stream will be designated as the default audio stream, typically the stereo stream. Kodi will play the default stream at the start of every chapter, even if the previous chapter was playing a multichannel stream. It creates even more playback glitches. I have followed Homers previous advise to me and now only rip a single audio stream. Its a lot less hassle playing them back and takes up less storage space.

 

[himey]

I was. I also used an XBOX HD DVD drive, but I used Make MKV. I hadn't used the drive in a few years, and when I powered it up last night to rip this concert, it started smoking a little and emitting a foul odor! It soon passed and worked anyway.

Hmm...I remember trying MakeMKV too with no luck. Was it the latest beta? I have a stack that won't rip.

 

[himey]

That didn't work when I tried it. Neither Windows nor MakeMKV recognized a disc in the drive.

You need a drive that supports HD DVD...

 

[himey]

My advise is to rip a handful of disks with both individual and continuous chapters. Get the chapter splits and NFOs done and try watching them in Kodi before doing any more. If you are setting something up wrong there will be less work going back and fixing it all.

Get MKVtoolnix. Its a free utility for MKV files. Its not difficult to learn how to use the basic functions. To fix the timing issues you need to append the end of one file to the previous one, then edit the combined file so that the song breaks in the right spot. Its not as hard as it sounds, but you do have to learn the software.

Also keep in mind that most videos contain more than one audio stream. Unless you direct MakeMKV to rip a specific audio stream, you will get them all. One stream will be designated as the default audio stream, typically the stereo stream. Kodi will play the default stream at the start of every chapter, even if the previous chapter was playing a multichannel stream. It creates even more playback glitches. I have followed Homers previous advise to me and now only rip a single audio stream. Its a lot less hassle playing them back and takes up less storage space.

Audiomuxer will output a chapter text file that is recognized by different programs like Music Media Helper and it inputs both full blu-rays AND MKVs, just to add to your post...

Once I have the text file I simply add the track titles by copy/paste and load that into MMH. I do this for all my Atmos rips, I don't split them however.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Audiomuxer will output a chapter text file that is recognized by different programs like Music Media Helper and it inputs both full blu-rays AND MKVs, just to add to your post...

Once I have the text file I simply add the track titles by copy/paste and load that into MMH. I do this for all my Atmos rips, I don't split them however.

Good to know. I just find the release on discogs and copy the track info. You do have to do some editing though, to remove track times, etc.

 

[himey]

INXS Kick and PF DSOTM were two BD releases I remember having to fix

Definitely Kick!

 

[himey]

Good to know. I just find the release on discogs and copy the track info. You do have to do some editing though, to remove track times, etc.

The last track shows up and isn't used on some Atmos blu-ray rips. I simply label that track "(ending silence)". Automatic For The People for example...

 

[himey]

You may only have to fix a few chapter start times so it may not be too much work.

Just post here and someone can post their chapter stops. That is what I did for Kick...

 

[atrocity]

You need a drive that supports HD DVD...

I got one several years ago and ripped what I could. The good news is that a couple discs that wouldn't reliably play without locking up ripped cleanly via MakeMKV.

The bad news is that many of the discs had already rotted while a few others had some weird quirk that made MakeMKV refuse to work with them.

In one case, I didn't realize that MakeMKV had completely screwed up the audio at the end of "Blade Runner". When I tried it again after some years I found that disc was so rotted that the damage was easily visible.

 

[HomerJAU]

I just find the release on discogs and copy the track info. You do have to do some editing though, to remove track times

I should write some code to remove the track times from a Discogs page copy and paste in MMH.

I often copy and paste the tracklist from Blu-ray.com if it’s a concert and they’ve listed the tracks.

 

[paligap]

My advise is to rip a handful of disks with both individual and continuous chapters. Get the chapter splits and NFOs done and try watching them in Kodi before doing any more. If you are setting something up wrong there will be less work going back and fixing it all.

Get MKVtoolnix. Its a free utility for MKV files. Its not difficult to learn how to use the basic functions. To fix the timing issues you need to append the end of one file to the previous one, then edit the combined file so that the song breaks in the right spot. Its not as hard as it sounds, but you do have to learn the software.

Also keep in mind that most videos contain more than one audio stream. Unless you direct MakeMKV to rip a specific audio stream, you will get them all. One stream will be designated as the default audio stream, typically the stereo stream. Kodi will play the default stream at the start of every chapter, even if the previous chapter was playing a multichannel stream. It creates even more playback glitches. I have followed Homers previous advise to me and now only rip a single audio stream. Its a lot less hassle playing them back and takes up less storage space.

I'll take your advice and do it both ways on the next few concerts I rip. I did use MKVtoolnix to merge the 3 files, which I really had to do because two songs were split between different files, kind of like the old 8-tracks. It also made getting the start times right easier because the start times were all from the beginning of one file. I had a little trouble because the "Append" button in the GUI was greyed out in the GUI. I found out that you have to select the first source file, right-click, and then, even though the append function is still greyed out, it allows you to append another file.

I always select just one audio stream, although in some rare cases different files might contain Dolby TrueHD or DTS MA HD, etc.

 

[HomerJAU]

I should write some code to remove the track times from a Discogs page copy and paste in MMH.

This is now done. I added a new command to remove trailing digits (it also removes tabs) so copying the entire Discogs track list is now easier, requiring no manual track time cleanups.

This will be included in the next MMH update.