Step 1-> Rip your BD to FOLDER structure using a program like DVDFab or AnyDVD HD
No further instructions here; I assume you can get this far.
Step 2-> Examine the file with BDINFOto determine which PLAYLIST comprises your movie:
The TOP window pane shows you the PLAYLISTS, and the BOTTOM window shows the assets that are associated with this playlist. In general, you can infer that the BIGGEST (in terms of bytes) or LONGEST (in terms of length) is your main movie. But here, there are two playlists (00000 and 00001) that are identical.
Clicking the 00000 playlist and comparing the output in the bottom to that of 00001 shows that they ARE actually identical. So we’ll use 00000.
That’s all we need to use BDINFO for, so close it.
NOTE: If, indeed, the main movie *IS* entirely in its OWN M2TS file, you can SKIP STEP 3. However, MANY BD’s are authored in such a way that the movie is scattered among MANY M2TS files. Disney / Pixar movies are known for this. So, even though MY movie *IS* in one M2TS file, I’ll still show Step 3, as the steps are identical regardless.
Step 3 → Remux the Main Movie into its own M2TS file.
Open that specific playlist file in TSMuxerGUI
Click ADD… and navigate to the PLAYLIST file that was determined above. It should be in *\BDMV\PLAYLIST directory.
The top portion of the screen, under “Tracks:,” lists ALL of the video / audio / Subtitle tracks that make up the movie.
In our example, the studio decided to put both a HIGH RESOLUTION (HD) and Low Resolution stream inside the M2TS. Don’t know why, but I don’t want the low resolution stream.
I am selecting the HIGH RESOLUTION video stream, and ALL the english audio tracks. Pick any or all, but make sure you include at least one!
Apollo 13 has a HUGE number of subtitle tracks. We’ll deal with those later. Don’t select ANY of them right now.
After Selecting the tracks you need, and DESELECTING all the ones you don’t, under OUTPUT, click the “M2TS Muxing” radio button, provide a path for the OUTPUT file to be saved, then click START MUXING.
This can take quite a while. It took about 5 minutes on my 4-core i3 processor.
It should be noted that, if you DO select the Subtitle tracks, the resulting M2TS file will play just fine (with subtitles) on the WD Boxes. So if that’s all you want, you can STOP.
But if you’re interested in saving a signficicant amount of space, continue on.
As it stands, this new M2TS file is a few gigabytes smaller than the original, just from removing the unused audio and subtitle tracks.
Step 4 → Pull the PGS (a/k/a SUP) format Subtitle track(s) out of the BD to use in your MKV.
Keeping tsMuxerGUI Open, DESELECT EVERYTHING except the Subttitle track you want.
Change the OUTPUT radio button to DEMUX, and click Start Demuxing.
This took about 15 minutes on my PC.
Step 5 → Use BDSup2Subto convert these to a format recognized by MKV Players: VobSub
Open the SUP file you just demuxed in BDSup2Sub.
When it is finished loading the file, take note of the bottom of the OUTPUT pane; it will say “Detected X Forced Subs.” If X is any number larger than 0, you’ll need to determine what you want to do next.
Step A-> SOME Forced Subs Detected
If Forced Subs were detected, you’ll probably want to create a UNIQUE Subtitle track that contains ONLY the forced subtitles. The WD doesn’t obey the FORCED flag, so you’ll need to account for these subtitles separately.
In the CONVERSION OPTIONS window that opens automatically after import, keep all defaults (unless for some reason you need to change them; I never have…) and click OK.
Click FILE / Save/Export…
Make sure “Export Only Forced” is CHECKED.
Then click SAVE. This should go pretty quick; Maybe 15 seconds?
Click FILE / Save/Export AGAIN, but this time, make sure “Export Only Forced” is *NOT* selected.
Make sure you assign a unique file name for this second set, and click SAVE.
You will now have TWO subtitle tracks; One for the FORCED subs, and one for ALL subs.
This is useful for those (like me) who want the full set for when the kids are being too noisy and I don’t want to turn the TV up.
Step B-> NO Forced Subtitles Detected
Click FILE / Save/Export…
Then click SAVE.
Step 6 → Create your MKV.
Using HANDBRAKE, open the M2TS file you created in Step 3, and use all your favorite options to create your MKV.
No further instructions here… I assume you’ve already used it… There’s tutorials galore on this subject if you haven’t.
Step 7 → Merge your SUBTITLE TRACKS into your MKV.
Using MKVMerge
… ADD your MKV File that you created in step 6.
…ADD your IDX files that you created in Step 5.
… Select the OUTPUT FILENAME
… select any options you may need to select (like turning off Header Compression if you’re using older products that don’t support that)
… Click START MUXING.
In the PICTURE BELOW, IGNORE the file names I used for my MKV. I didn’t want to wait 15 hours to actually do Handbrake on Apollo 13, so I used a pre-existing (star trek) MKV just to get the screen scrape.
