How StaxRip processes different source formats

stax76 · 28th January 2015, 20:57

Hi everybody,

I try to clarify how StaxRip treats various different source formats and what options exist to change the default handling.

MKV has the richest feature set as container as well as support in StaxRip, the tools behind MKV are mostly mkvtoolnix and MakeMKV and I'm a huge fan of both.

MakeMKV can rip DVDs and Blu-rays to a single MKV file, the old DVD handling was difficult and error prone so MakeMKV was a blessing.

By default StaxRip opens MKV files with the ffms2 AviSynth plugin and it's FFVideoSource filter. The downside is before ffms2 can open a file it has to index the file first, while it's not a issue for DVD and SSD, it can be slow for Blu-ray and HDD.

It's possible to get around indexing by using DirectShowSource, this can be chosen prior opening a source file by right-clicking the source filter menu. It's not advised to use the the cut feature with DirectShowSource as it might result in audio sync problems.

Demuxing can be configured at Tools/Settings/Demuxing, by default demuxing is now disabled for MP4 and MKV, StaxRip can now handle audio without demuxing fine, the audio text box has a new context menu allowing to choose which stream to use, subtitles don't require demuxing either, for MKV output MKV and MP4 can be used as subtitle source file with the limitation the preview won't work, often it's sufficient to look at the video source file with a player. Which subtitles StaxRip will pick-up automatically can be defines in the options (native and English by default) Using chapters and attachments does require demuxing however, it's disabled by default but can be enabled at: Tools/Settings/Demuxing/Edit

Other demuxing options at Tools/Settings/Demuxing are:

ProjectX demuxes MPEG-2 TS files, some files might cause problems, if
ProjectX is disabled DGindex will handle MPEG-2 TS instead, on Nvidia systems DGIndexNV is a option, it was working very reliable when I had a Nvidia card and it handles almost any TS file including AVC.

Dealing with TS is traditionally difficult, it's not advised to open TS files and raw streams with StaxRip because ffms2 works better with MKV or MP4, it will probably work fine when the source don't has errors and the cut feature isn't used but other wise likely has seek performance and audio sync problems. Therefore ripping with eac3to creating MKV files should be considered which requires Haali Splitter to be installed. TS AVC captures should also be remuxed to MKV first, in my tests mkvmerge had massive audio sync problems when I used StaxRip's cut feature on mkvmerge created files. Haali Splitter includes the MKV muxing tools GDSMux (GUI version) and DSMux (command line version) that worked perfectly, cutting without audio sync problems worked reliable. Alternatives are fixing and cutting TS files with a tool such as TS-Doctor first or using DGDecNV which should handle TS, raw AVC and audio sync fast and reliable.

Here are some screenshots showing the described features:

New stream selection, audio demuxing is disabled by default now:

New feature to define which filter is used for a particular format:

New simplified eac3to demuxing GUI:

Source filter selection:

Any source or transform filter might be integrated:

The demuxing chain is fully customizable:

Demuxers are integrated in a generic fashion allowing to integrate any demuxer that has a CLI:

28th January 2015, 20:57	#1 \| Link
stax76 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: On thin ice Posts: 6,837	How StaxRip processes different source formats Hi everybody, I try to clarify how StaxRip treats various different source formats and what options exist to change the default handling. MKV has the richest feature set as container as well as support in StaxRip, the tools behind MKV are mostly mkvtoolnix and MakeMKV and I'm a huge fan of both. MakeMKV can rip DVDs and Blu-rays to a single MKV file, the old DVD handling was difficult and error prone so MakeMKV was a blessing. By default StaxRip opens MKV files with the ffms2 AviSynth plugin and it's FFVideoSource filter. The downside is before ffms2 can open a file it has to index the file first, while it's not a issue for DVD and SSD, it can be slow for Blu-ray and HDD. It's possible to get around indexing by using DirectShowSource, this can be chosen prior opening a source file by right-clicking the source filter menu. It's not advised to use the the cut feature with DirectShowSource as it might result in audio sync problems. Demuxing can be configured at Tools/Settings/Demuxing, by default demuxing is now disabled for MP4 and MKV, StaxRip can now handle audio without demuxing fine, the audio text box has a new context menu allowing to choose which stream to use, subtitles don't require demuxing either, for MKV output MKV and MP4 can be used as subtitle source file with the limitation the preview won't work, often it's sufficient to look at the video source file with a player. Which subtitles StaxRip will pick-up automatically can be defines in the options (native and English by default) Using chapters and attachments does require demuxing however, it's disabled by default but can be enabled at: Tools/Settings/Demuxing/Edit Other demuxing options at Tools/Settings/Demuxing are: ProjectX demuxes MPEG-2 TS files, some files might cause problems, if ProjectX is disabled DGindex will handle MPEG-2 TS instead, on Nvidia systems DGIndexNV is a option, it was working very reliable when I had a Nvidia card and it handles almost any TS file including AVC. Dealing with TS is traditionally difficult, it's not advised to open TS files and raw streams with StaxRip because ffms2 works better with MKV or MP4, it will probably work fine when the source don't has errors and the cut feature isn't used but other wise likely has seek performance and audio sync problems. Therefore ripping with eac3to creating MKV files should be considered which requires Haali Splitter to be installed. TS AVC captures should also be remuxed to MKV first, in my tests mkvmerge had massive audio sync problems when I used StaxRip's cut feature on mkvmerge created files. Haali Splitter includes the MKV muxing tools GDSMux (GUI version) and DSMux (command line version) that worked perfectly, cutting without audio sync problems worked reliable. Alternatives are fixing and cutting TS files with a tool such as TS-Doctor first or using DGDecNV which should handle TS, raw AVC and audio sync fast and reliable. Here are some screenshots showing the described features: New stream selection, audio demuxing is disabled by default now: New feature to define which filter is used for a particular format: New simplified eac3to demuxing GUI: Source filter selection: Any source or transform filter might be integrated: The demuxing chain is fully customizable: Demuxers are integrated in a generic fashion allowing to integrate any demuxer that has a CLI: Last edited by stax76; 30th January 2015 at 20:24.