Joining MKV with DTS tracks?

[KuroNeko]

I have several movies in MKV container with DTS audio that I split into DVD sized chunks and now I'd like to merge them again.

MKVmerge from MKVtoolnix reports it cannot guarantee the result because of the DTS track.

Is there any reliable way to do this? Or would I need to convert the DTS to AC3 (I wouldn't mind but rather not spend the time if it's not really necessary)?

Thanks!

[Inspector.Gadget]

If there's no video joining issue, just re-rip the audio from the original disc and mux with the joined video. Should save some time (and audio quality).

[KuroNeko]

That sounds like one hell of an operation, since we're talking about several hundred files.

Is there no way to join the DTS tracks reliably? That at least could be batch processed, no discs to swap.

[setarip_old]

@KuroNeko

Hi! I have several movies in MKV container with DTS audio that I split into DVD sized chunks and now I'd like to merge them again.
Am I misunderstanding your post? If you already have the movies in .MKV containers, why do you have to re-join the splits you've made of them?

[KuroNeko]

Correct. I split them to burn them on DVD discs. But now I'm moving them to harddisk on a server. I want to rejoin them so I won't have to start a second or third part during the movie but can enjoy them without interruption

[setarip_old]

I MUST be misunderstanding you.

Again, if you already have the movies in .MKV containers, why do you have to re-join the splits you've made of them? Why not simply place the .MKVs that you previously created on to your server's hard drive?

[Ghitulescu]

Or even simpler, rerip the disks, it's faster and painless.

[KuroNeko]

Or even simpler, rerip the disks, it's faster and painless.

reripping and recoding is most definitely NOT faster nor painless

It's doing work that has already been done again. Surely in this day and age there has to be a way to join two MKV files with DTS audio

[KuroNeko]

I MUST be misunderstanding you.

Again, if you already have the movies in .MKV containers, why do you have to re-join the splits you've made of them? Why not simply place the .MKVs that you previously created on to your server's hard drive?

Because I dislike the brief interruption when you play multiple files after another. If you were to select both parts in MPC for instance, they'd automatically play one after the other but with a brief interruption. I remember disliking having a break to change the DVD, so now that I can move all to a server, I'd like to eliminate any disturbance in the movie. Usually these breaks happen at inconvenient times, like right when there's a build-up of tension, so it takes out the flow of the movie.

From the hesitance here - everyone seems to concentrate on why I'd like to do this rather than the problem at hand - I gather that in the past 10 years there has been no progress and what I ask can still not be done?

[Ghitulescu]

Depending on how the MKV was cut/split, it would be sometimes impossible to join them back without a "click". This is why I said that reripping is better. I mentioned nothing concerning the reencoding. BTW, how big were the DVDs that after reencoding they had been subjected to splitting over 2+ DVDRs???

[KuroNeko]

Depending on how the MKV was cut/split, it would be sometimes impossible to join them back without a "click". This is why I said that reripping is better.

I see, well, maybe better, but not faster/painless though. Reripping a few hundred DVD and Bluray is not really my idea of fun. And adding more HDs to the server to avoid recoding is not really good too, I'd rather spend that money on new Blurays

[TinTime]

Depending on how the MKV was cut/split, it would be sometimes impossible to join them back without a "click".

Out of curiosity why is this? Wouldn't, say, mkvmerge split at the end of a DTS frame?

[sneaker_ger]

I'm also wondering as to why this could lead to problems. Maybe you could ask Mosu in the mkvtoolnix thread to make a statement about what problems to expect and under which circumstances.

[ramicio]

Is the file on your computer? If so it will only take a few minutes to just try to join them and see the results. Video should be fine. If it is messed up then you can just rerip the audio track and mux it back into the joined video.

[Ghitulescu]

From the hesitance here - everyone seems to concentrate on why I'd like to do this rather than the problem at hand - I gather that in the past 10 years there has been no progress and what I ask can still not be done?

Apparently everyone here tries to find complicated solutions to complicated problems that wouldn't exist in the first place.

This issue also highlights the caveats of a wrongly done backup. A correctly done backup would probably never be "corrected", unless extraordinary technological advances arrived and the old players are threatened by extinction.

Reripping a few hundred DVD and Bluray is not really my idea of fun
You had this fun once :)
Have fun once more, but this time do it properly.

I gather that in the past 10 years there has been no progress and what I ask can still not be done?
The MKV is among us for some 7-8 years (2002 its invention ; mid 2003 when it started to spread).

[TinTime]

After a bit of reading it seems that a DTS frame is 32/3ms and not 11ms as I thought. If the split mkv has the DTS track aligned to the nearest ms then I can see how it could introduce problems when you try to join the parts again.

If my assumption is correct then could you do the following?

1. Use mkvextract on the individual mkv parts to get temp1.dts, temp2.dts, temp3.dts, etc.
2. Append the parts - copy /b temp1.dts+temp2.dts+temp3.dts complete.dts