Add Stereo Audio Tracks to MKV Files

Comments

• 

  aaf said,

  Ac3 to Mp3…Blah! Just make it into a 2 CH 128kb/s Ac3.:)
  The Holy Trinity of Linux Video…ffmpeg,mkvtoolnix and HandBrake[!].

• 

  gmendoza said,

  Hey thanks for the tip on HandBrake! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for to help convert and manipulate various video formats!

  Regarding AC3, the whole point in the mentioned scenario was that certain media players won’t decode the AC3 DD audio for you. So unless you have a receiver in between the player and the TV, you can’t hear anything. Unless I’m missing something about 2-Channel AC3, wouldn’t that still hold true? Sounds like a test is in order. I’ll add it to the post if so.

  Thanks again!

• 

  Yachika Verma said,

  Thanks for great info. I will visit your blog for more interesting posts like this.

• 

  Saran said,

  Here’s a simple script to automate the AC3->WAV->MP3->MVK process:

  #!/bin/bash
  echo
  echo $1
  echo
  mkvmerge -i $1

  echo
  echo “####### STARTING AUDIO EXTRACTION #######”
  echo
  ffmpeg -i $1 -acodec pcm_s16le -ac 2 audio.wav

  echo
  echo “####### COMPRESSING AUDIO #######”
  echo
  lame -V0 -q0 –vbr-new audio.wav audio.mp3

  echo
  echo “####### APPENDING AUDIO TO CONTAINER #######”
  echo
  mkvmerge -o new.$1 \
  $1 \
  –language 0:eng \
  –track-name “0:2-Channel Stereo (MP3)” \
  –default-track 0:yes \
  -a 0 -D -S audio.mp3 \

  echo
  echo new.$1
  echo
  mkvmerge -i new.$1

  Just call it from (unix) command line with mkv filename as argument.

• 

  gmendoza said,

  Very nice Saran. I too ended up creating an automation script, but did not publish it for the simple reason that it would get complicated trying to make it versatile enough for just about any source MKV file I come across.

  For example, many of my MKV’s have multiple audio tracks, and the default isn’t always English. So simply running ffmpeg without specifying which to use, might cause ffmpeg to pull the wrong source audio track. Also, many foreign movies end up needing subtitle tracks, and excluding them all by default can suck. :-) Again, choosing the right one when there are multiple subtitle tracks is also important.

  It will take some work, but you’ve inspired me to get a public version going. Thanks again!

• 

  Saran said,

  Thanks, gmendoza :)

  I was, too, aware that such simple script can’t cover all aspects, but for me it does cover 90% of mkvs :)

  As you surely know, this line does ripping of audio:

  ffmpeg -i $1 -acodec pcm_s16le -ac 2 audio.wav

  and (as you also surely know) with this command you can inspect the streams:

  ffmpeg -i

  Example result:

  Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264, yuv420p, 1280×720, PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 24 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc
  Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16
  Stream #0.2(eng): Audio: dca, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16

  So, you just need to add this to choose a different (in this case, the 3rd, dts) stream:

  -map 0.2

  Solution: add another input parameter for script specifying the audio stream mapping (tho you have to check the file beforehand with ffmpeg -i ).

  It just depends on the number of files you are working on so it can turn out that u spent more time on script than you would on converting each file manually (via e.g. gui) :)
  But at least we polish our scripting skillz ;)

• 

  gmendoza said,

  Saran, yes indeed. Have a look at the script I’ve been using. Keep in mind that it can be improved a great deal by adding some input validation, subtitle prompts, and post processing cleanup of temp wav and mp3 files. And of course, the dialogue makes sense to me, but for new users, it can probably be a little complicated. :-)

  I call it mkmkv.sh, but feel free to call it whatever you like. It relies only on a single argument (the video file name), and just make sure to invoke the script from the same directory as the video file.

  cd /path/to/mkv-dir/
mkmkv.sh filename.mkv

  #!/bin/bash
  MP3="${1}.mp3"
  WAV="${1}.wav"
   
  echo ""
  echo "Identifying Video File: \"$1\""
  echo ""
   
  ffmpeg -i "$1" 2>&1 | grep "Audio"
   
  echo ""
  echo "Which audio track do you wish to convert to Stereo MP3?"
  read -p "Enter desired FFmpeg audio stream ID in X:Y format: " STREAM
  echo ""
  echo "Identifying MKV Track ID's..."
  echo ""
   
  mkvmerge -i "$1"
   
  echo ""
  read -p "Enter Video ID to be Included: " VID
  read -p "Enter Video ID $VID Description: " VDESC
  echo ""
  read -p "Enter Audio ID to be Included: " AID
  read -p "Enter Audio ID $AID Description: " ADESC
  echo ""
  read -p "Enter name for your NEW MKV file (e.g. movie.mkv): " OUTPUT
  echo ""
  echo ""
  echo "Verify proposed mkvmerge command..."
  echo ""
  echo "\"mkvmerge\" -o \"$OUTPUT\" --language $VID:eng --track-name \"$VID:$VDESC\" --default-track $VID:yes --language $AID:eng --track-name \"$AID:$ADESC\" --default-track $AID:yes -a $AID -d $VID -S \"$1\" --language 0:eng --track-name \"0:English Stereo MP3\" --default-track 0:no -a 0 -D -S \"$MP3\" --track-order 0:$VID,0:$AID,1:0"
   
  echo ""
  read -p "Ctrl+C to cancel, or ENTER to continue."
   
  echo ""
  echo "Running command: ffmpeg -i \"$1\" -map $STREAM -acodec pcm_s16le -ac 2 \"$WAV\""
  ffmpeg -i "$1" -map $STREAM -acodec pcm_s16le -ac 2 "$WAV"
   
  echo ""
  echo "Running command: lame -V0 -q0 --vbr-new \"$WAV\" \"$MP3\""
  lame -V0 -q0 --vbr-new "$WAV" "$MP3"
   
  echo ""
  echo "Running mkvmerge..."
  echo ""
  "mkvmerge" -o "$OUTPUT" \
  --language $VID:eng \
  --track-name "$VID:$VDESC" \
  --default-track $VID:yes \
  --language $AID:eng \
  --track-name "$AID:$ADESC" \
  --default-track $AID:yes \
  -a $AID -d $VID -S "$1" \
  --language 0:eng \
  --track-name "0:English Stereo MP3" \
  --default-track 0:no \
  -a 0 -D -S "$MP3" \
  --track-order 0:$VID,0:$AID,1:0

• 

  Saran said,

  The script looks fine, gmendoza :)

  Why I started fiddling with script is to actually automate the process as much as possible and as many movies as possible, so this way that requires much user interaction is no good (for me). I’m sure I’ll try/use it for single file conversions :)

• 

  construction games said,

  Great stuff as usual.

• 

  Bruce said,

  Great stuff as usual.

• mkvsmoothie - free your mkv said,

  Mkv smoothie 0.6.6…

  I found your entry interesting thus I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…

Add A Comment