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I've was able to combine two sides of a DVD (The Right Stuff, 3h18m, 7.4GB final file size) into a single MKV file with chapter markers and subtitles using the Mkvtoolnix (Mkvmerge) utility. Don't ask me exactly how I did it, but it's not that difficult and you can find out how to do it by reading the documentation for the utility itself. The audio is only Dolby 2+1, but I really don't remember whether that is limited by the tools or just the way I ripped the DVD.

My original MKVs were created using the MakeMKV application, then merged using the free Mkvtoolnix tool (there is a GUI version for Mac OS X, I didn't use the command line). Once you have the combined MKV as a reference archive I think you should be able to use Handbrake to produce a compressed H264 movie file for whatever device you'd like.
 
I was able to accomplish this using mkvmerge. I ripped both DVDs of the lord of the rings extended editions then merged them into one file. FYI I did this in ubuntu and as I am new to Mac I do not know if the same utility exists for Mac but I think it is in macports.
 
Rip the movie to .vob then combine, then Handbrake.

When you say "combine", what precisely do you mean? Do I rename the disc 2 VOBs so they are sequential with disc 1's VOBs? For example, if both discs have:

VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_01_2.VOB
VTS_01_3.VOB
VTS_01_4.VOB

Do I then rename disc 2's VOBs as:

VTS_01_5.VOB
VTS_01_6.VOB
VTS_01_7.VOB
VTS_01_8.VOB

And then put all 8 VOB files in the same VIDEO_TS folder? What about the IFO files?
 
If you are ripping from DVD this is what i have done.

Rip the two DVD's and use the seemless join in DETOX to join them. Then run through HB.

I have done this with all of the extended LOTHR movies and it worked great.

DETOX is DVD2OneX
 
As other people have suggested just rip both disks using MakeMKV then combine the 2 MKV's together using MKVMerge from the MKVToolNIX package. This is how I've handled all my multidisk DVD's. It only takes a couple of minutes to combine the MKV's using MKVMerge and then you can just Handbrake the resulting MKV file like normal.

Infact MKVMerge will also merge mp4 files so if you've already Handbraked both DVD's to seperate mp4/m4v files you can still join them.
 
QuickTime X in 10.7 Lion has a merge clips option but I don't know if it will preserve chapter markers, subs and seamless ac3.
 
MKVMerge issue

As other people have suggested just rip both disks using MakeMKV then combine the 2 MKV's together using MKVMerge from the MKVToolNIX package. This is how I've handled all my multidisk DVD's. It only takes a couple of minutes to combine the MKV's using MKVMerge and then you can just Handbrake the resulting MKV file like normal.

Infact MKVMerge will also merge mp4 files so if you've already Handbraked both DVD's to seperate mp4/m4v files you can still join them.

When I try and join two MKV files into one (the new Lord of the Rings Blu Rays), the second half of the movie has no chapters. Only the first 27 chapters from the first half of the movie show up. Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong? I'm using MKVMerge GUI.
 
I don't know weather MKVMerge will retain the chapters from both of the merged files. I've never bothered checking because I always add the chapters afterwards during the tagging process using MetaX or your favourite tagging app.
 
I don't know weather MKVMerge will retain the chapters from both of the merged files. I've never bothered checking because I always add the chapters afterwards during the tagging process using MetaX or your favourite tagging app.

I thought the tagging apps just added name information for chapter breaks that already existed in the file. Is there a way to create chapter breaks in MetaX?
 
Windows version of MetaX, yes you can add new chapters, it even has a Barns and Noble search to grab the chapter names and times.

Mac version of MetaX, no idea:(

But I know that Subler can add new chapters, you just need to find the chapter information from somewhere. Not sure if Subler can grab the chapter times from tagChimp or not, I don't use a Mac.
 
I answered all these question in the very first response to the OP. And yes, if you read my first post you'll see that I was able to retain the chapter markers in my merged disc (in fact, I even applied custom names to several of the chapters as a test of the merge process). As I recall, you can sync the two sets of chapter markers by applying a single time offset to the second set of chapters. Just get MakeMKV and Mkvtoolnix (Mkvmerge) and spend a little time to learn how to use them. As an added bonus, for the time being these tools are free unless you need to rip Blu-ray, in which case you may be expected to pay something for the MakeMKV utility.
 
Well just to respond to my own post about Lion's Quicktime merge feature.

I merged 4 clips from a computer training video, h.264 .mov 10fps screencast videos.

There were not any chapters in each video, but I was hoping that QuickTime would add chapter markers between each video clip. Most audiobook programs do this with each file. But nope QuickTime did not.

Also, there is no longer a Save As option but only export, and @only apple device profiles ie AppleTV. Since my screen cast was only 960x540@10fps, export was only about 8 minutes on my old mini.

But what if this was 720p 3.1 high profile? Would QuickTime force a render requiring hours rather than just minutes?

Just to note, preview app no longer has Save As either, you have to export to save changes?
 
When I launch Mkvtoolnix I get the following message at startup:

Incompatible mkvmerge version

The GUI is configured to use the mkvmerge executable from a different version () than the GUI itself (mkvmerge GUI v4.9.1 ('Ich will') built on July 13 2011 23:49:18). This is not supported but will not be prevented either. You should change the mkvmerge executable in the preferences dialog.


Mkvtoolnix launches, but the "Preferences" menu item is grayed-out, thus not accessible. When I visit the mkvmerge web site I'm supposed to install MacPorts and dl and install the updated Apple development tools. Seems like a lot to go through. Unless I'm missing something here...
 
Bumpity, bump!

When I launch Mkvtoolnix I get the following message at startup:

Incompatible mkvmerge version

The GUI is configured to use the mkvmerge executable from a different version () than the GUI itself (mkvmerge GUI v4.9.1 ('Ich will') built on July 13 2011 23:49:18). This is not supported but will not be prevented either. You should change the mkvmerge executable in the preferences dialog.


Mkvtoolnix launches, but the "Preferences" menu item is grayed-out, thus not accessible. When I visit the mkvmerge web site I'm supposed to install MacPorts and dl and install the updated Apple development tools. Seems like a lot to go through. Unless I'm missing something here...
 
When you say "combine", what precisely do you mean? Do I rename the disc 2 VOBs so they are sequential with disc 1's VOBs? For example, if both discs have:

VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_01_2.VOB
VTS_01_3.VOB
VTS_01_4.VOB

Do I then rename disc 2's VOBs as:

VTS_01_5.VOB
VTS_01_6.VOB
VTS_01_7.VOB
VTS_01_8.VOB

And then put all 8 VOB files in the same VIDEO_TS folder? What about the IFO files?

I was able to get this to work, rename the VOB's as such above, and then use IFOEdit and use the "Create IFOs" feature. You will point the program to the first file of succession "VTS_01_1.VOB" and the program will create new IFO's linking the following VOB's together like a normal dvd.

I was then able to encode using Handbrake, also retaining chapter markers.

I used DVDFab to pull the main titles from each disk, using the merge feature. Then did the above instructions manually renaming the VOB's and using IFO Edit to make new IFO's.

EDIT:
The above method did not work, I wrote this while handbrake was encoding, but the result was only the first disk, although handbrake did read the movie as full (combined) length movie.
 
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