HD-DVD/Blu‑Ray Stream Extractor: Preserve High‑Quality MKV & FLAC Tracks

Extract Streams from HD‑DVD & Blu‑Ray: HD‑DVD/Blu‑Ray Stream Extractor Guide

What this guide covers

  • Purpose: How to demux (extract) audio, video, subtitle, and metadata streams from HD‑DVD and Blu‑Ray discs/ISOs into lossless files for editing, archiving, or remuxing.
  • Outcomes: You’ll end up with separate elementary streams or container files (e.g., H.264/VC‑1/AVC, LPCM/DTS/TrueHD/AC‑3, PGS/SubRip) suitable for further processing.

Required tools (common, cross‑platform)

  • MakeMKV — read discs and produce MKV or dump stream IDs
  • eac3to — audio/video demuxing and conversion (Windows; works under WINE on Linux/macOS)
  • Mkvtoolnix (mkvmerge, mkvextract) — extract and remux MKV tracks
  • tsMuxer or tsMuxeRGUI — sometimes needed for BDAV/TS formats
  • BDSup2Sub / Subtitle Edit — convert PGS to SRT/ass (if needed)
  • MediaInfo — inspect stream details and codecs
  • FFmpeg — rewrap/convert streams when required

Typical workflow (prescriptive)

  1. Rip disc to an ISO or MKV:
    • Use MakeMKV to read the disc and save main movie as an MKV (fast, preserves all tracks and chapters) or create a full disc ISO.
  2. Inspect streams:
    • Open the MKV/ISO with MediaInfo to list video, audio, subtitle codecs, languages, and stream IDs. Note track numbers and codecs.
  3. Demux tracks from MKV (preferred if you used MakeMKV):
    • Use mkvextract to extract each track:

      Code

      mkvextract tracks input.mkv 0:video.h264 1:audio.dts 2:subtitle.sup
    • Or use mkvmerge to remux selected tracks into a new MKV.
  4. Extract from ISO/Blu‑ray structure (if not MKV):
    • Use eac3to to list and extract:

      Code

      eac3to disc_folder eac3to discfolder 1: video.h264 2: audio.truehd 3: subtitle.sup
    • tsMuxer can handle .m2ts streams when needed.
  5. Convert or preserve audio:
    • Keep lossless audio (TrueHD, DTS‑HD MA, LPCM) if archiving.
    • Use eac3to or FFmpeg to convert to FLAC if a lossless container is preferred:

      Code

      eac3to audio.thd audio.wav flac audio.wav
  6. Convert subtitles (PGS) to text (optional):
    • Use BDSup2Sub to convert to .sub/.idx or Subtitle Edit with OCR to produce SRT/ASS.
  7. Remux into target container:
    • Use mkvmerge to assemble selected video, audio, subtitle files into a final MKV:

      Code

      mkvmerge -o final.mkv –language 0:eng video.h264 –language 0:eng audio.dts –language 0:eng subtitle.srt

Notes and best practices

  • Preserve originals (ISO/MKV) before destructive conversions.
  • Keep track of language and track IDs; name files clearly (movie.eng.dts, movie.hdr.h264).
  • For HDR video, ensure tools used preserve HDR metadata (use mkvmerge and FFmpeg builds with HDR support).
  • For batch jobs, script eac3to/mkvextract calls; MakeMKV has a CLI for automation.
  • Legal: ensure you have the right to rip content in your jurisdiction.

Quick reference table

  • Input sources: Blu‑Ray folders / ISO / MKV
  • Video codecs: H.264/AVC, VC‑1, HEVC/H.265
  • Audio codecs: TrueHD, DTS‑HD MA, LPCM, AC‑3
  • Subtitle formats: PGS (image), SRT/ASS (text)
  • Key tools: MakeMKV, eac3to, mkvtoolnix, FFmpeg, BDSup2Sub, MediaInfo

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