Change default audio for series

asha_man · 2011-12-19 23:53

Howdo.

I've just started watching a series that has two audio tracks, 1 in German, the other English.
XBMC always plays the German track, when I'd prefer the English. I can manually change this each time from the in-video menu, but was wondering if there is a more elegant, automated way to change this? sort of a "force english" audio option.

btw, i changed the audio to track 2 (english) and saved it as default from the in-video menu, but that didnt make any difference to the next episode i played.

thanks.

**jhsrennie** · 2011-12-20 10:50

I suspect you'll have to use mkvtools or something similar to change the default track setting in the mkv.

JR

tinyxbmc · 2011-12-31 02:29

I have stumbled over the very same situation, it is not Windows or any platform specific and I am actually surprised that XBMC does not provide a preference setting where the user can specify what default audio track he/she wants to listen to. I'm sure this function has been asked for many many times in this forum and it should be difficult to add it.

In the absence of that functionality built into XBMC, you can do the following on a Unix-like (FreeBSD, Linux, ...) system:

Install mkvtoolnix on your system, write a bash / awk script (or any other scripting language of your choice), walk through all your movies, run mkvinfo on each file, parse the relevant properties into variables in your script, construct an appropriate "mkvpropedit" commandline and execute that command on each file. With mkvpropedit you can set the "default-flag" of exactly that audio track you want XBMC to use as the default.

I have verified that this process works.

PS: If there is any other thread around here where that functionality is being discussed, pls point me to it, I haven't found any yet.

superdubious · 2012-01-08 14:41

Thanks for the info tinyxbmc. If you have written a script to do the job is there any chance you could share it on the forum please?

clubwerks · 2012-01-08 19:17

And for those of you that can't write bash scripts or don't have the slightest idea what any of that means, you can simply use mkvmerge GUI to remove audio tracks and/or change the default audio flag.

XBMC cannot pick out anything but the default audio track, unless you play it and switch it manually, then it remembers the audio track you selected.

steelman1991 · 2012-01-08 20:45

If it is just a 'one-off' or infrequent occurrence, you could load the file in mkvmerge and use the 'header' options to change the default flagging of the audio to whatever track you want without remuxing.

The same process can be used to change default/forced subtitle tracks to your preferred language.

tinyxbmc · 2012-01-09 23:02

superdubious Wrote:Thanks for the info tinyxbmc. If you have written a script to do the job is there any chance you could share it on the forum please?

I can certainly make it available "as is". Where should I put it?

jherm · 2012-02-06 09:00

Given that XBMC can list the audio tracks by name already (some of which say the language), it'd be cool to see a configurable regex that can auto-select the track that way. Even cooler if its toggle-able for TV and/or Movies. I know that movie DVDs can sometimes have multiple English tracks.

Maybe I'll see if this could be accomplished by a plugin...

DeMoB · 2012-03-17 19:39

(2012-01-09 23:02)tinyxbmc Wrote:
superdubious Wrote:Thanks for the info tinyxbmc. If you have written a script to do the job is there any chance you could share it on the forum please?
I can certainly make it available "as is". Where should I put it?

If it's just a bash script throw it up in a bbcode tag (literally just ['code'] without the ''s):

Code:

Like so

Hope you subscribed to this thread as I really would like your script Tongue

tinyxbmc · 2012-04-09 00:32

I am trying the "code" tags, however, no guarantees that the copy/paste really renders a working script. At least the tab characters are gone and the formatting of the source file seems broken. I would prefer to upload a real file.

Code:

#!/bin/bash

#

# File:         mkvflags

# Author:       tinyxbmc

# Version:      $Id: mkvflags,v 1.9 2012/04/06 20:26:26 tinyxbmc Exp tinyxbmc $

#

# Description

#

#       This script reads and changes flag properties in .mkv containers 

#

#       If no argument is passed we walk down all .mkv files in the current

#       working directory. If an argument or list of arguments is

#       given we treat each of them as file and try to process it

#

# Motivation / Background

#

#       .mkv Movies contain multiple "tracks". Video tracks, audio tracks,

#       subtitle tracks. At creation time the author can specify which

#       tracks should be played by default. He can also set a "force" flag.

#       The "XBMC" media player interprets those flags and plays the

#       appropriate track. Frequently the files have been authored with

#       "German" audio track marked as "default", an option which I personally

#       did not want. Consequently I have written this script to walk

#       through all my files and modify the flags such that an "English"

#       track is marked as the default track. Subsequently I enhanced the

#       script to recognize if more than one English audio track is available

#       and then make the DTS track the default, if available.

#

# Filename Requirements

#

#       None

#

# Dependencies: 

#

#       bash 

#       awk (actually "gawk", not "mawk")

#       mkvinfo

#       mkvpropedit

#

help ()

{

        cat <<EOF 1>&2

mkvflags \$Revision: 1.9 $ is a tool to read and modify .mkv property flags

Usage: mkvflags [options] [file 1] ...  [file n]

   Options

      -d prints debug messages

      -e perform (hard coded) flag edit functions

      -q quiet

      -v verbose

   file 1 ... file n

      Specifying a filename is optional. If no filename is specified,

      .mkv files in the current directory will be processed implicitly

      A word on the use of the "-d" switch: If that switch is set

      mkvflags will echo the full mkvpropedit command to stdout but

      it doesn't execute it. The command can be executed manually via

      copying / pasting it into a command line and even manually

      editing the flags.

   Author: tinyxbmc

EOF

        exit 1

}

# process ()

#

#       gets invoked on a per file basis. It takes the full filename from

#       "$f" implicitly

#

process () {

        mkvinfo  "$f" 2>&1 | awk -v quiet=$quiet -v verbose=$verbose -v edit=$edit -v debug=$debug -v file="$f" '

                BEGIN {

                        t = 0;             # track index

                }

                /Track number/ {

                        t++;               # track index

                        num[t]       = $5; # keep track of the tracknumber as stored in the mkv

                        uid[t]       = 0;  # track UID

                        type[t]      = ""; # track type, e.g. video, audio, subtitle

                        default_f[t] = 0;  # default flag as read from the mkv

                        forced_f[t]  = 0;  # forced flag as read from the mkv

                        codec[t]     = ""; # codec as read from the mkv

                        language[t]  = ""; # language as read from the mkv

                        lang_done    = 0;  # there might be Chapter Language fields following

                }

                /Track UID/ {

                        uid[t] = $5;

                }

                /Track type/ {

                        type[t] = $5;

                }

                /Default flag/ {

                        default_f[t] = $5;

                }

                /Forced flag/ {

                        forced_f[t] = $5;

                }

                /Codec ID/ {

                        codec[t] = $5;

                }

                /Language/ {

                        if (!lang_done) {

                                language[t] = $4;

                                lang_done = 1;

                        }

                }

                END {

                        # 1st pass through all tracks

                        # walk through all audio tracks and find out if there is an

                        # English DTS track which then would be our preference for the default

                        # sometimes we find an audio track marked "und" which probably stands for

                        # "undefined". In all practical examples those tracks were English so

                        # I treat them that way

                        eng_dts_found = 0;

                        for (i = 1; i <= t; i++) {

                                if (codec[i] == "A_DTS" && (language[i] == "eng" || language[i] == "und" || language[i] == ""))

                                        eng_dts_found = i;

                        }

                        # 2nd pass through all tracks

                        # The ultimate goal, besides listing the fields in verbose mode, is to find

                        # the right audio track which we want to set as the default. All but one

                        # audio track gets the default = 0 flag, the forced flag is set to zero

                        # all tracks unconditionally

                        out = sprintf("Tracks: %s\n", t);

                        cmd = sprintf("mkvpropedit \"%s\" ", file);

                        audio_done = 0;

                        for (i = 1; i <= t; i++) {

                                df = 0;

                                out = out sprintf("Track %u(%u,%u), ", i, num[i], uid[i]);

                                out = out sprintf("Type %s, ",         type[i]);

                                out = out sprintf("Language %s, ",     language[i]);

                                out = out sprintf("Default %s, ",      default_f[i]);

                                out = out sprintf("Forced %s, ",       forced_f[i]);

                                out = out sprintf("Codec %s\n",        codec[i]);

                                if (type[i] == "video") df = 1;

                                if (type[i] == "audio") {

                                        if (!audio_done && (language[i] == "eng" || language[i] == "und" || language[i] == "")) {

                                                if (eng_dts_found) {

                                                        if (codec[i] == "A_DTS") {

                                                                df = 1;

                                                                audio_done = 1;

                                                        }

                                                } else {

                                                        df = 1;

                                                        audio_done = 1;

                                                }

                                        }

                                }

                                cmd = cmd sprintf("--edit track:%u --set flag-default=%u ", num[i], df);

                                cmd = cmd sprintf("--set flag-forced=%u ", 0);

                        }

                        out = out sprintf("\n");

                        if (quiet == "0") {

                                printf("File %s\n", file);

                                if (verbose == "1") printf(out);

                        }

                        if (t) {

                                if (debug == "1") printf("%s\n", cmd);

                                if (edit  == "1") system(cmd);

                        }

                }

        '

}

#

# main body of the script

#

#       This is just to allow the passing of a single file as an argument

#       or go for the full directory addressing all .mkv files. In most

#       cases the script is invoked without any parameters.

#

#       At first we check whether the dependencies to external programs

#       are met, then we parse the commandline options, finally we

#       execute the "process" on each input file

#

hash mkvinfo &> /dev/null

if [ $? -eq 1 ]; then

        echo >&2 "mkvinfo is required but not found"

        exit

fi

hash mkvpropedit &> /dev/null

if [ $? -eq 1 ]; then

        echo >&2 "mkvpropedit is required but not found"

        exit

fi

OPTERR=0

debug=0

edit=0

quiet=0

verbose=0

n=0

while getopts den:qv opt ; do

        case "$opt" in

                d) debug=1;;

                e) edit=1;;

                n) n="$OPTARG";;

                q) quiet=1;;

                v) verbose=1;;

                [?]) help;;

        esac

done

shift $((OPTIND-1))

if [ "$debug" -ne "0" ] ; then

        echo "Running in debug mode" 1>&2

        quiet=0

fi

if [ -z "$1" ]; then

        for f in *.mkv ; do

                if [ -f "$f" ]; then

                        #echo $f

                        process

                fi

        done

else

        until [ -z "$1" ] ; do

                f=$1

                process

                shift

        done

fi

jhsrennie Team-XBMC Developer Posts: 7,237 Joined: Nov 2008 Reputation: 117 Location: Chester, UK	2011-12-20 10:50 Post: #2 I suspect you'll have to use mkvtools or something similar to change the default track setting in the mkv. JR
	find quote

superdubious Junior Member Posts: 8 Joined: Jan 2012 Reputation: 0	2012-01-08 14:41 Post: #4 Thanks for the info tinyxbmc. If you have written a script to do the job is there any chance you could share it on the forum please?
	find quote

clubwerks Posting Freak Posts: 824 Joined: Dec 2010 Reputation: 0	2012-01-08 19:17 Post: #5 And for those of you that can't write bash scripts or don't have the slightest idea what any of that means, you can simply use mkvmerge GUI to remove audio tracks and/or change the default audio flag. XBMC cannot pick out anything but the default audio track, unless you play it and switch it manually, then it remembers the audio track you selected.
	find quote

steelman1991 Member+ Posts: 2,145 Joined: Jan 2009 Reputation: 6 Location: West Lothian, Scotland	2012-01-08 20:45 Post: #6 If it is just a 'one-off' or infrequent occurrence, you could load the file in mkvmerge and use the 'header' options to change the default flagging of the audio to whatever track you want without remuxing. The same process can be used to change default/forced subtitle tracks to your preferred language.
	find quote

tinyxbmc Junior Member Posts: 7 Joined: Dec 2011 Reputation: 0	2012-01-09 23:02 Post: #7 superdubious Wrote:Thanks for the info tinyxbmc. If you have written a script to do the job is there any chance you could share it on the forum please? I can certainly make it available "as is". Where should I put it?
	find quote

jherm Junior Member Posts: 2 Joined: Feb 2012 Reputation: 0	2012-02-06 09:00 Post: #8 Given that XBMC can list the audio tracks by name already (some of which say the language), it'd be cool to see a configurable regex that can auto-select the track that way. Even cooler if its toggle-able for TV and/or Movies. I know that movie DVDs can sometimes have multiple English tracks. Maybe I'll see if this could be accomplished by a plugin...
	find quote