MKVToolNix—Matroska tools for Linux/Unix

Plex has the capacity to play two halves (as used to be quite common for laying down long movies on DVD, for example, Das Boot) simply by continuing on to play the second or subsequent parts.

To get the two or more media files to play sequentially, you must name them when you lay them down in HandBrake, e.g.:

2074522525 Mar 25  2016 'The Lord of the Rings--The Fellowship of the Ring, part 1.mkv'
2446534409 Mar 25  2016 'The Lord of the Rings--The Fellowship of the Ring, part 2.mkv'

First, see How to tell Plex one or more files is a single video.

Why would you wish to do this? While Plex has the capacity to play two halves simply by continuing on to play the second or subsequent parts, if you've been counting on subtitles or other per-media settings, you must stop and re-engage them—an impossible feat since the Plex application interface merges them into the representation of a single one.

The result is that halfway (or partway) through viewing the title, you losing the subtitles unless you tell HandBrake to burn them in permanently (a practice I abhor).

So, let's say you have used MakeMKS to transcode Das Boot, which is on both sides of the (old) DVD and you want them to be a single file for the reasons just explained (or any other, such as mere convenience).

MKV Merge, part of MKVToolNix

(This is a refinement of Combine two MKV files into one video.)

1. Launch MKV Merge.
2. Click Add at top right.
3. Browse to and add the first (Matrovska) file. (then)
4. Click Append (again, at top right).
5. Browse to and add your second (or subsequent) video file.
(Lather, rinse, repeat for any subsequent files beyond the 2 if the case.)
6. Choose the name to use in creating the single file and also the output filesystem location for the file.
7. Click Start.

There is an assumption that that chosen audio language, subtitles and video resolution are the same. (Your mileage may vary. This did not work for me.)

Here's how I combined title, Das Boot, which is 3 hours and 28 minutes in length, into a single Matroska file. This is the full, step-by-step procedure. In MKVToolNix' GUI version, this is call the Multiplexer.

1. Using MakeMKV, I transcoded each side of the disk into two separate files.
2. Using HandBrake, I again transcoded each file, injecting subtitles for English and French, into two files. I used my nephew's magic YIFY settings to reduce the filesize to about 10% without loss.
   • Das Boot, part 1.mkv
   • Das Boot, part 2.mkv
3. I launched MKVToolNix GUI (/usr/bin/mkvtoolnix-gui).
4. Click Add source files.
5. Navigate to and select Das Boot, part 1.mkv.
6. In Source files:, see this file; right-click on it and choose Append files (do not do Add files).
7. Click on Das Boot, part 2.mkv; click Open.
8. Click on Destination file: and enter the name Das Boot (full).mkv. You should see something like this:

   

9. Click the Start multiplexing button. This doesn't take very long—only a few seconds.
10. In your working directory, you should see:

    russ@tirion ~/Videos $ ll
    ...
    -rw-rw-r--  1 russ russ 1304366683 Jan  6 15:38 'Das Boot (full).mkv'
    -rw-rw-r--  1 russ russ  707686481 Jan  6 15:10 'Das Boot, part 1.mkv'
    -rw-rw-r--  1 russ russ  598969012 Jan  6 15:10 'Das Boot, part 2.mkv'
    

11. Copy this new file to your Plex Media server:

    russ@tirion ~/Videos $ scp "Das Boot (full).mkv" tol-eressea:/plex-movies/Movies/Das\\\ Boot/
    Das Boot (full).mkv                                             100% 1244MB  89.5MB/s   00:13
    

12. At this point, you can use Plex' browser application to integrate this title into its library. This worked for me and I had French and English subtitles all the way to the end of the movie through both parts.