External audio autoload

[ghost]

(haven't found anything related in issue tracker)

It would be nice to have external audio tracks loaded automatically, like subs.

[ghost]

What's the use case for this over just using --audio-file? Seems pretty obscure. I think there was a time where movie piracy liked to distribute audio tracks separately (so you could use a localized audio track with english video) to save bandwidth, but I think these times are over.

[pigoz]

Some still distribute unimportant audio tracks as separate files to save bandwidth (like commentary tracks and similar). But yeah, I agree it's pretty rare.

[ghost]

I think it would be more consistent.

I think these times are over

I wish they were. Even now, releasers on russian trackers often put original audio track as external for movies (and localized audio for anime). Not to mention old releases and commentary tracks.
Maybe it's not a good example, though.

Also, I heard that Windows splitters do this (ffdshow, LAV?)

[eternal-sorrow]

Here you are patch for mpv 5.1, that implements this funtctionality: https://gist.github.com/eternal-sorrow/47749ac998d769446b09 .

It's rough and made by copy-paste from the same code of subtitle loading, so it may be optimised by making some parts of code common for subtitle and audio. Also this patch doesn't contain documentation (--list-options entry, man page edits).

[ghost]

made by copy-paste

Thanks, but no.

[eternal-sorrow]

Could you even say, what I can do better? It's important functionality and I want it to be in the best video player for linux, so I tried to implement it by myself to show that it's not very difficult. If you don't like my implementation, write yours, or just give me advice what I should do another way.

[ghost]

1. Don't just copy-paste large amounts of code, just because you need minor changes in behavior. I don't expect that you somehow unify that can't be unified, but there's absolutely no reason why so much code should be duplicated.
2. The patch you posted is pretty broken. First of all, it looks like an inverse patch (that removes the functionality you added). It's also against mpv 0.5.1, which compared to mpv git master is outdated. Second, if you're already using github, do it properly: fork the mpv repo, make your changes, and post a link to the branch containing the changes.

[swamp-fish]

Its a very useful option and is present in MPC-HC. Most of the TV series/Anime/Movies aren't local made and while subtitles are great sometimes you just want to relax from reading especially if you're watching it with someone else.
Currently autloading is working for subtitles.

Linux users unlike Windows ones can't switch to MPC-HC for TV series watch.

There can be 2 options:

1. Automaticly load external audio file in the same directory
2. -- in the next 2 directories(at max) as well(video.mp4 sound_folder
   a few real cases:
   sound_folder contains sound1_folder sound2_folder, each contains sound files
   sound_folder contains sound files
   )

Also 2nd option can be added to subtitles as well. At this point we have a need either to copy them or make links to the same folder as video.

Its a very needed feature please make it be.

[ebvjr]

Please mux it if that's the case using mkv/webm or any media container.

[swamp-fish]

Sure, muxing it is much faster and won't require additional disk space, much easier than tapping a play button or even manually loading audio track.

[eternal-sorrow]

Sure, if I'd make a release, I'd mux it into mkv, but if I just downloaded from tracker new season of my favourite anime with external audio, i just want to press Enter and enjoy. But I got it working for me, so it's nothing to complain about :)

[ghost]

We're all glad it's working for you.

[swamp-fish]

For those who are interested in this feature, bomi have it now
bylee20/bomi#189

[eternal-sorrow]

@oneoneleven, my patch was not accepted, as you can see.

[ghost]

@oneoneleven, my patch was not accepted, as you can see.

You don't need to be so sour about it. Anyone would reject it, because it duplicated large amounts of code.

[eternal-sorrow]

It's just proof-of-concept patch. I'm not Linus Torvalds nor Dennis Ritchie. I made it in 20 minutes with the cup of coffee. And it works! Even though some major releases of mpv passed, it still works. If you can understand what this patch does, you can do the same things right way.

[ghost]

Great!

Also it would be great to honor alang option after loading external audio files.

[ghost]

It should be doing that, though the external tracks always preferred over internal.

[hrzhu]

@wm4 Is it possible to set mpv to prefer internal audio tracks. I need this feature because I want mpv to auto-load audio commentary but I don't want mpv to use audio commentary by default.

[ghost]

Just use aid=1 in your config. This forces always the first audio track (so language selection etc. is disabled), but on the other hand you probably don't need it if you use external audio tracks often.

[hrzhu]

I don't use external audio tracks often. It's just some of my anime collections have external audio commentaries. I want them to be auto-loaded so that I can toggle audio when I need them. aid overrides alang which is not what I want. I might end up muxing them into the containers.

[POMATu]

Hi guys,
I had the same issue and got really annoyed cause I usually get subs from other place and that's named differently

So I wrote the tool for mpv that autofinds and loads differently named subs and external audio by the episode number
https://github.com/POMATu/anime-tool
Hope that helps

[Lothakim]

The official manual has given this option.
Just add –audio-file-auto=exact in the config file mpv.conf.
This will auto load the audio file which has the same name with the video file in the same directory.