Add an --output [destinationFile] option?

[SteveDinn]

Currently, as far as I can tell, the only options are to direct the AC3 soundtrack to its own file, or to overwrite the original file. I'd like to have the option to create an entirely new file with whatever other options I've selected so that the original file remains unchanged.

If there's already a way to do this, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks!

[lightdot]

You've probably overlooked or misunderstood the --new switch. It does what you'd like to achieve.

One can (besides copying the video track, of course):

• discard the extracted DTS track, add just the newly created AC3 into a new .mkv
• add both the original DTS track and the newly created AC3 track into a new .mkv.

In both cases the original .mkv remains unchanged.

For the former I use:
./mkvdts2ac3.sh --compress none -d -n -w /var/tmp --new "/path/to/original.mkv"
and for the latter:
./mkvdts2ac3.sh --compress none -d -i -w /var/tmp --new "/path/to/original.mkv"

Basically, -d sets the default status for the AC3 track, -n tells the script to discard the extracted DTS track, -i sets the AC3 as the first track in the new .mkv, -w sets the working directory, --new tells the script to create a new mkv rather than to copy over the original.

On very rare occasions when an AC3 track already exists (ie. mkv's with multiple language audio tracks), -f might be needed to force adding the newly created AC3.

The original file name with -AC3 added to the end is used for the newly created file ("...original-AC3.mkv").

A bit late but hope this helps someone.