The topic should explain my problem.
When I add new tracks (video, audio, subtitle) then these items get automatically the default flag set to “yes”.
In the preferences I can switch this off for the subtitles.
(Multiplexer - Default values - Disable “default track” flag for subtitle tracks)
But how can I switch this behaviour off for other types like audio?
No answer yet?
@mbunkus wrote
There are several options regarding the “default track” flag in the preferences.
and referred me to this forum.
Does no answer mean that it is at the moment not possible?
Can anybody explain me what is the reason for the behaviour to set newly added tracks as default?
Example:
If the first source file has an audio track in a specific language and I add another audio track in the same language. Why the second one is default (it could be also the first one) or none at all.
“Default track” signals to the player that a track should participate in the choice of which tracks of each type to play, taking into account other player configuration such as preferred languages. For example, if you have to English audio tracks, and one is the director’s comments, then you would typically flag the other track with “default track”, but not the other one.
It makes a lot of sense to have at least one video & one audio track be flagged as default; if none is flagged as such, strange things might happen. Therefore you cannot turn off that the GUI turns the flag on for certain audio & video tracks depending on the source container, the amount of other tracks of the same type already being present & how tracks are flagged that are present already.
For subtitles things are different as a lot of people don’t necessarily want subs to be flagged as a “default track”, especially if they don’t want subs to appear by default at all. Therefore there’s a setting in the preferences → “Multiplexer” → “Default values” called “Disable ‘default track’ flag for subtitle tracks” which prevents the GUI from setting the “default track” flag on its own, unless the source is a Matroska file for which the track in question has the “default track” flag set already.
There’s more information in this FAQ entry.
Example:
I have two english audio tracks - one normal and one for visually impaired.
If only the second one was newly added and the original one not then I have by default one track with the default flag.
And it is not the correct one.
If I have added both then both have the default flag.
If both were not added but already in the source container then none of them could have a default flag.
I do not understand. If that flag is so important why not force it once for each language? (but this is not what I want)
Of course you would not know which one of the two korean tracks is the correct one (in your example). But you also do not know this for newly added tracks.
In my scenario (and the reason) for my question I have 2 audio tracks of the same language, one standard and one for visually impaired. The second one is only important for one person in the family.
But when I process that track and re-add it to the container it becomes the default one. (while the original standard track has not that flag).
And I always have to remove that flag (if I remember in time). Now you can argue that it would be better to set the other track as default. But it does not change my problem that I have to remember to set a value for the default flag.
If not then I have to open the mkv in the Header editor.
When I choose the audio track it shows in the summary
