Documentation
Everything you need to get started with MediaMongo.
Contents
1. Prerequisites
MediaMongo relies on a few external tools that must be installed before use:
- MakeMKV — Required for reading and decrypting Blu-ray discs. Download from
makemkv.comand install to the default location. - FFmpeg — Used for thumbnail generation, subtitle extraction, and H.265 transcoding. Must be available in your system
PATH. - FFprobe — Bundled with FFmpeg. Used for reading file metadata and duration from MKV/M2TS containers.
- Tesseract OCR (optional) — Enables the advanced subtitle transcription matching mode. Install from the official Tesseract repository.
Windows users: MakeMKV is expected at C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV\makemkvcon64.exe and Tesseract at C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe. FFmpeg and FFprobe must be in your system PATH.
2. Installation
After purchasing your license, you will receive a license key via email. Download the installer for your platform, run it, and enter your key when prompted.
MediaMongo is a native desktop application built with Tauri. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
3. Quick Start
- Select a source — Choose a Blu-ray drive (e.g.
disc:0) or browse to a folder of pre-ripped MKV files. MediaMongo begins Proactive Discovery immediately, scanning all titles and generating preview thumbnails in the background. - Set the output directory — Choose where your archived files will be saved. Enable Auto-Generate Season Folders to create a
Show Name/Season 01/structure automatically. - Enter show details — Type the show name, season number, and disc number. MediaMongo fetches episode metadata from TMDB and downloads reference subtitles from OpenSubtitles automatically.
- Start Rip & Match — The Certainty Engine™ runs deep analysis on every discovered title, scoring each one against the expected episode list. Review the predicted matches, adjust any that need correction, then confirm each episode.
- Rip & Encode — For each confirmed match, MediaMongo rips the title from disc (if needed), renames it using the standard
S01E01 - Episode Name.mkvconvention, and transcodes it to a space-efficient H.265 MP4.
4. The Certainty Engine™
The Certainty Engine™ is MediaMongo's proprietary multi-signal scoring system that determines which episode each disc title corresponds to. It produces a confidence score from 0–100% using a hierarchy of matching signals:
| Score | Signal | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 100% | Dialogue Transcription Lock | OCR transcribes the first 15 minutes of on-disc subtitles and matches 3+ consecutive lines against local subtitle scripts using a sliding window algorithm. |
| 95% | OpenSubtitles Metadata | File hash and metadata matching against the OpenSubtitles database returns a definitive episode number. |
| 90% | Sequential + Duration | File order on disc aligns with TMDB episode index (+30 pts) and the runtime matches the expected episode within 2 minutes (+60 pts). |
| 70% | Strong Duration Match | Runtime closely matches a different episode than the sequential prediction (within 60 seconds), suggesting the disc order diverges from air order. |
| 50% | Duration-Only Match | No sequential match exists but a duration match within 5 minutes is found against the episode list. |
| +20 | Playlist Metadata Bonus | The MPLS playlist filename contains the episode number, providing independent confirmation. |
| Fallback | TMDB Overview Keywords | When OCR text is available but no script match is found, episode overview keywords are fuzzy-matched against the transcribed dialogue. |
The engine processes signals in priority order and locks at the first high-confidence match. You can always override the prediction manually before confirming.
Proactive Discovery
When you select a source, MediaMongo starts a streaming scan of the disc. As each title is discovered, thumbnail generation and OCR analysis begin immediately in the background — overlapping the disc scan with per-title processing to minimize total wait time.
5. Headless CLI
MediaMongo includes a standalone command-line binary for power users and automation workflows.
Usage
mediamongo-cli <show_name> <season> <disc_number> <source_path> <output_path> [options]
Arguments
show_name— The TV show name as it appears on TMDB (e.g."Breaking Bad")season— Season number (e.g.1)disc_number— Which disc of the season (e.g.1). Used to calculate the episode offset (4 episodes per disc).source_path— Disc identifier (e.g.disc:0or a drive letter likeD:) or a folder path containing MKV filesoutput_path— Root directory for output. Season folders are created automatically.
Options
--use-ocr— Enable Tesseract OCR for subtitle transcription matching (slower, but achieves the highest accuracy)--dry-run— Analyze and display predictions without ripping or encoding anything
Examples
# Dry run: see what the engine predicts without touching anything
mediamongo-cli "The Last Kingdom" 1 1 disc:0 "D:\Media" --dry-run
# Full pipeline with OCR: rip, match, rename, and encode
mediamongo-cli "Breaking Bad" 2 1 "E:\Rips\BB_S2" "D:\Media" --use-ocr
# Process a folder of pre-ripped MKV files
mediamongo-cli "Peaky Blinders" 3 1 "C:\Temp\Rips" "D:\Media"
6. Output Format
MediaMongo produces files with the following structure:
Output Directory/
Show Name/
Season 01/
S01E01 - Episode Name.mp4
S01E02 - Episode Name.mp4
.subtitles/
E01.srt
E02.srt
Encoding Settings
All transcoding uses H.265 (HEVC) via Intel Quick Sync Video hardware acceleration:
- Video:
hevc_qsvwith global quality 15 and lookahead enabled - Audio Track 1: AAC Stereo at 192 kbps
- Audio Track 2: AC3 Surround 5.1 at 640 kbps
- Subtitles: Copied as
mov_text(MP4-compatible)
7. Configuration Options
The desktop application provides the following settings:
- Source — A disc ID (
disc:0,disc:1) or a folder path. You can also type a drive letter likeD:and MediaMongo will resolve it to the correct disc index. - Min Length — Minimum title duration in minutes. Titles shorter than this are skipped during discovery. Default: 20 minutes.
- Thumbnail Size — Resolution for preview thumbnails: 160x90, 320x180, 640x360, or 1280x720.
- Auto-Generate Season Folders — When enabled, creates the
Show/Season XX/directory structure inside your output path. - Subtitle OCR — Enables Tesseract-based transcription for the highest-confidence matching. Requires Tesseract OCR to be installed.
All settings persist between sessions via local storage.
8. Troubleshooting
MakeMKV not found
Ensure MakeMKV is installed at the default location. On Windows, the expected path is C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV\makemkvcon64.exe.
FFmpeg / FFprobe not found
Both must be in your system PATH. Open a terminal and verify with ffmpeg -version and ffprobe -version.
"File appears to be encrypted (AACS)"
This means FFprobe tried to read an encrypted disc directly. Use the disc source mode (disc:0) instead of pointing to the raw BDMV folder — MediaMongo will handle decryption via MakeMKV during the rip stage.
Low Certainty scores
If the engine is returning scores below 70%, try:
- Verify the show name matches TMDB exactly (e.g. "The Last Kingdom", not "Last Kingdom")
- Check the disc number — the engine assumes 4 episodes per disc for episode offset calculation
- Enable Subtitle OCR for the highest-confidence matching via dialogue transcription
OCR not working
Ensure Tesseract is installed and accessible. On Windows, it should be at C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe. OCR also requires the disc to have PGS (Blu-ray bitmap) subtitle streams.