Create chapter file for MKV video

[RogerTango]

I am using VirtualDubMod to create H264 .MKV videos with, muxing the AC3 from a DVD. But Id like to add chapters. And I dont know how they are built.

From what I am reading, it is an XML file. Does the filename matter?

Is the below a proper formatted XML for an MKV chapter list?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE Chapters SYSTEM "matroskachapters.dtd">
<Chapters>
<EditionEntry>
<ChapterAtom>
<ChapterTimeStart>00:00:00.000</ChapterTimeStart>
<ChapterTimeEnd>00:00:09.999</ChapterTimeEnd>
<ChapterDisplay>
<ChapterString>Chapter 1</ChapterString>
<ChapterLanguage>und</ChapterLanguage>
</ChapterDisplay>
</ChapterAtom>
<ChapterAtom>
<ChapterTimeStart>00:00:10.000</ChapterTimeStart>
<ChapterTimeEnd>00:00:19.999</ChapterTimeEnd>
<ChapterDisplay>
<ChapterString>Chapter 2</ChapterString>
<ChapterLanguage>und</ChapterLanguage>
</ChapterDisplay>
</ChapterAtom>
<ChapterAtom>
<ChapterTimeStart>00:00:20.000</ChapterTimeStart>
<ChapterTimeEnd>00:00:20.999</ChapterTimeEnd>
<ChapterDisplay>
<ChapterString>Chapter 3</ChapterString>
<ChapterLanguage>und</ChapterLanguage>
</ChapterDisplay>
</ChapterAtom>
</EditionEntry>
</Chapters>

Id like to write a quickie VB6 proggie that I can tell it the length of a movie I am encoding, and how many chapters to insert, and have it gen me an XML file to IMPORT into VDubMod.

One last thing, the time...
The format "00:00:20.999" doesnt make sense to me.

Is this "Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Miliseconds" ??

Thanks,
Andrew

[JjMon]

First you would have to extract the chapter using ChapterXtractor from the DVD, then use MKVtoolnix to remux it all together. Or you can use AnyDVD with Handbrake to encode to MKV yielding all all the steps.

[RogerTango]

Thanks for the prompt response, but your off track of what I want to do. I hope a more advanced digital video user can offer assistance.

Thanks,
Andrew

[Supreme2k]

Id like to write a quickie VB6 proggie that I can tell it the length of a movie I am encoding, and how many chapters to insert, and have it gen me an XML file to IMPORT into VDubMod.

Here's a little more info on mkv chapters, including an example xml file.

One last thing, the time...
The format "00:00:20.999" doesnt make sense to me.

Is this "Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Miliseconds" ??

Yes.


===================
Actually, Jjmon's advice is not too far off. Handbrake is a great tool for getting the chapters from the DVD without having to go through all the script writing. It seems like you're trying to re-invent the wheel. No need to get so condescending.

[Des]

I use AutoMKV which imports the chapters automatically into the final MKV file.

--dES

[RogerTango]

Thanks 2K, for the link an the info, very helpful!

Andrew

[RogerTango]

Can someone tell me if this would be a valid chapter list??

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE Chapters SYSTEM "matroskachapters.dtd">
<Chapters>
<EditionEntry>
<ChapterAtom>
<ChapterTimeStart>00:00:00.000</ChapterTimeStart>
<ChapterDisplay>
<ChapterString>Chapter 1</ChapterString>
<ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
</ChapterDisplay>
</ChapterAtom>
<ChapterAtom>
<ChapterTimeStart>00:10:00.000</ChapterTimeStart>
<ChapterDisplay>
<ChapterString>Chapter 2</ChapterString>
<ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
</ChapterDisplay>
</ChapterAtom>
</EditionEntry>
</Chapters>

Whereas chapter 1 starts at zero time and chapter 2 starts at 10 minutes.

I am fiddling with the VB code now..

Thanks,
Andrew

[twistedgamez]

How is this coming along, i would love to have a copy of it!

[RogerTango]

For more information, follow this thread:
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic363433.html

Here is a download link to the stand alone version for all Win32 and 64 flavors:
http://rogertango.com/download/rtmkvcm-standalone.zip

Just unpack the ZIP, and run the executable (.EXE).

Andrew

[mkelley]

Andrew,

Thanks so much for this -- this was *exactly* what I needed for my BR rips (I don't really care about the chapters on the disc so much as I just want "stops" I can go to with my WDTV).

I'm not so sure why my MKV files come out slightly smaller when I mux chapters into them (using MKVMERGE) but I don't really care. Thanks again for this utility which now has a place on my desktop.

[RogerTango]

My WDTV was the original inspiration for the program!

Andrew

[Albert25]

There is also a simpler chapter format which mkvmerge understands and which looks like this:

CHAPTER01=00:00:00,000
CHAPTER01NAME=Auto chapter 1
CHAPTER02=00:14:48,000
CHAPTER02NAME=Auto chapter 2

If you have Perl (you do by default on Mac and Linux, and can install it on Windows), this simple Perl script can create such a file:

#!/usr/bin/perl
## Make chapters file for MKV

use strict;

my $VERSION=0.01;

my $file = shift;
my $parts = shift || 10;

unless (-e $file) {
    die "Usage: $0 FILENAME [number_of_chapters]\n";
}

my ($h, $m, $s) = (0,0,0);

# Find length using either mediainfo or ffmpeg

if (my $info = `mediainfo "$file" 2>/dev/null`) {
    ($h, $m) = $info =~ /^Duration \s+ : \s* (\d+)h \s* (\d+)m /mx;
    unless ($h || $m) {
        die "*** Error: Could not get duration from mediainfo output.\n";
    }
}
elsif (my $info = `ffmpeg -i "$file" 2>&1`) {
    warn "FFmpeg: ", $info, "\n";
    ($h, $m, $s) = $info =~ /^ \s* Duration: \s* (\d+):(\d+):(\d+)/mx;
    unless ($h || $m) {
        die "*** Error: Could not get duration from ffmpeg output.\n";
    }
}
else {
    die "No mediainfo or ffmpeg program found\n";
}

my $seconds = $h*3600 + $m*60 + $s;
my $step = int($seconds/$parts);
my $chapter = 1;

for (my $i=0; $i < $step*($parts-1); $i+=$step) {
    my $c = sprintf "%02d", $chapter;
    print "CHAPTER$c=", seconds2tc($i) . ",000", "\n",
          "CHAPTER${c}NAME=Auto chapter $chapter\n";
    $chapter++;
}

sub seconds2tc {
    my $s = shift;

    my $h    = sprintf "%02d", int( $s / 3600 );
    $s %= 3600;

    my $min = sprintf "%02d", int( $s / 60 );
    $s %= 60;

    $s = sprintf "%02d", $s;

    return (
            wantarray ? ($h, $min, $s) : join(":", $h, $min, $s)
    );
}

It uses mediainfo or ffmpeg to find the length of the file. The script could be enhanced to also accept the length directly as an argument on the command line.

[mihvel]

This Perl script is quite close to my needs, but I'm noob for programming. Maybe someone can help me and write something similar. Actually, I need a script or app that will create simple MKV chapter file based on duration of input MKV files that I want to join latter. For example, I want to join my home videos made by digital camera. All scenes are recorded in separate files, that's the way how my camera works. Now, from these recordings I want to create a single movie of one event, but I also want to put chapter mark at the beginning of each recording.
Does anybody know how can I do this?

[Martin894]

mihvel

You should be able to do everthing you have asked using mkvmerge GUI.

For example imagine I had three separate files
file1, length=2m 43s 560ms
file2, length=2m 06s 120ms
file3, length=2m 44s 880ms
the following will join them together and add chapters.

Load mkvmerge GUI

File - New
Click Input tab:
Add (open file1)
Append (open file2)
Append (open file3)

Chapter Editor - New Chapters
Click Chapter Editor tab:
Highlight (new chapter file)
Add Chapter
Highlight EditionEntry1
Add Chapter
Add Chapter

Highlight first chapter
Start: 00:00:00.000
End: 00:02:43.560
Name: Video1

Highlight second chapter
Start: 00:02:43.560
End: 00:04:49.680
Name: video2

Highlight third chapter
Start: 00:04:49.680
End: 00:07:34.440
Name: video3

Click Set Values
Set language to: eng (English)
Set country to: uk

Chapter Editor - Save
my_chapters.xml

Click Global Tab
Chapters file: (Browse and open my_chapters.xml)

Start Muxing

Note: You could also add sub chapters if you wish so you could play a particular start and end point within a chapter.

Hope it helps.

[mihvel]

Martin894, thanks for reply, but that's not exactly what I mean. I'm aware that I can do it manually, using mkvmerge GUI, but I want to do this automatically, using some script capable to read length of the input files and to create a chapter file.
Anyway, thank you for the try.

[capt marvel]

Does anyone know where to get a copy of Roger Tango's MKV chapter tool? His links on his site are not working and neither is his page for contacting him.

[MilesAhead]

My WDTV was the original inspiration for the program!

Andrew

I have 1st gen WD HDTV player. If you hit FF button, then Next button, it will jump ahead 10 minutes.. or to the next 10 minute interval.. not sure. Trouble with that thing is soft subs easily go out of sync if you do more than Pause/Play. I usually burn them in for that reason.

I'm looking to go the other way. Extract a chapter file from an .mkv then convert it to HH:MM:SS that DvdAuthorGui uses.
At this point I have a small AutoIt3 script but I have to preprocess the xml with Opera and save as text to get the xml elements on separate lines. Just easier to pick out the chapter start times that way.

I have files for 5 minute, 8 minute and 10 minute intervals for use in DvdAuthorGui but I thought it would be cool to go to the chapters set in the original, when outputting to DVD. There are tools like BD Rebuilder that do it all for me, but I'm messing around with using HCgui manually to encode to DVD.

Seems to be tough to find general-purpose xml parsers.

Just thought I'd chime in since it's related.
I'll download your tool for my video toolbox.
If I get my AutoIt3 script so that it works stand-alone without passing the xml through Opera then I'll post it for everyone to access.

edit: I tried the compiled script on a couple of .mkv chapter files produced by MkvExtractGui-2 and it worked fine. If anyone would like to use it you can download from my site using this link:

http://www.favessoft.com/HmsTimes.zip