Add chapters to MPEG4 MOV without reencoding

[Jonya]

I'm recording some games and practice sessions to help players improve their skills, and I'd like to edit out downtime and add chapter marks, preferably without re-encoding. The problem is, that there are a LOT of edits to be made, as the downtime between practice serves really adds up.

I have MPEG4 video in MOV format, and MP4Cam2AVI will quickly convert that to AVI. What software can I use to conveniently cut dead segments and add chapter marks? If I don't have to re-encode, that's even better.

Thanks!

[olyteddy]

I don't know about adding chapters, but AVIDeMux should work for the cutting. I believe it will only cut on 'I frames' without re-encoding however.

[Jonya]

I managed to figure it out with some help.

mkvmerge -o file --chapters x --split timecodes:[...] FILE.MOV
mkvmerge -o merged.mkv f-002.mkv +f-004.mkv

with a ch.txt file that looks like this:

CHAPTER01=0:0:0.000
CHAPTER01NAME=1
CHAPTER02=0:0:33.000
CHAPTER02NAME=2
CHAPTER03=0:0:37.000
CHAPTER03NAME=3
CHAPTER04=0:0:43.000
CHAPTER04NAME=4
CHAPTER05=0:0:47.000
CHAPTER05NAME=5

The resulting file is cut, has chapters in approximately the right place, and requires no re-encoding. Pretty sweet. This obviously adds some keyframes, but that's nothing compared to the size of the video cut out, and we don't lose quality or time.