How Do I Add Chapters to a MKV File?

[Todd Sauve]

Hi all,

My situation is this: I have a concert I recorded from a HD satellite broadcast. I also have the same concert on DVD but the concert is NOT available on Blu-ray or I'd have bought it. I like the extra video quality of the HD broadcast but want to add chapter markers to the .mkv file I made of it. I want to put a chapter marker at the end of each song so I can skip around any song I don't want to listen to.

Is there a free utility that will let me watch the concert and quickly add a chapter break at the end of each song easily?

I have an Oppo BDP-80 universal Blu-ray player which let me play the HD concert back from a dual-layer DVD. The concert is almost 7 GB in size so a DVD9 size disc is what it will be burned to.

The .mkv file is in MPEG 2 codec at 1280x720 resolution, if this makes a difference.

[Baldrick]

Nope. You have to play it and note the times and add it manually with mkvmergegui.

See http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/doc/mkvmerge-gui.html#chaptereditor

[leghorn]

If your HD broadcast and DVD are just the same, then extract the chapters from the DVD with e.g. ChapterXtractor and mux them with your ready broadcast. If not, proceed as Baldrick said.

[johns0]

Mkvchapterizer will do what you want.

[Baldrick]

Can't mkvchapterizer just add chapters with a fixed interval? Not custom intervals.

[Ai Haibara]

From the description, however, it sounds like that'll just add chapters at a single user-selected interval (say, every ten minutes). That might work if each song lasted a set amount of time (song for 3-4 minutes > break > song for 3-4 minutes), and there was nothing else in the video (like an introduction), but what the OP wanted was software that would scan the video and automatically guess where the chapters should be inserted (and insert them), I believe.

(Edit: Baldrick typed faster than me... that's what I get for rambling. )

[Todd Sauve]

If your HD broadcast and DVD are just the same, then extract the chapters from the DVD with e.g. ChapterXtractor and mux them with your ready broadcast. If not, proceed as Baldrick said.

OK, I grabbed ChapterExtractor but it wants to see an .avi file where I have an .mkv file.

Any more ideas on this, leghorn?

[_Al_]

make your XML list of chapters, use code below, edit it in notepad:

<?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>00:00:10.010</ChapterTimeStart>
      <ChapterDisplay>
        <ChapterString>Chapter 2</ChapterString>
        <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
      </ChapterDisplay>
    </ChapterAtom>
    <ChapterAtom>
      <ChapterTimeStart>00:00:30.030</ChapterTimeStart>
      <ChapterDisplay>
        <ChapterString>Chapter 3</ChapterString>
        <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
      </ChapterDisplay>
    </ChapterAtom>
  </EditionEntry>
</Chapters>

there is three chapters and times, you can change names for it, times, add chapters, keep the pattern

you load your MKV and this XML into MKVMergeGUI and mux new MKV

or

you can use mkvproedit.exe (it'll come with mkvmerge too) and run this command line:

mkvpropedit --chapters your.XML "C:\path...\your.mkv"

this way it will be added to your existing MKV without remuxing it again

[Todd Sauve]

Thank you guys ever so much for your help with this!

What I finally did was re-rip the original concert from DVD to my hard drive. Then I made another mkv of it using Handbrake 0.96, including the chapters. Then I imported the chapters into MMG.exe and muxed them into the HD satellite copy I have.

Presto! Everything syncs up pretty near perfectly, even though there is a half second syncronization difference between the two copies. It is certainly close enough.

[Todd Sauve]

Only one problem has arisen: my Oppo BDP-80 will play the mkv file from DVD fine but it does not see the chapter markers.

So, I used tsMuxerGUI to change the mkv file into the Blu-ray file format and burned that to a DVD9. Wonderbar! It plays perfectly on the Oppo and recognises the chapter breaks perfectly, as well.

What more can a guy ask for?

[gonzalu]

Visit ChapterDB and download real chapter files from a variety of movies in various formats.

[johns0]

Kinda late response to a 2 year old thread.

[gonzalu]

And your point is? I didn't see a response that covered ChapterDB and since I was looking for same, figured it would help someone.

It never ceases to amaze me how some people just love to post irrelevant things on forums. Shame!

[SuperFist]

Visit ChapterDB and download real chapter files from a variety of movies in various formats.

I found this very helpful. Thank you, gonzalu!

It always amazes me how people don't realize that posts, no matter how late, can and do help people who eventually have the same issues. I have received tremendous assistance on a variety of different websites from old forum posts and subsequent followup posts that pertained to the same issue, further clarifying it and providing information for people who have the same questions or problems later.

[Ccrez]

Visit ChapterDB and download real chapter files from a variety of movies in various formats.

Kinda late response to a 2 year old thread.

Well this is the first result from google when searching "how to add chapters to a video file" and guess what? that 2 old year answer was just what I was looking for, thanks for that.

[BJ12]

and 4 years later....this thread just allowed me to add chapters to Lethal Weapon 1, 2 & 3 in about 4 minutes. Otherwise, with my lack of experience it would have probably taken me 2-3 hours. Thank you for the XML/MKVpropedit response by "Al" and the ChapterDB insight from "gonzalu".

NOTE/ChapterDB: When you click the "Download" button make sure to "Open with XML Editor". Then save the file to your drive. Otherwise the files don't download with the .xml extension.

MKVPropddit is command line stuff. If you are a GUI person then get its GUI here, called JMkvpropedit. Unzip this download and insert the 4 files into the same folder as mkvpropedit.exe. Now click on JMkvpropedit.exe to open its java based GUI.

1. Drag your MKV file onto the "Input" tab (see image below).
2. Add your ChapterDB file in the "General" tab
3. Click "Process Files" button at bottom. Your are done, chapters are now added to MKV file.

[SuperFist]

and 4 years later....this thread just allowed me to add chapters to Lethal Weapon 1, 2 & 3 in about 4 minutes. Otherwise, with my lack of experience it would have probably taken me 2-3 hours. Thank you for the XML/MKVpropedit response by "Al" and the ChapterDB insight from "gonzalu".

This AWESOME and it's exactly what I was talking about 2 years ago!

[amonet]

Hello You use MKVPropddit but is second simple way i MKVToolNix GUI.
Open Chapter tab -> load chapters txt/xml -> In menu [Chapter Editor] -> Save to MKV file (then chose your video) -> when load -> In menu [Chapter Editor] -> SAVE and without muxing in 1 second you have chapters in yours mkv.

This way i s same simply that yours but i dont need download another program.

Regards