Using MKVtoolnix Chapter Editor

[hurricane1951]

I'll admit it. The chapter editor in mkvtoolnix 8.6 has defeated me. It might be me, but I've worked with computers for over 25 years and I can't figure this thing out. There's a starter chapter (Chapter 1) and I can enter the time span and other properties of that chapter. But I can't figure out how to add new chapters. Can someone enlighten me or point me to a tutorial of some type?

[johns0]

Use MKV Chapterizer if you need basic chapters such as every 5 minutes,i tried mkvtoolnix chapter editor and it's too much work for videos i'll watch and then put away.

[ndjamena]

Right-click on a chapter and choose, "add new chapter after". A chapter will be added AFTER the chapter you clicked on.

You don't have to fill in end times, in fact after creation all you really need to do is add a start time and that chapter will be prepped for saving.

It looks complicated because it also lets you modify ALL of the Matroska Chapter elements, the vast majority of which normal people will never use.

If you right click an edition, it will even let you do what the program john0 suggested does via "generate subchapters"

(ps why are you using 8.6? The Current version is 9.7.1... a lot of improvements would have been made since your version was released.)

[Jamaika]

What's so difficult to do manually chapters.
The problem is elsewhere. What are the standard chapters?
Well, the chapters are stored in XML and OGG files. OGG files are limited. They don't contain information about the language. Best if they weren't described. Chapters are a limited number of (probably 255). You can't use the 'enter' and the best save code TXT ASCII. Saved in UTF-8 in each converters must specify that it is UTF-8.

Flies XML should be saved codec UTF-8. You can each chapter to describe multiple languages. This is an unsupported function in player. You can use any characters. Chapters have their headers ID. Depending on the player, you can skip between chapters or choose a description. Limited operation without menu. The headers ID were to take into account the assignment of the interactive menu or interactive link metadata or subtitle. Matroska resigned these functions.

    <EditionUID>4802496268624056450</EditionUID>
    <ChapterAtom>
      <ChapterUID>6617849763546311325</ChapterUID>
      <ChapterTimeStart>00:06:14.400000000</ChapterTimeStart>
      <ChapterFlagHidden>0</ChapterFlagHidden>
      <ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
      <ChapterDisplay>
        <ChapterString>Football</ChapterString>
        <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
      </ChapterDisplay>
      <ChapterDisplay>
        <ChapterString>Piłka nożna</ChapterString>
        <ChapterLanguage>pol</ChapterLanguage>
      </ChapterDisplay>
    </ChapterAtom>

[hurricane1951]

Right-click on a chapter and choose, "add new chapter after". A chapter will be added AFTER the chapter you clicked on.

You don't have to fill in end times, in fact after creation all you really need to do is add a start time and that chapter will be prepped for saving.

It looks complicated because it also lets you modify ALL of the Matroska Chapter elements, the vast majority of which normal people will never use.

If you right click an edition, it will even let you do what the program john0 suggested does via "generate subchapters"

(ps why are you using 8.6? The Current version is 9.7.1... a lot of improvements would have been made since your version was released.)

I knew it would be something simple that I missed. Thanks for the tip.

[hurricane1951]

What's so difficult to do manually chapters.
The problem is elsewhere. What are the standard chapters?
Well, the chapters are stored in XML and OGG files. OGG files are limited. They don't contain information about the language. Best if they weren't described. Chapters are a limited number of (probably 255). You can't use the 'enter' and the best save code TXT ASCII. Saved in UTF-8 in each converters must specify that it is UTF-8.

Flies XML should be saved codec UTF-8. You can each chapter to describe multiple languages. This is an unsupported function in player. You can use any characters. Chapters have their headers ID. Depending on the player, you can skip between chapters or choose a description. Limited operation without menu. The headers ID were to take into account the assignment of the interactive menu or interactive link metadata or subtitle. Matroska resigned these functions.

    <EditionUID>4802496268624056450</EditionUID>
    <ChapterAtom>
      <ChapterUID>6617849763546311325</ChapterUID>
      <ChapterTimeStart>00:06:14.400000000</ChapterTimeStart>
      <ChapterFlagHidden>0</ChapterFlagHidden>
      <ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
      <ChapterDisplay>
        <ChapterString>Football</ChapterString>
        <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
      </ChapterDisplay>
      <ChapterDisplay>
        <ChapterString>Piłka nożna</ChapterString>
        <ChapterLanguage>pol</ChapterLanguage>
      </ChapterDisplay>
    </ChapterAtom>

I think you missed the point. I asked about making chapters with Chapter Editor in mkvtoolnix. You say "What's so hard about chapters?". After that, your entire message is so far over my head that it might as well be a foreign language. I appreciate the effort, but I'm afraid I won't benefit from it.

[madkracker6969]

Really late to the thread, but hope this will really clear things up about making chapters, and muxing them into videos with MKVToolNix.

There is a simple means to compose chapters for videos using nothing but Notepad text editor, with relatively little code at all.

Making Chapters


The following chapters are used here an example for Horriblesubs release of Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro episode 2.

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=Opening
CHAPTER02=00:01:30.078
CHAPTER02NAME=Bloody Butterfly Effect
CHAPTER03=00:08:20.123
CHAPTER03NAME=Manana, Ootoro, and Me
CHAPTER04=00:14:53.037
CHAPTER04NAME=Bump of Slave
CHAPTER05=00:22:00.087
CHAPTER05NAME=Ending
CHAPTER06=00:23:30.073
CHAPTER06NAME=Preview

Copy and paste the following into Notepad, saving as a .TXT file, will give you a template to use for your future video muxing projects. The values in blue are those that are variable, where the chapter # increments sequentially by one as an identifier for both chapter time and chapter name: the chapter time in 00:00:00.000 format, and the chapter name using any Unicode characters (be careful to modify the text file Unicode settings in Notepad's "Save As..." window depending on the Unicode setting required for the text you are using for your chapter name).


Muxing Chapters into MKVToolNix


In MKVToolNix, open a new tab if one is not already open.


In the tab, click on the "Output" tab, and on the right side of the window you'll find the "Chapters" group.


In the "Chapter File:" field, click the blue folder icon to open a navigation window to open your chapter file.
Navigate to your chapter file, select it, and click "Open".


In the "Chapter File:" field, you'll notice the file path for your chapters file is now filled in.


If you have completed everything else for your video muxing project, then you are ready to click the "Start Multiplexing" button at the bottom of the MKVToolNix application window.


When it's done, open your newly created MKV file, pause the video, and, in VLC for example, click on "Playback" in the menu, navigate to "Chapters", and select your chapter to verify the chapter timing is accurate.




That's it.



Sorry it wasn't more complex than that, but why make it more complicated than it has to be? Simple is best.

[hubblec4]

try chapterEditor, it has more options and is simple to use

[dralicox]

Thanks @madkracker6969.This is perfect for making chapters from the timestamp in YouTube description, you can do it manually or with some simple code.

[Rumourd]

Has anyone figured out how to export Chapters from Vegas Pro for import into MKVToolNix?
I use the Scripting feature to export chapters in Vegas Pro. Then I open that XML into a text editor and save it in various flavors, like Unicode .txt and other flavors of .txt files.

Nothing works.

Then I spent an hour just manually typing it into what someone on these boards said was an acceptable format. That doesn't work either.

[schmutzbrust]

Thanks for this thread, it worked great for me with @madkracker6969 instructions... Except on thing. The chapters work on pc, but not on most my BluRay Players... Samsung won't regognize the chapters at all. Philips says 1/13 chapters, but if you skip to the next one, it freezes. Panasonic works without any issues.

Is there anything i can do?

[hubblec4]

Thanks @madkracker6969.This is perfect for making chapters from the timestamp in YouTube description, you can do it manually or with some simple code.

This feature is also implemented in chapterEditor.
Simple copy the YouTube comment and you can load the chapters from the Clipboard. No need to create a file first.

Has anyone figured out how to export Chapters from Vegas Pro for import into MKVToolNix?
I use the Scripting feature to export chapters in Vegas Pro. .

If you want you can share with me the chapter output file of Vegas and I can add a support in chapterEditor.

[spiritgumm]

On a slight tangent, is it possible to make video pause at every chapter break in a mkv video that is a slideshow of still images? So you need to hit a "next chapter" or similar button to advance to next chapter?

[hubblec4]

you can simple pause the video and then use "next chapter" button in your player.
Each frame needs a chapter.
With ordered chapters you could create a looong virtual timeline of your images.
For example each image is shown 10 seconds.

[spiritgumm]

No, I want to add an indefinite pause in playback. That's how it worked in the original blu-ray this mkv is from, requiring you to use a remote control to advance to next chapter/image. You can see this in dvd structure as well.

[hubblec4]

I can understand you.
But such Menu features are currently not implemented in Matroska.
And when the specs in future include it, all the players needs an update for the support.

You can increase the time for each image to 1 day if you want. But I know this is not a perfect solution.

Interactive Movie feature is planned for Matroska but I guess it takes a long time before it is ready,

[spiritgumm]

I've seen an advert for an mkv slideshow program which says it can set the duration for each image. It seemed like someone asked about this (tho I'm not certain) with the Mkvtoolnix author, but I wasn't able to change chapter durations in the GUI.
https://gitlab.com/mbunkus/mkvtoolnix/-/issues/3129

The mkv has a chapter break for every image, and pauses very briefly for each. Without the chapter break tag muxed in, the video plays in a nanosecond. So it would seem the chapter tag might have some duration field. I'd like to increase the duration it if I can't pause it entirely.

[hubblec4]

I've seen an advert for an mkv slideshow program which says it can set the duration for each image. It seemed like someone asked about this (tho I'm not certain) with the Mkvtoolnix author, but I wasn't able to change chapter durations in the GUI.
https://gitlab.com/mbunkus/mkvtoolnix/-/issues/3129

Which program was that?

A chapter has not really a duration. The duration of a chapter is computed in the player and only when the chapters are ordered (ordered Edition).

The MKVToolNix issue has nothing to do with the duration. The delaying chapters works similar to Audio delays.
It is a simple shift of the timestamps.

The mkv has a chapter break for every image, and pauses very briefly for each. Without the chapter break tag muxed in, the video plays in a nanosecond. So it would seem the chapter tag might have some duration field. I'd like to increase the duration it if I can't pause it entirely.

Can you please share with me this mkv? Or where can I get it?

For easy chapter manipulation you should use my chapterEditor.

The first question is: Do you use a player which supports ordered Editions?

[spiritgumm]

It was just some random program I found googling "mkv slideshow."
What was the "1 day" duration you mentioned? Is that something I could implement and would be recognized by equipment/software without upgrading them?

[hubblec4]

What was the "1 day" duration you mentioned? Is that something I could implement and would be recognized by equipment/software without upgrading them?

My question was, do you use a player which supports ordered chapters?
Which player do you use?

I use only MPC-HC, it is the best Matroska player currently on this planet.

You can check your player: Go to my Matroska-Playback repo and download the test files for Ordered Chapters.

A player which supports ordered chapters, there is no problem to play an image with a duration of 1 day (1 year or more longer).
This is the magic of ordered chapters.

[spiritgumm]

How do you change the duration of existing chapter breaks in your chapter editor?

[hubblec4]

The image has a duration and I guess the time is 41,666ms.
A first chapter for this image could be this:
1. chapter start 00:00:00.00000000 -> end 00:00:00.041666666
this chapter is visible and you can set a name.

Duplicate this chapter and remove the chapter name and activate the Hidden Flag.
Now you can duplicate this new hidden chapter so often you want to get a virtual duration for this image you need.

[spiritgumm]

The image has a duration and I guess the time is 41,666ms.
A first chapter for this image could be this:
1. chapter start 00:00:00.00000000 -> end 00:00:00.041666666
this chapter is visible and you can set a name.

Duplicate this chapter and remove the chapter name and activate the Hidden Flag.
Now you can duplicate this new hidden chapter so often you want to get a virtual duration for this image you need.

I wasn't able to get it to work but thanks anyways.

[hubblec4]

In my signature is a Tool "DiscShare".
If you like you can share with me the Blu-ray (not fully).

Can you post your chapters.xml file?

And still the question what a player do you use for playback your mkv?
Not all players supports the ordered chapters.

[spiritgumm]

I wanted this to play in other players or blu-ray players as well, not just MPC-HC. It's not just for myself.

[hubblec4]

Ok, but other players maybe don't support ordered chapters and Blu-ray players definitive not.

Another trick maybe could work:
Increase the DefaultDuration of the Track.