Chapter support in Matroska (MKV) video containers?

**Gamester17** · 2007-11-28 11:37

I do not know (do not have a Matroska file with chapters to test), why don't you simply try playing back a file with the DVDPlayer to find out?

waldo22 · 2008-01-13 02:54

Gamester17 Wrote:I do not know (do not have a Matroska file with chapters to test), why don't you simply try playing back a file with the DVDPlayer to find out?

Sorry for the long delay... I didn't get a notification that you replied.

I tried using DVDPlayer on the November 25th SVN build, and it doesn't work.

I'll try updating to the latest SVN and report back.

Wes

waldo22 · 2008-01-13 18:17

Doesn't work on January 6th, 2008 SVN either, with mplayer or DVDPlayer.

waldo22 · 2008-03-25 20:42

Just to bump this up a bit, I thought I'd try clarifying what I mean when I'm requesting "chapter support" in matroska.

I use Handbrake to rip our family's DVD's to MKV files (using xVid) with the chapter markers preserved. A MediaInfo dump of the meta information in the MKV looks like this:

Code:

General #0

Complete name        : C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\DVDs\xVids\BatmanBeginsxVidAC3.mkv

Format               : Mk

File size            : 1.91 GiB

PlayTime             : 2h 19mn

Bit rate             : 1953 Kbps

Writing application  : HandBrake 0.9.1

Writing library      : libmkv 0.6.1.2

Video #0

Codec                : MPEG-4 ASP

Codec/Info           : MPEG4 ISO advanced simple profile

PlayTime             : 2h 19mn

Width                : 720 pixels

Height               : 360 pixels

Display Aspect ratio : 2.35

Frame rate           : 23.976 fps

Audio #0

Codec                : AC3

Codec/Info           : Dolby AC3

Channel(s)           : 2 channels

Sampling rate        : 48 KHz

Language             : English

Chapters #0

1                    : 00:00:00.000 Chapter 01

2                    : 00:03:38.301 Chapter 02

3                    : 00:07:30.324 Chapter 03

4                    : 00:11:33.025 Chapter 04

5                    : 00:16:14.682 Chapter 05

6                    : 00:19:43.348 Chapter 06

7                    : 00:24:18.373 Chapter 07

8                    : 00:28:23.785 Chapter 08

9                    : 00:31:24.299 Chapter 09

10                   : 00:35:52.859 Chapter 10

11                   : 00:38:23.676 Chapter 11

12                   : 00:41:13.679 Chapter 12

13                   : 00:43:07.167 Chapter 13

14                   : 00:46:56.855 Chapter 14

15                   : 00:49:42.896 Chapter 15

16                   : 00:53:25.076 Chapter 16

17                   : 00:55:54.100 Chapter 17

18                   : 00:58:01.352 Chapter 18

19                   : 01:03:30.848 Chapter 19

20                   : 01:05:51.989 Chapter 20

21                   : 01:08:37.822 Chapter 21

22                   : 01:11:24.822 Chapter 22

23                   : 01:13:18.435 Chapter 23

24                   : 01:16:15.112 Chapter 24

25                   : 01:19:49.743 Chapter 25

26                   : 01:23:53.361 Chapter 26

27                   : 01:29:01.627 Chapter 27

28                   : 01:32:35.716 Chapter 28

29                   : 01:37:47.987 Chapter 29

30                   : 01:40:32.651 Chapter 30

31                   : 01:45:08.135 Chapter 31

32                   : 01:49:31.106 Chapter 32

33                   : 01:51:28.348 Chapter 33

34                   : 01:54:48.006 Chapter 34

35                   : 01:58:10.083 Chapter 35

36                   : 02:01:54.015 Chapter 36

37                   : 02:05:00.159 Chapter 37

38                   : 02:06:05.891 Chapter 38

39                   : 02:09:17.541 Chapter 39

40                   : 02:10:56.056 Chapter 40

What I'm specifically requesting is the ability to press |<< or >>| on the remote control and skip to the previous/next chapter marker in the Matroska file, using either DVDPlayer or MPlayer.

Would be great if this worked in AVI files and other containers that support chapters as well, but Matroska is the most desirable, I think.

Hope this helps.

-Wes

**natethomas** · 2008-05-22 06:53

I'd like to second this request. Now that I've finally installed xbmc onto Linux, all my pretty chapters don't do anything in my hd mkv files. It's possible that there isn't a great demand for this yet (or possibly ever), but it sure would be nice to see some mkv chapter love.

waldo22 · 2008-05-24 08:26

I'm glad you added your support, Nate. I'm honestly surprised that no one else seems to think this is a useful feature.

Maybe it's just extraordinarily difficult to do?

Wes

**pike** · 2008-05-24 09:19

+1

I recently muxed some chapters into a Concert. Hopefully it won't be long now till a Dev adds chapter support incl "title" support for chapters

waldo22 · 2008-05-24 23:43

This would probably have to be done in DVDPlayer, right?

Do you think it's a simple matter of DVDPlayer "catching" and handling the |<< and >>| buttons for non-DVD content, jumping to the previous or next chapter's timestamp, and refilling the buffers, or is it something that will have to be implemented in the demuxer (ie. does ffmpeg have to support it?)

Wes

**natethomas** · 2008-05-26 05:14

I know the Media Control Plugin for Vista

http://damienbt.free.fr/index.php

has support for mkv chapters. The impression I get is that the requisite chapter coding comes from Haali splitter

http://damienbt.free.fr/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=275

I don't know much beyond that. XBMC doesn't use haali splitter for audio streams purposes, right?

**Gamester17** · 2008-05-26 16:55

FYI; FFmpeg just added support for chapters in MKV containers to their SVN two days ago, so it should now hopefully not be too much work for XBMC developers to add support for it to our DVDPlayer video-player core, handled the same way as IFO-VOB/DVD-Video chapters, (but I do not know about our MPlayer video-player core).
http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmp...html#46915
http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmp...46915.html

natethomas Wrote:XBMC doesn't use haali splitter for audio streams purposes, right?

No, XBMC only use native code (FFmpeg), and not DirectShow. Read this.
No external decoders or demuxers/splitters is possible to plugin like that.

waldo22 Donor Posts: 764 Joined: Sep 2007 Reputation: 2 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA	2008-01-13 18:17 Post: #13 Doesn't work on January 6th, 2008 SVN either, with mplayer or DVDPlayer.
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natethomas Team-XBMC Community Manager Posts: 2,831 Joined: Apr 2008 Reputation: 53	2008-05-22 06:53 Post: #15 I'd like to second this request. Now that I've finally installed xbmc onto Linux, all my pretty chapters don't do anything in my hd mkv files. It's possible that there isn't a great demand for this yet (or possibly ever), but it sure would be nice to see some mkv chapter love.
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waldo22 Donor Posts: 764 Joined: Sep 2007 Reputation: 2 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA	2008-05-24 08:26 Post: #16 I'm glad you added your support, Nate. I'm honestly surprised that no one else seems to think this is a useful feature. Maybe it's just extraordinarily difficult to do? Wes
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waldo22 Donor Posts: 764 Joined: Sep 2007 Reputation: 2 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA	2008-05-24 23:43 Post: #18 This would probably have to be done in DVDPlayer, right? Do you think it's a simple matter of DVDPlayer "catching" and handling the \|<< and >>\| buttons for non-DVD content, jumping to the previous or next chapter's timestamp, and refilling the buffers, or is it something that will have to be implemented in the demuxer (ie. does ffmpeg have to support it?) Wes
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natethomas Team-XBMC Community Manager Posts: 2,831 Joined: Apr 2008 Reputation: 53	2008-05-26 05:14 Post: #19 I know the Media Control Plugin for Vista http://damienbt.free.fr/index.php has support for mkv chapters. The impression I get is that the requisite chapter coding comes from Haali splitter http://damienbt.free.fr/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=275 I don't know much beyond that. XBMC doesn't use haali splitter for audio streams purposes, right?
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