Joining chapters of one film from two disc's.

[Barny]

I have "Once Upon A Time In America" which is on two disc's. I have put them both in MKV and then muxed together with MKVmerge to make one complete film which plays OK. I would like to have the chapters on too, but when I load them they go from chapter 1-34 and 1-25. I tried just changing the 1-25 from 35-59 but I couldn't then make the MKV single file. It tells me something but I can't follow it. I have MKV Extract but no clue how to use it or how to save them and rename. Could somebody point me to a tutorial on how to do this please.

[fryk.]

If you join two MKVs with mkvmerge, this corrects the chapter time stamps automatically. For best results use the command line interface.

[Barny]

If you join two MKVs with mkvmerge, this corrects the chapter time stamps automatically. For best results use the command line interface.

Do you mean all the chapters will be in the correct order from 1-59. I really don't know how to use the command line or even where it is and then I wouldn't know what I would command. Sorry I am new at this. I just know MKV makes super films to watch on a Blu-Ray recorder, but I want to learn more.

[Smithcraft]

What would be the difference between using the GUI and using the CLI?

SC

[fryk.]

To join some MKV files to one big MKV you can use the following command line:

Code: Select all

mkvmerge -o "full.mkv" "file1.mkv" + "file2.mkv"

This will append files with the same structure.

You can also do this with mkvmerge-gui (mmg), button "append" - NOT "add" for "file2.mkv".

[Smithcraft]

You said "for best results," so what is the difference in the output when using the CLI vs the GUI?

SC

[fryk.]

The gui uses the cli to run the command.
But some user will be confused about the difference between the "add" and "append" button.
So the command line will be helpful in such cases.

[Smithcraft]

Then just say "Use the mkvtoolnix GUI and append the two files."

SC

[Barny]

I would still like to know how to use the command line and exactly when and how to use it. I have appended the two parts of the film and it says for file 1, 34 chapters and file 2, 25 chapters. I take it that they will all be put in order from chapter 1-59 in MKVmerge. It would be nice if someone could write some tutorials with graphics to make things easy. I write a lot of tutorials and if ever I fathom out how to do this I will. I also have the program MKVextract and little by little have been trying to teach myself how to use it.

[paulster]

I've found that when I appended files, chapters with the same name in the second file are discarded, so you have to rename (renumber) the chapters in the second MKV file prior to appending.

Then, in my experience, it's just worked fine straight out of the box.

[Barny]

Thank you for that Paulster, but that is what I need to know. How exactly do you do that. I tried extracting the chapters from the the second file with MKVextract but found I couldn't alter anything in it and it looked complicated to alter anyway. I did try altering them in mkv merge one at a time like 01 to number 35 up to 59 but when I went to remux, it said something else, so nothing happened. Just getting frustrated with trying but I am not giving up.

[paulster]

In the chapter editor in MKVmerge open the second file. Then, starting with the last chapter and working backwards, rename them all. Then choose Save from the chapters menu.

You need to do them in reverse order because it won't let you have two chapters with the same names.

Once you've done that, go back to the main tab and drag in your first file. Then choose to append, rather than add, your second file. Then you should just be able to let it mux and you'll get the result you expect.

[Barny]

thanks paulster. I will try that later. At the moment I am experimenting with changing the chapters in Media info and saving as xml files, extracting the video and audio from my full film with MKVextract and am just waiting for that to finish, then I am going to try and input all files into MKVmerge to see if that works. I will let you know.

That didn't work, so have just followed your instructions and had a message something like you have used chapter editor which is separate from whatever and will not be muxed or something like that. I just altered all the chapters from 1-25 to 34-59 backwards and saved in the chapter editor as Save to matroska file and it is letting me mux it at the moment. I made one slight mistake and named two number 34 files so cocked it up, but at least it worked in VLC player and took me to the right chapters. So thank you for that paulster I now know how to do it and will make the next attempt right. I found in the chapters menu I had to save file 2 as an mkv matroska file though. Is that right?

[fryk.]

If you use mkvextractgui2 from the http://sourceforge.net/projects/mkvextractgui-2/ site and select chapter format "ogm", you can edit the chapters with every text editor program (eg. notepad).

They looks like this:

Code: Select all

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=start of chapter #1
CHAPTER02=00:05:32.000
CHAPTER02NAME=start of chapter #2
CHAPTER03=00:09:58.000
CHAPTER03NAME=start of chapter #3
.
.
.

Simply replace the text after "CHAPTER0XNAME=" with your own phrase.
To mux the edited ogm file just drag & drop it in mkvmerge-gui's chapter editor.

[fryk.]

Then just say "Use the mkvtoolnix GUI and append the two files."

SC

On startup the "append" button is diabled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you use mkvextractgui2 and select chapter format "ogm", you can edit the chapters with every text editor program (eg. notepad).

They looks like this:

Code: Select all

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=start of chapter #1
CHAPTER02=00:05:32.000
CHAPTER02NAME=start of chapter #2
CHAPTER03=00:09:58.000
CHAPTER03NAME=start of chapter #3
.
.
.

Simply replace the text after "CHAPTER0XNAME=" with your own phrase.
To mux the edited ogm file just drag & drop it in mkvmerge-gui's chapter editor.