Split MKV based on Chapters

Question

I have a long MKV file which I want to split into its individual chapters.

Running ffmpeg -i long.mkv gives me all the information about the chapters embedded in the file:

 Duration: 01:23:45.80, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 8116 kb/s
    Chapter #0.0: start 0.000000, end 235.000000
    Metadata:
      title           : Chapter 01
    Chapter #0.1: start 235.000000, end 450.160000
    Metadata:
      title           : Chapter 02
    Chapter #0.2: start 450.160000, end 789.400000
    ...

There are 10 chapters in the file - I want to end up with 10 separate files.

It looks like -map_chapters might to something similar - but I can't find any documentation on it.

Ubuntu. But any GNU/Linux system. – Terence Eden Aug 16 '14 at 09:45 — Terence Eden, Aug 16 '14 at 09:45

score 24 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '15 at 22:53

24

split mkv video by chapters using mkvmerge

mkvmerge -o output.mkv --split chapters:all input.mkv

https://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/doc/mkvmerge.html

answered Mar 21 '15 at 22:53

Endoro

2,854
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2

Unfortunately, since MKVmerge can only split on keyframes, this only works if there's a keyframe at the exact time as the chapter time for each chapter. If not, some or all of your chapters will contain parts of other chapters. Still haven't found a solution that works on exact times regardless of keyframes. – Natsukane Oct 31 '18 at 20:42
You may try [Avidemux](http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/) to split between key frames (inside the [GOP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_pictures)). – Endoro Nov 01 '18 at 01:15

Terence Eden · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-16T09:44:57.033

9

I can't find a reliable way to do this with ffmpeg / avconv - but I can find a way to do this with HandBrakeCLI.

 HandBrakeCLI -c 3 -i whatever.mkv -o 3.mkv

Will extract chapter 3 from an mkv.

edited Aug 16 '14 at 09:44

answered Aug 16 '14 at 09:01

Terence Eden

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This looks like it does what I want, but is it truely only extracting a chapter, or will this re-encode the entire chapter? Because it's my understanding that the Handbrake team considers anything not related to transcoding as out-of-scope, which makes me suspicious this will re-encode a file I only want to trim. – Tim M. Dec 28 '18 at 05:17
According to [Handbrake documentation](https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/latest/cli/cli-options.html) this will indeed re-encode the video using the "Normal" preset, and not just extract. – LapplandsCohan Jun 26 '20 at 20:48

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 11 '14 at 13:42

brute force solution, hehe:

ffmpeg -i long.mkv | grep 'start.*end.*[0-9]*' | sed -r 's/.*#[0-9]\.([0-9]*).* ([0-9]*\.[0-9]*).*( [0-9]*\.[0-9]*)/ ffmpeg -i long.mkv -ss \2 -to\3 -acodec copy -vcodec copy chapter\1.mkv/g;'

You can add xargs to run the output in cowboy style: | xargs -I cmd bash -c 'cmd'

Nachbars Lumpi · Answer 4 · 2017-07-25T17:24:14.373

This is my solution, it works well on ubuntu-16.04.02-LTS. It is based on another posted solution but has improved handling of chapters and the generated files for each chapter.

This is a sample execution:

$ mkv-split-chapters some-mkv-file.mkv
Filename: some-mkv-file
Extension: mkv
Filedir: .
ffmpeg -i some-mkv-file.mkv -ss 0.000000 -to 394.800000 -acodec copy -vcodec copy ./some-mkv-file-#00.mkv
[...]
ffmpeg -i some-mkv-file.mkv -ss 394.800000 -to 767.160000 -acodec copy -vcodec copy ./some-mkv-file-#01.mkv
[...]
ffmpeg -i some-mkv-file.mkv -ss 757.160000 -to 1216.720000 -acodec copy -vcodec copy ./some-mkv-file-#02.mkv
[...]

This is the script:

$ cat /usr/local/bin/mkv-split-chapters
#!/bin/bash
file="$1"
if [ -z "$file" ]; then
        echo "Missing file argument!"
        exit 1
fi

filename=$(basename "$file")
fileextension="${filename##*.}"
filename="${filename%.*}"
filedir=$(dirname "$file")
echo "Filename: $filename"
echo "Extension: $fileextension"
echo "Filedir: $filedir"
ffmpeg -i $file 2>&1 | grep 'Chapter' | grep 'start' | grep ', end' | awk "{
        chapter=\$2
        # replace : with nil
        gsub(/:/, \"\", chapter)
        start=\$4
        # remove everything but 0-9.
        gsub(/[^0123456789\.]/, \"\", start)
        end=\$6
        command=sprintf(\"ffmpeg -i $file -ss %s -to %s -acodec copy -vcodec copy $filedir/$filename-%s.$fileextension\n\", start, end, chapter)
        print(command)
        system(command)
}"

The script is also available here:

https://github.com/dpsenner/mkv-split-chapters

Felix Yeung · Answer 5 · 2022-01-19T13:50:03.280

0

You can use the open source GUI program called LosslessCut. It losslessly cuts popular formats like mp4 and mkv instantly without reencoding the video. It works really well.

edited Jan 19 '22 at 13:50

answered Jan 19 '22 at 13:42

Felix Yeung

1
1

1

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Jan 19 '22 at 13:47

Split MKV based on Chapters

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