Chapters: Support for chapter.xml files?

[flight 0]

I'm pretty sure that I saw Emby consuming a movie.chapter.xml file that I put in the same folder as my movie.mkv. But recently, Emby just ignores this chapter.xml file.

 

Does Emby include support for reading chapter.xml files and is it supposed to work?

 

I'm running Emby Server 3.0.5972.

 

My movie.chapter.xml looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<chapters>
  <chapter mark="0:00:00" title="A first chapter" thumb="movie-chapter1.jpg">
    <plot>Plot of first chapter</plot>
  </chapter>
  <chapter mark="0:011:13" title="The Second chapter" thumb="movie-chapter2.jpg">
    <plot>Plot of second chapter</plot>
  </chapter>
</chapters>

[Luke 38954]

Hi, welcome. No, this is not currently supported. where does this file format come from?

[daedalus 430]

https://matroska.org/technical/specs/chapters/index.html

 

https://mkvtoolnix.download/doc/mkvmerge.html#mkvmerge.chapters

[AdrianW 1055]

As daedalus mentions - just mux the chapters with the video and audio into an mkv container.

 

Easiest way:

• download and install mkvtoolnix
• run mkvtoolnix GUI
• drag your existing video into the "Source files" panel
• click the "output" tab
• drag the chapters file (txt or xml) into the "Chapter file:" box
• Click "Start muxing"

Edited June 16, 2016 by AdrianW

[daedalus 430]

the links were more for @Luke to explain the xml chapter format (possibly to implement multilanguage chapter or other fancy things)

 

if your existing video file is already a mkv, there's an even easier way without remuxing:

• load the chapter in the chapter editor in mkvtoolnix gui
• hit 'chapter editor'
• hit 'save to matroska file'
• select your existing file
• you're done

[AdrianW 1055]

 

if your existing video file is already a mkv, there's an even easier way without remuxing:

 

 

Thanks for that I thought there had to be a way to do that - I was just hadn't seen the "Save to Matroska file" option on the menu.

 

MKVToolnix would be a bit more intuitive if there were a few more buttons at the bottom of the "Edit headers", "Edit chapters" and "Job queue" tabs (like Save, Start pending jobs, etc.) instead of it relying on menu options.

[flight 0]

Hi, welcome. No, this is not currently supported. where does this file format come from?

 

https://matroska.org/technical/specs/chapters/index.html

 

https://mkvtoolnix.download/doc/mkvmerge.html#mkvmerge.chapters

 

@Luke: Upon further investigation, the chapter format I mentioned in the OP seems to be a singleton crafted for a Kodi/XBMC plugin, xmbc-chapter: https://code.google.com/archive/p/xbmc-chapters/.

 

This German article has a little bit more information about the plugin and use, together with samples of the chapter formats (xml and txt): http://myxbmc.bplaced.net/blog/?p=3292

 

@daedalus: The XML chapter format used by this plugin is different from the Matroska XML chapter format.

 

OK, so the only way to get chapter information into Emby is to put the information into the media file? Provided that the chapter information is metadata (that you might want to edit later on, just like genre, title, actors), that sounds quite cumbersome.

[AdrianW 1055]

 

OK, so the only way to get chapter information into Emby is to put the information into the media file? Provided that the chapter information is metadata (that you might want to edit later on, just like genre, title, actors), that sounds quite cumbersome.

 

Well, having it in the media file makes it work right now. Maybe a future enhancement would accept external chapters.

 

Although I can't see why chapters would need to be edited later - it's not like the chapters would move or change names. BUT - mkvtoolnix can be used to edit chapters - just drag the mkv file in, edit the chapters and hit save - it's very quick.

[flight 0]

OK, so the only way to get chapter information into Emby is to put the information into the media file? Provided that the chapter information is metadata (that you might want to edit later on, just like genre, title, actors), that sounds quite cumbersome.

 

 

Sorry, just a little bit too late I found that this question was discussed only recently:

 

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/34135-external-chapter-files/

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/8681-chapters/

 

 

Well, having it in the media file makes it work right now. Maybe a future enhancement would accept external chapters.

 

Although I can't see why chapters would need to be edited later - it's not like the chapters would move or change names. BUT - mkvtoolnix can be used to edit chapters - just drag the mkv file in, edit the chapters and hit save - it's very quick.

 

Yep, that's a workaround, but only for mkv.

 

Please don't get me wrong, I didn't wanted to sound rude. I'm completely aware that Emby is a community thing. I just was baffled that this feature seemed to be missing and wanted to make sure that I'm not wrong.

[Luke 38954]

I don't recall anyone ever bringing it up before, so that's why it hasn't been looked at yet.

 

The reason why putting it into the media file is the best option is because that is truly the only universal way to have it supported with as many video players and devices as possible. On some devices we don't have the ability to override certain details that are displayed by the video player, so in that situation, this would only lead to reports of "emby not working", whereas if the chapters were inside the video container, then the video player might use them. that's not to say we wouldn't support this feature, because we would if there's enough demand, it's just that there is also some downside to it.

[Abobader 3273]

I am sure Luke will find a good way to apply this without casing issue for whom do not have it.

[SikSlayer 238]

I certainly hope one day this can happen. It'd be a pain to have to remux so many MKVs, and also, new chapter.xml files are posted at Chapterdb.org every day. At least once a week I'm finding new named chapters for films that never had them before.

 

I can understand there being downsides to it, but this is a good overall idea IMO. I don't know of anything that supports external chapters currently, and I think the plugin for Kodi/XBMC didn't work very well.

[ebr 15470]

We will probably look into it again but the last time we did, the information at chapterdb.org was very unreliable so we ended up with more noise than good information.

[SikSlayer 238]

We will probably look into it again but the last time we did, the information at chapterdb.org was very unreliable so we ended up with more noise than good information.

 

Well, *I* personally am less interested in Emby integrating downloading xml from the site than the core functionality of supporting one if its found with a video file, at least at the outset anyway. Websites such as OpenSubtitles and Podnapisi weren't so reliable in my experience either, so it's easy to see where you're coming from with that.

Edited June 21, 2016 by SikSlayer

[ebr 15470]

Without a reliable source for those files, the universe of people using such a feature would be extremely small so it becomes very hard for us to devote much time to it.

[SikSlayer 238]

Well, as I said, OpenSubtitles and Podnapisi weren't so reliable, but support for the former is in Emby Server, so why not this?

[ebr 15470]

Well, as I said, OpenSubtitles and Podnapisi weren't so reliable, but support for the former is in Emby Server, so why not this?

 

Because we have to set priorities and the number of people using external subtitle files from whatever source is orders of magnitude greater than those that would use this feature.

 

That doesn't mean it will never happen but it does put it down on the list.