Plugin - Chapter Editor (ChapterApi)

[GrimReaper 4739]

Could the "Runtime: XXX" line be added under Title/Type so occurrences like this:

Quote

2025-09-28 20:20:37.856 Info ChapterImagesTask: Stopping chapter extraction for Convergence because a chapter was found with a position greater than the runtime.

could be spotted directly in Chapter API UI, without the need to delve into item detail screen to check what is the actual runtime? 

Thanks. 

[k00di 0]

I tried to search for this, but how do I delete intro chapters from one of my libraries? I would like to delete all intro chapters from every series in this one library.

[k00di 0]

On 01/10/2025 at 15:23, k00di said:

I tried to search for this, but how do I delete intro chapters from one of my libraries? I would like to delete all intro chapters from every series in this one library.

Alright, for all the idiots like ME, just disable the intro markers in library and refresh all metadata.

[wobber 0]

A quick question (which may sound stupid, but I'm new to using Chapter API). When upgrading to a new version of Emby server are the changes made by Chapter API to the intro start and end times retained? In other words, is the file being edited by Chapter API overwritten by the new Emby server and replaced by a new one which uses the core intro skip feature timings or is the old file with the edited timings reused? I've spent a long time editing the intro skip timings that the core feature got wrong and I don't want to have to start again if I upgrade!

[yocker 1247]

43 minutes ago, wobber said:

A quick question (which may sound stupid, but I'm new to using Chapter API). When upgrading to a new version of Emby server are the changes made by Chapter API to the intro start and end times retained? In other words, is the file being edited by Chapter API overwritten by the new Emby server and replaced by a new one which uses the core intro skip feature timings or is the old file with the edited timings reused? I've spent a long time editing the intro skip timings that the core feature got wrong and I don't want to have to start again if I upgrade!

It sure looks like the new version of Emby did something to chapters.
I have the same problem with my plugin EmbyCredits.

[toooo 8]

Thank you for your work on this plugin. I have a couple questions and requests

1. When I adjust the chapters for a video file, the next "Refresh Metadata" clears out my adjustments and restores to the built-in info in the file.
   1. Is this intended?
   2. It makes any manual changes temporary
   3. It means that I can't generate chapter thumbnails based on the manually created chapters - since triggering thumbnail generation is done through "Refresh Metadata"
2. Could you include a basic search/filter for chapter info?:
   1. title ( contains )
   2. duration ( less than / greater than )
   3. number of chapters in a file ( less than / greater than )
3. The "Auto Chapter Create" option is great, but a file has to be found manually first to do this.
   1. Apply this to many files at once
   2. Could combine with filter (files without chapters, files with short or long chapters, etc.)
4. Option to save custom adjustments into files (looks like xml may be supported by emby?)

Thanks

[TeamB 2438]

28 minutes ago, toooo said:

When I adjust the chapters for a video file, the next "Refresh Metadata" clears out my adjustments and restores to the built-in info in the file.

1. Is this intended?
2. It makes any manual changes temporary
3. It means that I can't generate chapter thumbnails based on the manually created chapters - since triggering thumbnail generation is done through "Refresh Metadata"

 

@Luke has something changed in emby? I have noticed a few posts like this now, I know originally if you did a full meta reload for an item the chapters would be reset but has that been changed to reset chapters on any meta reload?

30 minutes ago, toooo said:

Could you include a basic search/filter for chapter info?:

1. title ( contains )
2. duration ( less than / greater than )
3. number of chapters in a file ( less than / greater than )

 

short answer is no.
longer answer is possible but probably not going to happen, because emby has no chapter search functions you would need to load ALL media file chapter info on the server into a new DB for all chapter info, add a way to keep this updated and in sync and then add search capabilities so you could look up the chapters that fit your requirements...see short answer.

34 minutes ago, toooo said:

The "Auto Chapter Create" option is great, but a file has to be found manually first to do this.

1. Apply this to many files at once
2. Could combine with filter (files without chapters, files with short or long chapters, etc.)

 

This is probably doable, a little risky but doable. You would need to walk through ALL the files that fit your criteria and apply the create chapters.
It also might be possible to add a trigger to process newly added items. There is an example in the code for this already for the existing intro scan action.

41 minutes ago, toooo said:

Option to save custom adjustments into files (looks like xml may be supported by emby?)

there are probably options for saving and restoring chapter data. I looked into a few options but stopped, read more below.

 

History and Future:
This plugin was meant to me a stop gap fix for a missing feature in Emby. Years ago we had a group of users working on ways to detect intro segments in episodes, this work tried a bunch of different approaches and eventually found a reasonable solution of using Audio finger prints of intro music to detect intros.

This works well enough and a few plugs and variations of the approach were produced, this plugin being one.

At the time there was no way of viewing or editing the chapter data that was being to to hold this new intro skip data that was being detected so I added a feature to my intro detection plugin to allow users to view and edit chapters manually.

As time went by the core Emby system added one of the more automated approaches for intro detection into its core feature set. And one of the plugins that was using that approach was removed from the plugins and effectively disappeared.

We were also told as this time that Emby was adding this core intro detect feature and also a bunch of chapter editing features and that ALL the intro and chapter plugins would no longer be needed.

And it is true the core Emby now has a intro detection system, but Emby never added any chapter editing or viewing features into its core feature set.

I kept this plugin going as I believe my approach to intro detection was a valid alternative (uses a library of into audio fingerprints instead of having to actively scan for similar audio segments). And also this meant the Chapter view/edit features was still available in this plugin.

I was assured by the Emby team that the core Emby chapter editing and viewing tools were coming soon and any work I did on them in this plugin would be redundant in short time so I never added or enhanced the plugin.

Now years later and with no sign of any chapter editing or viewing in the core emby system this plugin is still the only solution most users have or viewing and editing chapters.

I have no idea what happened to the core emby team, not sure if they are still there, I see comments from some of them from time to time but it is really quiet on the dev side. And I guess if any of them see this they will respond with what about X Y Z feature we just added and it is true some stuff is changing and being added but fundamental core features that are obviously need like a chapter editor and better chapter management is just ignored and I don't have any idea why.

Anyway this has turned into more of a rant than anything, sorry about that.
Short answer is this plugin was meant to be temporary until Emby actual had this functionality, I have no idea when that is going to happen though.

 

 

 

 
 

[Luke 42077]

What we need is the ability to lock the chapters after editing to prevent them from being changed in Emby following a metadata refresh.

[TeamB 2438]

29 minutes ago, Luke said:

What we need is the ability to lock the chapters after editing to prevent them from being changed in Emby following a metadata refresh.

yes

[rbjtech 5284]

9 hours ago, Luke said:

What we need is the ability to lock the chapters after editing to prevent them from being changed in Emby following a metadata refresh.

That would be a welcome small step forward to align to other lockable metadata .. but the logic to reset it after a Full metadata Refresh is I believe correct.   The logic to reset it after a 'partial/missing' data is wrong though - as if it has existing data, it's not missing ...  Fixing that should be the 1st before any locking feature imho.

Edited January 26 by rbjtech

[toooo 8]

Here is a related discussion under a feature request