Noticed a new feature to add chapters in beta.

[Ronstang 293]

Installed the latest beta the other day for another reason that didn't pan out but have it running as a parallel portable install to test some things.  I noticed when making a new library that there is a feature to add chapter markers to video files that do not have them.  This is really cool because I have a lot of files that do not have chapters for some odd reason.  I have a solution called MKVChapterizer which works perfectly but I have to know which files don't have chapters.

My question is does emby scan the files and find the ones that don't have chapters and run as a scheduled task or is this one of those things the first time you try to load a file in emby it adds the chapter markers?  What I mean is if I navigate to the info page of a movie and it has no chapters will I see that upon viewing and if not when I play it will the chapters be added and then subsequent views will now show the chapters?

Sorry, I have now confused myself as much as I probably have you so it is easier to just ask how and when does this feature work?

This is actually exciting.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, this is not really a new feature. The server has always had it. The option only provides the ability to turn off the behavior that was already there.

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My question is does emby scan the files and find the ones that don't have chapters and run as a scheduled task

During the initial import it gets chapters from the file. If there are none, it will auto-generate some at 5 minute intervals. This last part is what can now be turned off.

[Ronstang 293]

I just imported a directory of MKV files into the beta server and nothing changed.  Still no chapters.  Am I missing something.  This library has already been imported into my stable server in the past so it didn't change anything either.

[Ronstang 293]

Really?  No response?  Is this another feature the doesn't work correctly?  Why add a switch to turn off something that appears to be off all the time regardless?  No wonder I thought it was something new because it has never actually worked, for me at least.

[Luke 42077]

14 hours ago, Ronstang said:

I just imported a directory of MKV files into the beta server and nothing changed.  Still no chapters.  Am I missing something.  This library has already been imported into my stable server in the past so it didn't change anything either.

What exactly makes you think there are no chapters?

[Ronstang 293]

33 minutes ago, Luke said:

What exactly makes you think there are no chapters?

Uh, well....when you play a file in MPV you can see in the progress bar the chapter markers.  Or...if you load the movie into emby you see the chapters and their corresponding still pics below the Artists bar.  Both are still missing so the movies still have no chapters.  But, if I run them through MKVChapterizer the problem is fixed in seconds.  I just don't have time to peruse 10K movies looking for ones that need chapters so I was hoping this actually worked.

Edited September 1, 2025 by Ronstang

[Luke 42077]

It doesn’t edit your original files. It essentially just pretends like the video has chapters spaced at five minute intervals.

[Ronstang 293]

So it does nothing? Because if emby does not see the chapters then it has no purpose.  I just opened the info page of a movie I know has no chapters.  It shows none under the actors.  So I played it and it showed ONE chapter...chapter 1 at 00:00 time.  So this is a non feature?  You can create a chapter "file" using MKVChapterizer.  Maybe emby should look at how they do it and implement something similar that actually works.

I will play with this in MKVChapterizer to see if it works, but the question is am I wasting my time?  Will emby utilize the chapter file for both the database and playback?

[Luke 42077]

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So it does nothing?

When you're in Emby you'll be able to use the auto-generated chapters just as if they were part of the original file. But it will not save the chapters into the file for use outside of Emby.

The detail screen only shows chapters with images, so either you didn't enable video preview thumbnail extraction, or it hasn't happened yet for that particular video.

[Ronstang 293]

Very strange Luke.  I checked some different files that don't have chapters and they like you say show chapters when played in emby but not on the info page.  Then I checked the one I have bee checking every time I make a change and it does not have chapter anywhere and not when played in emby either.  The strange thing is it does have a BIF file and then I ran it through MKVChaterizer and it did nothing, because I had it set to do nothing if chapters existed.  So I remove the chapters that did not show in any application and then added them back with MKVChapterizer and it works fine.

How can files have chapters yet not actually have chapters that show anywhere?  Any ideas?  This is strange.

Now, if I just remove the chapters and do not put them back in with MKVChapterizer then once again they don't show on the info page but they do show in emby when you play the file, but there are no matching pictures even though there is already a BIF file there.  If I delete the current BIF file I cannot get emby to generate a new one no matter how many times I scan the files again.

Any clue?

Edited September 2, 2025 by Ronstang

[Luke 42077]

Did you enable thumbnail generation during the scan or just during the scheduled task?

[Happy2Play 9780]

56 minutes ago, Luke said:

Did you enable thumbnail generation during the scan or just during the scheduled task?

Enabling just he Chapters option is not enough?  (Have not tested this yet)

But I will guess everything is still tied to Video Preview Thumbnails options even if you enable the Chapter switch.

Edited September 2, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Luke 42077]

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Enabling just he Chapters option is not enough?  (Have not tested this yet)

it is enough to generate the chapters, but not to extract images. That has a separate option.

[Ronstang 293]

Yes, thumbnail generation is enabled and while I was asleep it generated the BIF file that I deleted after using MKVChapterizer but there are still no thumbnails associated with the chapters when they show while playing with emby, but they still do not show in the info page.  

[Happy2Play 9780]

1 minute ago, Ronstang said:

Yes, thumbnail generation is enabled and while I was asleep it generated the BIF file that I deleted after using MKVChapterizer but there are still no thumbnails associated with the chapters when they show while playing with emby, but they still do not show in the info page.  

But if you deleted the bif then no images will appear as that is where the images will come from.

[Ronstang 293]

1 hour ago, Happy2Play said:

But if you deleted the bif then no images will appear as that is where the images will come from.

I told you, I deleted the BIF file because nothing showed once I deleted the chapters that were not actually there and created new ones with MKVChapterizer.  Then I tried to get emby to generate a new one but it wouldn't but it did overnight.  But still no images show in the chapters when playing the file in emby and no chapters show in the info page.