1MKVMERGE(1) User Commands MKVMERGE(1)
2
6 mkvmerge - Merge multimedia streams into a Matroska(TM) file
7
9 mkvmerge [global options] {-o out} [options1] {file1}
10 [[options2] {file2}] [@options-file.json]
11
13 This program takes the input from several media files and joins their
14 streams (all of them or just a selection) into a Matroska(TM) file; see
15 the Matroska(TM) website[1].
16 Important
18 The order of command line options is important. Please read the
19 section "Option order" if you're new to the program.
20 Global options
22 -v, --verbose
23 Increase verbosity.
24 -q, --quiet
26 Suppress status output.
27 -o, --output file-name
29 Write to the file file-name. If splitting is used then this
30 parameter is treated a bit differently. See the explanation for the
31 --split option for details.
32 -w, --webm
34 Create a WebM compliant file. This is also turned on if the output
35 file name's extension is "webm". This mode enforces several
36 restrictions. The only allowed codecs are VP8, VP9 video and Opus,
37 Vorbis audio tracks. The DocType header item is changed to "webm".
38 For chapters and tags only a subset of elements are allowed.
40 mkvmerge(1) will automatically remove all elements not allowed by
41 the specification.
42 --title title
44 Sets the general title for the output file, e.g. the movie name.
45 --default-language language-code
47 Sets the default language code that will be used for tracks for
48 which no language is set with the --language option and for which
49 the source container doesn't provide a language.
50 The default language code is 'und' for 'undefined'.
52 Segment info handling (global options)
54 --segmentinfo filename.xml
55 Read segment information from a XML file. This file can contain the
56 segment family UID, segment UID, previous and next segment UID
57 elements. An example file and a DTD are included in the MKVToolNix
58 distribution.
59 See the section about segment info XML files below for details.
61 --segment-uid SID1,SID2,...
63 Sets the segment UIDs to use. This is a comma-separated list of
64 128-bit segment UIDs in the usual UID form: hex numbers with or
65 without the "0x" prefix, with or without spaces, exactly 32 digits.
66 If SID starts with = then its rest is interpreted as the name of a
68 Matroska file whose segment UID is read and used.
69 Each file created contains one segment, and each segment has one
71 segment UID. If more segment UIDs are specified than segments are
72 created then the surplus UIDs are ignored. If fewer UIDs are
73 specified than segments are created then random UIDs will be
74 created for them.
75 Chapter and tag handling (global options)
77 --chapter-language language-code
78 Sets the ISO 639-2 language code that is written for each chapter
79 entry. Defaults to 'eng'. See the section about chapters below for
80 details.
81 This option can be used both for simple chapter files and for
83 source files that contain chapters but no information about the
84 chapters' language, e.g. MP4 and OGM files.
85 The language set with this option is also used when chapters are
87 generated with the --generate-chapters option.
88 --chapter-charset character-set
90 Sets the character set that is used for the conversion to UTF-8 for
91 simple chapter files. See the section about text files and
92 character sets for an explanation how mkvmerge(1) converts between
93 character sets.
94 This switch does also apply to chapters that are copied from
96 certain container types, e.g. Ogg/OGM and MP4 files. See the
97 section about chapters below for details.
98 --chapter-sync d[,o[/p]]
100 Adjust the timestamps of the chapters in the following source file
101 by d ms. Alternatively you can use the --sync option with the
102 special track ID -2 (see section special track IDs).
103 o/p: adjust the timestamps by o/p to fix linear drifts. p defaults
105 to 1 if omitted. Both o and p can be floating point numbers.
106 Defaults: no manual sync correction (which is the same as d = 0 and
108 o/p = 1.0).
109 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
111 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
112 --generate-chapters mode
114 mkvmerge(1) can create chapters automatically. The following two
115 modes are currently supported:
116 · 'when-appending' – This mode creates one chapter at the start
118 and one chapter whenever a file is appended.
119 Note
121 mkvmerge(1) requires a video or an audio track to be
122 present in order to be able to determine when a new file is
123 appended. If one or more video tracks are muxed the first
124 one is used. Otherwise the first audio track is used.
125 · 'interval:time-spec' – This mode creates one chapter at fixed
127 intervals given by time-spec. The format is either the form
128 HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn or a number followed by one of the units
129 's', 'ms' or 'us'.
130 Example: --generate-chapters interval:45s
132 The names for the new chapters are controlled by the option
134 --generate-chapters-name-template. The language is set with
135 --chapter-language which must occur before --generate-chapters.
136 --generate-chapters-name-template template
138 This sets the name template for chapter names generated by the
139 option --generate-chapters. If the option is not used then default
140 'Chapter <NUM:2>' will be used.
141 There are several variables that can be used in the template that
143 are replaced by their actual values when a chapter is generated.
144 The string '<NUM>' will be replaced by the chapter number. The
145 string '<START>' will be replaced by the chapter's start timestamp.
146 The strings '<FILE_NAME>' and '<FILE_NAME_WITH_EXT>' are only
148 filled when generating chapters for appended files. They will be
149 replaced by the appended file's name wihtout respectively with its
150 extension. Note that only the file's base name and extension are
151 inserted, not its directory or drive components.
152 You can specify a minimum number of places for the chapter number
154 with '<NUM:places>', e.g. '<NUM:3>'. The resulting number will be
155 padded with leading zeroes if the number of places is less than
156 specified.
157 You can control the format used by the start timestamp with
159 <START:format>. The format defaults to '%H:%M:%S' if none is given.
160 Valid format codes are:
161 · %h – hours
163 · %H – hours zero-padded to two places
165 · %m – minutes
167 · %M – minutes zero-padded to two places
169 · %s – seconds
171 · %S – seconds zero-padded to two places
173 · %n – nanoseconds with nine places
175 · %<1-9>n – nanoseconds with up to nine places (e.g. three places
177 with %3n)
178 --cue-chapter-name-format format
180 mkvmerge(1) supports reading CUE sheets for audio files as the
181 input for chapters. CUE sheets usually contain the entries
182 PERFORMER and TITLE for each index entry. mkvmerge(1) uses these
183 two strings in order to construct the chapter name. With this
184 option the format used for this name can be set.
185 If this option is not given then mkvmerge(1) defaults to the format
187 '%p - %t' (the performer, followed by a space, a dash, another
188 space and the title).
189 If the format is given then everything except the following meta
191 characters is copied as-is, and the meta characters are replaced
192 like this:
193 · %p is replaced by the current entry's PERFORMER string,
195 · %t is replaced by the current entry's TITLE string,
197 · %n is replaced by the current track number and
199 · %N is replaced by the current track number padded with a
201 leading zero if it is < 10.
202 --chapters file-name
204 Read chapter information from the file file-name. See the section
205 about chapters below for details.
206 --global-tags file-name
208 Read global tags from the file file-name. See the section about
209 tags below for details.
210 General output control (advanced global options)
212 --track-order FID1:TID1,FID2:TID2,...
213 This option changes the order in which the tracks for an input file
214 are created. The argument is a comma separated list of pairs IDs.
215 Each pair contains first the file ID (FID1) which is simply the
216 number of the file on the command line starting at 0. The second is
217 a track ID (TID1) from that file. If some track IDs are omitted
218 then those tracks are created after the ones given with this option
219 have been created.
220 --cluster-length spec
222 Limit the number of data blocks or the duration of data in each
223 cluster. The spec parameter can either be a number n without a unit
224 or a number d postfixed with 'ms'.
225 If no unit is used then mkvmerge(1) will put at most n data blocks
227 into each cluster. The maximum number of blocks is 65535.
228 If the number d is postfixed with 'ms' then mkvmerge(1) puts at
230 most d milliseconds of data into each cluster. The minimum for d is
231 '100ms', and the maximum is '32000ms'.
232 mkvmerge(1) defaults to putting at most 65535 data blocks and
234 5000ms of data into a cluster.
235 Programs trying to find a certain frame can only seek directly to a
237 cluster and have to read the whole cluster afterwards. Therefore
238 creating larger clusters may lead to imprecise or slow seeking.
239 --no-cues
241 Tells mkvmerge(1) not to create and write the cue data which can be
242 compared to an index in an AVI. Matroska(TM) files can be played
243 back without the cue data, but seeking will probably be imprecise
244 and slower. Use this only if you're really desperate for space or
245 for testing purposes. See also option --cues which can be specified
246 for each input file.
247 --clusters-in-meta-seek
249 Tells mkvmerge(1) to create a meta seek element at the end of the
250 file containing all clusters. See also the section about the
251 Matroska(TM) file layout.
252 --no-date
254 By default mkvmerge(1) sets the "date" segment information field to
255 the time & date when multiplexing started. With this option that
256 field is not written at all.
257 --disable-lacing
259 Disables lacing for all tracks. This will increase the file's size,
260 especially if there are many audio tracks. This option is not
261 intended for everyday use.
262 --enable-durations
264 Write durations for all blocks. This will increase file size and
265 does not offer any additional value for players at the moment.
266 --disable-track-statistics-tags
268 Normally mkvmerge(1) will write certain tags with statistics for
269 each track. If such tags are already present then they will be
270 overwritten. The tags are BPS, DURATION, NUMBER_OF_BYTES and
271 NUMBER_OF_FRAMES.
272 Enabling this option prevents mkvmerge(1) from writing those tags
274 and from touching any existing tags with same names.
275 --timestamp-scale factor
277 Forces the timestamp scale factor to factor. Valid values are in
278 the range 1000..10000000 or the special value -1.
279 Normally mkvmerge(1) will use a value of 1000000 which means that
281 timestamps and durations will have a precision of 1ms. For files
282 that will not contain a video track but at least one audio track
283 mkvmerge(1) will automatically chose a timestamp scale factor so
284 that all timestamps and durations have a precision of one audio
285 sample. This causes bigger overhead but allows precise seeking and
286 extraction.
287 If the special value -1 is used then mkvmerge(1) will use sample
289 precision even if a video track is present.
290 File splitting, linking, appending and concatenation (more global options)
292 --split specification
293 Splits the output file after a given size or a given time. Please
294 note that tracks can only be split right before a key frame.
295 Therefore the split point may be a bit off from what the user has
296 specified.
297 At the moment mkvmerge(1) supports four different modes.
299 1. Splitting by size.
301 Syntax: --split [size:]d[k|m|g]
303 Examples: --split size:700m or --split 150000000
305 The parameter d may end with 'k', 'm' or 'g' to indicate that
307 the size is in KB, MB or GB respectively. Otherwise a size in
308 bytes is assumed. After the current output file has reached
309 this size limit a new one will be started.
310 The 'size:' prefix may be omitted for compatibility reasons.
312 2. Splitting after a duration.
314 Syntax: --split [duration:]HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn|ds
316 Examples: --split duration:00:60:00.000 or --split 3600s
318 The parameter must either have the form HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn for
320 specifying the duration in up to nano-second precision or be a
321 number d followed by the letter 's' for the duration in
322 seconds. HH is the number of hours, MM the number of minutes,
323 SS the number of seconds and nnnnnnnnn the number of
324 nanoseconds. Both the number of hours and the number of
325 nanoseconds can be omitted. There can be up to nine digits
326 after the decimal point. After the duration of the contents in
327 the current output has reached this limit a new output file
328 will be started.
329 The 'duration:' prefix may be omitted for compatibility
331 reasons.
332 3. Splitting after specific timestamps.
334 Syntax: --split timestamps:A[,B[,C...]]
336 Example: --split timestamps:00:45:00.000,01:20:00.250,6300s
338 The parameters A, B, C etc must all have the same format as the
340 ones used for the duration (see above). The list of timestamps
341 is separated by commas. After the input stream has reached the
342 current split point's timestamp a new file is created. Then the
343 next split point given in this list is used.
344 The 'timestamps:' prefix must not be omitted.
346 4. Keeping specific parts by specifying timestamp ranges while
348 discarding others.
349 Syntax: --split
351 parts:start1-end1[,[+]start2-end2[,[+]start3-end3...]]
352 Examples:
354 1. --split parts:00:01:20-00:02:45,00:05:50-00:10:30
356 2. --split parts:00:01:20-00:02:45,+00:05:50-00:10:30
358 3. --split parts:-00:02:45,00:05:50-
360 The parts mode tells mkvmerge(1) to keep certain ranges of
362 timestamps while discarding others. The ranges to keep have to
363 be listed after the parts: keyword and be separated by commas.
364 A range itself consists of a start and an end timestamp in the
365 same format the other variations of --split accept (e.g. both
366 00:01:20 and 80s refer to the same timestamp).
367 If a start timestamp is left out then it defaults to the
369 previous range's end timestamp. If there was no previous range
370 then it defaults to the start of the file (see example 3).
371 If an end timestamp is left out then it defaults to the end of
373 the source files which basically tells mkvmerge(1) to keep the
374 rest (see example 3).
375 Normally each range will be written to a new file. This can be
377 changed so that consecutive ranges are written to the same
378 file. For that the user has to prefix the start timestamp with
379 a +. This tells mkvmerge(1) not to create a new file and
380 instead append the range to the same file the previous range
381 was written to. Timestamps will be adjusted so that there will
382 be no gap in the output file even if there was a gap in the two
383 ranges in the input file.
384 In example 1 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will
386 contain the content starting from 00:01:20 until 00:02:45. The
387 second file will contain the content starting from 00:05:50
388 until 00:10:30.
389 In example 2 mkvmerge(1) will create only one file. This file
391 will contain both the content starting from 00:01:20 until
392 00:02:45 and the content starting from 00:05:50 until 00:10:30.
393 In example 3 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will
395 contain the content from the start of the source files until
396 00:02:45. The second file will contain the content starting
397 from 00:05:50 until the end of the source files.
398 Note
400 Note that mkvmerge(1) only makes decisions about splitting
401 at key frame positions. This applies to both the start and
402 the end of each range. So even if an end timestamp is
403 between two key frames mkvmerge(1) will continue outputting
404 the frames up to but excluding the following key frame.
405 5. Keeping specific parts by specifying frame/field number ranges
407 while discarding others.
408 Syntax: --split
410 parts-frames:start1-end1[,[+]start2-end2[,[+]start3-end3...]]
411 Examples:
413 1. --split parts-frames:137-258,548-1211
415 2. --split parts-frames:733-912,+1592-2730
417 3. --split parts-frames:-430,2512-
419 The parts-frames mode tells mkvmerge(1) to keep certain ranges
421 of frame/field numbers while discarding others. The ranges to
422 keep have to be listed after the parts-frames: keyword and be
423 separated by commas. A range itself consists of a start and an
424 end frame/field number. Numbering starts at 1.
425 If a start number is left out then it defaults to the previous
427 range's end number. If there was no previous range then it
428 defaults to the start of the file (see example 3).
429 If an end number is left out then it defaults to the end of the
431 source files which basically tells mkvmerge(1) to keep the rest
432 (see example 3).
433 Normally each range will be written to a new file. This can be
435 changed so that consecutive ranges are written to the same
436 file. For that the user has to prefix the start number with a
437 +. This tells mkvmerge(1) not to create a new file and instead
438 append the range to the same file the previous range was
439 written to. Timestamps will be adjusted so that there will be
440 no gap in the output file even if there was a gap in the two
441 ranges in the input file.
442 Note
444 Note that mkvmerge(1) only makes decisions about splitting
445 at key frame positions. This applies to both the start and
446 the end of each range. So even if an end frame/field number
447 is between two key frames mkvmerge(1) will continue
448 outputting the frames up to but excluding the following key
449 frame.
450 In example 1 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will
451 contain the content starting from the first key frame at or
452 after 137 up to but excluding the first key frame at or after
453 258. The second file will contain the content starting from 548
454 until 1211.
455 In example 2 mkvmerge(1) will create only one file. This file
457 will contain both the content starting from 733 until 912 and
458 the content starting from 1592 until 2730.
459 In example 3 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will
461 contain the content from the start of the source files until
462 430. The second file will contain the content starting from
463 2512 until the end of the source files.
464 This mode considers only the first video track that is output.
466 If no video track is output no splitting will occur.
467 Note
469 The numbers given with this argument are interpreted based
470 on the number of Matroska(TM) blocks that are output. A
471 single Matroska(TM) block contains either a full frame (for
472 progressive content) or a single field (for interlaced
473 content). mkvmerge does not distinguish between those two
474 and simply counts the number of blocks. For example: If one
475 wanted to split after the 25th full frame with interlaced
476 content one would have to use 50 (two fields per full
477 frame) as the split point.
478 6. Splitting after specific frames/fields.
480 Syntax: --split frames:A[,B[,C...]]
482 Example: --split frames:120,237,891
484 The parameters A, B, C etc must all be positive integers.
486 Numbering starts at 1. The list of frame/field numbers is
487 separated by commas. After the input stream has reached the
488 current split point's frame/field number a new file is created.
489 Then the next split point given in this list is used.
490 The 'frames:' prefix must not be omitted.
492 This mode considers only the first video track that is output.
494 If no video track is output no splitting will occur.
495 Note
497 The numbers given with this argument are interpreted based
498 on the number of Matroska(TM) blocks that are output. A
499 single Matroska(TM) block contains either a full frame (for
500 progressive content) or a single field (for interlaced
501 content). mkvmerge does not distinguish between those two
502 and simply counts the number of blocks. For example: If one
503 wanted to split after the 25th full frame with interlaced
504 content one would have to use 50 (two fields per full
505 frame) as the split point.
506 7. Splitting before specific chapters.
508 Syntax: --split chapters:all or --split chapters:A[,B[,C...]]
510 Example: --split chapters:5,8
512 The parameters A, B, C etc must all be positive integers.
514 Numbering starts at 1. The list of chapter numbers is separated
515 by commas. Splitting will occur right before the first key
516 frame whose timestamp is equal to or bigger than the start
517 timestamp for the chapters whose numbers are listed. A chapter
518 starting at 0s is never considered for splitting and discarded
519 silently.
520 The keyword all can be used instead of listing all chapter
522 numbers manually.
523 The 'chapters:' prefix must not be omitted.
525 Note
527 The Matroska(TM) file format supports arbitrary deeply
528 nested chapter structures called 'edition entries' and
529 'chapter atoms'. However, this mode only considers the
530 top-most level of chapters across all edition entries.
531 For this splitting mode the output filename is treated differently
533 than for the normal operation. It may contain a printf like
534 expression '%d' including an optional field width, e.g. '%02d'. If
535 it does then the current file number will be formatted
536 appropriately and inserted at that point in the filename. If there
537 is no such pattern then a pattern of '-%03d' is assumed right
538 before the file's extension: '-o output.mkv' would result in
539 'output-001.mkv' and so on. If there's no extension then '-%03d'
540 will be appended to the name.
541 --link
543 Link files to one another when splitting the output file. See the
544 section on file linking below for details.
545 --link-to-previous segment-UID
547 Links the first output file to the segment with the segment UID
548 given by the segment-UID parameter. See the section on file linking
549 below for details.
550 If SID starts with = then its rest is interpreted as the name of a
552 Matroska file whose segment UID is read and used.
553 --link-to-next segment-UID
555 Links the last output file to the segment with the segment UID
556 given by the segment-UID parameter. See the section on file linking
557 below for details.
558 If SID starts with = then its rest is interpreted as the name of a
560 Matroska file whose segment UID is read and used.
561 --append-mode mode
563 Determines how timestamps are calculated when appending files. The
564 parameter mode can have two values: 'file' which is also the
565 default and 'track'.
566 When mkvmerge appends a track (called 'track2_1' from now on) from
568 a second file (called 'file2') to a track (called 'track1_1') from
569 the first file (called 'file1') then it has to offset all
570 timestamps for 'track2_1' by an amount. For 'file' mode this amount
571 is the highest timestamp encountered in 'file1' even if that
572 timestamp was from a different track than 'track1_1'. In track mode
573 the offset is the highest timestamp of 'track1_1'.
574 Unfortunately mkvmerge cannot detect which mode to use reliably.
576 Therefore it defaults to 'file' mode. 'file' mode usually works
577 better for files that have been created independently of each
578 other; e.g. when appending AVI or MP4 files. 'track' mode may work
579 better for sources that are essentially just parts of one big file,
580 e.g. for VOB and EVO files.
581 Subtitle tracks are always treated as if 'file' mode were active
583 even if 'track' mode actually is.
584 --append-to SFID1:STID1:DFID1:DTID1[,...]
586 This option controls to which track another track is appended. Each
587 spec contains four IDs: a file ID, a track ID, a second file ID and
588 a second track ID. The first pair, "source file ID" and "source
589 track ID", identifies the track that is to be appended. The second
590 pair, "destination file ID" and "destination track ID", identifies
591 the track the first one is appended to.
592 If this option has been omitted then a standard mapping is used.
594 This standard mapping appends each track from the current file to a
595 track from the previous file with the same track ID. This allows
596 for easy appending if a movie has been split into two parts and
597 both file have the same number of tracks and track IDs with the
598 command mkvmerge -o output.mkv part1.mkv +part2.mkv.
599 +
601 A single '+' causes the next file to be appended instead of added.
602 The '+' can also be put in front of the next file name. Therefore
603 the following two commands are equivalent:
604 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv file1.mkv + file2.mkv
606 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv file1.mkv +file2.mkv
607 [ file1 file2 ]
609 If multiple file names are contained in a pair of square brackets
610 then the second and all following files will be appended to the
611 first file named within the brackets.
612 This is an alternative syntax to using '+' between the file names.
614 Therefore the following two commands are equivalent:
615 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv file1.mkv + file2.mkv
617 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv '[' file1.mkv file2.mkv ']'
618 =
620 Normally mkvmerge(1) looks for files in the same directory as an
621 input file that have the same base name and only differ in their
622 running number (e.g. 'VTS_01_1.VOB', 'VTS_01_2.VOB', 'VTS_01_3.VOB'
623 etc) and treats all of those files as if they were concatenated
624 into a single big file. This option, a single '=', causes mkvmerge
625 not to look for those additional files.
626 The '=' can also be put in front of the next file name. Therefore
628 the following two commands are equivalent:
629 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv = file1.mkv
631 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv =file1.mkv
632 ( file1 file2 )
634 If multiple file names are contained in a pair of parenthesis then
635 those files will be treated as if they were concatenated into a
636 single big file consisting of the content of each of the files one
637 after the other.
638 This can be used for e.g. VOB files coming from a DVD or MPEG
640 transport streams. It cannot be used if each file contains its own
641 set of headers which is usually the case with stand-alone files
642 like AVI or MP4.
643 Putting a file name into parenthesis also prevents mkvmerge(1) from
645 looking for additional files with the same base name as described
646 in option =. Therefore these two command lines are equivalent:
647 $ mkvmerge -o out.mkv = file.mkv
649 $ mkvmerge -o out.mkv '(' file.mkv ')'
650 Several things should be noted:
652 1. There must be spaces both after the opening and before the
654 closing parenthesis.
655 2. Every parameter between parenthesis is interpreted as a file
657 name. Therefore all options applying to this logical file must
658 be listed before the opening parenthesis.
659 3. Some shells treat parenthesis as special characters. Hence you
661 must escape or quote them as shown in the example above.
662 Attachment support (more global options)
664 --attachment-description description
665 Plain text description of the following attachment. Applies to the
666 next --attach-file or --attach-file-once option.
667 --attachment-mime-type MIME type
669 MIME type of the following attachment. Applies to the next
670 --attach-file or --attach-file-once option. A list of officially
671 recognized MIME types can be found e.g. at the IANA homepage[2].
672 The MIME type is mandatory for an attachment.
673 --attachment-name name
675 Sets the name that will be stored in the output file for this
676 attachment. If this option is not given then the name will be
677 derived from the file name of the attachment as given with the
678 --attach-file or the --attach-file-once option.
679 --attach-file file-name, --attach-file-once file-name
681 Creates a file attachment inside the Matroska(TM) file. The MIME
682 type must have been set before this option can used. The difference
683 between the two forms is that during splitting the files attached
684 with --attach-file are attached to all output files while the ones
685 attached with --attach-file-once are only attached to the first
686 file created. If splitting is not used then both do the same.
687 mkvextract(1) can be used to extract attached files from a
689 Matroska(TM) file.
690 Options that can be used for each input file
692 -a, --audio-tracks [!]n,m,...
693 Copy the audio tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which can
694 be obtained with the --identify switch. They're not simply the
695 track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all audio
696 tracks.
697 Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes.
699 This will only work for source files that provide language tags for
700 their tracks.
701 Default: copy all tracks of this kind.
703 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
705 all tracks of this kind but the ones listed after the !.
706 -d, --video-tracks [!]n,m,...
708 Copy the video tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which can
709 be obtained with the --identify switch. They're not simply the
710 track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all video
711 tracks.
712 Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes.
714 This will only work for source files that provide language tags for
715 their tracks.
716 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
718 all tracks of this kind but the ones listed after the !.
719 -s, --subtitle-tracks [!]n,m,...
721 Copy the subtitle tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which
722 can be obtained with the --identify switch. They're not simply the
723 track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all subtitle
724 tracks.
725 Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes.
727 This will only work for source files that provide language tags for
728 their tracks.
729 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
731 all tracks of this kind but the ones listed after the !.
732 -b, --button-tracks [!]n,m,...
734 Copy the button tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which
735 can be obtained with the --identify switch. They're not simply the
736 track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all button
737 tracks.
738 Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes.
740 This will only work for source files that provide language tags for
741 their tracks.
742 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
744 all tracks of this kind but the ones listed after the !.
745 --track-tags [!]n,m,...
747 Copy the tags for tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which
748 can be obtained with the --identify switch (see section track IDs).
749 They're not simply the track numbers. Default: copy tags for all
750 tracks.
751 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
753 everything but the IDs listed after the !.
754 -m, --attachments [!]n[:all|first],m[:all|first],...
756 Copy the attachments with the IDs n, m etc to all or only the first
757 output file. Each ID can be followed by either ':all' (which is the
758 default if neither is entered) or ':first'. If splitting is active
759 then those attachments whose IDs are specified with ':all' are
760 copied to all of the resulting output files while the others are
761 only copied into the first output file. If splitting is not active
762 then both variants have the same effect.
763 The default is to copy all attachments to all output files.
765 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
767 everything but the IDs listed after the !.
768 -A, --no-audio
770 Don't copy any audio track from this file.
771 -D, --no-video
773 Don't copy any video track from this file.
774 -S, --no-subtitles
776 Don't copy any subtitle track from this file.
777 -B, --no-buttons
779 Don't copy any button track from this file.
780 -T, --no-track-tags
782 Don't copy any track specific tags from this file.
783 --no-chapters
785 Don't copy chapters from this file.
786 -M, --no-attachments
788 Don't copy attachments from this file.
789 --no-global-tags
791 Don't copy global tags from this file.
792 --chapter-charset character-set
794 Sets the charset that is used for the conversion to UTF-8 for
795 chapter information contained in the source file. See the section
796 about text files and character sets for an explanation how
797 mkvmerge(1) converts between character sets.
798 --chapter-language language-code
800 Sets the ISO 639-2 language code that is written for each chapter
801 entry. This option can be used for source files that contain
802 chapters but no information about the chapters' languages, e.g. for
803 MP4 and OGM files.
804 -y, --sync TID:d[,o[/p]]
806 Adjust the timestamps of the track with the id TID by d ms. The
807 track IDs are the same as the ones given with --identify (see
808 section track IDs).
809 o/p: adjust the timestamps by o/p to fix linear drifts. p defaults
811 to 1 if omitted. Both o and p can be floating point numbers.
812 Defaults: no manual sync correction (which is the same as d = 0 and
814 o/p = 1.0).
815 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
817 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
818 --cues TID:none|iframes|all
820 Controls for which tracks cue (index) entries are created for the
821 given track (see section track IDs). 'none' inhibits the creation
822 of cue entries. For 'iframes' only blocks with no backward or
823 forward references ( = I frames in video tracks) are put into the
824 cue sheet. 'all' causes mkvmerge(1) to create cue entries for all
825 blocks which will make the file very big.
826 The default is 'iframes' for video and subtitle tracks and 'none'
828 for audio tracks. See also option --no-cues which inhibits the
829 creation of cue entries regardless of the --cues options used.
830 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
832 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
833 --default-track TID[:bool]
835 Sets the 'default' flag for the given track (see section track IDs)
836 if the optional argument bool is not present. If the user does not
837 explicitly select a track himself then the player should prefer the
838 track that has his 'default' flag set. Only one track of each kind
839 (audio, video, subtitles, buttons) can have his 'default' flag set.
840 If the user wants no track to have the default track flag set then
841 he has to set bool to 0 for all tracks.
842 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
844 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
845 --forced-track TID[:bool]
847 Sets the 'forced' flag for the given track (see section track IDs)
848 if the optional argument bool is not present. A player must play
849 all tracks for which this flag is set to 1.
850 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
852 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
853 --blockadd TID:level
855 Keep only the BlockAdditions up to the level level for the given
856 track. The default is to keep all levels. This option only affects
857 certain kinds of codecs like WAVPACK4.
858 --track-name TID:name
860 Sets the track name for the given track (see section track IDs) to
861 name.
862 --language TID:language
864 Sets the language for the given track (see section track IDs). Both
865 ISO 639-2 language codes and ISO 639-1 country codes are allowed.
866 The country codes will be converted to language codes
867 automatically. All languages including their ISO 639-2 codes can be
868 listed with the --list-languages option.
869 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
871 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
872 -t, --tags TID:file-name
874 Read tags for the track with the number TID from the file
875 file-name. See the section about tags below for details.
876 --aac-is-sbr TID[:0|1]
878 Tells mkvmerge(1) that the track with the ID TID is SBR AAC (also
879 known as HE-AAC or AAC+). This options is needed if a) the source
880 file is an AAC file (not for a Matroska(TM) file) and b) the AAC
881 file contains SBR AAC data. The reason for this switch is that it
882 is technically impossible to automatically tell normal AAC data
883 from SBR AAC data without decoding a complete AAC frame. As there
884 are several patent issues with AAC decoders mkvmerge(1) will never
885 contain this decoding stage. So for SBR AAC files this switch is
886 mandatory. The resulting file might not play back correctly or even
887 not at all if the switch was omitted.
888 If the source file is a Matroska(TM) file then the CodecID should
890 be enough to detect SBR AAC. However, if the CodecID is wrong then
891 this switch can be used to correct that.
892 If mkvmerge wrongfully detects that an AAC file is SBR then you can
894 add ':0' to the track ID.
895 --reduce-to-core TID
897 Some audio codecs have a lossy core and optional extensions that
898 implement lossless decoding. This option tells mkvmerge(1) to only
899 copy the core but not the extensions. By default mkvmerge(1) copies
900 both the core and the extensions.
901 Currently only DTS tracks are affected by this option. TrueHD
903 tracks that contain an embedded AC-3 core are instead presented as
904 two separate tracks for which the user can select which track to
905 copy. For DTS such a scheme would not work as the HD extensions
906 cannot be decoded by themselves – unlike the TrueHD data.
907 --remove-dialog-normalization-gain TID
909 Some audio codecs contain header fields that tell the decoder or
910 player to apply a (usually negative) gain for dialog normalization.
911 This option tells mkvmerge(1) to remove or minimize that gain by
912 modifying the corresponding header fields.
913 Currently only AC-3, DTS and TrueHD tracks are affected by this
915 option.
916 --timestamps TID:file-name
918 Read the timestamps to be used for the specific track ID from
919 file-name. These timestamps forcefully override the timestamps that
920 mkvmerge(1) normally calculates. Read the section about external
921 timestamp files.
922 --default-duration TID:x
924 Forces the default duration of a given track to the specified
925 value. Also modifies the track's timestamps to match the default
926 duration. The argument x must be postfixed with 's', 'ms', 'us',
927 'ns', 'fps', 'p' or 'i' to specify the default duration in seconds,
928 milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds, 'frames per second',
929 'progressive frames per second' or 'interlaced frames per second'
930 respectively. The number x itself can be a floating point number or
931 a fraction.
932 If the default duration is not forced then mkvmerge will try to
934 derive the track's default duration from the container and/or the
935 encoded bitstream for certain track types, e.g. AVC/H.264 or
936 MPEG-2.
937 This option can also be used to change the FPS of video tracks
939 without having to use an external timestamp file.
940 --fix-bitstream-timing-information TID[:0|1]
942 Normally mkvmerge(1) does not change the timing information
943 (frame/field rate) stored in the video bitstream. With this option
944 that information is adjusted to match the container timing
945 information. The container timing information can come from various
946 sources: from the command line (see option --default-duration), the
947 source container or derived from the bitstream.
948 Note
950 This has only been implemented for AVC/H.264 video tracks so
951 far.
952 --nalu-size-length TID:n
954 Forces the NALU size length to n bytes. This parameter is only used
955 if the AVC/H.264 elementary stream packetizer is used. If left out
956 it defaults to 4 bytes, but there are files that contain frames or
957 slices that are all smaller than 65536 bytes. For such files you
958 can use this parameter and decrease the size to 2.
959 --compression TID:n
961 Selects the compression method to be used for the track. Note that
962 the player also has to support this method. Valid values are
963 'none', 'zlib' and 'mpeg4_p2'/'mpeg4p2'.
964 The compression method 'mpeg4_p2'/'mpeg4p2' is a special
966 compression method called 'header removal' that is only available
967 for MPEG4 part 2 video tracks.
968 The default for some subtitle types is 'zlib' compression. This
970 compression method is also the one that most if not all playback
971 applications support. Support for other compression methods other
972 than 'none' is not assured.
973 Options that only apply to video tracks
975 -f, --fourcc TID:FourCC
976 Forces the FourCC to the specified value. Works only for video
977 tracks in the 'MS compatibility mode'.
978 --display-dimensions TID:widthxheight
980 Matroska(TM) files contain two values that set the display
981 properties that a player should scale the image on playback to:
982 display width and display height. These values can be set with this
983 option, e.g. '1:640x480'.
984 Another way to specify the values is to use the --aspect-ratio or
986 the --aspect-ratio-factor option (see below). These options are
987 mutually exclusive.
988 --aspect-ratio TID:ratio|width/height
990 Matroska(TM) files contain two values that set the display
991 properties that a player should scale the image on playback to:
992 display width and display height. With this option mkvmerge(1) will
993 automatically calculate the display width and display height based
994 on the image's original width and height and the aspect ratio given
995 with this option. The ratio can be given either as a floating point
996 number ratio or as a fraction 'width/height', e.g. '16/9'.
997 Another way to specify the values is to use the
999 --aspect-ratio-factor or --display-dimensions options (see above
1000 and below). These options are mutually exclusive.
1001 --aspect-ratio-factor TID:factor|n/d
1003 Another way to set the aspect ratio is to specify a factor. The
1004 original aspect ratio is first multiplied with this factor and used
1005 as the target aspect ratio afterwards.
1006 Another way to specify the values is to use the --aspect-ratio or
1008 --display-dimensions options (see above). These options are
1009 mutually exclusive.
1010 --cropping TID:left,top,right,bottom
1012 Sets the pixel cropping parameters of a video track to the given
1013 values.
1014 --colour-matrix TID:n
1016 Sets the matrix coefficients of the video used to derive luma and
1017 chroma values from red, green and blue color primaries. The
1018 parameter n is an integer rangeing from 0 and 10.
1019 Valid values and their meaning are:
1021 0: GBR, 1: BT709, 2: unspecified, 3: reserved, 4: FCC, 5: BT470BG,
1023 6: SMPTE 170M, 7: SMPTE 240M, 8: YCOCG, 9: BT2020 non-constant
1024 luminance, 10: BT2020 constant luminance
1025 --colour-bits-per-channel TID:n
1027 Sets the number of coded bits for a colour channel. A value of 0
1028 indicates that the number of bits is unspecified.
1029 --chroma-subsample TID:hori,vert
1031 The amount of pixels to remove in the Cr and Cb channels for every
1032 pixel not removed horizontally/vertically.
1033 Example: For video with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, the parameter
1035 should be set to TID:1,1.
1036 --cb-subsample TID:hori,vert
1038 The amount of pixels to remove in the Cb channel for every pixel
1039 not removed horizontally/vertically. This is additive with
1040 --chroma-subsample.
1041 Example: For video with 4:2:1 chroma subsampling, the parameter
1043 --chroma-subsample should be set to TID:1,0 and Cb-subsample should
1044 be set to TID:1,0.
1045 --chroma-siting TID:hori,vert
1047 Sets how chroma is sited horizontally/vertically (0: unspecified,
1048 1: top collocated, 2: half).
1049 --colour-range TID:n
1051 Sets the clipping of the color ranges (0: unspecified, 1: broadcast
1052 range, 2: full range (no clipping), 3: defined by
1053 MatrixCoefficients/TransferCharacteristics).
1054 --colour-transfer-characteristics TID:n
1056 The transfer characteristics of the video.
1057 Valid values and their meaning are:
1059 0: reserved, 1: ITU-R BT.709, 2: unspecified, 3: reserved, 4: gamma
1061 2.2 curve, 5: gamma 2.8 curve, 6: SMPTE 170M, 7: SMPTE 240M, 8:
1062 linear, 9: log, 10: log sqrt, 11: IEC 61966-2-4, 12: ITU-R BT.1361
1063 extended colour gamut, 13: IEC 61966-2-1, 14: ITU-R BT.2020 10 bit,
1064 15: ITU-R BT.2020 12 bit, 16: SMPTE ST 2084, 17: SMPTE ST 428-1;
1065 18: ARIB STD-B67 (HLG)
1066 --colour-primaries TID:n
1068 Sets the colour primaries of the video.
1069 Valid values and their meaning are:
1071 0: reserved, 1: ITU-R BT.709, 2: unspecified, 3: reserved, 4: ITU-R
1073 BT.470M, 5: ITU-R BT.470BG, 6: SMPTE 170M, 7: SMPTE 240M, 8: FILM,
1074 9: ITU-R BT.2020, 10: SMPTE ST 428-1, 22: JEDEC P22 phosphors
1075 --max-content-light TID:n
1077 Sets the maximum brightness of a single pixel (Maximum Content
1078 Light Level) in candelas per square meter (cd/m²). The value of n
1079 should be a non-negtive integer.
1080 --max-frame-light TID:n
1082 Sets the maximum brightness of a single full frame (Maximum
1083 Frame-Average Light Level) in candelas per square meter (cd/m²).
1084 The value of n should be a non-negtive integer.
1085 --chromaticity-coordinates
1087 TID:red-x,red-y,green-x,green-y,blue-x,blue-y
1088 Sets the red/green/blue chromaticity coordinates as defined by CIE
1089 1931.
1090 --white-colour-coordinates TID:x,y
1092 Sets the white colour chromaticity coordinates as defined by CIE
1093 1931.
1094 --max-luminance TID:float
1096 Sets the maximum luminance in candelas per square meter (cd/m²).
1097 The value should be less than 9999.99.
1098 --min-luminance TID:float
1100 Sets the minimum luminance in candelas per square meter (cd/m²).
1101 The value should be less than 999.9999.
1102 --projection-type TID:method
1104 Sets the video projection method used. Valid values are 0
1105 (rectangular projection), 1 (equirectangular projection), 2
1106 (cubemap projection) and 3 (mesh projection).
1107 --projection-private TID:data
1109 Sets private data that only applies to a specific projection. Data
1110 must be given as hex numbers with or without the "0x" prefix, with
1111 or without spaces.
1112 --projection-pose-yaw TID:float
1114 Specifies a yaw rotation to the projection.
1115 --projection-pose-pitch TID:float
1117 Specifies a pitch rotation to the projection.
1118 --projection-pose-roll TID:float
1120 Specifies a roll rotation to the projection.
1121 --field-order TID:n
1123 Sets the field order for the video track with the track ID TID. The
1124 order must be one of the following numbers:
1125 0: progressive; 1: interlaced with top field displayed first and
1127 top field stored first; 2: undetermined field order; 6: interlaced
1128 with bottom field displayed first and bottom field stored first; 9:
1129 interlaced with bottom field displayed first and top field stored
1130 first; 14: interlaced with top field displayed first and bottom
1131 field stored first
1132 --stereo-mode TID:n|keyword
1134 Sets the stereo mode for the video track with the track ID TID. The
1135 mode can either be a number n between 0 and 14 or one of these
1136 keywords:
1137 'mono', 'side_by_side_left_first', 'top_bottom_right_first',
1139 'top_bottom_left_first', 'checkerboard_right_first',
1140 'checkerboard_left_first', 'row_interleaved_right_first',
1141 'row_interleaved_left_first', 'column_interleaved_right_first',
1142 'column_interleaved_left_first', 'anaglyph_cyan_red',
1143 'side_by_side_right_first', 'anaglyph_green_magenta',
1144 'both_eyes_laced_left_first', 'both_eyes_laced_right_first'.
1145 Options that only apply to text subtitle tracks
1147 --sub-charset TID:character-set
1148 Sets the character set for the conversion to UTF-8 for UTF-8
1149 subtitles for the given track ID. If not specified the charset will
1150 be derived from the current locale settings. Note that a charset is
1151 not needed for subtitles read from Matroska(TM) files or from Kate
1152 streams, as these are always stored in UTF-8. See the section about
1153 text files and character sets for an explanation how mkvmerge(1)
1154 converts between character sets.
1155 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
1157 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
1158 Other options
1160 -i, --identify file-name
1161 Will let mkvmerge(1) probe the single file and report its type, the
1162 tracks contained in the file and their track IDs. If this option is
1163 used then the only other option allowed is the filename.
1164 The output format used for the result can be changed with the
1166 option --identification-format.
1167 -J file-name
1169 This is a convenient alias for "--identification-format json
1170 --identify file-name".
1171 -F, --identification-format format
1173 Determines the output format used by the --identify option. The
1174 following formats are supported: text (the default if this option
1175 isn't used) and json.
1176 1. The text format is short and human-readable. It consists of one
1178 line per item found (container, tracks, attachments etc.).
1179 This format is not meant to be parsed. The output will be
1181 translated into the language mkvmerge(1) uses (see also
1182 --ui-language).
1183 2. The json format outputs a machine-readable JSON representation.
1185 This format follows the JSON schema described in the following
1186 file:
1187 mkvmerge-identification-output-schema-v12.json[3]
1189 All versions of the JSON schema are available both online and
1191 in the released source code archives.
1192 --probe-range-percentage percentage
1194 File types such as MPEG program and transport streams (.vob, .m2ts)
1195 require parsing a certain amount of data in order to detect all
1196 tracks contained in the file. This amount is 0.3% of the source
1197 file's size or 10 MB, whichever is higher.
1198 If tracks are known to be present but not found then the percentage
1200 to probe can be changed with this option. The minimum of 10 MB is
1201 built-in and cannot be changed.
1202 -l, --list-types
1204 Lists supported input file types.
1205 --list-languages
1207 Lists all languages and their ISO 639-2 code which can be used with
1208 the --language option.
1209 --priority priority
1211 Sets the process priority that mkvmerge(1) runs with. Valid values
1212 are 'lowest', 'lower', 'normal', 'higher' and 'highest'. If nothing
1213 is given then 'normal' is used. On Unix like systems mkvmerge(1)
1214 will use the nice(2) function. Therefore only the super user can
1215 use 'higher' and 'highest'. On Windows all values are useable for
1216 every user.
1217 Selecting 'lowest' also causes mkvmerge(1) to select idle I/O
1219 priority in addition to the lowest possible process priority.
1220 --command-line-charset character-set
1222 Sets the character set to convert strings given on the command line
1223 from. It defaults to the character set given by system's current
1224 locale. This settings applies to arguments of the following
1225 options: --title, --track-name and --attachment-description.
1226 --output-charset character-set
1228 Sets the character set to which strings are converted that are to
1229 be output. It defaults to the character set given by system's
1230 current locale.
1231 -r, --redirect-output file-name
1233 Writes all messages to the file file-name instead of to the
1234 console. While this can be done easily with output redirection
1235 there are cases in which this option is needed: when the terminal
1236 reinterprets the output before writing it to a file. The character
1237 set set with --output-charset is honored.
1238 --flush-on-close
1240 Tells the program to flush all data cached in memory to storage
1241 when closing files opened for writing. This can be used to prevent
1242 data loss on power outages or to circumvent certain problems in the
1243 operating system or drivers. The downside is that multiplexing will
1244 take longer as mkvmerge will wait until all data has been written
1245 to the storage before exiting. See issues #2469 and #2480 on the
1246 MKVToolNix bug tracker for in-depth discussions on the pros and
1247 cons.
1248 --ui-language code
1250 Forces the translations for the language code to be used (e.g.
1251 'de_DE' for the German translations). Entering 'list' as the code
1252 will cause the program to output a list of available translations.
1253 --abort-on-warnings
1255 Tells the program to abort after the first warning is emitted. The
1256 program's exit code will be 1.
1257 --deterministic seed
1259 Enables the creation of byte-identical files if the same version of
1260 mkvmerge(1) is used with the same source files, the same set of
1261 options and the same seed. Note that the "date" segment information
1262 field is not written in this mode.
1263 The seed can be an arbitrary string and does not have to be a
1265 number.
1266 The result of byte-identical files is only guaranteed under the
1268 following conditions:
1269 1. The same version of mkvmerge(1) built with the same versions of
1271 libEBML and libMatroska is used.
1272 2. The source files used are byte-identical.
1274 3. The same command line options are used in the same order (with
1276 the notable exception of --output ...).
1277 Using other versions of mkvmerge(1) or other command-line options
1279 may result in the same byte-identical file but is not guaranteed to
1280 do so.
1281 --debug topic
1283 Turn on debugging for a specific feature. This option is only
1284 useful for developers.
1285 --engage feature
1287 Turn on experimental features. A list of available features can be
1288 requested with mkvmerge --engage list. These features are not meant
1289 to be used in normal situations.
1290 --gui-mode
1292 Turns on GUI mode. In this mode specially-formatted lines may be
1293 output that can tell a controlling GUI what's happening. These
1294 messages follow the format '#GUI#message'. The message may be
1295 followed by key/value pairs as in
1296 '#GUI#message#key1=value1#key2=value2...'. Neither the messages nor
1297 the keys are ever translated and always output in English.
1298 @options-file.json
1300 Reads additional command line arguments from the file options-file.
1301 See the section about option files for further information.
1302 --capabilities
1304 Lists information about optional features that have been compiled
1305 in and exit. The first line output will be the version information.
1306 All following lines contain exactly one word whose presence
1307 indicates that the feature has been compiled in. These features
1308 are:
1309 · 'FLAC' -- reading raw FLAC files and handling FLAC tracks in
1311 other containers, e.g. Ogg(TM) or Matroska(TM).
1312 -h, --help
1314 Show usage information and exit.
1315 -V, --version
1317 Show version information and exit.
1318
1320 For each file the user can select which tracks mkvmerge(1) should take.
1321 They are all put into the file specified with -o. A list of known (and
1322 supported) source formats can be obtained with the -l option.
1323 Important
1325 The order of command line options is important. Please read the
1326 section "Option order" if you're new to the program.
1327
1329 The order in which options are entered is important for some options.
1330 Options fall into two categories:
1331 1. Options that affect the whole program and are not tied to any input
1333 file. These include but are not limited to --command-line-charset,
1334 --output or --title. These can appear anywhere on the command line.
1335 2. Options that affect a single input file or a single track in an
1337 input file. These options all apply to the following input file on
1338 the command line. All options applying to the same input (or to
1339 tracks from the same input file) file can be written in any order
1340 as long as they all appear before that input file's name. Examples
1341 for options applying to an input file are --no-chapters or
1342 --chapter-charset. Examples for options applying to a single track
1343 are --default-duration or --language.
1344 The options are processed from left to right. If an option appears
1346 multiple times within the same scope then the last occurrence will be
1347 used. Therefore the title will be set to "Something else" in the
1348 following example:
1349 $ mkvmerge -o output.mkv --title 'This and that' input.avi --title 'Something else'
1351 The following example shows that using the --language option twice is
1353 OK because they're used in different scopes. Even though they apply to
1354 the same track ID they apply to different input files and therefore
1355 have different scopes:
1356 $ mkvmerge -o output.mkv --language 0:fre français.ogg --language 0:deu deutsch.ogg
1358
1360 Let's assume you have a file called MyMovie.avi and the audio track in
1361 a separate file, e.g. 'MyMovie.wav'. First you want to encode the audio
1362 to OggVorbis(TM):
1363 $ oggenc -q4 -oMyMovie.ogg MyMovie.wav
1365 After a couple of minutes you can join video and audio:
1367 $ mkvmerge -o MyMovie-with-sound.mkv MyMovie.avi MyMovie.ogg
1369 If your AVI already contains an audio track then it will be copied as
1371 well (if mkvmerge(1) supports the audio format). To avoid that simply
1372 do
1373 $ mkvmerge -o MyMovie-with-sound.mkv -A MyMovie.avi MyMovie.ogg
1375 After some minutes of consideration you rip another audio track, e.g.
1377 the director's comments or another language to 'MyMovie-add-audio.wav'.
1378 Encode it again and join it up with the other file:
1379 $ oggenc -q4 -oMyMovie-add-audio.ogg MyMovie-add-audio.wav
1381 $ mkvmerge -o MM-complete.mkv MyMovie-with-sound.mkv MyMovie-add-audio.ogg
1382 The same result can be achieved with
1384 $ mkvmerge -o MM-complete.mkv -A MyMovie.avi MyMovie.ogg MyMovie-add-audio.ogg
1386 Now fire up mplayer(TM) and enjoy. If you have multiple audio tracks
1388 (or even video tracks) then you can tell mplayer(TM) which track to
1389 play with the '-vid' and '-aid' options. These are 0-based and do not
1390 distinguish between video and audio.
1391 If you need an audio track synchronized you can do that easily. First
1393 find out which track ID the Vorbis track has with
1394 $ mkvmerge --identify outofsync.ogg
1396 Now you can use that ID in the following command line:
1398 $ mkvmerge -o goodsync.mkv -A source.avi -y 12345:200 outofsync.ogg
1400 This would add 200ms of silence at the beginning of the audio track
1402 with the ID 12345 taken from 'outofsync.ogg'.
1403 Some movies start synced correctly but slowly drift out of sync. For
1405 these kind of movies you can specify a delay factor that is applied to
1406 all timestamps -- no data is added or removed. So if you make that
1407 factor too big or too small you'll get bad results. An example is that
1408 an episode I transcoded was 0.2 seconds out of sync at the end of the
1409 movie which was 77340 frames long. At 29.97fps 0.2 seconds correspond
1410 to approx. 6 frames. So I did
1411 $ mkvmerge -o goodsync.mkv -y 23456:0,77346/77340 outofsync.mkv
1413 The result was fine.
1415 The sync options can also be used for subtitles in the same manner.
1417 For text subtitles you can either use some Windows software (like
1419 SubRipper(TM)) or the subrip(TM) package found in transcode(1)'s
1420 sources in the 'contrib/subrip' directory. The general process is:
1421 1. extract a raw subtitle stream from the source:
1423 $ tccat -i /path/to/copied/dvd/ -T 1 -L | tcextract -x ps1 -t vob -a 0x20 | subtitle2pgm -o mymovie
1425 2. convert the resulting PGM images to text with gocr:
1427 $ pgm2txt mymovie
1429 3. spell-check the resulting text files:
1431 $ ispell -d american *txt
1433 4. convert the text files to a SRT file:
1435 $ srttool -s -w -i mymovie.srtx -o mymovie.srt
1437 The resulting file can be used as another input file for mkvmerge(1):
1439 $ mkvmerge -o mymovie.mkv mymovie.avi mymovie.srt
1441 If you want to specify the language for a given track then this is
1443 easily done. First find out the ISO 639-2 code for your language.
1444 mkvmerge(1) can list all of those codes for you:
1445 $ mkvmerge --list-languages
1447 Search the list for the languages you need. Let's assume you have put
1449 two audio tracks into a Matroska(TM) file and want to set their
1450 language codes and that their track IDs are 2 and 3. This can be done
1451 with
1452 $ mkvmerge -o with-lang-codes.mkv --language 2:ger --language 3:dut without-lang-codes.mkv
1454 As you can see you can use the --language switch multiple times.
1456 Maybe you'd also like to have the player use the Dutch language as the
1458 default language. You also have extra subtitles, e.g. in English and
1459 French, and want to have the player display the French ones by default.
1460 This can be done with
1461 $ mkvmerge -o with-lang-codes.mkv --language 2:ger --language 3:dut --default-track 3 without-lang-codes.mkv --language 0:eng english.srt --default-track 0 --language 0:fre french.srt
1463 If you do not see the language or default track flags that you've
1465 specified in mkvinfo(1)'s output then please read the section about
1466 default values.
1467 Turn off the compression for an input file.
1469 $ mkvmerge -o no-compression.mkv --compression -1:none MyMovie.avi --compression -1:none mymovie.srt
1471
1473 Regular track IDs
1474 Some of the options for mkvmerge(1) need a track ID to specify which
1475 track they should be applied to. Those track IDs are printed by the
1476 readers when demuxing the current input file, or if mkvmerge(1) is
1477 called with the --identify option. An example for such output:
1478 $ mkvmerge -i v.mkv
1480 File 'v.mkv': container: Matroska(TM)
1481 Track ID 0: video (V_MS/VFW/FOURCC, DIV3)
1482 Track ID 1: audio (A_MPEG/L3)
1483 Do not confuse the track IDs that are assigned to the tracks that are
1485 placed in the output MKV file with the track IDs of the input files.
1486 Only the input file track IDs are used for options needing these
1487 values.
1488 Also note that each input file has its own set of track IDs. Therefore
1490 the track IDs for file 'file1.ext' as reported by 'mkvmerge --identify'
1491 do not change no matter how many other input files are there or in
1492 which position 'file1.ext' is used.
1493 Track IDs are assigned like this:
1495 · AVI files: The video track has the ID 0. The audio tracks get IDs
1497 in ascending order starting at 1.
1498 · AAC, AC-3, MP3, SRT and WAV files: The one 'track' in that file
1500 gets the ID 0.
1501 · Most other files: The track IDs are assigned in order the tracks
1503 are found in the file starting at 0.
1504 The options that use the track IDs are the ones whose description
1506 contains 'TID'. The following options use track IDs as well:
1507 --audio-tracks, --video-tracks, --subtitle-tracks, --button-tracks and
1508 --track-tags.
1509 Special track IDs
1511 There are several IDs that have special meaning and do not occur in the
1512 identification output.
1513 The special track ID '-1' is a wild card and applies the given switch
1515 to all tracks that are read from an input file.
1516 The special track ID '-2' refers to the chapters in a source file.
1518 Currently only the --sync option uses this special ID. As an
1519 alternative to --sync -2:... the option --chapter-sync ... can be
1520 used.
1521
1523 Note
1524 This section applies to all programs in MKVToolNix even if it only
1525 mentions mkvmerge(1).
1526 Introduction
1528 All text in a Matroska(TM) file is encoded in UTF-8. This means that
1529 mkvmerge(1) has to convert every text file it reads as well as every
1530 text given on the command line from one character set into UTF-8. In
1531 return this also means that mkvmerge(1)'s output has to be converted
1532 back to that character set from UTF-8, e.g. if a non-English
1533 translation is used with --ui-language or for text originating from a
1534 Matroska(TM) file.
1535 mkvmerge(1) does this conversion automatically based on the presence of
1537 a byte order marker (short: BOM) or the system's current locale. How
1538 the character set is inferred from the locale depends on the operating
1539 system that mkvmerge(1) is run on.
1540 Byte order markers (BOM)
1542 Text files that start with a BOM are already encoded in one
1543 representation of UTF. mkvmerge(1) supports the following five modes:
1544 UTF-8, UTF-16 Little and Big Endian, UTF-32 Little and Big Endian. Text
1545 files with a BOM are automatically converted to UTF-8. Any of the
1546 parameters that would otherwise set the character set for such a file
1547 (e.g. --sub-charset) is silently ignored.
1548 Linux and Unix-like systems including macOS
1550 On Unix-like systems mkvmerge(1) uses the setlocale(3) system call
1551 which in turn uses the environment variables LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CYPE.
1552 The resulting character set is often one of UTF-8 or the ISO-8859-*
1553 family and is used for all text file operations and for encoding
1554 strings on the command line and for output to the console.
1555 Windows
1557 On Windows the default character set used for converting text files is
1558 determined by a call to the GetACP() system call.
1559 Reading the command line is done with the GetCommandLineW() function
1561 which already returns a Unicode string. Therefore the option
1562 --command-line-charset is ignored on Windows.
1563 Output to the console consists of three scenarios:
1565 1. If the output is redirected with the option --redirect-output then
1567 the default charset is UTF-8. This can be changed with
1568 --output-charset.
1569 If the output is redirected with cmd.exe itself, e.g. with mkvinfo
1571 file.mkv > info.txt, then the charset is always UTF-8 and cannot be
1572 changed.
1573 Otherwise (when writing directly to the console) the Windows
1575 function WriteConsoleW() is used and the option --output-charset is
1576 ignored. The console should be able to output all Unicode
1577 characters for which the corresponding language support is
1578 installed (e.g. Chinese characters might not be displayed on
1579 English Windows versions).
1580 Command line options
1582 The following options exist that allow specifying the character sets:
1583 · --sub-charset for text subtitle files and for text subtitle tracks
1585 stored in container formats for which the character set cannot be
1586 determined unambiguously (e.g. Ogg files),
1587 · --chapter-charset for chapter text files and for chapters and file
1589 titles stored in container formats for which the character set
1590 cannot be determined unambiguously (e.g. Ogg files for chapter
1591 information, track and file titles etc; MP4 files for chapter
1592 information),
1593 · --command-line-charset for all strings on the command line,
1595 · --output-charset for all strings written to the console or to a
1597 file if the output has been redirected with the --redirect-output
1598 option. On non-Windows systems the default for the output charset
1599 is the system's current charset. On Windows it defaults to UTF-8
1600 both for redirecting with --redirect-output and with cmd.exe
1601 itself, e.g. mkvinfo file.mkv > info.txt.
1602
1604 An option file is a file mkvmerge(1) can read additional command line
1605 arguments from. This can be used in order to circumvent certain
1606 limitations of the shell or the operating system when executing
1607 external programs like a limited command line length.
1608 An option file contains JSON-formatted data. Its content must be a
1610 valid JSON array consisting solely of JSON strings. The file's encoding
1611 must be UTF-8. The file should not start with a byte order marker
1612 (BOM), but if one exists, it will be skipped.
1613 The rules for escaping special characters inside JSON are the ones in
1615 the official JSON specification, RFC 7159[4].
1616 The command line 'mkvmerge -o "my file.mkv" -A "a movie.avi" sound.ogg'
1618 could be converted into the following JSON option file called e.g.
1619 'options.json':
1620 [
1622 "-o",
1623 "c:\\Matroska\\my file.mkv",
1624 "--title",
1625 "#65",
1626 "-A",
1627 "a movie.avi",
1628 "sound.ogg"
1629 ]
1630
1632 There are several text and bitmap subtitle formats that can be embedded
1633 into Matroska(TM). Text subtitles must be recoded to UTF-8 so that they
1634 can be displayed correctly by a player (see the section about text
1635 files and character sets for an explanation how mkvmerge(1) converts
1636 between character sets). Kate subtitles are already encoded in UTF-8
1637 and do not have to be re-encoded.
1638 The following subtitle formats are supported at the moment:
1640 · Subtitle Ripper (SRT) files
1642 · Substation Alpha (SSA) / Advanced Substation Alpha scripts (ASS)
1644 · Universal Subtitle Format (USF) files
1646 · OggKate streams
1648 · VobSub bitmap subtitle files
1650 · PGS bitmap subtitle files as found on BluRay discs
1652
1654 Matroska(TM) supports file linking which simply says that a specific
1655 file is the predecessor or successor of the current file. To be
1656 precise, it's not really the files that are linked but the Matroska(TM)
1657 segments. As most files will probably only contain one Matroska(TM)
1658 segment the following explanations use the term 'file linking' although
1659 'segment linking' would be more appropriate.
1660 Each segment is identified by a unique 128 bit wide segment UID. This
1662 UID is automatically generated by mkvmerge(1). The linking is done
1663 primarily via putting the segment UIDs (short: SID) of the
1664 previous/next file into the segment header information. mkvinfo(1)
1665 prints these SIDs if it finds them.
1666 If a file is split into several smaller ones and linking is used then
1668 the timestamps will not start at 0 again but will continue where the
1669 last file has left off. This way the absolute time is kept even if the
1670 previous files are not available (e.g. when streaming). If no linking
1671 is used then the timestamps should start at 0 for each file. By default
1672 mkvmerge(1) does not use file linking. If you want that you can turn it
1673 on with the --link option. This option is only useful if splitting is
1674 activated as well.
1675 Regardless of whether splitting is active or not the user can tell
1677 mkvmerge(1) to link the produced files to specific SIDs. This is
1678 achieved with the options --link-to-previous and --link-to-next. These
1679 options accept a segment SID in the format that mkvinfo(1) outputs: 16
1680 hexadecimal numbers between 0x00 and 0xff prefixed with '0x' each, e.g.
1681 '0x41 0xda 0x73 0x66 0xd9 0xcf 0xb2 0x1e 0xae 0x78 0xeb 0xb4 0x5e 0xca
1682 0xb3 0x93'. Alternatively a shorter form can be used: 16 hexadecimal
1683 numbers between 0x00 and 0xff without the '0x' prefixes and without the
1684 spaces, e.g. '41da7366d9cfb21eae78ebb45ecab393'.
1685 If splitting is used then the first file is linked to the SID given
1687 with --link-to-previous and the last file is linked to the SID given
1688 with --link-to-next. If splitting is not used then the one output file
1689 will be linked to both of the two SIDs.
1690
1692 The Matroska(TM) specification states that some elements have a default
1693 value. Usually an element is not written to the file if its value is
1694 equal to its default value in order to save space. The elements that
1695 the user might miss in mkvinfo(1)'s output are the language and the
1696 default track flag elements. The default value for the language is
1697 English ('eng'), and the default value for the default track flag is
1698 true. Therefore if you used --language 0:eng for a track then it will
1699 not show up in mkvinfo(1)'s output.
1700
1702 Maybe you also want to keep some photos along with your Matroska(TM)
1703 file, or you're using SSA subtitles and need a special TrueType(TM)
1704 font that's really rare. In these cases you can attach those files to
1705 the Matroska(TM) file. They will not be just appended to the file but
1706 embedded in it. A player can then show those files (the 'photos' case)
1707 or use them to render the subtitles (the 'TrueType(TM) fonts' case).
1708 Here's an example how to attach a photo and a TrueType(TM) font to the
1710 output file:
1711 $ mkvmerge -o output.mkv -A video.avi sound.ogg \
1713 --attachment-description "Me and the band behind the stage in a small get-together" \
1714 --attachment-mime-type image/jpeg \
1715 --attach-file me_and_the_band.jpg \
1716 --attachment-description "The real rare and unbelievably good looking font" \
1717 --attachment-mime-type application/octet-stream \
1718 --attach-file really_cool_font.ttf
1719 If a Matroska(TM) containing attachments file is used as an input file
1721 then mkvmerge(1) will copy the attachments into the new file. The
1722 selection which attachments are copied and which are not can be changed
1723 with the options --attachments and --no-attachments.
1724
1726 The Matroska(TM) chapter system is more powerful than the old known
1727 system used by OGM files. The full specifications can be found at the
1728 Matroska(TM) website[1].
1729 mkvmerge(1) supports two kinds of chapter files as its input. The first
1731 format, called 'simple chapter format', is the same format that the OGM
1732 tools expect. The second format is a XML based chapter format which
1733 supports all of Matroska(TM)'s chapter functionality.
1734 The simple chapter format
1736 This format consists of pairs of lines that start with 'CHAPTERxx=' and
1737 'CHAPTERxxNAME=' respectively. The first one contains the start
1738 timestamp while the second one contains the title. Here's an example:
1739 CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
1741 CHAPTER01NAME=Intro
1742 CHAPTER02=00:02:30.000
1743 CHAPTER02NAME=Baby prepares to rock
1744 CHAPTER03=00:02:42.300
1745 CHAPTER03NAME=Baby rocks the house
1746 mkvmerge(1) will transform every pair or lines into one Matroska(TM)
1748 ChapterAtom. It does not set any ChapterTrackNumber which means that
1749 the chapters all apply to all tracks in the file.
1750 As this is a text file character set conversion may need to be done.
1752 See the section about text files and character sets for an explanation
1753 how mkvmerge(1) converts between character sets.
1754 The XML based chapter format
1756 The XML based chapter format looks like this example:
1757 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
1759 <!DOCTYPE Chapters SYSTEM "matroskachapters.dtd">
1760 <Chapters>
1761 <EditionEntry>
1762 <ChapterAtom>
1763 <ChapterTimeStart>00:00:30.000</ChapterTimeStart>
1764 <ChapterTimeEnd>00:01:20.000</ChapterTimeEnd>
1765 <ChapterDisplay>
1766 <ChapterString>A short chapter</ChapterString>
1767 <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
1768 </ChapterDisplay>
1769 <ChapterAtom>
1770 <ChapterTimeStart>00:00:46.000</ChapterTimeStart>
1771 <ChapterTimeEnd>00:01:10.000</ChapterTimeEnd>
1772 <ChapterDisplay>
1773 <ChapterString>A part of that short chapter</ChapterString>
1774 <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
1775 </ChapterDisplay>
1776 </ChapterAtom>
1777 </ChapterAtom>
1778 </EditionEntry>
1779 </Chapters>
1780 With this format three things are possible that are not possible with
1782 the simple chapter format:
1783 1. The timestamp for the end of the chapter can be set,
1785 2. chapters can be nested,
1787 3. the language and country can be set.
1789 The mkvtoolnix distribution contains some sample files in the doc
1791 subdirectory which can be used as a basis.
1792 The following lists the supported XML tags, their data types and, where
1794 appropriate, the valid range for their values:
1795 Chapters (master)
1797 EditionEntry (master)
1798 EditionUID (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
1799 EditionFlagHidden (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1800 EditionFlagDefault (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1801 EditionFlagOrdered (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1802 ChapterAtom (master)
1803 ChapterAtom (master)
1804 ChapterUID (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
1805 ChapterTimeStart (unsigned integer)
1806 ChapterTimeEnd (unsigned integer)
1807 ChapterFlagHidden (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1808 ChapterFlagEnabled (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1809 ChapterSegmentUID (binary, valid range: 1 <= length in bytes)
1810 ChapterSegmentEditionUID (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
1811 ChapterPhysicalEquiv (unsigned integer)
1812 ChapterTrack (master)
1813 ChapterTrackNumber (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
1814 ChapterDisplay (master)
1815 ChapterString (UTF-8 string)
1816 ChapterLanguage (UTF-8 string)
1817 ChapterCountry (UTF-8 string)
1818 ChapterProcess (master)
1819 ChapterProcessCodecID (unsigned integer)
1820 ChapterProcessPrivate (binary)
1821 ChapterProcessCommand (master)
1822 ChapterProcessTime (unsigned integer)
1823 ChapterProcessData (binary)
1824 General notes
1826 When splitting files mkvmerge(1) will correctly adjust the chapters as
1827 well. This means that each file only includes the chapter entries that
1828 apply to it, and that the timestamps will be offset to match the new
1829 timestamps of each output file.
1830 mkvmerge(1) is able to copy chapters from Matroska(TM) source files
1832 unless this is explicitly disabled with the --no-chapters option. The
1833 chapters from all sources (Matroska(TM) files, Ogg files, MP4 files,
1834 chapter text files) are usually not merged but end up in separate
1835 ChapterEditions. Only if chapters are read from several Matroska(TM) or
1836 XML files that share the same edition UIDs will chapters be merged into
1837 a single ChapterEdition. If such a merge is desired in other situations
1838 as well then the user has to extract the chapters from all sources with
1839 mkvextract(1) first, merge the XML files manually and mux them
1840 afterwards.
1841
1843 Introduction
1844 Matroska(TM)'s tag system is similar to that of other containers: a set
1845 of KEY=VALUE pairs. However, in Matroska(TM) these tags can also be
1846 nested, and both the KEY and the VALUE are elements of their own. The
1847 example file example-tags-2.xml shows how to use this system.
1848 Scope of the tags
1850 Matroska(TM) tags do not automatically apply to the complete file. They
1851 can, but they also may apply to different parts of the file: to one or
1852 more tracks, to one or more chapters, or even to a combination of both.
1853 The Matroska(TM) specification[5] gives more details about this fact.
1854 One important fact is that tags are linked to tracks or chapters with
1856 the Targets Matroska(TM) tag element, and that the UIDs used for this
1857 linking are not the track IDs mkvmerge(1) uses everywhere. Instead the
1858 numbers used are the UIDs which mkvmerge(1) calculates automatically
1859 (if the track is taken from a file format other than Matroska(TM)) or
1860 which are copied from the source file if the track's source file is a
1861 Matroska(TM) file. Therefore it is difficult to know which UIDs to use
1862 in the tag file before the file is handed over to mkvmerge(1).
1863 mkvmerge(1) knows two options with which you can add tags to
1865 Matroska(TM) files: The --global-tags and the --tags options. The
1866 difference is that the former option, --global-tags, will make the tags
1867 apply to the complete file by removing any of those Targets elements
1868 mentioned above. The latter option, --tags, automatically inserts the
1869 UID that mkvmerge(1) generates for the tag specified with the TID part
1870 of the --tags option.
1871 Example
1873 Let's say that you want to add tags to a video track read from an AVI.
1874 mkvmerge --identify file.avi tells you that the video track's ID (do
1875 not mix this ID with the UID!) is 0. So you create your tag file, leave
1876 out all Targets elements and call mkvmerge(1):
1877 $ mkvmerge -o file.mkv --tags 0:tags.xml file.avi
1879 Tag file format
1881 mkvmerge(1) supports a XML based tag file format. The format is very
1882 closely modeled after the Matroska(TM) specification[5]. Both the
1883 binary and the source distributions of MKVToolNix come with a sample
1884 file called example-tags-2.xml which simply lists all known tags and
1885 which can be used as a basis for real life tag files.
1886 The basics are:
1888 · The outermost element must be <Tags>.
1890 · One logical tag is contained inside one pair of <Tag> XML tags.
1892 · White spaces directly before and after tag contents are ignored.
1894 Data types
1896 The new Matroska(TM) tagging system only knows two data types, a UTF-8
1897 string and a binary type. The first is used for the tag's name and the
1898 <String> element while the binary type is used for the <Binary>
1899 element.
1900 As binary data itself would not fit into a XML file mkvmerge(1)
1902 supports two other methods of storing binary data. If the contents of a
1903 XML tag starts with '@' then the following text is treated as a file
1904 name. The corresponding file's content is copied into the Matroska(TM)
1905 element.
1906 Otherwise the data is expected to be Base64 encoded. This is an
1908 encoding that transforms binary data into a limited set of ASCII
1909 characters and is used e.g. in email programs. mkvextract(1) will
1910 output Base64 encoded data for binary elements.
1911 The deprecated tagging system knows some more data types which can be
1913 found in the official Matroska(TM) tag specs. As mkvmerge(1) does not
1914 support this system anymore these types aren't described here.
1915 Known tags for the XML file format
1917 The following lists the supported XML tags, their data types and, where
1918 appropriate, the valid range for their values:
1919 Tags (master)
1921 Tag (master)
1922 Targets (master)
1923 TargetTypeValue (unsigned integer)
1924 TargetType (UTF-8 string)
1925 TrackUID (unsigned integer)
1926 EditionUID (unsigned integer)
1927 ChapterUID (unsigned integer)
1928 AttachmentUID (unsigned integer)
1929 Simple (master)
1930 Simple (master)
1931 Name (UTF-8 string)
1932 TagLanguage (UTF-8 string)
1933 DefaultLanguage (unsigned integer)
1934 String (UTF-8 string)
1935 Binary (binary)
1936
1938 With a segment info XML file it is possible to set certain values in
1939 the "segment information" header field of a Matroska(TM) file. All of
1940 these values cannot be set via other command line options.
1941 Other "segment information" header fields can be set via command line
1943 options but not via the XML file. This includes e.g. the --title and
1944 the --timestamp-scale options.
1945 There are other elements that can be set neither via command line
1947 options nor via the XML files. These include the following elements:
1948 DateUTC (also known as the "muxing date"), MuxingApp, WritingApp and
1949 Duration. They're always set by mkvmerge(1) itself.
1950 The following lists the supported XML tags, their data types and, where
1952 appropriate, the valid range for their values:
1953 Info (master)
1955 SegmentUID (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
1956 SegmentFilename (UTF-8 string)
1957 PreviousSegmentUID (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
1958 PreviousSegmentFilename (UTF-8 string)
1959 NextSegmentUID (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
1960 NextSegmentFilename (UTF-8 string)
1961 SegmentFamily (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
1962 ChapterTranslate (master)
1963 ChapterTranslateEditionUID (unsigned integer)
1964 ChapterTranslateCodec (unsigned integer)
1965 ChapterTranslateID (binary)
1966
1968 The Matroska(TM) file layout is quite flexible. mkvmerge(1) will
1969 render a file in a predefined way. The resulting file looks like this:
1970 [EBML head] [segment {meta seek #1} [segment information] [track
1972 information] {attachments} {chapters} [cluster 1] {cluster 2} ...
1973 {cluster n} {cues} {meta seek #2} {tags}]
1974 The elements in curly braces are optional and depend on the contents
1976 and options used. A couple of notes:
1977 · meta seek #1 includes only a small number of level 1 elements, and
1979 only if they actually exist: attachments, chapters, cues, tags,
1980 meta seek #2. Older versions of mkvmerge(1) used to put the
1981 clusters into this meta seek element as well. Therefore some
1982 imprecise guessing was necessary to reserve enough space. It often
1983 failed. Now only the clusters are stored in meta seek #2, and meta
1984 seek #1 refers to the meta seek element #2.
1985 · Attachment, chapter and tag elements are only present if they were
1987 added.
1988 The shortest possible Matroska(TM) file would look like this:
1990 [EBML head] [segment [segment information] [track information] [cluster
1992 1]]
1993 This might be the case for audio-only files.
1995
1997 mkvmerge(1) allows the user to chose the timestamps for a specific
1998 track himself. This can be used in order to create files with variable
1999 frame rate video or include gaps in audio. A frame in this case is the
2000 unit that mkvmerge(1) creates separately per Matroska(TM) block. For
2001 video this is exactly one frame, for audio this is one packet of the
2002 specific audio type. E.g. for AC-3 this would be a packet containing
2003 1536 samples.
2004 Timestamp files that are used when tracks are appended to each other
2006 must only be specified for the first part in a chain of tracks. For
2007 example if you append two files, v1.avi and v2.avi, and want to use
2008 timestamps then your command line must look something like this:
2009 $ mkvmerge ... --timestamps 0:my_timestamps.txt v1.avi +v2.avi
2011 There are four formats that are recognized by mkvmerge(1). The first
2013 line always contains the version number. Empty lines, lines containing
2014 only whitespace and lines beginning with '#' are ignored.
2015 Timestamp file format v1
2017 This format starts with the version line. The second line declares the
2018 default number of frames per second. All following lines contain three
2019 numbers separated by commas: the start frame (0 is the first frame),
2020 the end frame and the number of frames in this range. The FPS is a
2021 floating point number with the dot '.' as the decimal point. The ranges
2022 can contain gaps for which the default FPS is used. An example:
2023 # timestamp format v1
2025 assume 27.930
2026 800,1000,25
2027 1500,1700,30
2028 Timestamp file format v2
2030 In this format each line contains a timestamp for the corresponding
2031 frame. This timestamp must be given in millisecond precision. It can be
2032 a floating point number, but it doesn't have to be. You have to give at
2033 least as many timestamp lines as there are frames in the track. The
2034 timestamps in this file must be sorted. Example for 25fps:
2035 # timestamp format v2
2037 0
2038 40
2039 80
2040 Timestamp file format v3
2042 In this format each line contains a duration in seconds followed by an
2043 optional number of frames per second. Both can be floating point
2044 numbers. If the number of frames per second is not present the default
2045 one is used. For audio you should let the codec calculate the frame
2046 timestamps itself. For that you should be using 0.0 as the number of
2047 frames per second. You can also create gaps in the stream by using the
2048 'gap' keyword followed by the duration of the gap. Example for an audio
2049 file:
2050 # timestamp format v3
2052 assume 0.0
2053 25.325
2054 7.530,38.236
2055 gap, 10.050
2056 2.000,38.236
2057 Timestamp file format v4
2059 This format is identical to the v2 format. The only difference is that
2060 the timestamps do not have to be sorted. This format should almost
2061 never be used.
2062
2064 mkvmerge(1) exits with one of three exit codes:
2065 · 0 -- This exit code means that muxing has completed successfully.
2067 · 1 -- In this case mkvmerge(1) has output at least one warning, but
2069 muxing did continue. A warning is prefixed with the text
2070 'Warning:'. Depending on the issues involved the resulting file
2071 might be ok or not. The user is urged to check both the warning and
2072 the resulting file.
2073 · 2 -- This exit code is used after an error occurred. mkvmerge(1)
2075 aborts right after outputting the error message. Error messages
2076 range from wrong command line arguments over read/write errors to
2077 broken files.
2078
2080 mkvmerge(1) uses the default variables that determine the system's
2081 locale (e.g. LANG and the LC_* family). Additional variables:
2082 MKVMERGE_DEBUG, MKVTOOLNIX_DEBUG and its short form MTX_DEBUG
2084 The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --debug
2085 option.
2086 MKVMERGE_ENGAGE, MKVTOOLNIX_ENGAGE and its short form MTX_ENGAGE
2088 The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --engage
2089 option.
2090
2092 mkvinfo(1), mkvextract(1), mkvpropedit(1), mkvtoolnix-gui(1)
2093
2095 The latest version can always be found at the MKVToolNix homepage[6].
2096
2098 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
2099 Developer
2100
2102 1. the Matroska(TM) website
2103 http://www.matroska.org/
2104 2. the IANA homepage
2106 http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/
2107 3. mkvmerge-identification-output-schema-v12.json
2109 https://mkvtoolnix.download/doc/mkvmerge-identification-output-schema-v12.json
2110 4. RFC 7159
2112 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7159
2113 5. Matroska(TM) specification
2115 http://matroska.org/technical/specs/index.html
2116 6. the MKVToolNix homepage
2118 https://mkvtoolnix.download/
2119MKVToolNix 45.0.0 2020-04-04 MKVMERGE(1)