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 'undetermined'.
52 Segment info handling (global options)
54 --segmentinfo filename.xml
55 Read segment information from an XML file. This file can contain
56 the 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 This mode also works with split modes 'parts:' and
121 'parts-frames:'. For these modes one chapter will be generated
122 for each appended timestamp range (those whose start timestamps
123 are prefixed with '+').
124 Note
126 mkvmerge(1) requires a video or an audio track to be
127 present in order to be able to determine when a new file is
128 appended. If one or more video tracks are muxed the first
129 one is used. Otherwise the first audio track is used.
130 • 'interval:time-spec' – This mode creates one chapter at fixed
132 intervals given by time-spec. The format is either the form
133 HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn or a number followed by one of the units
134 's', 'ms' or 'us'.
135 Example: --generate-chapters interval:45s
137 The names for the new chapters are controlled by the option
139 --generate-chapters-name-template. The language is set with
140 --chapter-language which must occur before --generate-chapters.
141 --generate-chapters-name-template template
143 This sets the name template for chapter names generated by the
144 option --generate-chapters. If the option is not used then default
145 'Chapter <NUM:2>' will be used.
146 There are several variables that can be used in the template that
148 are replaced by their actual values when a chapter is generated.
149 The string '<NUM>' will be replaced by the chapter number. The
150 string '<START>' will be replaced by the chapter's start timestamp.
151 The strings '<FILE_NAME>' and '<FILE_NAME_WITH_EXT>' are only
153 filled when generating chapters for appended files. They will be
154 replaced by the appended file's name without respectively with its
155 extension. Note that only the file's base name and extension are
156 inserted, not its directory or drive components.
157 You can specify a minimum number of places for the chapter number
159 with '<NUM:places>', e.g. '<NUM:3>'. The resulting number will be
160 padded with leading zeroes if the number of places is less than
161 specified.
162 You can control the format used by the start timestamp with
164 <START:format>. The format defaults to '%H:%M:%S' if none is given.
165 Valid format codes are:
166 • %h – hours
168 • %H – hours zero-padded to two places
170 • %m – minutes
172 • %M – minutes zero-padded to two places
174 • %s – seconds
176 • %S – seconds zero-padded to two places
178 • %n – nanoseconds with nine places
180 • %<1-9>n – nanoseconds with up to nine places (e.g. three places
182 with %3n)
183 --cue-chapter-name-format format
185 mkvmerge(1) supports reading CUE sheets for audio files as the
186 input for chapters. CUE sheets usually contain the entries
187 PERFORMER and TITLE for each index entry. mkvmerge(1) uses these
188 two strings in order to construct the chapter name. With this
189 option the format used for this name can be set.
190 If this option is not given then mkvmerge(1) defaults to the format
192 '%p - %t' (the performer, followed by a space, a dash, another
193 space and the title).
194 If the format is given then everything except the following meta
196 characters is copied as-is, and the meta characters are replaced
197 like this:
198 • %p is replaced by the current entry's PERFORMER string,
200 • %t is replaced by the current entry's TITLE string,
202 • %n is replaced by the current track number and
204 • %N is replaced by the current track number padded with a
206 leading zero if it is < 10.
207 --chapters file-name
209 Read chapter information from the file file-name. See the section
210 about chapters below for details.
211 --global-tags file-name
213 Read global tags from the file file-name. See the section about
214 tags below for details.
215 General output control (advanced global options)
217 --track-order FID1:TID1,FID2:TID2,...
218 This option changes the order in which the tracks for an input file
219 are created. The argument is a comma separated list of pairs IDs.
220 Each pair contains first the file ID (FID1) which is simply the
221 number of the file on the command line starting at 0. The second is
222 a track ID (TID1) from that file. If some track IDs are omitted
223 then those tracks are created after the ones given with this option
224 have been created.
225 --cluster-length spec
227 Limit the number of data blocks or the duration of data in each
228 cluster. The spec parameter can either be a number n without a unit
229 or a number d postfixed with 'ms'.
230 If no unit is used then mkvmerge(1) will put at most n data blocks
232 into each cluster. The maximum number of blocks is 65535.
233 If the number d is postfixed with 'ms' then mkvmerge(1) puts at
235 most d milliseconds of data into each cluster. The minimum for d is
236 '100ms', and the maximum is '32000ms'.
237 mkvmerge(1) defaults to putting at most 65535 data blocks and
239 5000ms of data into a cluster.
240 Programs trying to find a certain frame can only seek directly to a
242 cluster and have to read the whole cluster afterwards. Therefore
243 creating larger clusters may lead to imprecise or slow seeking.
244 --clusters-in-meta-seek
246 Tells mkvmerge(1) to create a meta seek element at the end of the
247 file containing all clusters. See also the section about the
248 Matroska(TM) file layout.
249 --timestamp-scale factor
251 Forces the timestamp scale factor to factor. Valid values are in
252 the range 1000..10000000 or the special value -1.
253 Normally mkvmerge(1) will use a value of 1000000 which means that
255 timestamps and durations will have a precision of 1ms. For files
256 that will not contain a video track but at least one audio track
257 mkvmerge(1) will automatically chose a timestamp scale factor so
258 that all timestamps and durations have a precision of one audio
259 sample. This causes bigger overhead but allows precise seeking and
260 extraction.
261 If the special value -1 is used then mkvmerge(1) will use sample
263 precision even if a video track is present.
264 --enable-durations
266 Write durations for all blocks. This will increase file size and
267 does not offer any additional value for players at the moment.
268 --no-cues
270 Tells mkvmerge(1) not to create and write the cue data which can be
271 compared to an index in an AVI. Matroska(TM) files can be played
272 back without the cue data, but seeking will probably be imprecise
273 and slower. Use this only if you're really desperate for space or
274 for testing purposes. See also option --cues which can be specified
275 for each input file.
276 --no-date
278 By default mkvmerge(1) sets the "date" segment information field to
279 the time & date when multiplexing started. With this option that
280 field is not written at all.
281 --disable-lacing
283 Disables lacing for all tracks. This will increase the file's size,
284 especially if there are many audio tracks. This option is not
285 intended for everyday use.
286 --disable-track-statistics-tags
288 Normally mkvmerge(1) will write certain tags with statistics for
289 each track. If such tags are already present then they will be
290 overwritten. The tags are BPS, DURATION, NUMBER_OF_BYTES and
291 NUMBER_OF_FRAMES.
292 Enabling this option prevents mkvmerge(1) from writing those tags
294 and from touching any existing tags with same names.
295 --disable-language-ietf
297 Normally mkvmerge(1) will write the new IETF BCP 47 language
298 elements in addition to the legacy language elements in track
299 headers, chapters and tags. If this option is used, only the legacy
300 elements are written.
301 --normalize-language-ietf mode
303 Enables normalizing all IETF BCP 47 language tags to either their
304 canonical form with mode 'canonical', to their extended language
305 subtags form with mode 'extlang' or turns it off with mode 'off'.
306 By default normalization to the canonical form is applied.
307 In the canonical form all subtags for which preferred values exist
309 are replaced by those preferred values. This converts e.g.
310 'zh-yue-jyutping' to 'yue-jyutping' or 'fr-FX' to 'fr-FR'.
311 For the extended language subtags form the canonical form is built
313 first. Afterwards all primary languages for which an extended
314 language subtag exists are replaced by that extended language
315 subtag and its prefix. This converts e.g. 'yue-jyutping' back to
316 'zh-yue-jyutping' but has no effect on 'fr-FR' as 'fr' is not an
317 extended language subtag.
318 File splitting, linking, appending and concatenation (more global options)
320 --split specification
321 Splits the output file after a given size or a given time. Please
322 note that tracks can only be split right before a key frame.
323 Therefore the split point may be a bit off from what the user has
324 specified.
325 At the moment mkvmerge(1) supports the following modes:
327 1. Splitting by size.
329 Syntax: --split [size:]d[k|m|g]
331 Examples: --split size:700m or --split 150000000
333 The parameter d may end with 'k', 'm' or 'g' to indicate that
335 the size is in KB, MB or GB respectively. Otherwise a size in
336 bytes is assumed. After the current output file has reached
337 this size limit a new one will be started.
338 The 'size:' prefix may be omitted for compatibility reasons.
340 2. Splitting after a duration.
342 Syntax: --split [duration:]HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn|ds
344 Examples: --split duration:00:60:00.000 or --split 3600s
346 The parameter must either have the form HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn for
348 specifying the duration in up to nano-second precision or be a
349 number d followed by the letter 's' for the duration in
350 seconds. HH is the number of hours, MM the number of minutes,
351 SS the number of seconds and nnnnnnnnn the number of
352 nanoseconds. Both the number of hours and the number of
353 nanoseconds can be omitted. There can be up to nine digits
354 after the decimal point. After the duration of the contents in
355 the current output has reached this limit a new output file
356 will be started.
357 The 'duration:' prefix may be omitted for compatibility
359 reasons.
360 3. Splitting after specific timestamps.
362 Syntax: --split timestamps:A[,B[,C...]]
364 Example: --split timestamps:00:45:00.000,01:20:00.250,6300s
366 The parameters A, B, C etc must all have the same format as the
368 ones used for the duration (see above). The list of timestamps
369 is separated by commas. After the input stream has reached the
370 current split point's timestamp a new file is created. Then the
371 next split point given in this list is used.
372 The 'timestamps:' prefix must not be omitted.
374 4. Keeping specific parts by specifying timestamp ranges while
376 discarding others.
377 Syntax: --split
379 parts:start1-end1[,[+]start2-end2[,[+]start3-end3...]]
380 Examples:
382 1. --split parts:00:01:20-00:02:45,00:05:50-00:10:30
384 2. --split parts:00:01:20-00:02:45,+00:05:50-00:10:30
386 3. --split parts:-00:02:45,00:05:50-
388 The parts mode tells mkvmerge(1) to keep certain ranges of
390 timestamps while discarding others. The ranges to keep have to
391 be listed after the parts: keyword and be separated by commas.
392 A range itself consists of a start and an end timestamp in the
393 same format the other variations of --split accept (e.g. both
394 00:01:20 and 80s refer to the same timestamp).
395 If a start timestamp is left out then it defaults to the
397 previous range's end timestamp. If there was no previous range
398 then it defaults to the start of the file (see example 3).
399 If an end timestamp is left out then it defaults to the end of
401 the source files which basically tells mkvmerge(1) to keep the
402 rest (see example 3).
403 Normally each range will be written to a new file. This can be
405 changed so that consecutive ranges are written to the same
406 file. For that the user has to prefix the start timestamp with
407 a +. This tells mkvmerge(1) not to create a new file and
408 instead append the range to the same file the previous range
409 was written to. Timestamps will be adjusted so that there will
410 be no gap in the output file even if there was a gap in the two
411 ranges in the input file.
412 In example 1 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will
414 contain the content starting from 00:01:20 until 00:02:45. The
415 second file will contain the content starting from 00:05:50
416 until 00:10:30.
417 In example 2 mkvmerge(1) will create only one file. This file
419 will contain both the content starting from 00:01:20 until
420 00:02:45 and the content starting from 00:05:50 until 00:10:30.
421 In example 3 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will
423 contain the content from the start of the source files until
424 00:02:45. The second file will contain the content starting
425 from 00:05:50 until the end of the source files.
426 Note
428 Note that mkvmerge(1) only makes decisions about splitting
429 at key frame positions. This applies to both the start and
430 the end of each range. So even if an end timestamp is
431 between two key frames mkvmerge(1) will continue outputting
432 the frames up to but excluding the following key frame.
433 5. Keeping specific parts by specifying frame/field number ranges
435 while discarding others.
436 Syntax: --split
438 parts-frames:start1-end1[,[+]start2-end2[,[+]start3-end3...]]
439 Examples:
441 1. --split parts-frames:137-258,548-1211
443 2. --split parts-frames:733-912,+1592-2730
445 3. --split parts-frames:-430,2512-
447 The parts-frames mode tells mkvmerge(1) to keep certain ranges
449 of frame/field numbers while discarding others. The ranges to
450 keep have to be listed after the parts-frames: keyword and be
451 separated by commas. A range itself consists of a start and an
452 end frame/field number. Numbering starts at 1.
453 If a start number is left out then it defaults to the previous
455 range's end number. If there was no previous range then it
456 defaults to the start of the file (see example 3).
457 If an end number is left out then it defaults to the end of the
459 source files which basically tells mkvmerge(1) to keep the rest
460 (see example 3).
461 Normally each range will be written to a new file. This can be
463 changed so that consecutive ranges are written to the same
464 file. For that the user has to prefix the start number with a
465 +. This tells mkvmerge(1) not to create a new file and instead
466 append the range to the same file the previous range was
467 written to. Timestamps will be adjusted so that there will be
468 no gap in the output file even if there was a gap in the two
469 ranges in the input file.
470 Note
472 Note that mkvmerge(1) only makes decisions about splitting
473 at key frame positions. This applies to both the start and
474 the end of each range. So even if an end frame/field number
475 is between two key frames mkvmerge(1) will continue
476 outputting the frames up to but excluding the following key
477 frame.
478 In example 1 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will
479 contain the content starting from the first key frame at or
480 after 137 up to but excluding the first key frame at or after
481 258. The second file will contain the content starting from 548
482 until 1211.
483 In example 2 mkvmerge(1) will create only one file. This file
485 will contain both the content starting from 733 until 912 and
486 the content starting from 1592 until 2730.
487 In example 3 mkvmerge(1) will create two files. The first will
489 contain the content from the start of the source files until
490 430. The second file will contain the content starting from
491 2512 until the end of the source files.
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 6. Splitting after specific frames/fields.
508 Syntax: --split frames:A[,B[,C...]]
510 Example: --split frames:120,237,891
512 The parameters A, B, C etc must all be positive integers.
514 Numbering starts at 1. The list of frame/field numbers is
515 separated by commas. After the input stream has reached the
516 current split point's frame/field number a new file is created.
517 Then the next split point given in this list is used.
518 The 'frames:' prefix must not be omitted.
520 This mode considers only the first video track that is output.
522 If no video track is output no splitting will occur.
523 Note
525 The numbers given with this argument are interpreted based
526 on the number of Matroska(TM) blocks that are output. A
527 single Matroska(TM) block contains either a full frame (for
528 progressive content) or a single field (for interlaced
529 content). mkvmerge does not distinguish between those two
530 and simply counts the number of blocks. For example: If one
531 wanted to split after the 25th full frame with interlaced
532 content one would have to use 50 (two fields per full
533 frame) as the split point.
534 7. Splitting before specific chapters.
536 Syntax: --split chapters:all or --split chapters:A[,B[,C...]]
538 Example: --split chapters:5,8
540 The parameters A, B, C etc must all be positive integers.
542 Numbering starts at 1. The list of chapter numbers is separated
543 by commas. Splitting will occur right before the first key
544 frame whose timestamp is equal to or bigger than the start
545 timestamp for the chapters whose numbers are listed. A chapter
546 starting at 0s is never considered for splitting and discarded
547 silently.
548 The keyword all can be used instead of listing all chapter
550 numbers manually.
551 The 'chapters:' prefix must not be omitted.
553 Note
555 The Matroska(TM) file format supports arbitrary deeply
556 nested chapter structures called 'edition entries' and
557 'chapter atoms'. However, this mode only considers the
558 top-most level of chapters across all edition entries.
559 For this splitting mode the output filename is treated differently
561 than for the normal operation. It may contain a printf like
562 expression '%d' including an optional field width, e.g. '%02d'. If
563 it does then the current file number will be formatted
564 appropriately and inserted at that point in the filename. If there
565 is no such pattern then a pattern of '-%03d' is assumed right
566 before the file's extension: '-o output.mkv' would result in
567 'output-001.mkv' and so on. If there's no extension then '-%03d'
568 will be appended to the name.
569 Another possible pattern is '%c' which will be replaced by the name
571 of the first chapter in the file. Note that when '%c' is present,
572 the pattern '-%03d' will not be added automatically.
573 --link
575 Link files to one another when splitting the output file. See the
576 section on file linking below for details.
577 --link-to-previous segment-UID
579 Links the first output file to the segment with the segment UID
580 given by the segment-UID parameter. See the section on file linking
581 below for details.
582 If SID starts with = then its rest is interpreted as the name of a
584 Matroska file whose segment UID is read and used.
585 --link-to-next segment-UID
587 Links the last output file to the segment with the segment UID
588 given by the segment-UID parameter. See the section on file linking
589 below for details.
590 If SID starts with = then its rest is interpreted as the name of a
592 Matroska file whose segment UID is read and used.
593 --append-mode mode
595 Determines how timestamps are calculated when appending files. The
596 parameter mode can have two values: 'file' which is also the
597 default and 'track'.
598 When mkvmerge appends a track (called 'track2_1' from now on) from
600 a second file (called 'file2') to a track (called 'track1_1') from
601 the first file (called 'file1') then it has to offset all
602 timestamps for 'track2_1' by an amount. For 'file' mode this amount
603 is the highest timestamp encountered in 'file1' even if that
604 timestamp was from a different track than 'track1_1'. In track mode
605 the offset is the highest timestamp of 'track1_1'.
606 Unfortunately mkvmerge cannot detect which mode to use reliably.
608 Therefore it defaults to 'file' mode. 'file' mode usually works
609 better for files that have been created independently of each
610 other; e.g. when appending AVI or MP4 files. 'track' mode may work
611 better for sources that are essentially just parts of one big file,
612 e.g. for VOB and EVO files.
613 Subtitle tracks are always treated as if 'file' mode were active
615 even if 'track' mode actually is.
616 --append-to SFID1:STID1:DFID1:DTID1[,...]
618 This option controls to which track another track is appended. Each
619 spec contains four IDs: a file ID, a track ID, a second file ID and
620 a second track ID. The first pair, "source file ID" and "source
621 track ID", identifies the track that is to be appended. The second
622 pair, "destination file ID" and "destination track ID", identifies
623 the track the first one is appended to.
624 If this option has been omitted then a standard mapping is used.
626 This standard mapping appends each track from the current file to a
627 track from the previous file with the same track ID. This allows
628 for easy appending if a movie has been split into two parts and
629 both file have the same number of tracks and track IDs with the
630 command mkvmerge -o output.mkv part1.mkv +part2.mkv.
631 +
633 A single '+' causes the next file to be appended instead of added.
634 The '+' can also be put in front of the next file name. Therefore
635 the following two commands are equivalent:
636 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv file1.mkv + file2.mkv
638 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv file1.mkv +file2.mkv
639 [ file1 file2 ]
641 If multiple file names are contained in a pair of square brackets
642 then the second and all following files will be appended to the
643 first file named within the brackets.
644 This is an alternative syntax to using '+' between the file names.
646 Therefore the following two commands are equivalent:
647 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv file1.mkv + file2.mkv
649 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv '[' file1.mkv file2.mkv ']'
650 =
652 For certain file types (MPEG program streams = VOBs) mkvmerge(1)
653 normally looks for files in the same directory as an input file
654 that have the same base name and only differ in their running
655 number (e.g. 'VTS_01_1.VOB', 'VTS_01_2.VOB', 'VTS_01_3.VOB' etc)
656 and treats all of those files as if they were concatenated into a
657 single big file. This option, a single '=', causes mkvmerge not to
658 look for those additional files.
659 The '=' can also be put in front of the next file name. Therefore
661 the following two commands are equivalent:
662 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv = file1.vob
664 $ mkvmerge -o full.mkv =file1.vob
665 ( file1 file2 )
667 If multiple file names are contained in a pair of parenthesis then
668 those files will be treated as if they were concatenated into a
669 single big file consisting of the content of each of the files one
670 after the other.
671 This can be used for e.g. VOB files coming from a DVD or MPEG
673 transport streams. It cannot be used if each file contains its own
674 set of headers which is usually the case with stand-alone files
675 like AVI or MP4.
676 Putting a file name into parenthesis also prevents mkvmerge(1) from
678 looking for additional files with the same base name as described
679 in option =. Therefore these two command lines are equivalent:
680 $ mkvmerge -o out.mkv = file.mkv
682 $ mkvmerge -o out.mkv '(' file.mkv ')'
683 Several things should be noted:
685 1. There must be spaces both after the opening and before the
687 closing parenthesis.
688 2. Every parameter between parenthesis is interpreted as a file
690 name. Therefore all options applying to this logical file must
691 be listed before the opening parenthesis.
692 3. Some shells treat parenthesis as special characters. Hence you
694 must escape or quote them as shown in the example above.
695 Attachment support (more global options)
697 --attachment-description description
698 Plain text description of the following attachment. Applies to the
699 next --attach-file or --attach-file-once option.
700 --attachment-mime-type MIME type
702 MIME type of the following attachment. Applies to the next
703 --attach-file or --attach-file-once option. A list of officially
704 recognized MIME types can be found e.g. at the IANA homepage[2].
705 The MIME type is mandatory for an attachment.
706 If no MIME type is given a for an attachment, its type will be
708 detected automatically.
709 --attachment-name name
711 Sets the name that will be stored in the output file for this
712 attachment. If this option is not given then the name will be
713 derived from the file name of the attachment as given with the
714 --attach-file or the --attach-file-once option.
715 --attach-file file-name, --attach-file-once file-name
717 Creates a file attachment inside the Matroska(TM) file. The MIME
718 type must have been set before this option can used. The difference
719 between the two forms is that during splitting the files attached
720 with --attach-file are attached to all output files while the ones
721 attached with --attach-file-once are only attached to the first
722 file created. If splitting is not used then both do the same.
723 mkvextract(1) can be used to extract attached files from a
725 Matroska(TM) file.
726 --enable-legacy-font-mime-types
728 Enables the use of legacy MIME types for certain types of font
729 attachments. For example, 'application/x-truetype-font' will be
730 used for TrueType fonts instead of 'fonts/ttf'.
731 This affects both new attachments if its MIME type is detected
733 automatically and existing attachments whose stored MIME types will
734 be remapped to the legacy ones.
735 The affected MIME types are 'font/sfnt', 'font/ttf' and
737 'font/collection' which are all mapped to
738 'application/x-truetype-fonts' and 'font/otf' which is mapped to
739 'application/vnd.ms-opentype'.
740 Options that can be used for each input file
742 -a, --audio-tracks [!]n,m,...
743 Copy the audio tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which can
744 be obtained with the --identify switch. They're not simply the
745 track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all audio
746 tracks.
747 Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes.
749 This will only work for source files that provide language tags for
750 their tracks.
751 Default: copy all tracks of this kind.
753 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
755 all tracks of this kind but the ones listed after the !.
756 -d, --video-tracks [!]n,m,...
758 Copy the video tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which can
759 be obtained with the --identify switch. They're not simply the
760 track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all video
761 tracks.
762 Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes.
764 This will only work for source files that provide language tags for
765 their tracks.
766 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
768 all tracks of this kind but the ones listed after the !.
769 -s, --subtitle-tracks [!]n,m,...
771 Copy the subtitle tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which
772 can be obtained with the --identify switch. They're not simply the
773 track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all subtitle
774 tracks.
775 Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes.
777 This will only work for source files that provide language tags for
778 their tracks.
779 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
781 all tracks of this kind but the ones listed after the !.
782 -b, --button-tracks [!]n,m,...
784 Copy the button tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which
785 can be obtained with the --identify switch. They're not simply the
786 track numbers (see section track IDs). Default: copy all button
787 tracks.
788 Instead of track IDs you can also provide ISO 639-2 language codes.
790 This will only work for source files that provide language tags for
791 their tracks.
792 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
794 all tracks of this kind but the ones listed after the !.
795 --track-tags [!]n,m,...
797 Copy the tags for tracks n, m etc. The numbers are track IDs which
798 can be obtained with the --identify switch (see section track IDs).
799 They're not simply the track numbers. Default: copy tags for all
800 tracks.
801 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
803 everything but the IDs listed after the !.
804 -m, --attachments [!]n[:all|first],m[:all|first],...
806 Copy the attachments with the IDs n, m etc to all or only the first
807 output file. Each ID can be followed by either ':all' (which is the
808 default if neither is entered) or ':first'. If splitting is active
809 then those attachments whose IDs are specified with ':all' are
810 copied to all of the resulting output files while the others are
811 only copied into the first output file. If splitting is not active
812 then both variants have the same effect.
813 The default is to copy all attachments to all output files.
815 If the IDs are prefixed with ! then the meaning is reversed: copy
817 everything but the IDs listed after the !.
818 -A, --no-audio
820 Don't copy any audio track from this file.
821 -D, --no-video
823 Don't copy any video track from this file.
824 -S, --no-subtitles
826 Don't copy any subtitle track from this file.
827 -B, --no-buttons
829 Don't copy any button track from this file.
830 -T, --no-track-tags
832 Don't copy any track specific tags from this file.
833 --no-chapters
835 Don't copy chapters from this file.
836 -M, --no-attachments
838 Don't copy attachments from this file.
839 --no-global-tags
841 Don't copy global tags from this file.
842 -y, --sync TID:d[,o[/p]]
844 Adjust the timestamps of the track with the id TID by d ms. The
845 track IDs are the same as the ones given with --identify (see
846 section track IDs).
847 o/p: adjust the timestamps by o/p to fix linear drifts. p defaults
849 to 1 if omitted. Both o and p can be floating point numbers.
850 Defaults: no manual sync correction (which is the same as d = 0 and
852 o/p = 1.0).
853 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
855 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
856 --cues TID:none|iframes|all
858 Controls for which tracks cue (index) entries are created for the
859 given track (see section track IDs). 'none' inhibits the creation
860 of cue entries. For 'iframes' only blocks with no backward or
861 forward references ( = I frames in video tracks) are put into the
862 cue sheet. 'all' causes mkvmerge(1) to create cue entries for all
863 blocks which will make the file very big.
864 The default is 'iframes' for video and subtitle tracks and 'none'
866 for audio tracks. See also option --no-cues which inhibits the
867 creation of cue entries regardless of the --cues options used.
868 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
870 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
871 --default-track-flag TID[:bool]
873 Sets the "default track" flag for the given track (see section
874 track IDs) if the optional argument bool is set to 1 or if it isn't
875 present. The flag will be set if the source container doesn't
876 provide that information and the user doesn't specify it via this
877 option.
878 If the user does not explicitly select a track during playback, the
880 player should select one of the tracks that has its "default track"
881 flag set, taking user preferences such as their preferred language
882 into account.
883 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
885 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
886 --track-enabled-flag TID[:bool]
888 Sets the "track enabled" flag for the given track (see section
889 track IDs) to the given value bool (0 or 1; defaults to 1 if not
890 specified). Tracks are enabled by default if no option is specified
891 for them and the source container doesn't provide this information
892 either.
893 Only tracks whose "track enabled" flag is set should be considered
895 for playback.
896 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
898 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
899 --forced-display-flag TID[:bool]
901 Sets the "forced display" flag for the given track (see section
902 track IDs) if the optional argument bool is set to 1 or if it isn't
903 present. Use this for tracks containing onscreen text or
904 foreign-language dialogue.
905 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
907 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
908 --hearing-impaired-flag TID[:bool]
910 Sets the "hearing impaired" flag for the given track (see section
911 track IDs) if the optional argument bool is set to 1 or if it isn't
912 present. This flag can be set if the track is suitable for users
913 with hearing impairments.
914 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
916 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
917 --visual-impaired-flag TID[:bool]
919 Sets the "visual impaired" flag for the given track (see section
920 track IDs) if the optional argument bool is set to 1 or if it isn't
921 present. This flag can be set if the track is suitable for users
922 with visual impairments.
923 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
925 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
926 --text-descriptions-flag TID[:bool]
928 Sets the "text descriptions" flag for the given track (see section
929 track IDs) if the optional argument bool is set to 1 or if it isn't
930 present. This flag can be set if the track contains textual
931 descriptions of video content suitable for playback via a
932 text-to-speech system for a visually-impaired user.
933 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
935 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
936 --original-flag TID[:bool]
938 Sets the "original language" flag for the given track (see section
939 track IDs) if the optional argument bool is set to 1 or if it isn't
940 present. This flag can be set if the track is in the content's
941 original language (not a translation).
942 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
944 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
945 --commentary-flag TID[:bool]
947 Sets the "commentary" flag for the given track (see section track
948 IDs) if the optional argument bool is set to 1 or if it isn't
949 present. This flag can be set if the track contains commentary.
950 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
952 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
953 --blockadd TID:level
955 Keep only the BlockAdditions up to the level level for the given
956 track. The default is to keep all levels. This option only affects
957 certain kinds of codecs like WAVPACK4.
958 --track-name TID:name
960 Sets the track name for the given track (see section track IDs) to
961 name.
962 --language TID:language
964 Sets the language for the given track (see section track IDs). Both
965 ISO 639-2 language codes and ISO 639-1 country codes are allowed.
966 The country codes will be converted to language codes
967 automatically. All languages including their ISO 639-2 codes can be
968 listed with the --list-languages option.
969 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
971 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
972 -t, --tags TID:file-name
974 Read tags for the track with the number TID from the file
975 file-name. See the section about tags below for details.
976 --aac-is-sbr TID[:0|1]
978 Tells mkvmerge(1) that the track with the ID TID is SBR AAC (also
979 known as HE-AAC or AAC+). This options is needed if a) the source
980 file is an AAC file (not for a Matroska(TM) file) and b) the AAC
981 file contains SBR AAC data. The reason for this switch is that it
982 is technically impossible to automatically tell normal AAC data
983 from SBR AAC data without decoding a complete AAC frame. As there
984 are several patent issues with AAC decoders mkvmerge(1) will never
985 contain this decoding stage. So for SBR AAC files this switch is
986 mandatory. The resulting file might not play back correctly or even
987 not at all if the switch was omitted.
988 If the source file is a Matroska(TM) file then the CodecID should
990 be enough to detect SBR AAC. However, if the CodecID is wrong then
991 this switch can be used to correct that.
992 If mkvmerge wrongfully detects that an AAC file is SBR then you can
994 add ':0' to the track ID.
995 --reduce-to-core TID
997 Some audio codecs have a lossy core and optional extensions that
998 implement lossless decoding. This option tells mkvmerge(1) to only
999 copy the core but not the extensions. By default mkvmerge(1) copies
1000 both the core and the extensions.
1001 Currently only DTS tracks are affected by this option. TrueHD
1003 tracks that contain an embedded AC-3 core are instead presented as
1004 two separate tracks for which the user can select which track to
1005 copy. For DTS such a scheme would not work as the HD extensions
1006 cannot be decoded by themselves – unlike the TrueHD data.
1007 --remove-dialog-normalization-gain TID
1009 Some audio codecs contain header fields that tell the decoder or
1010 player to apply a (usually negative) gain for dialog normalization.
1011 This option tells mkvmerge(1) to remove or minimize that gain by
1012 modifying the corresponding header fields.
1013 Currently only AC-3, DTS and TrueHD tracks are affected by this
1015 option.
1016 --timestamps TID:file-name
1018 Read the timestamps to be used for the specific track ID from
1019 file-name. These timestamps forcefully override the timestamps that
1020 mkvmerge(1) normally calculates. Read the section about external
1021 timestamp files.
1022 --default-duration TID:x
1024 Forces the default duration of a given track to the specified
1025 value. Also modifies the track's timestamps to match the default
1026 duration. The argument x must be postfixed with 's', 'ms', 'us',
1027 'ns', 'fps', 'p' or 'i' to specify the default duration in seconds,
1028 milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds, 'frames per second',
1029 'progressive frames per second' or 'interlaced frames per second'
1030 respectively. The number x itself can be a floating point number or
1031 a fraction.
1032 If the default duration is not forced then mkvmerge will try to
1034 derive the track's default duration from the container and/or the
1035 encoded bitstream for certain track types, e.g. AVC/H.264 or
1036 MPEG-2.
1037 This option can also be used to change the FPS of video tracks
1039 without having to use an external timestamp file.
1040 --fix-bitstream-timing-information TID[:0|1]
1042 Normally mkvmerge(1) does not change the timing information
1043 (frame/field rate) stored in the video bitstream. With this option
1044 that information is adjusted to match the container timing
1045 information. The container timing information can come from various
1046 sources: from the command line (see option --default-duration), the
1047 source container or derived from the bitstream.
1048 Note
1050 This has only been implemented for AVC/H.264 video tracks so
1051 far.
1052 --compression TID:n
1054 Selects the compression method to be used for the track. Note that
1055 the player also has to support this method. Valid values are
1056 'none', 'zlib' and 'mpeg4_p2'/'mpeg4p2'.
1057 The compression method 'mpeg4_p2'/'mpeg4p2' is a special
1059 compression method called 'header removal' that is only available
1060 for MPEG4 part 2 video tracks.
1061 The default for some subtitle types is 'zlib' compression. This
1063 compression method is also the one that most if not all playback
1064 applications support. Support for other compression methods other
1065 than 'none' is not assured.
1066 Options that only apply to video tracks
1068 -f, --fourcc TID:FourCC
1069 Forces the FourCC to the specified value. Works only for video
1070 tracks in the 'MS compatibility mode'.
1071 --display-dimensions TID:widthxheight
1073 Matroska(TM) files contain two values that set the display
1074 properties that a player should scale the image on playback to:
1075 display width and display height. These values can be set with this
1076 option, e.g. '1:640x480'.
1077 Another way to specify the values is to use the --aspect-ratio or
1079 the --aspect-ratio-factor option (see below). These options are
1080 mutually exclusive.
1081 --aspect-ratio TID:ratio|width/height
1083 Matroska(TM) files contain two values that set the display
1084 properties that a player should scale the image on playback to:
1085 display width and display height. With this option mkvmerge(1) will
1086 automatically calculate the display width and display height based
1087 on the image's original width and height and the aspect ratio given
1088 with this option. The ratio can be given either as a floating point
1089 number ratio or as a fraction 'width/height', e.g. '16/9'.
1090 Another way to specify the values is to use the
1092 --aspect-ratio-factor or --display-dimensions options (see above
1093 and below). These options are mutually exclusive.
1094 --aspect-ratio-factor TID:factor|n/d
1096 Another way to set the aspect ratio is to specify a factor. The
1097 original aspect ratio is first multiplied with this factor and used
1098 as the target aspect ratio afterwards.
1099 Another way to specify the values is to use the --aspect-ratio or
1101 --display-dimensions options (see above). These options are
1102 mutually exclusive.
1103 --cropping TID:left,top,right,bottom
1105 Sets the pixel cropping parameters of a video track to the given
1106 values.
1107 --colour-matrix-coefficients TID:n
1109 Sets the matrix coefficients of the video used to derive luma and
1110 chroma values from red, green and blue color primaries. The
1111 parameter n is an integer rangeing from 0 and 10.
1112 Valid values and their meaning are:
1114 0: GBR, 1: BT709, 2: unspecified, 3: reserved, 4: FCC, 5: BT470BG,
1116 6: SMPTE 170M, 7: SMPTE 240M, 8: YCOCG, 9: BT2020 non-constant
1117 luminance, 10: BT2020 constant luminance
1118 --colour-bits-per-channel TID:n
1120 Sets the number of coded bits for a colour channel. A value of 0
1121 indicates that the number of bits is unspecified.
1122 --chroma-subsample TID:hori,vert
1124 The amount of pixels to remove in the Cr and Cb channels for every
1125 pixel not removed horizontally/vertically.
1126 Example: For video with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, the parameter
1128 should be set to TID:1,1.
1129 --cb-subsample TID:hori,vert
1131 The amount of pixels to remove in the Cb channel for every pixel
1132 not removed horizontally/vertically. This is additive with
1133 --chroma-subsample.
1134 Example: For video with 4:2:1 chroma subsampling, the parameter
1136 --chroma-subsample should be set to TID:1,0 and Cb-subsample should
1137 be set to TID:1,0.
1138 --chroma-siting TID:hori,vert
1140 Sets how chroma is sited horizontally/vertically (0: unspecified,
1141 1: top collocated, 2: half).
1142 --colour-range TID:n
1144 Sets the clipping of the color ranges (0: unspecified, 1: broadcast
1145 range, 2: full range (no clipping), 3: defined by
1146 MatrixCoefficients/TransferCharacteristics).
1147 --colour-transfer-characteristics TID:n
1149 The transfer characteristics of the video.
1150 Valid values and their meaning are:
1152 0: reserved, 1: ITU-R BT.709, 2: unspecified, 3: reserved, 4: gamma
1154 2.2 curve, 5: gamma 2.8 curve, 6: SMPTE 170M, 7: SMPTE 240M, 8:
1155 linear, 9: log, 10: log sqrt, 11: IEC 61966-2-4, 12: ITU-R BT.1361
1156 extended colour gamut, 13: IEC 61966-2-1, 14: ITU-R BT.2020 10 bit,
1157 15: ITU-R BT.2020 12 bit, 16: SMPTE ST 2084, 17: SMPTE ST 428-1;
1158 18: ARIB STD-B67 (HLG)
1159 --colour-primaries TID:n
1161 Sets the colour primaries of the video.
1162 Valid values and their meaning are:
1164 0: reserved, 1: ITU-R BT.709, 2: unspecified, 3: reserved, 4: ITU-R
1166 BT.470M, 5: ITU-R BT.470BG, 6: SMPTE 170M, 7: SMPTE 240M, 8: FILM,
1167 9: ITU-R BT.2020, 10: SMPTE ST 428-1, 22: JEDEC P22 phosphors
1168 --max-content-light TID:n
1170 Sets the maximum brightness of a single pixel (Maximum Content
1171 Light Level) in candelas per square meter (cd/m²). The value of n
1172 should be a non-negtive integer.
1173 --max-frame-light TID:n
1175 Sets the maximum brightness of a single full frame (Maximum
1176 Frame-Average Light Level) in candelas per square meter (cd/m²).
1177 The value of n should be a non-negtive integer.
1178 --chromaticity-coordinates
1180 TID:red-x,red-y,green-x,green-y,blue-x,blue-y
1181 Sets the red/green/blue chromaticity coordinates as defined by CIE
1182 1931.
1183 --white-colour-coordinates TID:x,y
1185 Sets the white colour chromaticity coordinates as defined by CIE
1186 1931.
1187 --max-luminance TID:float
1189 Sets the maximum luminance in candelas per square meter (cd/m²).
1190 The value should be less than 9999.99.
1191 --min-luminance TID:float
1193 Sets the minimum luminance in candelas per square meter (cd/m²).
1194 The value should be less than 999.9999.
1195 --projection-type TID:method
1197 Sets the video projection method used. Valid values are 0
1198 (rectangular projection), 1 (equirectangular projection), 2
1199 (cubemap projection) and 3 (mesh projection).
1200 --projection-private TID:data
1202 Sets private data that only applies to a specific projection. Data
1203 must be given as hex numbers with or without the "0x" prefix, with
1204 or without spaces.
1205 --projection-pose-yaw TID:float
1207 Specifies a yaw rotation to the projection.
1208 --projection-pose-pitch TID:float
1210 Specifies a pitch rotation to the projection.
1211 --projection-pose-roll TID:float
1213 Specifies a roll rotation to the projection.
1214 --field-order TID:n
1216 Sets the field order for the video track with the track ID TID. The
1217 order must be one of the following numbers:
1218 0: progressive; 1: interlaced with top field displayed first and
1220 top field stored first; 2: undetermined field order; 6: interlaced
1221 with bottom field displayed first and bottom field stored first; 9:
1222 interlaced with bottom field displayed first and top field stored
1223 first; 14: interlaced with top field displayed first and bottom
1224 field stored first
1225 --stereo-mode TID:n|keyword
1227 Sets the stereo mode for the video track with the track ID TID. The
1228 mode can either be a number n between 0 and 14 or one of these
1229 keywords:
1230 'mono', 'side_by_side_left_first', 'top_bottom_right_first',
1232 'top_bottom_left_first', 'checkerboard_right_first',
1233 'checkerboard_left_first', 'row_interleaved_right_first',
1234 'row_interleaved_left_first', 'column_interleaved_right_first',
1235 'column_interleaved_left_first', 'anaglyph_cyan_red',
1236 'side_by_side_right_first', 'anaglyph_green_magenta',
1237 'both_eyes_laced_left_first', 'both_eyes_laced_right_first'.
1238 Options that only apply to text subtitle tracks
1240 --sub-charset TID:character-set
1241 Sets the character set for the conversion to UTF-8 for UTF-8
1242 subtitles for the given track ID. If not specified the charset will
1243 be derived from the current locale settings. Note that a charset is
1244 not needed for subtitles read from Matroska(TM) files or from Kate
1245 streams, as these are always stored in UTF-8. See the section about
1246 text files and character sets for an explanation how mkvmerge(1)
1247 converts between character sets.
1248 This option can be used multiple times for an input file applying
1250 to several tracks by selecting different track IDs each time.
1251 Other options
1253 -i, --identify file-name
1254 Will let mkvmerge(1) probe the single file and report its type, the
1255 tracks contained in the file and their track IDs. If this option is
1256 used then the only other option allowed is the filename.
1257 The output format used for the result can be changed with the
1259 option --identification-format.
1260 -J file-name
1262 This is a convenient alias for "--identification-format json
1263 --identify file-name".
1264 -F, --identification-format format
1266 Determines the output format used by the --identify option. The
1267 following formats are supported: text (the default if this option
1268 isn't used) and json.
1269 1. The text format is short and human-readable. It consists of one
1271 line per item found (container, tracks, attachments etc.).
1272 This format is not meant to be parsed. The output will be
1274 translated into the language mkvmerge(1) uses (see also
1275 --ui-language).
1276 2. The json format outputs a machine-readable JSON representation.
1278 This format follows the JSON schema described in the following
1279 file:
1280 mkvmerge-identification-output-schema-v15.json[3]
1282 All versions of the JSON schema are available both online and
1284 in the released source code archives.
1285 --probe-range-percentage percentage
1287 File types such as MPEG program and transport streams (.vob, .m2ts)
1288 require parsing a certain amount of data in order to detect all
1289 tracks contained in the file. This amount is 0.3% of the source
1290 file's size or 10 MB, whichever is higher.
1291 If tracks are known to be present but not found then the percentage
1293 to probe can be changed with this option. The minimum of 10 MB is
1294 built-in and cannot be changed.
1295 -l, --list-types
1297 Lists supported input file types.
1298 --list-languages
1300 Lists all languages and their ISO 639-2 code which can be used with
1301 the --language option.
1302 --priority priority
1304 Sets the process priority that mkvmerge(1) runs with. Valid values
1305 are 'lowest', 'lower', 'normal', 'higher' and 'highest'. If nothing
1306 is given then 'normal' is used. On Unix like systems mkvmerge(1)
1307 will use the nice(2) function. Therefore only the super user can
1308 use 'higher' and 'highest'. On Windows all values are useable for
1309 every user.
1310 Selecting 'lowest' also causes mkvmerge(1) to select idle I/O
1312 priority in addition to the lowest possible process priority.
1313 --command-line-charset character-set
1315 Sets the character set to convert strings given on the command line
1316 from. It defaults to the character set given by system's current
1317 locale. This settings applies to arguments of the following
1318 options: --title, --track-name and --attachment-description.
1319 --output-charset character-set
1321 Sets the character set to which strings are converted that are to
1322 be output. It defaults to the character set given by system's
1323 current locale.
1324 -r, --redirect-output file-name
1326 Writes all messages to the file file-name instead of to the
1327 console. While this can be done easily with output redirection
1328 there are cases in which this option is needed: when the terminal
1329 reinterprets the output before writing it to a file. The character
1330 set set with --output-charset is honored.
1331 --flush-on-close
1333 Tells the program to flush all data cached in memory to storage
1334 when closing files opened for writing. This can be used to prevent
1335 data loss on power outages or to circumvent certain problems in the
1336 operating system or drivers. The downside is that multiplexing will
1337 take longer as mkvmerge will wait until all data has been written
1338 to the storage before exiting. See issues #2469 and #2480 on the
1339 MKVToolNix bug tracker for in-depth discussions on the pros and
1340 cons.
1341 --ui-language code
1343 Forces the translations for the language code to be used (e.g.
1344 'de_DE' for the German translations). Entering 'list' as the code
1345 will cause the program to output a list of available translations.
1346 --abort-on-warnings
1348 Tells the program to abort after the first warning is emitted. The
1349 program's exit code will be 1.
1350 --deterministic seed
1352 Enables the creation of byte-identical files if the same version of
1353 mkvmerge(1) is used with the same source files, the same set of
1354 options and the same seed. Note that the "date" segment information
1355 field is not written in this mode.
1356 The seed can be an arbitrary string and does not have to be a
1358 number.
1359 The result of byte-identical files is only guaranteed under the
1361 following conditions:
1362 1. The same version of mkvmerge(1) built with the same versions of
1364 libEBML and libMatroska is used.
1365 2. The source files used are byte-identical.
1367 3. The same command line options are used in the same order (with
1369 the notable exception of --output ...).
1370 Using other versions of mkvmerge(1) or other command-line options
1372 may result in the same byte-identical file but is not guaranteed to
1373 do so.
1374 --debug topic
1376 Turn on debugging for a specific feature. This option is only
1377 useful for developers.
1378 --engage feature
1380 Turn on experimental features. A list of available features can be
1381 requested with mkvmerge --engage list. These features are not meant
1382 to be used in normal situations.
1383 --gui-mode
1385 Turns on GUI mode. In this mode specially-formatted lines may be
1386 output that can tell a controlling GUI what's happening. These
1387 messages follow the format '#GUI#message'. The message may be
1388 followed by key/value pairs as in
1389 '#GUI#message#key1=value1#key2=value2...'. Neither the messages nor
1390 the keys are ever translated and always output in English.
1391 @options-file.json
1393 Reads additional command line arguments from the file options-file.
1394 See the section about option files for further information.
1395 --capabilities
1397 Lists information about optional features that have been compiled
1398 in and exit. The first line output will be the version information.
1399 All following lines contain exactly one word whose presence
1400 indicates that the feature has been compiled in. These features
1401 are:
1402 • 'FLAC' -- reading raw FLAC files and handling FLAC tracks in
1404 other containers, e.g. Ogg(TM) or Matroska(TM).
1405 -h, --help
1407 Show usage information and exit.
1408 -V, --version
1410 Show version information and exit.
1411
1413 For each file the user can select which tracks mkvmerge(1) should take.
1414 They are all put into the file specified with -o. A list of known (and
1415 supported) source formats can be obtained with the -l option.
1416 Important
1418 The order of command line options is important. Please read the
1419 section "Option order" if you're new to the program.
1420
1422 The order in which options are entered is important for some options.
1423 Options fall into two categories:
1424 1. Options that affect the whole program and are not tied to any input
1426 file. These include but are not limited to --command-line-charset,
1427 --output or --title. These can appear anywhere on the command line.
1428 2. Options that affect a single input file or a single track in an
1430 input file. These options all apply to the following input file on
1431 the command line. All options applying to the same input (or to
1432 tracks from the same input file) file can be written in any order
1433 as long as they all appear before that input file's name. Examples
1434 for options applying to an input file are --no-chapters or
1435 --chapter-charset. Examples for options applying to a single track
1436 are --default-duration or --language.
1437 The options are processed from left to right. If an option appears
1439 multiple times within the same scope then the last occurrence will be
1440 used. Therefore the title will be set to "Something else" in the
1441 following example:
1442 $ mkvmerge -o output.mkv --title 'This and that' input.avi --title 'Something else'
1444 The following example shows that using the --language option twice is
1446 OK because they're used in different scopes. Even though they apply to
1447 the same track ID they apply to different input files and therefore
1448 have different scopes:
1449 $ mkvmerge -o output.mkv --language 0:fre français.ogg --language 0:deu deutsch.ogg
1451
1453 Let's assume you have a file called MyMovie.avi and the audio track in
1454 a separate file, e.g. 'MyMovie.wav'. First you want to encode the audio
1455 to OggVorbis(TM):
1456 $ oggenc -q4 -oMyMovie.ogg MyMovie.wav
1458 After a couple of minutes you can join video and audio:
1460 $ mkvmerge -o MyMovie-with-sound.mkv MyMovie.avi MyMovie.ogg
1462 If your AVI already contains an audio track then it will be copied as
1464 well (if mkvmerge(1) supports the audio format). To avoid that simply
1465 do
1466 $ mkvmerge -o MyMovie-with-sound.mkv -A MyMovie.avi MyMovie.ogg
1468 After some minutes of consideration you rip another audio track, e.g.
1470 the director's comments or another language to 'MyMovie-add-audio.wav'.
1471 Encode it again and join it up with the other file:
1472 $ oggenc -q4 -oMyMovie-add-audio.ogg MyMovie-add-audio.wav
1474 $ mkvmerge -o MM-complete.mkv MyMovie-with-sound.mkv MyMovie-add-audio.ogg
1475 The same result can be achieved with
1477 $ mkvmerge -o MM-complete.mkv -A MyMovie.avi MyMovie.ogg MyMovie-add-audio.ogg
1479 Now fire up mplayer(TM) and enjoy. If you have multiple audio tracks
1481 (or even video tracks) then you can tell mplayer(TM) which track to
1482 play with the '-vid' and '-aid' options. These are 0-based and do not
1483 distinguish between video and audio.
1484 If you need an audio track synchronized you can do that easily. First
1486 find out which track ID the Vorbis track has with
1487 $ mkvmerge --identify outofsync.ogg
1489 Now you can use that ID in the following command line:
1491 $ mkvmerge -o goodsync.mkv -A source.avi -y 12345:200 outofsync.ogg
1493 This would add 200ms of silence at the beginning of the audio track
1495 with the ID 12345 taken from 'outofsync.ogg'.
1496 Some movies start synced correctly but slowly drift out of sync. For
1498 these kind of movies you can specify a delay factor that is applied to
1499 all timestamps -- no data is added or removed. So if you make that
1500 factor too big or too small you'll get bad results. An example is that
1501 an episode I transcoded was 0.2 seconds out of sync at the end of the
1502 movie which was 77340 frames long. At 29.97fps 0.2 seconds correspond
1503 to approx. 6 frames. So I did
1504 $ mkvmerge -o goodsync.mkv -y 23456:0,77346/77340 outofsync.mkv
1506 The result was fine.
1508 The sync options can also be used for subtitles in the same manner.
1510 For text subtitles you can either use some Windows software (like
1512 SubRipper(TM)) or the subrip(TM) package found in transcode(1)'s
1513 sources in the 'contrib/subrip' directory. The general process is:
1514 1. extract a raw subtitle stream from the source:
1516 $ tccat -i /path/to/copied/dvd/ -T 1 -L | tcextract -x ps1 -t vob -a 0x20 | subtitle2pgm -o mymovie
1518 2. convert the resulting PGM images to text with gocr:
1520 $ pgm2txt mymovie
1522 3. spell-check the resulting text files:
1524 $ ispell -d american *txt
1526 4. convert the text files to a SRT file:
1528 $ srttool -s -w -i mymovie.srtx -o mymovie.srt
1530 The resulting file can be used as another input file for mkvmerge(1):
1532 $ mkvmerge -o mymovie.mkv mymovie.avi mymovie.srt
1534 If you want to specify the language for a given track then this is
1536 easily done. First find out the ISO 639-2 code for your language.
1537 mkvmerge(1) can list all of those codes for you:
1538 $ mkvmerge --list-languages
1540 Search the list for the languages you need. Let's assume you have put
1542 two audio tracks into a Matroska(TM) file and want to set their
1543 language codes and that their track IDs are 2 and 3. This can be done
1544 with
1545 $ mkvmerge -o with-lang-codes.mkv --language 2:ger --language 3:dut without-lang-codes.mkv
1547 As you can see you can use the --language switch multiple times.
1549 Maybe you'd also like to have the player use the Dutch language as the
1551 default language. You also have extra subtitles, e.g. in English and
1552 French, and want to have the player display the French ones by default.
1553 This can be done with
1554 $ mkvmerge -o with-lang-codes.mkv --language 2:ger --language 3:dut --default-track-flag 3 without-lang-codes.mkv --language 0:eng english.srt --default-track-flag 0 --language 0:fre french.srt
1556 If you do not see the language or default track flags that you've
1558 specified in mkvinfo(1)'s output then please read the section about
1559 default values.
1560 Turn off the compression for an input file.
1562 $ mkvmerge -o no-compression.mkv --compression -1:none MyMovie.avi --compression -1:none mymovie.srt
1564
1566 Regular track IDs
1567 Some of the options for mkvmerge(1) need a track ID to specify which
1568 track they should be applied to. Those track IDs are printed by the
1569 readers when demuxing the current input file, or if mkvmerge(1) is
1570 called with the --identify option. An example for such output:
1571 $ mkvmerge -i v.mkv
1573 File 'v.mkv': container: Matroska(TM)
1574 Track ID 0: video (V_MS/VFW/FOURCC, DIV3)
1575 Track ID 1: audio (A_MPEG/L3)
1576 Do not confuse the track IDs that are assigned to the tracks that are
1578 placed in the output MKV file with the track IDs of the input files.
1579 Only the input file track IDs are used for options needing these
1580 values.
1581 Also note that each input file has its own set of track IDs. Therefore
1583 the track IDs for file 'file1.ext' as reported by 'mkvmerge --identify'
1584 do not change no matter how many other input files are there or in
1585 which position 'file1.ext' is used.
1586 Track IDs are assigned like this:
1588 • AVI files: The video track has the ID 0. The audio tracks get IDs
1590 in ascending order starting at 1.
1591 • AAC, AC-3, MP3, SRT and WAV files: The one 'track' in that file
1593 gets the ID 0.
1594 • Most other files: The track IDs are assigned in order the tracks
1596 are found in the file starting at 0.
1597 The options that use the track IDs are the ones whose description
1599 contains 'TID'. The following options use track IDs as well:
1600 --audio-tracks, --video-tracks, --subtitle-tracks, --button-tracks and
1601 --track-tags.
1602 Special track IDs
1604 There are several IDs that have special meaning and do not occur in the
1605 identification output.
1606 The special track ID '-1' is a wild card and applies the given switch
1608 to all tracks that are read from an input file.
1609 The special track ID '-2' refers to the chapters in a source file.
1611 Currently only the --sync option uses this special ID. As an
1612 alternative to --sync -2:... the option --chapter-sync ... can be
1613 used.
1614
1616 Note
1617 This section applies to all programs in MKVToolNix even if it only
1618 mentions mkvmerge(1).
1619 Introduction
1621 All text in a Matroska(TM) file is encoded in UTF-8. This means that
1622 mkvmerge(1) has to convert every text file it reads as well as every
1623 text given on the command line from one character set into UTF-8. In
1624 return this also means that mkvmerge(1)'s output has to be converted
1625 back to that character set from UTF-8, e.g. if a non-English
1626 translation is used with --ui-language or for text originating from a
1627 Matroska(TM) file.
1628 mkvmerge(1) does this conversion automatically based on the presence of
1630 a byte order marker (short: BOM) or the system's current locale. How
1631 the character set is inferred from the locale depends on the operating
1632 system that mkvmerge(1) is run on.
1633 Byte order markers (BOM)
1635 Text files that start with a BOM are already encoded in one
1636 representation of UTF. mkvmerge(1) supports the following five modes:
1637 UTF-8, UTF-16 Little and Big Endian, UTF-32 Little and Big Endian. Text
1638 files with a BOM are automatically converted to UTF-8. Any of the
1639 parameters that would otherwise set the character set for such a file
1640 (e.g. --sub-charset) is silently ignored.
1641 Linux and Unix-like systems including macOS
1643 On Unix-like systems mkvmerge(1) uses the setlocale(3) system call
1644 which in turn uses the environment variables LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CYPE.
1645 The resulting character set is often one of UTF-8 or the ISO-8859-*
1646 family and is used for all text file operations and for encoding
1647 strings on the command line and for output to the console.
1648 Windows
1650 On Windows the default character set used for converting text files is
1651 determined by a call to the GetACP() system call.
1652 Reading the command line is done with the GetCommandLineW() function
1654 which already returns a Unicode string. Therefore the option
1655 --command-line-charset is ignored on Windows.
1656 Output to the console consists of three scenarios:
1658 1. If the output is redirected with the option --redirect-output then
1660 the default charset is UTF-8. This can be changed with
1661 --output-charset.
1662 2. If the output is redirected with cmd.exe itself, e.g. with mkvinfo
1664 file.mkv > info.txt, then the charset is always UTF-8 and cannot be
1665 changed.
1666 3. Otherwise (when writing directly to the console) the Windows
1668 function WriteConsoleW() is used and the option --output-charset is
1669 ignored. The console should be able to output all Unicode
1670 characters for which the corresponding language support is
1671 installed (e.g. Chinese characters might not be displayed on
1672 English Windows versions).
1673 Command line options
1675 The following options exist that allow specifying the character sets:
1676 • --sub-charset for text subtitle files and for text subtitle tracks
1678 stored in container formats for which the character set cannot be
1679 determined unambiguously (e.g. Ogg files),
1680 • --chapter-charset for chapter text files and for chapters and file
1682 titles stored in container formats for which the character set
1683 cannot be determined unambiguously (e.g. Ogg files for chapter
1684 information, track and file titles etc; MP4 files for chapter
1685 information),
1686 • --command-line-charset for all strings on the command line,
1688 • --output-charset for all strings written to the console or to a
1690 file if the output has been redirected with the --redirect-output
1691 option. On non-Windows systems the default for the output charset
1692 is the system's current charset. On Windows it defaults to UTF-8
1693 both for redirecting with --redirect-output and with cmd.exe
1694 itself, e.g. mkvinfo file.mkv > info.txt.
1695
1697 An option file is a file mkvmerge(1) can read additional command line
1698 arguments from. This can be used in order to circumvent certain
1699 limitations of the shell or the operating system when executing
1700 external programs like a limited command line length.
1701 An option file contains JSON-formatted data. Its content must be a
1703 valid JSON array consisting solely of JSON strings. The file's encoding
1704 must be UTF-8. The file should not start with a byte order marker
1705 (BOM), but if one exists, it will be skipped.
1706 The rules for escaping special characters inside JSON are the ones in
1708 the official JSON specification, RFC 7159[4].
1709 The option file's name itself must be specified as a command line
1711 argument prefixed with a '@' character.
1712 The command line 'mkvmerge -o "my file.mkv" -A "a movie.avi" sound.ogg'
1714 could be converted into the following JSON option file called e.g.
1715 'options.json':
1716 [
1718 "-o",
1719 "c:\\Matroska\\my file.mkv",
1720 "--title",
1721 "#65",
1722 "-A",
1723 "a movie.avi",
1724 "sound.ogg"
1725 ]
1726 The corresponding command would then be 'mkvmerge @options.json'.
1728
1730 Matroska(TM) supports file linking which simply says that a specific
1731 file is the predecessor or successor of the current file. To be
1732 precise, it's not really the files that are linked but the Matroska(TM)
1733 segments. As most files will probably only contain one Matroska(TM)
1734 segment the following explanations use the term 'file linking' although
1735 'segment linking' would be more appropriate.
1736 Each segment is identified by a unique 128 bit wide segment UID. This
1738 UID is automatically generated by mkvmerge(1). The linking is done
1739 primarily via putting the segment UIDs (short: SID) of the
1740 previous/next file into the segment header information. mkvinfo(1)
1741 prints these SIDs if it finds them.
1742 If a file is split into several smaller ones and linking is used then
1744 the timestamps will not start at 0 again but will continue where the
1745 last file has left off. This way the absolute time is kept even if the
1746 previous files are not available (e.g. when streaming). If no linking
1747 is used then the timestamps should start at 0 for each file. By default
1748 mkvmerge(1) does not use file linking. If you want that you can turn it
1749 on with the --link option. This option is only useful if splitting is
1750 activated as well.
1751 Regardless of whether splitting is active or not the user can tell
1753 mkvmerge(1) to link the produced files to specific SIDs. This is
1754 achieved with the options --link-to-previous and --link-to-next. These
1755 options accept a segment SID in the format that mkvinfo(1) outputs: 16
1756 hexadecimal numbers between 0x00 and 0xff prefixed with '0x' each, e.g.
1757 '0x41 0xda 0x73 0x66 0xd9 0xcf 0xb2 0x1e 0xae 0x78 0xeb 0xb4 0x5e 0xca
1758 0xb3 0x93'. Alternatively a shorter form can be used: 16 hexadecimal
1759 numbers between 0x00 and 0xff without the '0x' prefixes and without the
1760 spaces, e.g. '41da7366d9cfb21eae78ebb45ecab393'.
1761 If splitting is used then the first file is linked to the SID given
1763 with --link-to-previous and the last file is linked to the SID given
1764 with --link-to-next. If splitting is not used then the one output file
1765 will be linked to both of the two SIDs.
1766
1768 The Matroska(TM) specification states that some elements have a default
1769 value. Usually an element is not written to the file if its value is
1770 equal to its default value in order to save space. The elements that
1771 the user might miss in mkvinfo(1)'s output are the language and the
1772 default track flag elements. The default value for the language is
1773 English ('eng'), and the default value for the default track flag is
1774 true. Therefore if you used --language 0:eng for a track then it will
1775 not show up in mkvinfo(1)'s output.
1776
1778 Maybe you also want to keep some photos along with your Matroska(TM)
1779 file, or you're using SSA subtitles and need a special TrueType(TM)
1780 font that's really rare. In these cases you can attach those files to
1781 the Matroska(TM) file. They will not be just appended to the file but
1782 embedded in it. A player can then show those files (the 'photos' case)
1783 or use them to render the subtitles (the 'TrueType(TM) fonts' case).
1784 Here's an example how to attach a photo and a TrueType(TM) font to the
1786 output file:
1787 $ mkvmerge -o output.mkv -A video.avi sound.ogg \
1789 --attachment-description "Me and the band behind the stage in a small get-together" \
1790 --attachment-mime-type image/jpeg \
1791 --attach-file me_and_the_band.jpg \
1792 --attachment-description "The real rare and unbelievably good looking font" \
1793 --attachment-mime-type application/octet-stream \
1794 --attach-file really_cool_font.ttf
1795 If a Matroska(TM) containing attachments file is used as an input file
1797 then mkvmerge(1) will copy the attachments into the new file. The
1798 selection which attachments are copied and which are not can be changed
1799 with the options --attachments and --no-attachments.
1800
1802 The Matroska(TM) chapter system is more powerful than the old known
1803 system used by OGM files. The full specifications can be found at the
1804 Matroska(TM) website[1].
1805 mkvmerge(1) supports two kinds of chapter files as its input. The first
1807 format, called 'simple chapter format', is the same format that the OGM
1808 tools expect. The second format is a XML based chapter format which
1809 supports all of Matroska(TM)'s chapter functionality.
1810 Apart from dedicated chapter files mkvmerge(1) can also read chapters
1812 from other file formats (e.g. MP4, Ogg, Blu-rays or DVDs).
1813 The simple chapter format
1815 This format consists of pairs of lines that start with 'CHAPTERxx=' and
1816 'CHAPTERxxNAME=' respectively. The first one contains the start
1817 timestamp while the second one contains the title. Here's an example:
1818 CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
1820 CHAPTER01NAME=Intro
1821 CHAPTER02=00:02:30.000
1822 CHAPTER02NAME=Baby prepares to rock
1823 CHAPTER03=00:02:42.300
1824 CHAPTER03NAME=Baby rocks the house
1825 mkvmerge(1) will transform every pair or lines into one Matroska(TM)
1827 ChapterAtom. It does not set any ChapterTrackNumber which means that
1828 the chapters all apply to all tracks in the file.
1829 As this is a text file character set conversion may need to be done.
1831 See the section about text files and character sets for an explanation
1832 how mkvmerge(1) converts between character sets.
1833 The XML based chapter format
1835 The XML based chapter format looks like this example:
1836 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
1838 <!DOCTYPE Chapters SYSTEM "matroskachapters.dtd">
1839 <Chapters>
1840 <EditionEntry>
1841 <ChapterAtom>
1842 <ChapterTimeStart>00:00:30.000</ChapterTimeStart>
1843 <ChapterTimeEnd>00:01:20.000</ChapterTimeEnd>
1844 <ChapterDisplay>
1845 <ChapterString>A short chapter</ChapterString>
1846 <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
1847 </ChapterDisplay>
1848 <ChapterAtom>
1849 <ChapterTimeStart>00:00:46.000</ChapterTimeStart>
1850 <ChapterTimeEnd>00:01:10.000</ChapterTimeEnd>
1851 <ChapterDisplay>
1852 <ChapterString>A part of that short chapter</ChapterString>
1853 <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
1854 </ChapterDisplay>
1855 </ChapterAtom>
1856 </ChapterAtom>
1857 </EditionEntry>
1858 </Chapters>
1859 With this format three things are possible that are not possible with
1861 the simple chapter format:
1862 1. The timestamp for the end of the chapter can be set,
1864 2. chapters can be nested,
1866 3. the language and country can be set.
1868 The mkvtoolnix distribution contains some sample files in the doc
1870 subdirectory which can be used as a basis.
1871 The following lists the supported XML tags, their data types and, where
1873 appropriate, the valid range for their values:
1874 Chapters (master)
1876 EditionEntry (master)
1877 EditionUID (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
1878 EditionFlagHidden (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1879 EditionFlagDefault (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1880 EditionFlagOrdered (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1881 ChapterAtom (master)
1882 ChapterAtom (master)
1883 ChapterUID (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
1884 ChapterTimeStart (unsigned integer)
1885 ChapterTimeEnd (unsigned integer)
1886 ChapterFlagHidden (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1887 ChapterFlagEnabled (unsigned integer, valid range: 0 <= value <= 1)
1888 ChapterSegmentUID (binary, valid range: 1 <= length in bytes)
1889 ChapterSegmentEditionUID (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
1890 ChapterPhysicalEquiv (unsigned integer)
1891 ChapterTrack (master)
1892 ChapterTrackNumber (unsigned integer, valid range: 1 <= value)
1893 ChapterDisplay (master)
1894 ChapterString (UTF-8 string)
1895 ChapterLanguage (UTF-8 string)
1896 ChapterCountry (UTF-8 string)
1897 ChapterProcess (master)
1898 ChapterProcessCodecID (unsigned integer)
1899 ChapterProcessPrivate (binary)
1900 ChapterProcessCommand (master)
1901 ChapterProcessTime (unsigned integer)
1902 ChapterProcessData (binary)
1903 Reading chapters from Blu-rays
1905 mkvmerge(1) can read chapters from unencrypted Blu-rays. For that you
1906 can use the path to one of the MPLS play lists with the --chapters
1907 parameter.
1908 Example: --chapters /srv/blurays/BigBuckBunny/BDMV/PLAYLIST/00001.mpls
1910 Reading chapters from DVDs
1912 When MKVToolNix is compiled with the libdvdread(TM) library,
1913 mkvmerge(1) can read chapters from DVDs. For that you can use the path
1914 to one of the folders or files on the DVD with the --chapters
1915 parameter. As DVDs can contain more than one title and each title has
1916 its own set of chapters, you can append a colon and the desired title
1917 number to the end of the file name argument. The title number defaults
1918 to 1.
1919 Example: --chapters /srv/dvds/BigBuckBunny/VIDEO_TS:2
1921 General notes
1923 When splitting files mkvmerge(1) will correctly adjust the chapters as
1924 well. This means that each file only includes the chapter entries that
1925 apply to it, and that the timestamps will be offset to match the new
1926 timestamps of each output file.
1927 mkvmerge(1) is able to copy chapters from Matroska(TM) source files
1929 unless this is explicitly disabled with the --no-chapters option. The
1930 chapters from all sources (Matroska(TM) files, Ogg files, MP4 files,
1931 chapter text files) are usually not merged but end up in separate
1932 ChapterEditions. Only if chapters are read from several Matroska(TM) or
1933 XML files that share the same edition UIDs will chapters be merged into
1934 a single ChapterEdition. If such a merge is desired in other situations
1935 as well then the user has to extract the chapters from all sources with
1936 mkvextract(1) first, merge the XML files manually and mux them
1937 afterwards.
1938
1940 Introduction
1941 Matroska(TM)'s tag system is similar to that of other containers: a set
1942 of KEY=VALUE pairs. However, in Matroska(TM) these tags can also be
1943 nested, and both the KEY and the VALUE are elements of their own. The
1944 example file example-tags-2.xml shows how to use this system.
1945 Scope of the tags
1947 Matroska(TM) tags do not automatically apply to the complete file. They
1948 can, but they also may apply to different parts of the file: to one or
1949 more tracks, to one or more chapters, or even to a combination of both.
1950 The Matroska(TM) specification[5] gives more details about this fact.
1951 One important fact is that tags are linked to tracks or chapters with
1953 the Targets Matroska(TM) tag element, and that the UIDs used for this
1954 linking are not the track IDs mkvmerge(1) uses everywhere. Instead the
1955 numbers used are the UIDs which mkvmerge(1) calculates automatically
1956 (if the track is taken from a file format other than Matroska(TM)) or
1957 which are copied from the source file if the track's source file is a
1958 Matroska(TM) file. Therefore it is difficult to know which UIDs to use
1959 in the tag file before the file is handed over to mkvmerge(1).
1960 mkvmerge(1) knows two options with which you can add tags to
1962 Matroska(TM) files: The --global-tags and the --tags options. The
1963 difference is that the former option, --global-tags, will make the tags
1964 apply to the complete file by removing any of those Targets elements
1965 mentioned above. The latter option, --tags, automatically inserts the
1966 UID that mkvmerge(1) generates for the tag specified with the TID part
1967 of the --tags option.
1968 Example
1970 Let's say that you want to add tags to a video track read from an AVI.
1971 mkvmerge --identify file.avi tells you that the video track's ID (do
1972 not mix this ID with the UID!) is 0. So you create your tag file, leave
1973 out all Targets elements and call mkvmerge(1):
1974 $ mkvmerge -o file.mkv --tags 0:tags.xml file.avi
1976 Tag file format
1978 mkvmerge(1) supports a XML based tag file format. The format is very
1979 closely modeled after the Matroska(TM) specification[5]. Both the
1980 binary and the source distributions of MKVToolNix come with a sample
1981 file called example-tags-2.xml which simply lists all known tags and
1982 which can be used as a basis for real life tag files.
1983 The basics are:
1985 • The outermost element must be <Tags>.
1987 • One logical tag is contained inside one pair of <Tag> XML tags.
1989 • White spaces directly before and after tag contents are ignored.
1991 Data types
1993 The new Matroska(TM) tagging system only knows two data types, a UTF-8
1994 string and a binary type. The first is used for the tag's name and the
1995 <String> element while the binary type is used for the <Binary>
1996 element.
1997 As binary data itself would not fit into a XML file mkvmerge(1)
1999 supports two other methods of storing binary data. If the contents of a
2000 XML tag starts with '@' then the following text is treated as a file
2001 name. The corresponding file's content is copied into the Matroska(TM)
2002 element.
2003 Otherwise the data is expected to be Base64 encoded. This is an
2005 encoding that transforms binary data into a limited set of ASCII
2006 characters and is used e.g. in email programs. mkvextract(1) will
2007 output Base64 encoded data for binary elements.
2008 The deprecated tagging system knows some more data types which can be
2010 found in the official Matroska(TM) tag specs. As mkvmerge(1) does not
2011 support this system anymore these types aren't described here.
2012 Known tags for the XML file format
2014 The following lists the supported XML tags, their data types and, where
2015 appropriate, the valid range for their values:
2016 Tags (master)
2018 Tag (master)
2019 Targets (master)
2020 TargetTypeValue (unsigned integer)
2021 TargetType (UTF-8 string)
2022 TrackUID (unsigned integer)
2023 EditionUID (unsigned integer)
2024 ChapterUID (unsigned integer)
2025 AttachmentUID (unsigned integer)
2026 Simple (master)
2027 Simple (master)
2028 Name (UTF-8 string)
2029 TagLanguage (UTF-8 string)
2030 DefaultLanguage (unsigned integer)
2031 String (UTF-8 string)
2032 Binary (binary)
2033
2035 With a segment info XML file it is possible to set certain values in
2036 the "segment information" header field of a Matroska(TM) file. All of
2037 these values cannot be set via other command line options.
2038 Other "segment information" header fields can be set via command line
2040 options but not via the XML file. This includes e.g. the --title and
2041 the --timestamp-scale options.
2042 There are other elements that can be set neither via command line
2044 options nor via the XML files. These include the following elements:
2045 DateUTC (also known as the "muxing date"), MuxingApp, WritingApp and
2046 Duration. They're always set by mkvmerge(1) itself.
2047 The following lists the supported XML tags, their data types and, where
2049 appropriate, the valid range for their values:
2050 Info (master)
2052 SegmentUID (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
2053 SegmentFilename (UTF-8 string)
2054 PreviousSegmentUID (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
2055 PreviousSegmentFilename (UTF-8 string)
2056 NextSegmentUID (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
2057 NextSegmentFilename (UTF-8 string)
2058 SegmentFamily (binary, valid range: length in bytes == 16)
2059 ChapterTranslate (master)
2060 ChapterTranslateEditionUID (unsigned integer)
2061 ChapterTranslateCodec (unsigned integer)
2062 ChapterTranslateID (binary)
2063
2065 The Matroska(TM) file layout is quite flexible. mkvmerge(1) will
2066 render a file in a predefined way. The resulting file looks like this:
2067 [EBML head] [segment {meta seek #1} [segment information] [track
2069 information] {attachments} {chapters} [cluster 1] {cluster 2} ...
2070 {cluster n} {cues} {meta seek #2} {tags}]
2071 The elements in curly braces are optional and depend on the contents
2073 and options used. A couple of notes:
2074 • meta seek #1 includes only a small number of level 1 elements, and
2076 only if they actually exist: attachments, chapters, cues, tags,
2077 meta seek #2. Older versions of mkvmerge(1) used to put the
2078 clusters into this meta seek element as well. Therefore some
2079 imprecise guessing was necessary to reserve enough space. It often
2080 failed. Now only the clusters are stored in meta seek #2, and meta
2081 seek #1 refers to the meta seek element #2.
2082 • Attachment, chapter and tag elements are only present if they were
2084 added.
2085 The shortest possible Matroska(TM) file would look like this:
2087 [EBML head] [segment [segment information] [track information] [cluster
2089 1]]
2090 This might be the case for audio-only files.
2092
2094 mkvmerge(1) allows the user to chose the timestamps for a specific
2095 track himself. This can be used in order to create files with variable
2096 frame rate video or include gaps in audio. A frame in this case is the
2097 unit that mkvmerge(1) creates separately per Matroska(TM) block. For
2098 video this is exactly one frame, for audio this is one packet of the
2099 specific audio type. E.g. for AC-3 this would be a packet containing
2100 1536 samples.
2101 Timestamp files that are used when tracks are appended to each other
2103 must only be specified for the first part in a chain of tracks. For
2104 example if you append two files, v1.avi and v2.avi, and want to use
2105 timestamps then your command line must look something like this:
2106 $ mkvmerge ... --timestamps 0:my_timestamps.txt v1.avi +v2.avi
2108 There are four formats that are recognized by mkvmerge(1). The first
2110 line always contains the version number. Empty lines, lines containing
2111 only whitespace and lines beginning with '#' are ignored.
2112 Timestamp file format v1
2114 This format starts with the version line. The second line declares the
2115 default number of frames per second. All following lines contain three
2116 numbers separated by commas: the start frame (0 is the first frame),
2117 the end frame and the number of frames in this range. The FPS is a
2118 floating point number with the dot '.' as the decimal point. The ranges
2119 can contain gaps for which the default FPS is used. An example:
2120 # timestamp format v1
2122 assume 27.930
2123 800,1000,25
2124 1500,1700,30
2125 Timestamp file format v2
2127 In this format each line contains a timestamp for the corresponding
2128 frame. This timestamp must be given in millisecond precision. It can be
2129 a floating point number, but it doesn't have to be. You have to give at
2130 least as many timestamp lines as there are frames in the track. The
2131 timestamps in this file must be sorted. Example for 25fps:
2132 # timestamp format v2
2134 0
2135 40
2136 80
2137 Timestamp file format v3
2139 In this format each line contains a duration in seconds followed by an
2140 optional number of frames per second. Both can be floating point
2141 numbers. If the number of frames per second is not present the default
2142 one is used. For audio you should let the codec calculate the frame
2143 timestamps itself. For that you should be using 0.0 as the number of
2144 frames per second. You can also create gaps in the stream by using the
2145 'gap' keyword followed by the duration of the gap. Example for an audio
2146 file:
2147 # timestamp format v3
2149 assume 0.0
2150 25.325
2151 7.530,38.236
2152 gap, 10.050
2153 2.000,38.236
2154 Timestamp file format v4
2156 This format is identical to the v2 format. The only difference is that
2157 the timestamps do not have to be sorted. This format should almost
2158 never be used.
2159
2161 mkvmerge(1) exits with one of three exit codes:
2162 • 0 -- This exit code means that muxing has completed successfully.
2164 • 1 -- In this case mkvmerge(1) has output at least one warning, but
2166 muxing did continue. A warning is prefixed with the text
2167 'Warning:'. Depending on the issues involved the resulting file
2168 might be ok or not. The user is urged to check both the warning and
2169 the resulting file.
2170 • 2 -- This exit code is used after an error occurred. mkvmerge(1)
2172 aborts right after outputting the error message. Error messages
2173 range from wrong command line arguments over read/write errors to
2174 broken files.
2175
2177 mkvmerge(1) uses the default variables that determine the system's
2178 locale (e.g. LANG and the LC_* family). Additional variables:
2179 MKVMERGE_DEBUG, MKVTOOLNIX_DEBUG and its short form MTX_DEBUG
2181 The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --debug
2182 option.
2183 MKVMERGE_ENGAGE, MKVTOOLNIX_ENGAGE and its short form MTX_ENGAGE
2185 The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --engage
2186 option.
2187
2189 mkvinfo(1), mkvextract(1), mkvpropedit(1), mkvtoolnix-gui(1)
2190
2192 The latest version can always be found at the MKVToolNix homepage[6].
2193
2195 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
2196 Developer
2197
2199 1. the Matroska(TM) website
2200 https://www.matroska.org/
2201 2. the IANA homepage
2203 https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/
2204 3. mkvmerge-identification-output-schema-v15.json
2206 https://mkvtoolnix.download/doc/mkvmerge-identification-output-schema-v15.json
2207 4. RFC 7159
2209 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7159
2210 5. Matroska(TM) specification
2212 https://www.matroska.org/technical/specs/index.html
2213 6. the MKVToolNix homepage
2215 https://mkvtoolnix.download/
2216MKVToolNix 68.0.0 2022-05-22 MKVMERGE(1)