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&product;&date;DeveloperMoritzBunkusmoritz@bunkus.org&product;1&version;&date;MkvToolNixUser Commands&product;extract tracks from &matroska; files into other filesSynopsismkvextractmodesource-filenameoptionsextraction-specDescription
This program extracts specific parts from a Matroska file to other useful formats. The first argument, , tells
&mkvextract; what to extract. Currently supported is the extraction of tracks, tags, attachments, chapters, CUE sheets and timecodes. The second argument is the name of the source file. It must be a
&matroska; file. All following arguments are options and extraction specifications; both of which depend on the selected mode.
Common options
The following options are available in all modes and only described once in this section.
character-set
Sets the character set to convert strings given on the command line from. It defaults to the character set given by system's current
locale.
character-set
Sets the character set to which strings are converted that are to be output. It defaults to the character set given by system's
current locale.
, file-name
Writes all messages to the file file-name instead of to the console. While this can be done easily with
output redirection there are cases in which this option is needed: when the terminal reinterprets the output before writing it to a
file. The character set set with is honored.
code
Forces the translations for the language code to be used (e.g. 'de_DE' for the German
translations). It is preferable to use the environment variables LANG, LC_MESSAGES and
LC_ALL though. Entering 'list' as the code will cause &mkvextract; to
output a list of available translations.
,
Be verbose and show all the important &matroska; elements as they're read.
,
Show usage information and exit.
,
Show version information and exit.
options-file
Reads additional command line arguments from the file options-file. Lines whose first non-whitespace
character is a hash mark ('#') are treated as comments and ignored. White spaces at the start and end of a line
will be stripped. Each line must contain exactly one option. There is no meta character escaping.
The command line 'mkvextract tracks source.mkv --raw 1:destination.raw' could be converted into the following
option file:
# Extract a track from source.mkv
tracks
source.mkv
# Output the track as raw data.
--raw
1;destination.raw
Track extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextractsource-filenameoptionsTID1:dest-filename1TID2:dest-filename2 ...
The following command line options are available for each track in the 'tracks' extraction mode. They have to appear
in front of the track specification (see below) they should be applied to.
character-set
Sets the character set to convert the next text subtitle track to. Only valid if the
next track ID targets a text subtitle track. It defaults to UTF-8.
level
Keep only the BlockAdditions up to this level. The default is to keep all levels. This option only affects certain kinds of codecs
like WAVPACK4.
Causes &mkvextract; to extract a CUE sheet from the chapter information and tag data for the following track into a
file whose name is the track's output name with '.cue' appended to it.
Extracts the raw data into a file without any container data around it. Unlike the flag this flag does not cause the contents of the
CodecPrivate element to be written to the file. This mode works with all CodecIDs, even
the ones that &mkvextract; doesn't support otherwise, but the resulting files might not be usable.
Extracts the raw data into a file without any container data around it. The contents of the CodecPrivate
element will be written to the file first if the track contains such a header element. This mode works with all
CodecIDs, even the ones that &mkvextract; doesn't support otherwise, but the resulting files might not be
usable.
Only valid for FLAC tracks. Normally FLAC tracks are embedded in an Ogg transport stream. With this
switch they are extracted to raw FLAC files instead.
TID:outname
Causes extraction of the track with the ID TID into the file
outname if such a track exists in the source file. This option can be
given multiple times. The track IDs are the same as the ones output by
&mkvmerge;'s option.
Each output name should be used only once. The exception are RealAudio and RealVideo tracks. If you use the same name for different
tracks then those tracks will be saved in the same file. Example:
$ mkvextract tracks input.mkv 1:output-two-tracks.rm 2:output-two-tracks.rm
Tags extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextractsource-filenameoptions
The extracted tags are written to the console unless the output is redirected (see the section about output redirection for details).
Attachments extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextractsource-filenameoptionsAID1:outname1AID2:outname2 ...AID:outname
Causes extraction of the attachment with the ID AID into the file outname if such an
attachment exists in the source file. If the outname is left empty then the name of the attachment inside the
source &matroska; file is used instead. This option can be given multiple times. The attachment IDs are the same as the ones output
by &mkvmerge;'s option.
Chapters extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextractsource-filenameoptions,
Exports the chapter information in the simple format used in the OGM tools
(CHAPTER01=..., CHAPTER01NAME=...). In this mode some information has to be
discarded. Default is to output the chapters in &xml; format.
The extracted chapters are written to the console unless the output is redirected (see the section about output redirection for details).
Cue sheet extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextractsource-filenameoptions
The extracted cue sheet is written to the console unless the output is redirected (see the section about output redirection for details).
Timecode extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextractsource-filenameoptions
The extracted timecodes are written to the console unless the output is redirected (see the section about output redirection for details).
Output redirection
Several extraction modes cause &mkvextract; to write the extracted data to the console. There are generally two ways of writing this data
into a file: one provided by the shell and one provided by &mkvextract; itself.
The shell's builtin redirection mechanism is used by appending '> output-filename.ext' to the command
line. Example:
$ mkvextract tags source.mkv > tags.xml
&mkvextract;'s own redirection is invoked with the option. Example:
$ mkvextract tags source.mkv --redirect-output tags.xml
On Windows you should probably use the option because
cmd.exe sometimes interpretes special characters before they're written into the output file resulting in broken
output.
Output file formats
The decision about the output format is based on the track type, not on the extension used for the output file name. The following track
types are supported at the moment:
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVCH.264 / AVC video tracks are written to H.264 elementary streams which can be
processed further with e.g. MP4Box from the GPAC package.
V_MS/VFW/FOURCC
Fixed FPS video tracks with this CodecID are written to AVI files.
V_REAL/*RealVideo tracks are written to RealMedia files.
A_MPEG/L3, A_AC3
These will be extracted to raw MP3 and AC3 files.
A_PCM/INT/LIT
Raw PCM data will be written to a WAV file.
A_AAC/MPEG2/*, A_AAC/MPEG4/*, A_AAC
All AAC files will be written into an AAC file with ADTS headers before each
packet. The ADTS headers will not contain the deprecated emphasis field.
A_VORBIS
Vorbis audio will be written into an &oggvorbis; file.
A_REAL/*RealAudio tracks are written to RealMedia files.
A_TTA1TrueAudio tracks are written to TTA files. Please note that due to &matroska;'s limited
timecode precision the extracted file's header will be different regarding two fields: data_length (the total
number of samples in the file) and the CRC.
S_TEXT/UTF8
Simple text subtitles will be written as SRT files.
S_TEXT/SSA, S_TEXT/ASSSSA and ASS text subtitles will be written as SSA/ASS files
respectively.
S_KATEKate streams will be written within an Ogg container.
Tags
Tags are converted to a &xml; format. This format is the same that &mkvmerge; supports for reading tags.
Attachments
Attachments are written to they output file as they are. No conversion whatsoever is done.
Chapters
Chapters are converted to a &xml; format. This format is the same that &mkvmerge; supports for reading chapters. Alternatively a
stripped-down version can be output in the simple OGM style format.
Timecodes
Timecodes are first sorted and then output as a timecode v2 format compliant file ready to be fed to &mkvmerge;. The extraction to
other formats (v1, v3 and v4) is not supported.
Exit codes
&mkvextract; exits with one of three exit codes:
0 -- This exit codes means that extraction has completed successfully.
1 -- In this case &mkvextract; has output at least one warning, but extraction did continue. A warning is
prefixed with the text 'Warning:'. Depending on the issues involved the resulting files might be ok or not. The
user is urged to check both the warning and the resulting files.
2 -- This exit code is used after an error occured. &mkvextract; aborts right after outputting the error message.
Error messages range from wrong command line arguments over read/write errors to broken files.
See also
&mkvmerge;, &mkvinfo;, &mmg;
WWW
The latest version can always be found at the MKVToolNix homepage.