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<html>
<head>
<title>A guide to mkvmerge GUI</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>A guide to mkvmerge GUI (mmg)</h1>
<i>Moritz Bunkus</i>
<hr>
<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<p>
<ol>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#introduction">Introduction</a>
<br>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#whatismatroska">What is Matroska?</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#whatismkvmerge">What is mkvmerge?
What is mkvmerge GUI?
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#latestversion">Obtaining the latest
version
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#scope">Scope of this guide</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#setup">Setting up mkvmerge GUI</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#muxing">Creating Matroska files</a>
<br>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#basics">Basics</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#fileoptions">Options for input
files
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#trackoptions">Options for each
track
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#attachments">Attachments</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#globaloptions">Global options</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#doit">Starting the merge
process
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#saveload">Saving and loading
muxing settings
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#chaptereditor">The chapter editor</a>
<br>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#chapterconcept">Matroska's
chapter concept
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#chapterexamples">Examples</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#chapterformats">Chapter formats
supported by mkvmerge
</a>
<br>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#cfsimple">Simple/OGM style
chapter files
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#cfxml">Full-featured XML
style chapter files
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#cfkax">Chapters found in
Matroska files
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#creatingchapters">Creating
chapter files
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#editingchapters">Editing existing
chapters
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="introduction">Introduction</a></h2>
<h3><a name="whatismatroska">What is Matroska?</a></h3>
<p>(<i>Note: simply copied from <a href="http://www.matroska.org/">
www.matroska.org</a>.</i>)</p>
<p><b>Matroska</b> aims to become THE Standard of Multimedia Container
Formats. It was derived from a project called MCF, but differentiates
from it significantly because it is based on EBML (Extensible Binary
Meta Language), a binary derivative of XML. EBML enables the Matroska
Development Team to gain significant advantages in terms of future
format extensibility, without breaking file support in old
parsers.</p>
<p>If you need any more info please head over to <a
href="http://www.matroska.org/">Matroska's homepage</a>.</p>
<h3>
<a name="whatismkvmerge">What is mkvmerge? What is mkvmerge
GUI?
</a>
</h3>
<p><i>mkvmerge</i> and <i>mkvmerge GUI</i> (or just <i>mmg</i>) are
two programs created by <a href="mailto:moritz@bunkus.org">Moritz
Bunkus</a>. They're part of the <i>mkvtoolnix</i>
package. <i>mkvmerge</i> can read a lot of different multimedia files
and put their contents into Matroska files. Unfortunately this is a
command line program, and not everyone is comfortable working on the
command line. This is where <i>mkvmerge GUI</i> comes into play. It is
a GUI that provides the user with an intuitive but powerful interface
to <i>mkvmerge</i>.</p>
<p>Both programs are available for both Windows and GNU/Linux and
other Unix derivatives. The program is licensed under the GPL, so the
source code is available to anyone interested.</p>
<h3><a name="latestversion">Obtaining the latest version</a></h3>
<p>You can always find the latest version of <i>mkvtoolnix</i> on
<a href="http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/">Moritz Bunkus'
website</a>. Windows users will have to download the runtime DLLs as
well as the <i>mkvtoolnix</i> binaries. Linux/Unix users will probably
download the sources and compile <i>mkvtoolnix</i> themselves.</p>
<h3><a name="scope">Scope of this guide</a></h3>
<p>This guide only focusses on the GUI part of these tools. All
command line options are explained in detail in <i>mkvmerge</i>'s man
page/HTML page.</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="setup">Setting up mkvmerge GUI</a></h2>
<p>(<i>Note: This section does not cover compilation and
installation. mkvmerge's own documentation and the
<code>README</code> files that are included in the <i>mkvtoolnix</i>
package.</i>)</p>
<p>The only thing that <i>mmg</i> needs to know is the location of the
<i>mkvmerge</i> binary. Under normal circumstances it will be found
automatically. But if not then you can select the binary to use on the
<i>Settings</i> tab.</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="muxing">Creating Matroska files</a></h2>
<h3><a name="basics">Basics</a></h3>
<p><i>mkvmerge</i> strictly differentiates between <i>files</i> and
<i>tracks</i>. An input <i>file</i> usually contains one or more
<i>tracks</i>. <i>mkvmerge</i> needs at least one input file and the
file name of the Matroska file it should create before it can do any
work. Starting with this minimal set of options the user can add more
input files, select advanced options for each track, apply some more
global options etc.</p>
<p>The typical basic steps are:<br>
<ol>
<li>Select some input <i>files</i>,</li>
<li>set language options for the <i>tracks</i>,</li>
<li>set the movie/file title,</li>
<li>select the file to write to and</li>
<li>start the muxing process.</li>
</ol>
</p>
<p>When <i>mmg</i> starts up it shows the first and probably most
important tab: the <i>input tab</i>. Here you see four different
elements. The topmost input box lists all input <i>files</i>. Directly
under this box are options that apply to the currently selected input
<i>file</i>.</p>
<p>The two buttons to the right of the upper list box can be used to
add files to the list box with the <i>+</i> button and to remove the
selected entry with the <i>-</i> button.</p>
<p>Once the user selects an input <i>file</i> in the upper list box
the second list box will contains all <i>tracks</i> that can be read
from this <i>file</i>. Each track is ENabled by default and will be
muxed into the resulting file. However, you can change that by simply
clicking on the checkbox right in front of the track's name in the
second list box. For each of these tracks the user can select
track specific options with the input boxes and check boxes below the
track listing. These options will be described in the following
sections.</p>
<h3><a name="fileoptions">Options for input file</a></h3>
<p>Once the user has added and selected an input file he can set
options that apply to this specific file. At the moment only one such
option has been implemented: <code>No chapters</code>. If this option
is checked then <i>mkvmerge</i> will not try to copy chapters from
this source file. More information about chapters can be found in the
section about the <a href="mkvmerge-gui.html#chaptereditor">chapter
editor</a> in this document and in <i>mkvmerge</i>'s own
documentation.</p>
<h3><a name="trackoptions">Options for each track</a></h3>
<p>Depending on the type of the currently selected track (audio,
video, subtitles) and even depending on the contents of the track only
a subset of all the track specific options are availbale. The options
are:
<br>
<ul>
<li><code>Language:</code> The user can select the language for each
track regardless of its type. This language is coded in the ISO639-2
language code. The drop-down box contains all ISO639-2 codes so the
user does not have to worry about selecting the wrong language
code.</li>
<li><code>Track name:</code> The user can set a name for the current
track. This name is a free-form string. Practical examples could be
'director's comments' or 'aeriel view of Seattle'. Note that these
names are not meant to contain the movie title!</li>
<li><code>Cues:</code> The <i>cues</i> are for Matroska what the
index is for AVI files. They contain links to the key
frames. Usually this option should be left on the value
'default'. <i>mkvmerge</i> will automatically chose the best method
for any given track type. A full explanantion of tracks can be found
in <i>mkvmerge</i>'s documentation.</li>
<li><code>Aspect ratio:</code> With this option the user can set the
aspect ratio that should be used upon playback. It defaults to the
aspect ratio that the movie was encoded with but can be changed,
e.g. for anamorphic encodings. The GUI expects the format to be
either a floating point number (e.g. '2.33') or a fraction
(e.g. '16/9').
<br>
This option is only available for video tracks.</li>
<li><code>FourCC:</code> Matroska does not normally store the FourCC
which is used in other containers to identify the codec
used. Matroska has its own format, called <i>CodecID</i>, but it
also has an AVI compatibility mode. In thise mode the FourCC is also
stored. With this option the FourCC can be forced to a different
value. However, you cannot change the <i>CodecID</i> used by
<i>mkvmerge</i>.
<br>
This option is only available for video tracks.</li>
<li><code>Delay (in ms):</code> In some cases audio and video are
not synchronized properly. With this option the user can offset the
audio track by a given amount, either positive or
negative. <i>mkvmerge</i> will either remove samples at the
beginning or insert silence at the beginning to adjust the track.
<br>
This option is available for audio and text subtitle tracks.</li>
<li><code>Stretch by:</code> In some cases audio and video slowly
drift apart during playback. This can be fixed by supplying a factor
of how much the timecodes should be stretched by <i>mkvmerge</i>. If
nothing is given then '1.0' is assumed which does not alter the
timecodes. Please note that this option has not been implemented for
all audio track types yet.
<br>
This option is available for audio and text subtitle tracks.</li>
<li><code>Subtitle charset:</code> Some text subtitle formats do not
store the charset that they were creted with. This is important
because text subtitles are auomatically converted to the UTF-8
charset during muxing. <i>mkvmerge</i> will normally assume that the
system's current charset is the same that the subtitle file was
written in. But in case this is not true the user can select the
correct charset.
<br>
This option is only available for text subtitle tracks.</li>
<li><code>Make default track:</code> Matroska knows a flag which
tells the player that a specific track should be preferred upon
playback if the user does not chose another one. Of course each
track <i>type</i> has its own default track - e.g. the default audio
track is the English one, and the default subtitle track is the
French one. If no track is set to be the default track then
<i>mkvmerge</i> will promote the first track of each type that it
finds to be the default track. This is consistent with the behaviour
of various media players.</li>
<li><code>AAC is SBR/HE-AAC/AAC+:</code> The new technology called
'high efficiency AAC' has some drawbacks when it is being stored in
<code>.AAC</code> files: it is not possible to detect the HE-AAC
part for these files. Therefore the user has to check this option
manually if it applies. Please note that this problem does not exist
for HE-AAC stored in <code>.MP4</code> files.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<h3><a name="attachments">Attachments</a></h3>
<p>Matroska files can also contain other files, called
attachments. This works basically just like with your favourite email
program. The idea is to provide additional information about the
file. Some examples could be cover photos for a CD rip, additional
background information in text form about the movie or even some
compressed fonts for the subtitles.</p>
<p>Every attachment needs two things: the file name (obviously) and
the MIME type that should be associated with the file. The usage is
very easy and similar to adding files on the <i>input</i> tab.</p>
<p>On the second tab of the GUI, the <i>attachment</i> tab, you can
add a file with the <i>+</i> button and remove the selected attachment
with the <i>-</i> button. Once an attachment has been selected the
other controls on this tab will be available. You do have to select a
MIME type for each attachment, but the description is optional -
although it is a good idea to always provide a description. This makes
it easier for others to identify what you've attached to this Matroska
file.</p>
<p>The last option, <code>attachment style</code>, is only evaluated
when you also split the output into several files. (Splitting in
general is explained in the following section.) If the option <code>To
all files</code> is selected then the current file will be attached to
all output files created. If the option <code>Only to the first</code>
is selected then the file is only attached to the very first output
file created.</p>
<h3><a name="globaloptions">Global options</a></h3>
<p>The third tab, <i>Global</i>, is packed full of options that apply
to the complete file and not just to one or more tracks.</p>
<h4><a name="global_title">File/segment title</a></h4>
<p><code>File/segment title:</code> This title is used for the
actual movie title, e.g. 'Vanilla Skies'.</p>
<h4><a name="global_split">Automatic splitting and file linking</a></h4>
<p>The <code>Split</code> section handles how the output file is split
into several smaller files. If no splitting is selected then only one
big file is generated. If splitting is activated then you can tell
<i>mkvmerge</i> to start a new output file after either a specific
amount of data has been written to the current file or after a
specific amount of time has accumulated. The formats accepted are:
<br>
<ul>
<li>For the size: A number optionally followed by the letter 'K',
'M' or 'G' indicating kilobytes (1024 bytes), megabytes (1024 * 1024
bytes) or gigabytes (1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes). Examples: '700M' or
'100000K'.</li>
<li>For the time: The format is either <code>HH:MM:SS</code> or a
number followed by the letter 's' indicating a number of
seconds. Examples: '01:20:00' (split after 1 hour, 20 minutes) or
'1800s' (split after 1800 seconds = 30 minutes).</li>
</ul></p>
<p><code>Don't link:</code> This option controls how <i>mkvmerge</i>
will handle splitting. A little explanation about this feature:</p>
<p>Matroska supports file linking which simply says that a specific
file is the predecessor or successor of the current file. To be
precise, it's not really the files that are linked but the Matroska
segments. As most files will probably only contain one Matroska
segment I simply say 'file linking' although 'segment linking' would
be more appropriate.</p>
<p>Each segment is identified by a unique 128 bit wide segment
UID. This UID is automatically generated by <i>mkvmerge</i>. The
linking is done primarily via putting the segment UIDs of the
previous/next file into the segment header information. <i>mkvinfo</i>
prints these UIDs if it finds them.</p>
<p>If a file is split into several smaller ones and linking is used
then the timecodes will not start at 0 again but will continue where
the last file has left off. This way the absolute time is kept even if
the previous files are not available (e.g. when streaming). If no
linking is used then the timecodes should start at 0 for each file. By
default <i>mkvmerge</i> uses file linking. If you don't want that you
can turn it off by enabling this <code>Don't link</code> checkbox.</p>
<h4><a name="global_link">Manual file/segment linking</a></h4>
<p>Regardless of whether splitting is active or not the user can tell
<i>mkvmerge</i> to link the produced files to specific UIDs. This is
done by entering a valid segment UID into the two input boxes,
<code>Previous segment UID</code> and <code>Next segment UID</code>.
These options accept a segment UID in the format that <i>mkvinfo</i>
outputs: 16 hexadecimal numbers between 0x00 and 0xff prefixed with
'0x' each and separated with spaces, e.g. <code>0x41 0xda 0x73 0x66
0xd9 0xcf 0xb2 0x1e 0xae 0x78 0xeb 0xb4 0x5e 0xca 0xb3
0x93</code>. Alternatively a shorter form can be used: 16 hexadecimal
numbers between 0x00 and 0xff without the '0x' prefixes and without
the spaces, e.g. <code>41da7366d9cfb21eae78ebb45ecab393</code>.</p>
<p>If splitting is used then the first file is linked to the UID given
in the <code>Previous segment UID</code> input box, and the last file
is linked to the UID given in the <code>Next segment UID</code> input
box. If splitting is not used then the one output file will be linked
to both of the two UIDs.</p>
<h3><a name="doit">Starting the merge process</a></h3>
<h3><a name="saveload">Saving and loading muxing settings</a></h3>
<hr>
<h2><a name="chaptereditor">The chpater editor</a></h2>
<h3><a name="chapterconcept">Matroska's chapter concept</a></h3>
<h3><a name="chapterexamples">Examples</a></h3>
<h3>
<a name="chapterformats">Chapter formats supported by
mkvmerge
</a>
</h3>
<h4><a name="cfsimple">Simple/OGM style chapter files</a></h4>
<h4><a name="cfxml">Full-featured XML style chapter files</a></h4>
<h4><a name="cfkax">Chapters found in Matroska files</a></h4>
<h3><a name="creatingchapters">Creating chapter files</a></h3>
<h3><a name="editingchapters">Editing existing chapters</a></h3>
</body>
</html>
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