[GUIDE] How to create m4b audiobooks with chapter points for iTunes/iPod in Windows?

[Zaaacharias]

Hi Guys.

I figured out a nice workflow to convert track by track audio books to m4b files with chapter points only using freeware apps!
Don't be afraid, it looks much more complicated than it is. Actually it's very easy going. Just follow my instructions.

I've put everything you need into one nice package including a time saving batch file I wrote.

Although all of the software above is freeware, I'm not allowed to post the link to my package here because of copyright reasons!
So I'll show you how to do it without my package!

1. download and install foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=Download)

2. download and extract Nero AAC Codec (http://www.nero.com/eng/downloads-nerodigital-nero-aac-codec.php)

3. download and extract Mpeg4ip 1.6 (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/mp4tools/mpeg4ip-1.6.1_20071130.zip)

4. tag your track by track audio files (e.g. with mp3tag).
Note that all tracks of one audio book need to have the same album name!

5. open foobar2000, import your audio files and select all files you want to encode

6. right click and choose CONVERT -> ...

7. choose the nero mp4 codec and your favorite bitrate.

8. check "Generate multi-track files" in the "Output files" section an press OK
(if it's the first time you're using the nero aac codec
foobar2000 will ask you where the neroAacEnc.exe is located.
simply link to directory \win32 of the Nero AAC Codec you've downloaded

9. foobar2000 will now combine all tracks of an audio book into one single mp4 file with chapter information.
anyhow the chapter information created by nero's aac codec is not supported by ITunes.
Therefor the files need to be converted into m4b...

10. copy mp4chaps.exe from the Mpeg4ip 1.6 directory into the directory where your encoded mp4 files are located.

11. open the windows command promt (cmd.exe) go to your mp4 directory and use following command line:
mp4chaps.exe -QuickTime -convert filename.mp4
replace filename.mp4 by the the name of the mp4 file you want to convert to m4b.

Note that you have to do this step with every of your mp4 files you want to convert to m4b.

12. Finally change the file extension of you mp4s from .mp4 to .m4b


That's it! You can now import you m4b files into itunes and have fun!

For a "more visual" instruction just check out my VIDEO TUTORIAL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjpD67XuylQ).

[b66pak]

thanks a lot...
_

[Keiyakusha]

Zaaacharias
Did not tried it yet, but why we need mp3tag when we can tag files in Foobar?

[Zaaacharias]

Zaaacharias
Did not tried it yet, but why we need mp3tag when we can tag files in Foobar?

good point! I'm only using foobar for encoding my audiobooks. That's why I'm having absolutely no clue what you can do with foobar. I'm using mp3tag for tagging because I don't think that you have all of it's highly advanced tagging features in foobar. But maybe I'm wrong.

in general: please let me know if you find misstakes and/or ways to improve this instruction and/or my whole audiobook creation workflow. THANX!

[Guest]

I deleted your download link as you have no right to distribute Nero like that (and probably foobar2000 also). You can give links to the software home pages.

[Zaaacharias]

I deleted your download link as you have no right to distribute Nero like that (and probably foobar2000 also). You can give links to the software home pages.

I'm not a copyright expert but this package is for non commercial use only. All of it's components is freeware. Btw. it's not NERO that it in this package, it's the free AAC codec.

Here all of the components of my package:

1 - mp3tag (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/donations.html)
freeware
"I really like the idea of Mp3tag being free and I have no intention at all of commercializing Mp3tag"

2 - foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=License)
freeware
"Redistribution and use in binary form, without modification, are permitted"

3 - nero AAC (http://www.nero.com/eng/downloads-nerodigital-nero-aac-codec.php)
"Nero AG licenses you to use this software package for personal non-commercial and/or technology-evaluation purposes."

4 - chapter conversion
4 a) Batch Script -> written by myself
4 b) mp4chaps.exe found in the freeware Mpeg4ip 1.6 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpeg4ip/).

[Guest]

Obviously I was referring to the codec. The license states:

"This License does not provide any rights to reproduce and/or distribute this software package in whole or in any part."

That is the reason for my post.

[Wilbert]

I deleted your download link as you have no right to distribute Nero like that (and probably foobar2000 also). You can give links to the software home pages.
In the license it's stated that it's legal to distribute foobar2000 (provided it's not modified).

[Inspector.Gadget]

Peter Pawlowski (foobar2000 head dev) has expressed displeasure in the past with foobar2000 "custom packs" redistributing foobar2000 plus other stuff. This strikes me as a parallel situation, though Zaacharias' intent is obviously nothing but good. Perhaps, Zaacharias, you could obtain explicit pemission from him before redistributing it bundled with other things.

[htaddict]

There is an easier way using a free software tool called Chapter and Verse.

It allows you combine multiple AAC audio files into a m4b audiobook. It has a virtual player to make it easy to edit and add chapters. You can add chapter images and it supports 14 metadata fields plus cover artwork.

It's a simple GUI interface (so never mind to those that want to do everything with command line tools).

It's available at http://lodensoftware.com/

http://lodensoftware.com/wp-content/gallery/screenshots/screenshot-files.jpg

[b66pak]

thanks for the link...
_

[masken]

I know it's an old post, but do anyone know of a chapter editor for m4b files?

"Chapter and Verse" is no longer maintained and will just crash upon start after installation.

[hubblec4]

You could try Chapter Master (https://rightword.com.au/products/chaptermaster/default.php).