mkvtoolnix 1.4.0 is out with everything you want

[Mosu]

Hey,

finally: I'm releasing the new mkvtoolnix version including all the fancy new stuff. It's v1.4.0.

So what has changed? Tons of new features, tons of bug fixes, tons of new bugs The more important things are:

- support for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video read from PS and ES streams,
- support for AVC (aka h.264) video from MP4 files,
- support for concatenating files,
- support for the new elements needed for menus,
- support for WAVPACK4 lossless and lossy audio,
- support for extracting VobSubs and
- added an online help to mmg accessible by pressing F1

Beginning with 1.4.0 I also provide both a Unicode enabled version and a non-Unicode version of mkvtoolnix. The usual: users of Windows 95, 98 and ME have to use the non-Unicode version. The others can use the Unicode enabled version.

The usual links to...
...the homepage:
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/
...the source code:
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv...-1.4.0.tar.bz2
...the Unicode enabled Windows binaries:
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv....4.0-setup.exe
...the non-Unicode enabled Windows binaries:
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv....4.0-setup.exe

My binaries for Fedora Core and SuSE as well as links to binaries for other systems are available from the homepage.

Now to the ChangeLog. It's not the ChangeLog since 1.0.2. Instead I'm listing all entries that are unique to the 1.4.0 line and have never appeared in the 1.0.x line:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2005-02-26 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* Released v1.4.0.

2005-02-19 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mmg: new feature: The "default track" checkboxes are set properly when a Matroska file is added.
* mmg: new feature: Added a warning right before the muxing starts if the chapter editor contains entries but no chapter file has been selected (can be turned off).

2005-02-11 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvextract: new feature: Added VobSub extraction based on Mike Matsnev's code.

2005-02-08 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: bug fix: Track names could not be set to be empty.

2005-02-02 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: new feature: Use the posix_fadvise function on *nix systems. This results in a considerable speed up for the whole muxing process. As the function call seems to be buggy on at least Linux kernels 2.4.x it can be disabled completely during configure. It will only be used on Linux with a kernel from the 2.6.x series or newer.

2005-02-01 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: bug fix: Empty video frames in AVIs right at the beginning were breaking the MPEG-4 aspect ratio extraction and caused problems in other parts, too.

2005-01-30 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mmg: bug fix: It was possible to create chapter entries with invalid or even empty language entries. Not only are those invalid, such XML files can also not be loaded by mmg.
* mmg: bug fix: Overwriting a chapter file did not erase the previous file. So if the previous file was bigger than the current chapters then garbage remained at the end of the file.

2005-01-22 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: new feature: Added some more possible formats for binary data in XML files besides Base64 encoded data: hex encoded and ASCII "encoded".

2005-01-20 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mmg: bug fix: The "stretch" input box tooltip was wrong. The resulting command line was broken, too.

2005-01-18 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: new feature: Hex values accept more formats (like optional white space between numbers or the "0x" prefix).

2005-01-15 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: Changed the AVC/h.264 timecode handling to include the timecode offsets from the CTTS atom.

2005-01-15 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mmg: Reformatted the HTML guide and updated the screenshots. It should be more readable for those whose desktop is not 1200 pixels wide.

2005-01-08 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mmg: new feature: Made the mkvmerge GUI guide available by pressing F1 or selecting "Help" from the "Help" menu.

2005-01-07 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvextract: bug fix: ASS/SSA extraction was broken in some rare cases.

2005-01-02 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mmg: new feature: Added support for mkvmerge's new "appending tracks" feature.

2004-12-31 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: new feature: Added support for reading the pixel aspect ratio from AVC/h264 video data.
* mkvmerge: new feature: Added AVC/h264 muxing from MP4.

2004-12-28 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: new feature: Added a MPEG PS demuxer.
* mkvinfo: new feature: Added a couple new elements (silent tracks). Patch by Steve Lhomme (see AUTHORS).

2004-12-27 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvextract: new feature: Added WAVPACK4 extraction. Patch by Steve Lhomme (see AUTHORS).

2004-12-18 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: new feature: Added WAVPACK4 muxing. Patch by Steve Lhomme (see AUTHORS).

2004-12-17 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: new feature: Added VobButton muxing. Patch by Steve Lhomme (see AUTHORS).

2004-11-18 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: Implemented concatenating files with chapters.
* mkvmerge: Changed the "progress" output. It's now correct for file concatenation, too.

2004-11-17 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
* mkvmerge: new feature: Concatenating/appending files is now possible. A lot of things aren't tested, and others simply don't work yet (chapter merging, duplicate tag elimination, proper progress report, support in mmg just to name a few), but the basic functionality seems to work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm well aware that there are probably new bugs. Also the concatenation code is not as well-tested as I'd like. But as always I'm grateful for bug reports and will try to fix those bugs as quickly as possible.

Have fun

Mosu

[Sirber]

Yehoo!!!!

Thanks!!! MP4 management will work lots easier in RealAnime with this release! Many thanks!!!

[buzzqw]

Automatic mp4 (as aac and mp4) audio codec detection (HE/SBR..) ?

BHH

[Mosu]

Originally posted by buzzqw
Automatic mp4 (as aac and mp4) audio codec detection (HE/SBR..) ?

BHH

Only for AAC-in-MP4 (because you can't detect HE on raw ATDS AAC files without decoding them). But that has been working for ages.

[hippoth]

Hi Mosu,

whats the difference between the unicode and the non-unicode version?
Btw..I get an error when stating mmg.exe The Applictaion couldn´t start because of missing wxbase253u_gcc_custom.dll ...whats this for dll?

[Mosu]

Originally posted by hippoth
Hi Mosu,

whats the difference between the unicode and the non-unicode version?

The idea is that you can safely use stuff like Japanese characters in all of mmg's input boxes. I haven't ever had anything else than a German or English Windows version, so I can't really tell what else is different.

Btw..I get an error when stating mmg.exe The Applictaion couldn´t start because of missing wxbase253u_gcc_custom.dll ...whats this for dll?

Sounds like you have only downloaded the .RAR but not the runtime RAR. Or you haven't extracted the runtime RAR into the same directory as the main RAR. Just get the installer instead (or uncompress both RARs into the same directory).

[Sirber]

I'd like to but...

URL not found, but...

The URL you requested, /videotools/mkvtoolnix/win32/mkvtoolnix-unicode-runtime-1.4.rar, was not found. If you are looking for a current release of mkvtoolnix then please head over to the mkvtoolnix home page.

[Mosu]

Originally posted by Sirber
I'd like to but...

URL not found, but...

Ups. Fixed, thanks

[buzzqw]

Only for AAC-in-MP4 (because you can't detect HE on raw ATDS AAC files without decoding them). But that has been working for ages.

I know aac in mp4 is working but i would know if "raw ATDS AAC" could be possible (in a near future).


one question: for aac (he or lc) in mp4 the switch --aac-is-sbr is needed ?

Thanks again

BHH

[Mosu]

Originally posted by buzzqw
I know aac in mp4 is working but i would know if "raw ATDS AAC" could be possible (in a near future).

Like I said: autodetection? No. You can use HE AAC ADTS files, but you have to use the --aac-is-sbr switch then.

one question: for aac (he or lc) in mp4 the switch --aac-is-sbr is needed ?

No. Only if the MP4 file itself contains broken data. So generally: no.

[Sirber]

Seems still to not work :S

http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv...untime-1.4.rar

[Mosu]

Originally posted by Sirber
Seems still to not work :S

http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv...untime-1.4.rar

Because you're still using the wrong link. The right link is http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv...nicode-1.4.rar

[buzzqw]

@Mosu

Ok

No. Only if the MP4 file itself contains broken data. So generally: no.

Thanks and sorry for being "pedant"

BHH

[Sirber]

Originally posted by Mosu
Because you're still using the wrong link. The right link is http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv...nicode-1.4.rar

Sorry. My ISP is proxying me. Maybe the page didn't get updated. I shall change ISP in 1 month

[Liisachan]

Congrats!

And about MMG (on my Windows 2000):

Hey!!! This is _really_ unicode-based!

The editboxes in MMG (or commandline copied to Clipboard) are now in UTF-16 and MMG is ok with Unicode filename, like a Finnish Korean mix, for input/output .... Awesome.

But hey, "the mkvmerge output" in the "mkv is running" box is in UTF-8, not UTF-16. This is not preferable (incoherent), altho the problem is just cosmetic...

And please fix the default extension to .mkv.
Now "save as foo" is defaulted to foo.mka.

thx for your great work!!

[LeMoi]

Originally posted by Mosu
* mmg: bug fix: Overwriting a chapter file did not erase the previous file. So if the previous file was bigger than the current chapters then garbage remained at the end of the file.

I still have this problem : if i remux a file which had chapters, and if i choose another chapterfil when i mux, with Haali splitter, i still can choose between 'Edition 1' and 'Edition 2' while playing the file, and each edition correspond to old and new chapters :s
If i check 'No chapters' in the muxgin window, i don't have ths 'bug'

[niamh]

Oh boy.......

Time warped and it's Christmas all over again

[hippoth]

Originally posted by Mosu Sounds like you have only downloaded the .RAR but not the runtime RAR.[/B]

Correct, because I thought the old runtimes would be ok...the new ones I couldn´t download...but now its fixed and all fine
As usual great work!

[niamh]

<rolls up sleeves...>

- 1st thing I did was press the big red button, aka F1..it says the help .hhp file is not found, and in fact it's nowhere on my pc.(I ued the installer And uninstalled the old one properly)

- then I started to append bonus files (wanted to do that for ages)..so I appended first the video tracks, then the audio tracks, then the subtitles ones, and remuxed the lot... it works and it's in synch! great. Is there any plan in the future to switch the audio along with the video and subs though (or can it be done in a way I missed)? Right now I must do it manually through the splitter.

- the resulting files won't seek either, tested with MPC and the Core, the slider keeps going back to the start, with or without freezing involved. (the players as well display only file 1's name, but that's obviously the players problem, they're in for a serious upgrading )

- If I select a few files to append, mmg won't let me remove them, in case I got it wrong. It says the file cannot be removed as there are tracks that are supposed to be appended to tracks from this file. But whatever file you select, or even if you deselect all the tracks, it keeps spitting the error message anyway, so the only solution is to start a new project.

- As for appended chapters, I need to figure it out, because it keeps using the chapters from file 1, so I'm sure I missed something there.

- What are those edition thingies in haali's splitter? they seem to do nothing that I can see


Anyway, I'm impressed, as usual . A big thank you.

(EDIT:I've just appended a full album of aac songs, and that seeks no problem, but the different tracks aren't detected, what did I forget this time?)

[Mosu]

Originally posted by niamh
<rolls up sleeves...>

- 1st thing I did was press the big red button, aka F1..it says the help .hhp file is not found, and in fact it's nowhere on my pc.(I ued the installer And uninstalled the old one properly)

Doh, both installers are missing three files. I've updated them. Simply download one again and install over the old location. The RARs did contain the files.

Is there any plan in the future to switch the audio along with the video and subs though (or can it be done in a way I missed)? Right now I must do it manually through the splitter.

That's a player issue, and I can't comment on that

- the resulting files won't seek either, tested with MPC and the Core, the slider keeps going back to the start, with or without freezing involved.

Hmm, it works here for me, but I mostly test with mplayer/xine on Linux. I can only test so much with Windows running inside VMWare... But a quick test with bsplayer + Matroska Pack 1.0.3 as well as with Haali's latest splitter show no such behaviour.

(the players as well display only file 1's name, but that's obviously the players problem, they're in for a serious upgrading )

Well, if you concatenate two tracks then the resulting file will only contain one track. Therefore you definitely only have one name for that track (and only one title for the complete file).

- If I select a few files to append, mmg won't let me remove them, in case I got it wrong.

Not quite true, but close enough. There's definitely a bug in how mmg adds the tracks when you press "append". The thing is that you can only remove files whose tracks don't have another track appended. When you "append" a file with more than one track inside then the tracks are inserted at the end resulting in the second track being appended to the first track of the same file. Therefore the file cannot be removed. However, you CAN move the first track up in the track selection. Then you should be able to remove that file.

Like I said, it's a bug.

- As for appended chapters, I need to figure it out, because it keeps using the chapters from file 1, so I'm sure I missed something there.

The goal is to have chapters of both files appended in the complete file as well. Meaning if file one contains two chapters and file two (the appended one) contains three chapters then the resulting file should contain five chapters.

(EDIT:I've just appended a full album of aac songs, and that seeks no problem, but the different tracks aren't detected, what did I forget this time?)

Like I've said above: appending tracks results in a single track for all tracks that are appended to one another.