Chapter Grabber extract chapters from DVD, BD, HDDVD and add chapter names

[hubblec4]

how can i upload chapter files to the chapterDB?

i found no matches in the chapterDB, but on the bluray. I have create a chapter.txt

[Chug a Bug]

I have a VTS that contains 4 menus each with a separate short video, Chapter Grabber only reads the chapter list from the first Menu and ignores the subequent ones. It would be nice if it could add together all the chapters in all the menus to create a single chapter list.

In the end I used IfoEdit to get the total timecodes of each video and fed each of these into a Timecode Calculator to create a combined timecode with individual timecodes for each video and fed that into MKVmerge GUI's Chapter Edit function.

It worked perfectly but it was quite time consuming.

[Yo]

Hi Jarrett,

I had an old version of ChapterGrabber, and now am happy to see that you have continued to update it, so I just downloaded and tried the new version. Thank you for the handy app.

A couple suggestions:

I saw a post on your blog, that import from web has been disabled, because Amazon no longer includes chapter names.

However, Barnes and Noble.com (www.bn.com) does include chapter names in its DVD descriptions, so I think you should re-enable search from web, and use B&N instead of Amazon.

Also--the program I find that I use most these days for re-encoding video to watch on portable devices is the freeware app Handbrake (www.handbrake.fr), which encodes with h.264, etc.

When one opens a DVD with Handbrake, the chapter markers are shown in the interface. Therefore, as HB detects the chapter markers itself, it doesn't need the chapter point detection aspect of ChapterGrabber.

However--HB just labels the chapters Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. To add actual chapter names, one has to do that manually, one at a time.

However, after manually setting the chapters, one can now save the chapters to a .csv file, and one can also open a previously saved .csv file.

You now have several options of saving the ChapterGrabber chapter file. I would suggest that you add one more Save option, to save to .csv. That would be very nice, if CG could save to a .csv file that could be opened in HB, with all the correct chapter titles.

Could you add "Save to .CSV"? (I would suggest in doing that, to test the resulting .csv with Handbrake, to make sure it works with how HB uses .csv.)

(Until you are able to include that in a new version, does anyone know of a workaround, a way to quickly convert one of the formats that CG saves to into a .csv readable by Handbrake?)

Thanks again!

[Yo]

Couch Potato,

See my previous post. I just noticed this post of yours afterward.

Yes, I would be interested in your script, with directions on how to use it. (I am not a programmer, and have no idea what an awk script is!)

Why not just post it as an attachment to this forum thread, with directions, so that everyone can use it as a workaround, until saving to HandBrake-compatible .csv is integrated into ChapterGrabber?

Originally Posted by Couch Potato

Hi Guys,

First post so please be gentle with me...

I love this prog to bits but I find it a pain transfering the found stuff into Handbrake or MKV Merge GUI, so I wrote a little awk script that reads a saved XML Chapters file and creates two new files from it, a CSV for Handbrake and an XML for MKV Merge, it runs under Linux or Windows (using gawk from Cygwin).

I'm currently using it from a shortcut from my Windows 7 destop, and it saves me no-end of cutting/pasting/typing.

Anyone interested?

Couch Potato

[barrygordon]

I store all my movies as mkv files. Is there any way, or plans to, have chapter grabber read an mkv container?

I just did Ben-Hur and then merged the two disks eliminating the intermission. I know need to make a corrected chapter file and am not sure how to do that

I guess I can watch the movie and when the disk 2 video starts observe the time and hand adjust all of the chapter times in the chapter XML.

Would be nice if chapter grabber could read mkv and just do it

[Emp3r0r]

Originally Posted by hubblec4

how can i upload chapter files to the chapterDB?

ChapterGrabber uploads to database when you save a file (unless disabled in menu).

I'm looking for moderators to help clean up the database.

Then we can accept direct uploads to
http://chapterdb.org

[Emp3r0r]

Originally Posted by Yo

However, Barnes and Noble.com (www.bn.com) does include chapter names in its DVD descriptions

Use import names from clipboard.

Originally Posted by Yo

I would suggest that you add one more Save option, to save to .csv. That would be very nice, if CG could save to a .csv file that could be opened in HB, with all the correct chapter titles.

I'll try to include that in next version.

[Emp3r0r]

Originally Posted by barrygordon

I store all my movies as mkv files. Is there any way, or plans to, have chapter grabber read an mkv container?

I would love to read/write mkv metadata but I haven't had time to figure out the parsing. ChapterGrabber is open source if you can help out.

Originally Posted by barrygordon

I guess I can watch the movie and when the disk 2 video starts observe the time and hand adjust all of the chapter times in the chapter XML.

Append and shift features are on the wishlist for the next version.

[Emp3r0r]

New version released that has the shift (delay) feature and upgraded search.

See chapterdb.org

[hubblec4]

for the API Key i need a account but i havent one at this sites(google yahoo FB)

is there another way to get an API key?
what for i nedd this API key?

[Emp3r0r]

You need an API key to load chapters from the chapterdb.org website. If you want to do that then create one of those accounts.

If you have an oauth2 account provider, let me know and I can attempt to add it.

[kevbo]

I've been using ChapterGrabber for a while now on my NTSC DVDs, and I've found that the chapter marks it calculated seemed to be a bit off, with compounding inaccuracies the longer the program. (By "inaccurate", I mean that, upon creating a MKV using the times ChapterGrabber creates, and then moving through the chapter stops, they don't line up with the chapter stops in the original DVD, moreso the farther through the program you get.)

But other programs have been able to get accurate chapter extractions from the same .ifo files. Like, for example, MakeMKV. I don't want to have to use MakeMKV if I can help it, as I already have software that does almost everything I need. So I stared at this for a bit.

I made a discovery today. If I load an .ifo file into ChapterGrabber (5.4.0.0, hey, just noticed that the About box still says Copyright 2003-2011), it grabs chapters. The little tag in the status bar says "29.970fps". If I change that to "30.000fps" (or choose Edit/Current FPS/30.000), and then choose "Edit/Convert Chapter Times by FPS/to 29.970fps", I then get the correct times. They match what MakeMKV generated, and when I remux the file using the new output, I get exactly the chapter stops I wanted.

Which is interesting.

Basically, tell ChapterGrabber that the numbers it calculated were for 30.000fps and shift them back to 29.970fps.

This is great, because now I can finally get the chapter stops I wanted. But I'm curious how/why this is happening in the first place.

This can't be happening to everyone, or things like the ChaptersDb.org integration wouldn't work: every NTSC DVD would be off by a little bit.

Anyways, I'm just glad I figured a way out, and wanted to post with the hope that maybe this might help someone else.

Thanks.

[LeMoi]

I noticed the same problem with ChapterXtractor, but it didn't use to happen with chapters created by DVD Decrypter... Didn't know the solution would have been what you said !

[Emp3r0r]

Can someone else confirm?

Can you also confirm that most dvd chapters on chaptersdb.org is wrong as well?

Sounds like it'll be possible to mass fix if needed.

[osgZach]

Originally Posted by Emp3r0r

ChapterGrabber uploads to database when you save a file (unless disabled in menu).

I'm looking for moderators to help clean up the database.

Then we can accept direct uploads to
http://chapterdb.org

Sorry, this turned into a rather long post. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the subject as this is a great resource I will be using now that I know about it.

I'm all for the general idea of useful Public Databases and such. But given the issues than can occur during importing and naming of chapters (timecode issues with FPS etc), or just general new-user tomfoolery as they learn the program; I think automatically uploading based on a file save is more trouble than it is worth. It would cost a lot of time and effort to scrub the site, for thousands of entries, especially if your user-base starts growing. Differences in naming standards and all that also create many duplicate entries, etc. I think it would be better to lock DB access, and take on approved users. Establish clear quality-control issues, etc. Naming standards, standard data fields that can be used to organize/sort what is displayed (both on the site and in GUI)

I don't know how you currently store data, but I'm assuming you use some sort of hash based on the Disc ID, or File properties of a given file? I've noticed when I open a Disc I get the correct FPS value automatically, but if I open say.. a Chapters.txt file generated by any number of utilities (they all appear the same) while I do sometimes get the correct title auto-filled into the search box, I do not get the correct FPS value. It seems to default to 30fps regardless, which is a hassle to remember/change if you are using a chapters.txt file extracted from a Blu Ray or other 23.976FPS source. Overall, I think having a given number of staff who are trustworthy, and the only ones who can update/modify the database (and requiring submissions to be generated from Discs) would be a far better and more reliable route to go.

You could still have a general submissions system, where users could choose to manually submit a chapters file, but instead of going to the main database they enter a moderation pool, where Moderators can review the entries manually for quality, etc. and correct them as needed. This may slow down the "Growth" of the main database, but you will reap benefits in quality and reputation. Separating the BD and DVD entries may also be a good idea, if its not done already. I'm assuming you at least have data fields for them based on what I saw on the web site, so giving the user the option to show only DVD, BD, or Both would be a nice option.

Similarly, having a rating system in place will help with quality as well. If there is an entry that is inaccurate, it is a lot easier to identify it with a low rating, and doubly so with a controlled database where the is only 1 entry for the film per media type (DVD/BD). If you insist on keeping an open database that is moderated after the fact, then I at least think you should develop a more intricate ID hashing system. You could take your submission and on the back end, convert it to all the file formats you support exporting to, then hash all of those so that you have a known quantity in the DB already and duplicates could be rejected that way. Then if I user opens up one of those files because its blank or whatever, it can easily identify what file it is and pull the info from the correct title.

(edit)
One final thing above all else. I think if you take away one suggestion from this post and implement it, that should be this... Add a "Verified" tag to the database. When flagged Verified it means that someone has physically put a disc into a player and checked the Chapter titles (and times if possible), or that those titles and times have come from another verifiable legitimate source. This should be a staffed position and privileges only given to individuals who have proven trustworthy. After an item is approved a general "confirm" accuracy option could be exposed, allows other users to endorse the original verification, stating "yep I checked too and this is accurate". That would go a long way to building a reliable and trustworthy DB that the public can start to adopt.

In closing:
Look, I am not ignorant of the fact a project like this probably takes a lot of work. I'm not trying to insult anyone or anything, just sharing my opinion on how I might do some things. If there is anything legitimately not thought of, then by all means take my advice if you want it. If you don't want it then that's fine too. I could be wrong about everything, after all.

[real.finder]

when I run it in my PC with windows 7 works normally

But in the server with Windows Server 2008 R2 get this directly




the details:

Description:
  Stopped working

Files that help describe the problem:
  C:\Users\RealFinder\AppData\Local\Temp\2\WEREB22.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
  C:\Users\RealFinder\AppData\Local\Temp\2\WER170.tmp.mdmp

Read our privacy statement online:
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
  C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

edit: solved by doing this http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vijaysk/arch...ework-3-5.aspx

[Emp3r0r]

Originally Posted by osgZach

...

Thanks for your feedback. Here is the backlog:

• Improve submission system to enforce quality data
• Create staging area for submissions
• Pre-generate hash values based on time codes (your-idea)
• Improve voting, flagging, and moderation system
• Improve default fps/duration values for chapter text files
• Create and document chapterdb.org API
• Document naming and quality standards
  
  

[isamu.dragon]

any plans to have this program to export the chapters as a .cvs file?

[Cheesegeezer]

Emp3r0r thanks for creating this amazing database.

I have signed up for an API key, however I can't find any API documentation on how to use the API or how to access it.

If you could point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks for your hard work

Cheese!!

[meRobs]

Originally Posted by Emp3r0r

Can someone else confirm?

Can you also confirm that most dvd chapters on chaptersdb.org is wrong as well? ......

Yes, I can confirm that such time code errors occur.
I have been using ChapterGrabber to import/mux chapter points into MKV files.

I edit material in Adobe Premiere where I also insert chapter points. This is then saved to MP4 and also to Adobe Encore, an authoring App. I use the latter to create a DVD folder and thus IFO files with chapter values. For example, in one NTSC project with a duration of 32:10 min, the last three chapters, as seen in both Premiere and Encore were:
24:55:22 –– 27:32:12 –– 31:29:18 min.

With the Encore-created VTS_01_0.IFO file loaded into Chapter grabber, it gives the last three chapters at:
24:54.274 –– 27:30.741 –– 31:27.741 min.

I created a chapter TXT file from ChapterGrabber; and then imported it into MKVmerge with the above MP4 and muxed to an MKV.
When played in VLC, the chapters appear at
24:54 –– 27:31 –– 31:28 min,
which agree with ChapterGrabber but are progressively getting early (see correct values by Encore). This was first noted in this project because the chapters were loctaed in Premiere at scene changes.

I have not yet tried the above workaround, by kevbo, of tricking the App into thinking it had got the frame rate wrong, etc. Shall report back.