ChapterGen: manipulate with chapters in various i/o formats, with CLI support

[shon3i]

Ok, I finally finished completly new (from scratch) tool for chapters. This is completly different than my previous qpfilegen tool. BIG Thanks goes to jdobbs who helped and share part of code, the application is no longer dependent on eac3to, it have own Blu-Ray/HDDVD/DVD support.

http://nenad.nikodijevic.users.sbb.rs/img/chaptergen.png

Supported input formats:
- .mpls (Blu-Ray playlists)
- .xpl (HD DVD playlists)
- .ifo (DVD playlists)
- OGG/Matroska File format
- Celltimes File format
- Blu-Ray, HD DVD, DVD media with stream selector (GUI mode only)

Supported Output formats:
- OGG Text File
- x264 QP Text File
- HC Enc Text File
- CCE SP Text File
- Sonic Cinevision CSV File
- Sonic Scenarist CSV File
- Spruce DVD Maestro CHP File
- tsMuxer Meta File
- Timecodes Text File
- Celltimes Text File
- DVDAuthor Text File
- Muxman Text File

Additional features:
- Converting between framerates
- Stream selector when Blu-Ray, HD DVD, DVD media or folder selected
- Command line support
- Drag & Drop support

CLI options:
Syntax: ChapterGen -i <inputfile> -o <outputfile> -f <destination format> -infps <inputFPS> -outfps <outputFPS>

Options:

-i <string> Specify input file
-o <string> Specify output file
-f <string> Specify destination format:
- OGG: OGG Text File
- x264: x264 QP Text File
- HC: HC Enc Text File
- CCE: CCE SP Text File
- Cinevision: Sonic Cinevision CSV File
- Scenarist: Sonic Scenarist CSV File
- Maestro: Spruce DVD Maestro CHP File
- tsMuxer: tsMuxer Meta File
- Timecodes: Timecodes Text File
- Celltimes: Celltimes Text File
- DVDAuthor: DVDAuthor Text File
- Muxman: Muxman Text File
-infps <float> Specify InputFPS [24/1.001]
- 23.976
- 24.000
- 25.000
- 29.970
- 30.000
- 50.000
- 59.940
- 60.000
-outfps <float> Specify OutputFPS [24/1.001]
- 23.976
- 24.000
- 25.000
- 29.970
- 30.000
- 50.000
- 59.940
- 60.000

NOTES: fps values can be aslo entered in this formats: 24000/1001 or 24/1.001 for example



Current version 1.0.8
Download (http://nenad.nikodijevic.users.sbb.rs/chaptergen.zip), Webpage (http://www.chaptergen.co.nr/)

Changelog:
1.0.8
-ADD: Drag & Drop support, for files and disc folders.

1.0.7:
-ADD: Celltimes input format (laserfan reqest)
-ADD: DVD IFO parser is now mediainfo.
-FIX: Minor bugs

1.0.6:
-FIX: Improved cmdline handling

1.0.5:
-FIX: Little bug in DVD/IFO parsing code.

1.0.4:
-FIX: Minor fixes.

1.0.3:
-FIX: DVDAuthor output (thanks to manolito)
-FIX: x264 output now work as introduced in r1764 no more -1 in lines, so this practically is not compatible with pre r1764 versions of x264. So update your x264.
-ADD: Muxman output (mrr19121970 request)

1.0.2:
-FIX: little bug in OGG parsing code
-ADD: DVDAuthor chapter output
-ADD: Automaticly remove pulldown on timecodes if input is HDDVD or XPL

1.0.1:
-FIX: I be forced to use ChapterXtractor as DVD IFO parser because my IFO code goes crazy, until i not fix it, ChapterGen will use ChapterXtractor for DVD or IFO source. It's a little slower and Chapterxtractor window will flash many times but 100% working.
-FIX: a little bug in HDDVD parsing code.

[Inspector.Gadget]

Cool! I look forward to experimenting with this.

[tymoxa]

shon3i, you are a genius. Thanks for that tool. Especially for convert fps.

[buzzqw]

thanks for your tool!

got error on this ifo (using command line)

http://www.64k.it/andres/data/Varie/VTS_02_0.zip
(it's Matrix, DVD PAL)

using this command line ChapterGen.exe -i "d:\matrix\video_ts\VTS_02_0.IFO" -o matrix.txt -f OGG -infps 25.000 -outfps 25.000

error is number 9
translated from italian.. "Index out of bounds" (or similar)

BHH

[shon3i]

@buzzqw thanks, i working on fix but i need more time than i expected to fix this, i think i need to rewrite whole IFO parser :) ASAP.

[shon3i]

Fixed update to 1.0.1.

[buzzqw]

got some problem...

from cmd prompt

ChapterGen.exe -i VTS_02_0.IFO -o zgh.txt -f OGG -infps 25 -outfps 25

now is Error 53 , unable to find file (or something similar)

BHH

[shon3i]

with your cmd i get "cannot open input file" message because you must specify full path to file including filename, for input and output files. I will fix that in next version.

[buzzqw]

thanks :)

BHH

[shon3i]

hmm it's realy strange, here at home i can't reproduce this. Can you please take a screenshot of error to see what is possible reason. I use same cmd and put VTS_02_0.IFO in same folder as ChapterGen.exe, and everything is fine?

[buzzqw]

here is http://www.64k.it/andres/data/Varie/Cattura2.PNG

BHH

[laserfan]

shon3i thanks very much for this tool, and particularly the CLI option. With my custom .cmd file, makes easy work of making qpfile and tsmuxer files!

:thanks:

[manolito]

Many thanks shon3i for this app. Especially for the fps conversion capability. :)

Just one request:
I still use DVDAuthor a lot for DVD creation, and your app does not support its chapter format. The required format is
hh:mm:ss,
Just hours, minutes and seconds, no cents and no line breaks, and the separator is a comma.

Would you consider adding this format?

Cheers
manolito

[shon3i]

I still use DVDAuthor a lot for DVD creation, and your app does not support its chapter format. The required format is
hh:mm:ss,Ok, no problem, can you send me a sample of chapterlist?

[manolito]

Thanks, much appreciated...:thanks:

The corresponding text in DVDAuthor.xml looks like this:

chapters="00:00:00,00:06:00,00:12:00,00:18:00,00:24:00,00:30:00,00:36:00,00:42:00,00:48:00,00:54:00,01:00:00,01:06:00,01:12:00,01:18:00,01:24:00"

ChapterGen output without chapters="" would be just fine because I normally use a template for the XML file where I could just paste the chapter points between the quotes.

Thanks again
Cheers
manolito

[SVD]

Any chance export to xml file for use with mkv containers will be added?

[manolito]

Looks like shon3i is busy with other things right now...:rolleyes:

For DVDAuthor compatible output I made a little workaround myself in the meantime. A small batch file converts a Sonic Cinevision CSV file (using sed for Windows).
REM Converts a Sonic Cinevision CSV Chapter file
REM to a DVDAuthor compatible Chapter file.
REM
REM Usage:
REM Convert.bat "Drive\Path\Filename"
REM
REM You can also create a shortcut to Convert.bat
REM on your desktop and drag the file you want to
REM convert on this shortcut.

@echo off
sed "s/:/./"3 "%1" >temp.txt
sed -e ":a" -e "$!N;s/\n/,/;ta" -e "P;D" temp.txt >"%1"
del temp.txt


You can download sed here: http://sed.sourceforge.net/grabbag/ssed/sed-3.59.zip
Please rename the executable to Sed.exe...

Cheers
manolito

[rack04]

I just ran into a problem with Serenity Blu-ray. Here is a copy/paste of the chapter file extracted using eac3to:

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=Living Weapon
CHAPTER02=00:05:00.750
CHAPTER02NAME=A Better World
CHAPTER03=00:09:31.938
CHAPTER03NAME=Aboard Serenity (Main Titles)
CHAPTER04=00:14:49.088
CHAPTER04NAME=Going for a Ride
CHAPTER05=00:19:49.856
CHAPTER05NAME=Reavers
CHAPTER06=00:29:13.001
CHAPTER06NAME=Triggered
CHAPTER07=00:36:18.259
CHAPTER07NAME=Mr. Universe
CHAPTER08=00:44:09.264
CHAPTER08NAME=Safe Haven
CHAPTER09=00:49:54.692
CHAPTER09NAME=Civilized Resolution
CHAPTER10=00:55:44.041
CHAPTER10NAME=Posing a Threat
CHAPTER11=00:59:28.315
CHAPTER11NAME=Miranda
CHAPTER12=01:04:45.248
CHAPTER12NAME=&quot;Just Believe&quot;
CHAPTER13=01:09:13.733
CHAPTER13NAME=Suicide Mission
CHAPTER14=01:13:33.776
CHAPTER14NAME=Learning the Secret
CHAPTER15=01:22:38.571
CHAPTER15NAME=Caught in the Middle
CHAPTER16=01:30:18.580
CHAPTER16NAME=Can't Stop the Signal
CHAPTER17=01:36:57.479
CHAPTER17NAME=Fighting for a Belief
CHAPTER18=01:45:56.217
CHAPTER18NAME=Do We Have an Order?
CHAPTER19=01:47:37.034
CHAPTER19NAME=It's Not Over
CHAPTER20=01:53:21.578
CHAPTER20NAME=End Titles

When I try to generate a qpfile with ChapterGen it only recognizes up to chapter 7. Here is what shows in ChapterGen when I load the chapter file:

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=Living Weapon
CHAPTER02=00:05:00.750
CHAPTER02NAME=A Better World
CHAPTER03=00:09:31.938
CHAPTER03NAME=Aboard Serenity (Main Titles)
CHAPTER04=00:14:49.088
CHAPTER04NAME=Going for a Ride
CHAPTER05=00:19:49.856
CHAPTER05NAME=Reavers
CHAPTER06=00:29:13.001
CHAPTER06NAME=Triggered
CHAPTER07=00:36:18.259

[shon3i]

I can't reproduce problem. Can you send me your mpls from your Blu-Ray

Here what i get from 00000.mpls

CHAPTER00=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER00NAME=
CHAPTER01=00:05:01.760
CHAPTER01NAME=
CHAPTER02=00:09:32.447
CHAPTER02NAME=
CHAPTER03=00:14:50.098
CHAPTER03NAME=
CHAPTER04=00:19:50.856
CHAPTER04NAME=
CHAPTER05=00:29:14.002
CHAPTER05NAME=
CHAPTER06=00:36:19.260
CHAPTER06NAME=
CHAPTER07=00:44:10.273
CHAPTER07NAME=
CHAPTER08=00:49:55.701
CHAPTER08NAME=
CHAPTER09=00:55:45.050
CHAPTER09NAME=
CHAPTER10=00:59:29.316
CHAPTER10NAME=
CHAPTER11=01:04:46.257
CHAPTER11NAME=
CHAPTER12=01:09:14.734
CHAPTER12NAME=
CHAPTER13=01:13:34.785
CHAPTER13NAME=
CHAPTER14=01:22:39.580
CHAPTER14NAME=
CHAPTER15=01:30:19.581
CHAPTER15NAME=
CHAPTER16=01:36:58.479
CHAPTER16NAME=
CHAPTER17=01:45:57.726
CHAPTER17NAME=
CHAPTER18=01:47:38.118
CHAPTER18NAME=
CHAPTER19=01:53:22.671
CHAPTER19NAME=
CHAPTER20=01:58:55.962
CHAPTER20NAME=

[rack04]

I can't reproduce problem. Can you send me your mpls from your Blu-Ray

Here what i get from 00000.mpls

Stupid me! I meant HD DVD version of Serenity. Let me know what I need to upload to reproduce the problem. Thanks.

[shon3i]

Stupid me! I meant HD DVD version of Serenity. Let me know what I need to upload to reproduce the problem. Thanks.
Just upload all XPL files from ADV_OBJ folder and send me on p.m.

Thanks

[rack04]

Just upload all XPL files from ADV_OBJ folder and send me on p.m.

Thanks

PM Sent.

[rack04]

Works like a charm. Thanks for the update. Is there anyway ChapterGen can be updated to include the chapter names?

[shon3i]

Works like a charm. Thanks for the update. Is there anyway ChapterGen can be updated to include the chapter names?
Not yet, but i will include that option in near future.

[Boardlord]

Many thanks for this tool!

Would it be possible to add .cue support? It would be useful if one wants to burn an audio cd from a concert dvd :) Cheers!

[manolito]

Bug report for DVDAuthor output:

From the DVDAuthor manual:
Specifies a comma (,) separated list of chapter markers. Each marker is of the form [[h:]mm:]ss[.frac]

The separator between ss and frac has to be a '.', not a ':' .
The current version 1.02 uses a ':' all the time which does not work.

Cheers
manolito

[mrr19121970]

@shon3i

Nice tool, do you plan to support MUXMAN chapters?

See here for sample: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=104723

Thanks,

[shon3i]

Updated to 1.0.3

[mrr19121970]

Great! That works a treat.

[Adub]

Cool! Thanks for your hard work there Shon3i!

[manolito]

Thanks a lot, too, for the fixed DVDAuthor format.
I already assumed that you had forgotten my report...:thanks:

Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

Still found another small bug which was already introduced with version 1.02:

When you have a ripped DVD structure on your HD and try to extract the chapters from the IFO file with the 'Open File' command, nothing happens. You can extract the chapters with the 'Open Disk' command, though. Version 1.01 did not have this bug.

Two more (really unimportant) things:
The typo in the output format list made it through all versions so far. The company is called Spruce, not Spuce.
And the new Muxman output format is redundant, it is the same as the Celltimes.txt format except for the first chapter point at 0. Muxman does not care if this chapter point at 0 is present or not.


And thanks again for this very nice tool...:)

Cheers
manolito

[shon3i]

Thanks for report 1.04 is on the way :)

[iSeries]

Hi shon3i - have just discovered your tool and I'm certain it will do what I need!

I've got the text chapter output from an mkv file. If I input into ChapterGen eg:

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=00:00:00.000

It doesn't load in. However if I take out the numbers after chapter name, eg:

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=

It loads it ok. Is this normal? Also, do I need to add the quantizer type to the text file, eg -1 or will x264 automatically know what to do with it? Basically I just want to place an I frame at every chapter point.

[rack04]

I have a NTSC DVD with soft pulldown. I extracted the chapter file using DVD Decrypter. If I remove the soft pulldown using DGDecode do I need to set the Input FPS to 29.970 or 23.976?

[Subbat]

Thanks for report 1.04 is on the way :)

Hi,

Excuse my english... I'm french and I'm interest by use your soft with ifo input... and it doesn't work...

Thanks

[Adub]

@Subbat

That is a terrible bug report. What exactly doesn't work? Do you get an error? Which IFO are you trying to load? Can you upload a sample?

[Subbat]

@Subbat

That is a terrible bug report. What exactly doesn't work? Do you get an error? Which IFO are you trying to load? Can you upload a sample?

There's no error message... Just nothing happens... Look the message of Manolito which is post on 26th November 2010 19:03... When he report this bug...

PS : Thanks for your interest

[shon3i]

@Subbat or manolito can you send me one of that IFO's which won't open?

@iSeries i can't reproduce. It work for me, try with 1.0.4, and with newer x264 not need to set quantizer anymore

@rack04, check via some editor (eg Virtual Dub)

EDIT: Updated to 1.0.4

[Subbat]

Hi shon3i,

All my ifo dosen't work... for exemple, this one : Voir le Fichier : VTS_01_0.rar (http://sd-2.archive-host.com/membres/up/159314506819843624/VTS_01_0.rar)

But, i just read your first message anymore, and i see that in v1.01, you said that for ifo, chapterGen must use chapterxtractor... If it's always true for the recent version, where does chapterxtractor must be install?

[manolito]

Hi shon3i,

thanks for the new version.

I just made some extended tests to maybe detect a pattern which IFOs ChapterGen refuses to accept. But there does not seem to be a specific thing these IFOs have in common.

It happens for about 10% of my DVDs. It does not matter if I open the IFO from the DVD or from the hard drive. ChapterGen just does nothing. When I then try to use the Open Disc command I get an error message 'Runtime Error 55, File is already open', and ChapterGen closes itself. Restarting ChapterGen and using the Open Disc command again works. (For the Open disc command to work it is necessary that the IFO is located in a folder with the name VIDEO_TS)

ChapterXTractor has no problems with these IFOs.
Here is the link to one of the problematic IFOs:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/il4lz5


Hope this helps...

Cheers
manolito

[shon3i]

Thanks you both. Updated to 1.0.5.

[Subbat]

Cool... It works well now... :thanks:

PS : Thank you very much for this tool...

[manolito]

Yep, working fine now...:)

Thanks again

Cheers
manolito

[laserfan]

Thanks you both. Updated to 1.0.5.With this version my .cmd file stops dead at a dialog I've never seen before, saying only CHAP and requiring a keystroke?

[Usedocne]

shon3i, you should maybe think about putting a link to this thread (ChapterGen) in your sig.

Also, thanks for making/sharing this.

[shon3i]

With this version my .cmd file stops dead at a dialog I've never seen before, saying only CHAP and requiring a keystroke?
My bad :D, i forgot to remove all debug breaks :P

redownload again :)

@Usedocne, I will ;) thank you for using program :)

[Subbat]

Hi shon3i,

Chaptergen doesn't work in cmd mode when the source video path contains a "-" character (even when the path is between quotes), it indicates a "Run-time error '52' => Bad file name or number", maybe it recognizes the "-" character as an option operator?

Thanks...

[shon3i]

Hi shon3i,

Chaptergen doesn't work in cmd mode when the source video path contains a "-" character (even when the path is between quotes), it indicates a "Run-time error '52' => Bad file name or number", maybe it recognizes the "-" character as an option operator?

Thanks...
Yep, i will see what i can do.

Thanks for report

[Subbat]

Ok, Thanks a lot...:)