Mkvmerge File Linking : how to use it ?

[Eric B]

I've just used mkvmerge and mmg 0.7.2 and all is muxed fine (avi+ac3+2ogg+chapters+xml tags) in a mkv file. Thanks again for thise contenair and these tools.

I want to split my movie in 2CD, so I've used the "split to 700MB" function in mmg. I've tried with and without the "don't link file" option checked. I've read the mkvmerge documentation, and I don't understand very well how the file linking should be used.


extract of mkvmerge documentation
FILE LINKING
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.

Each segment is identified by a unique 128 bit wide segment UID. This UID is automatically generated by mkvmerge. The linking is done primarily via putting the segment UIDs of the previous/next file into the segment header information. mkvinfo(1) prints these UIDs if it finds them.

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 mkvmerge uses file linking. If you don’t want that you can turn it off with the ´−−dont−link´ option. This option is only useful if splitting is activated as well.

Regardless of whether splitting is active or not the user can tell mkvmerge to link the produced files to specific UIDs. This is achieved with the options ’−−link−to−previous’ and ’−−link−to−next’. These options accept a segment UID in the format that mkvinfo(1) outputs: 16 hexadecimal numbers between 0x00 and 0xff prefixed with ’0x’ each, e.g. 0x41 0xda 0x73 0x66 0xd9 0xcf 0xb2 0x1e 0xae 0x78 0xeb 0xb4 0x5e 0xca 0xb3 0x93. Alternatively a shorter form can be used: 16 hexadecimal numbers between 0x00 and 0xff without the ’0x’ prefixes and without the spaces, e.g. 41da7366d9cfb21eae78ebb45ecab393.

If splitting is used then the first file is linked to the UID given with ´−−link−to−previous´ and the last file is linked to the UID given with ´−−link−to−next´. If splitting is not used then the one output file will be linked to both of the two UIDs


I would like the 2 files to be created at the same time, so I could not specify the UID of a file that don't exist yet. So what should I do?

I'm using TCMP RC4 b44 and/or MPC to test my mkv file, and with file linking, I must now jump to the time of 1st part in the 2nd one, which is not very pretty...

[ivanova]

I am not sure, but I think file linking would have to be supported in the player as well. I did some quick testing in MPC and zoom player, and both treated the files as seperate, with their own timing starting at 0. Also the chapters in the second file were screwed up as a result.

[BoNz1]

IIRC, Mplayer supports file linking in matroska. So, try it in one of the pre 1.0 builds here http://ftp.lug.udel.edu/MPlayer/releases/win32-beta/ as far as I know nothing else in windows supports this. I'm not sure though if these builds even come with matroska support, you may have to checkout the cvs and build it yourself in mingw.

[Mosu]

Originally posted by BoNz1
IIRC, Mplayer supports file linking in matroska. So, try it in one of the pre 1.0 builds here http://ftp.lug.udel.edu/MPlayer/releases/win32-beta/ as far as I know nothing else in windows supports this. I'm not sure though if these builds even come with matroska support, you may have to checkout the cvs and build it yourself in mingw.

No, mplayer does not support this feature in the sense of 'load the second file automatically'. However, it does support that the timecodes do not start at 0 for linked files including the chapter timestamps.

[Mosu]

Originally posted by ivanova
I am not sure, but I think file linking would have to be supported in the player as well. I did some quick testing in MPC and zoom player, and both treated the files as seperate, with their own timing starting at 0. Also the chapters in the second file were screwed up as a result.

Yes, the player has to support it. And I don't think that there's a player out there that can do it at the moment. That the chapter timecodes are messed up is the fault of either the player or the splitter (I don't know enough about DirectShow in order to tell exactly) as mkvmerge handles this correctly: If linking is active the chapter timecodes will not be reset either, if it is not active, then chapter timecodes will be adjusted.

[Eric B]

ok, thanks for the replies.
If there is no player yet, I will not use it now...

Originally posted by Mosu
If linking is active the chapter timecodes will not be reset either, if it is not active, then chapter timecodes will be adjusted.

Yes, it's was I wanted to say, but it's clearer now ;)

[BoNz1]

Originally posted by Mosu
No, mplayer does not support this feature in the sense of 'load the second file automatically'. However, it does support that the timecodes do not start at 0 for linked files including the chapter timestamps.

Ok, I remember seeing it in your guys table under things that are supported with different players. Sounds like a pretty cool feature though.

[chros]

No, mplayer does not support this feature in the sense of 'load the second file automatically'. However, it does support that the timecodes do not start at 0 for linked files including the chapter timestamps.
Any progress in this matter?

I have encoded an anime series in which part the beginning and the credits are the same.
So to spare space, what if I'd use file linking like this:
- 00_begin.mkv -> the_actual_part_xx.mkv -> credit.mkv

Is this possible with nowdays players/splitters?

PS: I have tried it with MKVmerge v2.1.0 on a sample file: I have cut in 2 pieces, selected linking, and tried to playback with MPC and Haali's splitter: with no success ... :(

Thanks

[saint-francis]

Linking works fine for me. I do it often. Using MPC with CCCP.

[Nicholi]

It works, just make sure the "Try to open linked files" option is set to Yes in Haali Media Splitter settings. Otherwise...obviously no linking will occur :).

Haali added support for this sometime back in 2005. As long as the codecprivate data is identical in each stream of the files, they will link. I've done it numerous times (with many different formats), here is a happy example (http://www.cccp-project.net/beta/test_files/%5bMKV%5d_Editions,_Linked_Segments,_&_Tracksets.mkv) which also has multiple editions. This is very similar to your example. It is rather to show off the ability to have softsubbed and hardsubbed OP/EDs at once (the hardsubbed OP/EDs being the external versions like your example). Use mkxuncat.exe and you'll see the three files.

You can ignore the tracksets at the top. They are in fact TracksetEx tags, which are used to automatically switch audio/sub streams when the edition is changed. I haven't gotten Haali to add a feature to hide them yet :P.