How to add chapter marks to an .MP4 file?

February 15, 2008 1:46 PM

How can I add chapter marks to my videos that I watch on an iPod Touch?

I know the chapter mark function works on my 1.1.3 upgraded Touch because I've ripped a DVD with Handbrake and it produced an .MP4 (H.264) encoded file which, when played back on the Touch, pops up a chapter list button on the playback control. This allows me to jump to specific points in the movie.

So how can I add these to my own MP4 (H.264) videos (which I created from .AVI files via VisualHub)?

I've tried using Apple's text track method but it doesn't seem to work for me. And I've tried MovieChapterizer but it doesn't recognize .MP4 files.

posted by jaimev to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

You can't.

HandBrake does it through custom patches to the libmp4v2 library from the MPEG4IP project. Those were folded into its official code shortly before MPEG4IP stopped development last fall, although I'm not sure if it's just in the mp4 library or if they integrated it into the executable tools as well. If not, here's a patch to do it.

You might want to check doom9; there's a chance someone ported it to GPAC's mp4box, but I doubt it.
posted by jbrjake at 4:02 PM on February 15, 2008

Best answer: Oh yeah...there's a commercial product, SimpleMovieX, which I know can edit HB-generated chapters (to change the chapter title) but I'm not sure if it can also add chapters to an existing MP4 file that lacks the track entirely.
posted by jbrjake at 4:08 PM on February 15, 2008

Response by poster: I just tried SimpleMovieX and you can add your own chapter marks to an existing MP4 file without any previous chapter info. Thanks.
posted by jaimev at 10:04 PM on February 15, 2008

Note: this can now be done for free using the latest versions of MetaX.
posted by jbrjake at 9:45 AM on March 3, 2008