Knowledge Base

Here's an old one I haven't used in years apparently, because the shebang was /bin/sh but it requires bash, so from my Fedora desktop days.

files/2024/listings/chapter-titles.sh (Source)

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#!/bin/bash
# utility to simplify entering chapter titles into MKVToolNix GUI
# startdate: 2019-04-07 20:26
# dependencies:
#    INFILE needs one line per chapter. Each line is the exact contents of the chapter title.
#    xdotool

test -z "${INFILE}" && INFILE=/mnt/public/Video/chapters.txt
test -n "${1}" && INFILE="${1}"

echo "Using INFILE=${INFILE} with chapter titles:"
head -n3 "${INFILE}"
printf "%s\n" "..."
tail -n3 "${INFILE}"
echo "Press enter to start the 5-second countdown, and then move the cursor to the MKVToolNix window and Name field."
read foo
sleep 5

x=0
while read -u10 line ;
do
   # in case you want to count them
   x=$(( x + 1 ))
   echo "line=${line}"
   xdotool type --delay 12ms "${line}"
   xdotool key --delay 12ms "Return" "Return"
done 10< "${INFILE}"

echo "done!"

So while it's kind of a oneliner, you have to prepare your input file with the chapter names. That is left as an exercise for the reader.

To use this, you have to have the input file prepared, and you have to be running mkvtoolnix-gui already. (I never learned how to do with with mkvtoolnix cli which probably renders this whole script moot.) Open your mkv file on the chapter tab. Then in a nearby terminal, run:

chapter-titles.sh ~/chapters.txt

It will tell you to press enter, and then you have 5 seconds to position the cursor at the chapter 1 Name field.

Ironic that I go to all this effort, but only one of my video players (vlc, and not mpv or Jellyfin) seems to show chapter titles so why do I bother? Maybe that's why I haven't touched this script in 5 years. I got the itch to add all the metadata things to a file and got carried away, and was pleasantly surprised to learn I needed to describe it here!