Adding Player Chapters to MP4 files

Musicvid wrote on 2/18/2023, 11:16 AM

This topic comes up from time to time, so here are the instructions for adding Apple-style M4V/MP4 markers to Vegas renders. These will work with most players such as VLC. Don't confuse with other types of chapters -- DVD chapters are a whole different critter.

-- Download freeware Drax from https://www.videohelp.com/software/Drax

IN VEGAS:

1) Render your file (using Sony or Magix AVC), and rename the .mp4 extension to .m4v (important).
2) Open the Vegas project you used to render your file, make sure to set your Time Format to "Time", and check View->Show Edit Details.
3) Choose Markers / All Fields.
4) Click the upper left box to select the whole table. Ctrl->C to copy the marker data.
5) Open a new Text file on your desktop. Paste the marker data into the file. Save the file.

IN DRAX:

1) Open your renamed .m4v file.
2) Click on the "Chapters" tab at the bottom of the window.
3) Go to File->Import Chapters
4) Click on your newly-created chapters.txt file (you can also edit or add chapters manually if wanted).
5) When the new chapters have imported successfully, click File->Save.

That's it! Works with any AVC MP4 file with an .m4v extension, not just iPod / iPhone. Works with Handbrake files.
Drax is a very simple, intuitive .mp4 /.m4v tag and metadata editor. Does it well.

This is a repost from 12 years ago, so if you run into any problems in VP20, let me know.

Comments

rraud wrote on 2/18/2023, 11:37 AM

I used Drax, which worked good as I recall.
If you need a separate chapter URLs for YT, that is different, but not difficult by editing the 'share' URL.

Musicvid wrote on 2/18/2023, 1:13 PM

Thank you. I haven't really looked into extending them for YouTube.

ValleyVid wrote on 6/12/2023, 2:21 PM

Thank you, I had no idea you could do this, and this will be great for recital videos distributed on USB as .mp4's! I have two quick comments that may help someone after I just followed this procedure:

1. Each chapter marker needs to have name, and each name has to be unique. In the video I tried this on, I had not named my chapter markers, and Drax gave an error. I was able to go back into the .txt file and just give a name to each chapter. After I did this, I had a few chapters with the same names, and Drax didn't allow that either. So I had to make each name unique, then it worked great.

2. As expected the chapters worked in VLC with the video extension first having been changed to .m4v. Out of curiosity, I changed the extension back to .mp4, and VLC still recognized the chapters with the .mp4 extension.

Hope this helps!
Justin

mark-y wrote on 6/12/2023, 9:33 PM

2. As expected the chapters worked in VLC with the video extension first having been changed to .m4v. Out of curiosity, I changed the extension back to .mp4, and VLC still recognized the chapters with the .mp4 extension.

That is correct. Drax is an older freeware, as is the old Apple naming convention. M4V and MP4 are fully interchangeable as far as VLC and other players are concerned.

RedRob-CandlelightProdctns wrote on 8/28/2023, 1:06 AM

I'm guessing that neither YouTube nor Vimeo will import the embedded .mp4 chapters when adding the content, correct?

AFAIK on both those platforms we need to manually (and painfully sometimes) type in all the chapters and times. (NOTE: I automated this by using a Keyboard Macro utility and saving the chapter marks out of Vegas edit details, but Vimeo recently changed their interface and entering chapters by with keyboard is unpredictable, sometimes jumping the cursor around making automation rather impossible) :(

SGLTech wrote on 10/6/2023, 2:27 AM

Thanks OP - this solved my problem.

Small tweak for the menu location in Vegas Pro 21:

View -> Window -> Edit Details (Ctrl+Alt+4)

Robert Johnston wrote on 10/7/2023, 1:53 PM

In Windows, you don't really need to rename the extension. When in Drax, type in *.mp4 for the filename and press enter. All the .mp4 files will be listed which you can choose from and load into Drax. The reason for renaming extensions to .m4v is because the file dialog in Drax is set up to look for just *.m4v files. But you can override what file types are displayed by default. This is just part of Windows File Explorer. Loading a file with an .mp4 file extension works fine. You can also verify with MediaInfo. Your chapters will be listed at the end of the report.

Mike-Sillis8892 wrote on 1/18/2024, 7:33 PM

I am looking at upgrading from Vegas 13 Pro to 21 (light years forward), and you're telling me I have to hack the chapters into the mp4 with a third-party tool? Not what I would expect from $300 editing software. Why is this so hard?

Former user wrote on 1/18/2024, 7:48 PM

@Mike-Sillis8892 That appears to be the common answer 'Use Drax' ,I've never used it, Also you can use Resolve (free) you put markers on your timeline of a certain color, name the markers to describe chapters, and in export template choose 'chapters from markers' with the marker color you used for chapters.

Both are not good options, you want something integrated into vegas, There's possibly paid options such as Happy Otter scripts,

rraud wrote on 1/19/2024, 10:36 AM

Drax worked good for me on MP4 video files. For YT, I enter the chapter timestamps and titles manually in description field:
- first timestamp starts at 00:00.
- should have at least three timestamps listed in ascending order.
- minimum length for video chapters is 10 sec.

mark-y wrote on 1/19/2024, 12:57 PM

...Why is this so hard?

It's a legacy issue between Apple's Quicktime licensed formats and Windows decoders. The rift occured in the 1990s.

Vegas historically does not natively support GNU/GPL solutions such as ffmpeg, that's why we rely on third party solutions for certain tasks.

Former user wrote on 1/19/2024, 5:23 PM

Drax worked good for me on MP4 video files. For YT, I enter the chapter timestamps and titles manually in description field:
- first timestamp starts at 00:00.
- should have at least three timestamps listed in ascending order.
- minimum length for video chapters is 10 sec.

@rraud Now I"m not sure what we're talking about, YouTube chapters is confusingly not MP4 chapters. YouTube chapters are for youtube, MP4 chapters are for video players, unless YT can extract chapter info.