MKVToolNix v91.0 released

[Mosu]

Helloooooo!

The new MKVToolNix is out, with a lot of enhancements in MKVToolNix GUI & several bug fixes in the other parts.

Here are the usual links: the MKVToolNix home page, the downloads section and the source code.

The Windows packages and Linux AppImage are available already. The other Linux packages & the macOS DMG are still being built and will be available over the course of the next couple of hours.

Here are the NEWS since the previous release:

Version 91.0 "Signs" 2025-03-16
Important notes

• The MKVToolNix project's source code repository, bug tracker and wiki have been moved to Codeberg.
• The customized MXE repository used for building the Windows variants has been moved from Gitlab to Codeberg.

New features and enhancements

• MKVToolNix GUI: multiplexer: added actions in the "Multiplexer" menu for saving all currently open multiplexer tabs to a single ".mtxcfg" file. Loading this file later will restore all tabs. Implements #3797.
• MKVToolNix GUI: multiplexer: when adding files the GUI can automatically enable the "commentary" flag for audio and subtitle tracks if the file name contains the word "comments" or "commentary" delimited by certain characters (configurable). This feature is turned on by default. Part of the implementation of #3798.
• MKVToolNix GUI: multiplexer: when adding files the GUI can automatically enable the "original language" flag for audio and subtitle tracks if the track's language matches one configured by the user (configurable). This feature is turned off by default. Part of the implementation of #3798.
• MKVToolNix GUI: multiplexer: when adding files the GUI can automatically set several track flags based on the file name. It can now look for the same patters in the track names, too (configurable). This feature is turned on by default. Part of the implementation of #3798.
• MKVToolNix GUI: multiplexer: added special drag & drop zones where users can drop files to circumvent the preferences wrt. what to do with multiple dropped files. Each drop zone corresponds to one of the three possible choices (add all to current settings; create one new settings & add all there; add new settings for each file & add one file to each). This feature is turned off by default. Implements #3796.
• MKVToolNix GUI: multiplexer: added additional special drag & drop zones where users can drop files to add them as attachments. One of the zones will automatically set up the dropped file to function as a cover image. Implements #3794.
• MKVToolNix GUI: multiplexer: when making destination file names unique by suffixing them with a running number the GUI will now also consider the destination file names of multiplex jobs currently in the queue that are currently running or still waiting for execution. Implements #3801.

Bug fixes

• mkvmerge: timestamps format v3: fixed the parser; it was completely broken for the lines containing the duration & an optional number of frames per second. Fixes #2285.
• mkvmerge: DTS parser: if the X96 extension is present in a DTS-HD High Resolution stream, the sampling frequency will be set to 96kHz. This was broken when reading DTS from elementary streams & from Matroska files. Fixes #3288.
• mkvpropedit, MKVToolNix GUI's chapter & header editors: fixed a bug leading to a segmentation fault when trying to replace an element at the end of the file that's followed by only void elements (at least one). Fixes #3802.

Build system changes

• The bundled "nlohmann-json" library was updated to v3.11.3.

Have fun 😁

[darksen]

A question regarding "enable-durations", in the GUI it says "Write durations for all blocks. This will increase file size and does not offer any additional value for players at the moment." But why it's not enabled by default? Is the size increase big or are there other reasons?

Thanks!

[Perenista]

These MKVToolnix changes were long overdue, they will help a lot when editing many files!

I have one question:

- I am adding one audio commentary track (fan-made) to a film I have here, in MKV.

In order to get an exact sync, which I was able to calculate (precisely - so it's not a guess), it needs a positive DELAY of 12 000 (= 12 seconds) or more. One of the files needed aprox. 20 000.

----- If we add this audio track only (so no others in the MKV), when we start playing it (using MPC-HC), it will jump to WHEN the track with the delay starts. So it will start (the video) in 12 seconds, or 20, for example.

Why didn't MPC start at 0 second, and was muted (SILENT) until we were at the 12-seconds (the moment we told this delayed track to start)?

If I add THIS fan-made (AND) other tracks (such as DTS 5.1 from the movie, which don't have ANY delay, and start from the "0" second), if I switch to the film's track first (while opening the file), the MKV plays from "0" second through the end. Then, switching to the delayed track will give me "silence" until any sound is there, at 12 seconds.

If I close the file and when reopens (from the last position saved, let's say, after 1 hour of film), and it's selected to be the fan-made commentary (with the delay), it will not start at 0 second, only from 12s.

Ideally, we would edit the desired track (that fan-made one) and insert a 12 (or 20) second SILENCE at the beginning, so MKVToolnix would not need to do anything. I can say the same about SRT subtitles. But this editing implies in reencoding for audio tracks. That's why I didn't do it.

[Mosu]

Originally Posted by Perenista

Why didn't MPC start at 0 second, and was muted (SILENT) until we were at the 12-seconds (the moment we told this delayed track to start)?

I cannot tell you. You'll have to ask the developers of MPC. I am not one of them & have no familiarity with its source code at all. To me this sounds like a bug in MPC.

[Mosu]

Originally Posted by darksen

A question regarding "enable-durations", in the GUI it says "Write durations for all blocks. This will increase file size and does not offer any additional value for players at the moment." But why it's not enabled by default? Is the size increase big or are there other reasons?

The amount of overhead is pretty high, and playback applications don't actually gain that much additional information if any at all as for audio & video content 99.999% if not more frames come exactly after the previous frame has finished playing. For content where there are gaps mkvmerge will already signal durations for the affected frames. Meaning for subtitle tracks it'll always signal durations. However, subtitles frames are so incredibly tiny & so rare compared to audio & video frames, that the increase in overhead doesn't make noticeable difference (and for most subtitle formats that don't have the duration encoded at the bitstream level they're absolutely required at the container level anyway, so I don't have a choice in the matter).

The increase in overhead matters less nowadays when we have multi-GB HD videos, of course, but it was a very real concern back when we stored while 2h movies on CD-ROMs.

[tebasuna51]

Originally Posted by Perenista

...
Ideally, we would edit the desired track (that fan-made one) and insert a 12 (or 20) second SILENCE at the beginning, so MKVToolnix would not need to do anything. I can say the same about SRT subtitles. But this editing implies in reencoding for audio tracks. That's why I didn't do it.

You can use eac3to to delay some audio tracks without recoding for instance:

eac3to track.ac3 track_delayed.ac3 +12000ms

That work adding silent ac3 frames at the begining without recoding, like frames are 32 ms long there are a +- 16 ms max error, but it is unnoticeable because it is short than a video frame.

Also with dts and aac tracks. If you need a GUI try UsEac3to or MeGUI.

[jay123210599]

I have some .m2ts videos I'm remuxing to .mkv using mkvtoolnix, and I want to add colorimetry flags for the output files. How do I do that in mkvtoolnix?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by jay123210599

I have some .m2ts videos I'm remuxing to .mkv using mkvtoolnix, and I want to add colorimetry flags for the output files. How do I do that in mkvtoolnix?

Interesting... Why do you want to do this. Do you have a project in mind?

[jay123210599]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

Interesting... Why do you want to do this. Do you have a project in mind?

I just want to see if it was possible to do so in mkvtoolnix.

[Chetwood]

Typo on Windows: Also = Als.