Include chapter markers when transcoding, support chapter jumping on iOS

Feature Suggestions
1

When transcoding to MP4, chapter markers should be included in the transcoded file so players like Plex Home Theater can still chapter-jump when receiving a transcoded stream.

On a related note, all subtitle tracks (being rather tiny) should be included (unburned) in streams to Plex Home Theater, and audio track selection should be available in the menu even when only one stream is being received (swap streams server-side when requested).

When transcoding to a segmented stream, chapters are a bit more tricky as there doesn’t seem to be an official way to support them. Still, it’d be convenient to be able to skip chapters on iOS, so I’d suggest making chapters available as an API endpoint (assuming there isn’t already one I don’t know about) and writing the actual chapter-jump code into the iOS client itself.

2

+1

3

So i did some light reading on this particular topic.

Plex primarily uses MPEG Transport Streams to move 90% of the videos being played back. MPEG TS dont support chapters at all. They support subtitles via an extention, but im betting most devices are not going to understand that part of the stream and simply discard it. The BluRay MPEG TS (think version 2) does support chapters, but im not sure that any of the devices would understand that one any better than the subtitles in the former.

4

So i did some light reading on this particular topic.

Plex primarily uses MPEG Transport Streams to move 90% of the videos being played back. MPEG TS dont support chapters at all. They support subtitles via an extention, but im betting most devices are not going to understand that part of the stream and simply discard it. The BluRay MPEG TS (think version 2) does support chapters, but im not sure that any of the devices would understand that one any better than the subtitles in the former.

Thus the concept of a chapters API endpoint.

5

Support for embedded chapters in MP4/MKV files

Related post for a similar request.

6

Any proress on this?

Jaap

7

+1 for chapter support.

If other solutions can handle chapters, there is no reason Plex cannot. iTunes/iOS/Apple TV immediately come to mind. Quicktime and VLC have embedded chapter support and have had it for a good while.