Hello all,
Before this gets ridiculed for duplicate request, let me clarify that all those other posts I have read are actually describing file (or segment) linking. In that instance, MKVs are given UID’s and the player can seamlessly play different files together as one because they link to each other. The common use case for this is anime shows where the opening/closing credits are encoded into 1 file and “linked” to each episode instead of encoded, in order to save hard drive space.
I am requesting ordered chapters, consistent with MKV spec, where the chapter file essentially describes a desired timeline, which may be different from the linear start-finish timeline generally employed. As this is basically just seek instructions in the chapter file, I hope this would be easy to implement, especially for direct play files where no transcoding (and thus no FFMPEG) is occurring. Ordered chapters are explained in greater depth here.
This would be a great asset (at least for me) because it really simplifies cutting out unwanted sections of a movie/show. For example, commercials in DVR recordings. While there are many options for removing unwanted segments, compression technology creates a host of issues around frame-accurate edits. Cuts have to be made on IDR frames in order to prevent dropped or garbled frames or A/V sync issues, and these IDR frames are often difficult to identify and/or not placed ideally–hence commercials frequently cut in/out too soon. There are smart encoders that help get around this, but those generally cost money and even then don’t work perfectly, and don’t save embedded chapters (e.g., for a compilation of family videos). Using ordered chapters to essentially skip segments without actually cutting the file is advantageous because you get precise cuts with fewer limitations (less emphasis on IDR frames because all frames are still in the stream), no re-encoding necessary, only need a text editor to modify/make the chapter list, and you can do the job quickly.
My desktop video players (MPC-HC, VLC) read ordered chapters without hiccup. But Plex does not. I can understand that if FFMPEG does not read ordered chapters and Plex relies on FFMPEG for transcoding, that would be a problem. But could this be implemented for direct play files? I assume it would be easy to implement because it’s part of MKV spec and is basically just providing an altered timeline to the player (seek instructions). Worst case scenario is Plex has to transcode for a user and so the file plays as recorded/encoded instead of skipping the small segments. 99% of my use is direct play and I would love to be able to simplify my post-processing of recordings.
