MKVToolNix v5.5.0 released

I’ve released MKVToolNix v5.5.0. It fixes a few issues all across the board. The XML handling has been completely rewritten resulting in the tag, chapter and segment info XML files supporting more of the Matroska specs. A new mode for “--split” has been implemented that let’s you keep certain ranges and discard others without the need for temporary files or multiple muxing passes.

Here are the usual links: the home page, the source code and the Windows installer and 7zip archive.

All of the binaries that I provide myself are already available.

Here’s the full ChangeLog since release 5.4.0:

  • 2012-04-06 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • Released v5.5.0.
    • Build system: Boost’s "lexical_cast" and "type traits" libraries are now required.
    • mmg: new feature: Added GUI controls for mkvmerge’s "file concatenation" feature as "additional file parts". The user can chose which individual files are treated as if they were a single huge source file.
    • mkvmerge: bug fix: The handling of the "do not read other files" options (e.g. "=file.vob" and "( file.vob )") was broken for MPEG program stream files.
  • 2012-04-01 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • mkvmerge: bug fix: Fixed a wrong assertion about minimum MPEG 1/2 video start code lengths. Fixes ticket 728.
  • 2012-03-31 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • mkvmerge, mmg: new feature: Added support for keeping only certain timecode ranges from the source files with a new format to "--split": "--split parts:...". Implements ticket #518.
  • 2012-03-30 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • mmg: new feature: Added an option in the preferences dialog called "clear jobs from the job queue after they’ve been run". Can be set to "only if run was successfull", "even if there were warnings" and "even if there were errors". Defaults to off.
  • 2012-03-29 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • mkvmerge, mkvextract, mmg: Re-write of the whole XML handling code. It now uses the "pugixml" C++ library instead of the "expat" library. Therefore "expat" is not required for building MKVToolNix anymore. And neither is Boost’s "property tree" library. "pugixml" itself is included and not an external requirement either.
    • Build system: removed all files and documentation related to building MKVToolNix with Microsoft’s Visual Studio because even the most recent version of Visual C++ does not support the C++11 features required for MKVToolNix.
    • mkvmerge, mkvextract: removal: Removed support for the CorePicture file format. It was mostly unused and relied on old code that will be removed soon.
    • documentation: enhancement: mkvmerge’s man page has been updated with a list of valid XML tags for the chapters, tags and segment info XML file formats.
    • all: Updated the DTD files with the newly supported elements.
    • mkvmerge: enhancement: Chapter XML files: mkvmerge can handle the "ChapterSegmentEditionUID" element.
    • mkvmerge: enhancement: Segment info XML files: mkvmerge can handle the "SegmentFilename", "PreviousSegmentFilename" and "NextSegmentFilename" elements.
  • 2012-03-19 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • mmg: enhancement: Added "mts" as yet another file extension for MPEG transport streams.
  • 2012-03-18 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • mmg: bug fix: Fixed a crash due to a missing argument for a format string when clicking on the "Browse" button for the track-specific tags.
  • 2012-03-15 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • mmg, mkvinfo’s GUI, all .exes: enhancement: Added new icons by Eduard Geier. (see AUTHORS).
  • 2012-03-14 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • mkvextract: bug fix: mkvextract sometimes wrote undefined values to a single reserved header field when extracting into AVI files. Patch by buguser128k. Fix for ticket 727.
    • mkvmerge: bug fix: AVC/h.264 mkvmerge was wrongfully writing a default duration of 60 frames/fields even if the source was signalling 60000/1001 frames/fields. The frame timecodes have been correct already.
  • 2012-03-12 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
    • mkvmerge: bug fix: Fixed timecode calculation for (E)AC3 tracks if the source container (e.g. MPEG transport streams) only provided timecodes for some of the (E)AC3 packets itself.

6 thoughts on “MKVToolNix v5.5.0 released”

  1. Daniel

    The new ‘parts’ feature is fantastic, thank you very much for implementing it! It makes one of my most frequent tasks with mkvmerge so much easier.

    It wasn’t too bad on my laptop which is fitted with an SSD, but when working on regular harddisks it makes a world of a difference when I just need to cut out a coulpe of seconds from a 2GB+ stream.

  3. 888

    Mosu, when are you going to add default-general option to enable/disable header compression?
    In case you haven’t notice, roughly 60-70% of the hardware players out there DON’T SUPPORT IT, hence since version 4.1 your tool is NON-COMPLIANT with the most of the existing hardware.
    I am sure it is not only me who is really sick and tired of this bullsh*t with having to disable headers compression for each and every track in each and every file we do… dude, how hard is it to add it to options and let user decide does he wants to enable or disable this “feature”? /rant_end

    1. mosu Post author

      First of all, MKVToolNix is compliant with the specs. That is way more important to me than being compliant with particular players or devices. I don’t cater to the lowest common denominator. I cater to the specs.

      Second, why don’t you have a look at mmg’s preferences? There is already an option for doing what you want: “Disable header removal compression for audio/video tracks”. Dude, how hard is it to check first before ranting?

      1. 888

        Yes you are right: mmg’s prefs -> disable header removal compression. My apologies for rant, I didn’t see it (probly because I keep using much older version myself), but my opinion on having it enabled by default doesn’t change: it is wrong. The “standard” is always what everybody are using and not what someone thinks is better just because it saves basically insignificant amount of weight per file, sheesh… (that would be at matroska devs). Cheers and again apologies for rant in a wrong place.

      2. 888

        and separately: big thanks for making and developing mkvtoolnix. Regardless of my rant and it’s subject, your MKVToolNix is THE most important matroska tool out there. Thank you for that.

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