MP4 Chapter Manager

MP4 Chapter Manager is an all-in-one tool with three functions:

Creator - Create chapters in coordination with MPC-BE/HC player and add them to MP4 files

Extractor - Extract chapter information from MP4 files and save to text files

Remover - Remove chapter information from MP4 files

📌 Important: This tool does not modify the original MP4 files. All functions create new files while preserving the originals.

📌 Quality Guarantee: Chapter processing does not re-encode video or audio. Video and audio data are copied as-is, so quality is fully preserved.

Required

Windows 10 or later
MP4Box - Used for embedding, extracting, and removing chapter information
- Download: https://gpac.io/downloads/
- Installation:
  1. Download the Windows installer (.exe) from the above page
  2. Run the downloaded installer
  3. Follow the installation wizard (default settings are fine)
  4. PATH will be set automatically after installation
- Verification:
  1. Open Command Prompt
  2. mp4box -version and press Enter
  3. If you see output like this, installation is successful:
    GPAC version 2.x.x
  4. If you get an error, restart your computer and try again

Optional (for Creator only)

MPC-BE / MPC-HC - Used to retrieve playback time from video player
- MPC-BE: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcbe/
- MPC-HC: https://github.com/mpc-hc/mpc-hc
- Web Interface Setup Required:
  1. Launch MPC-BE/HC
  2. Select "View" → "Options" from menu
  3. Select "Player" → "Web Interface"
  4. Check "Listen on port"
  5. Set port number to 13579 (default)
  6. Click "OK"
- Settings Screen:

Create chapters while playing a video in MPC-BE/HC and add them to an MP4 file. The original MP4 file is not modified; a new file (with _with_chapters suffix) is created.

Step 1: Play video in MPC-BE/HC

Step 2: Click "Get Time" button at desired chapter points

Current playback time will be automatically entered

Step 3: Enter chapter name and click "Add Chapter"

You can also manually enter time and chapter name
Time format: HH:MM:SS.mmm or MM:SS.mmm

Step 4: Add all desired chapters

"Delete Selected" - Delete selected chapter
"Clear All" - Clear all chapters
"Save to TXT" - Save chapter information to text file
"Load from TXT" - Load from saved text file
"Overwrite" - Overwrite currently loaded text file

Step 5: Click "Add to MP4" button and select MP4 file

If file already contains chapters, a confirmation message will appear
After processing, a new file with _with_chapters suffix will be created
Example: video.mp4 → kept as-is, video_with_chapters.mp4 → newly created
The new file will contain only the chapters you created (existing chapters in the original file are not copied)

Extract chapter information from MP4 files and save to text files. The original MP4 file is not modified.

📝 Supported Format: Supports QuickTime Chapter Track, the most common format used by major tools like iTunes, HandBrake, and FFmpeg. Some legacy formats like Nero Chapter are not supported.

Step 1: Click "Select MP4 and Extract Chapters" button

Step 2: Select MP4 file containing chapters

If file has no chapters, a message will appear

Step 3: Specify destination and filename

Default filename is original name with _chapters.txt suffix
You can change to any filename

Step 4: Extracted chapter information is saved to text file

Format: HH:MM:SS.mmm Chapter Name
This file can be loaded in Creator tab for reuse

Completely remove chapter information from MP4 files. The original MP4 file is not modified; a new file (with _no_chapters suffix) is created.

Supported Formats: Can remove all chapter information regardless of format.

Step 1: Click "Select MP4 File and Remove Chapters" button

Step 2: Select MP4 file to remove chapters from

If file has no chapters, a message will appear

Step 3: After processing, a file without chapters will be created

Original file: video.mp4 (unchanged, with chapters)
New file: video_no_chapters.mp4 (without chapters)

Processing MP4 files may take time. Do not operate while "Processing..." is displayed
Processing large files requires sufficient disk space (at least twice the file size recommended)

"Cannot connect to MPC-BE" Error

Verify MPC-BE/HC is running
Verify MPC-BE/HC Web Interface is enabled
Verify port number is set to 13579
Verify firewall is not blocking port 13579

"MP4Box failed" Error

Verify MP4Box is properly installed (see "Verification" in Requirements section above)
Verify MP4 file is not corrupted
Verify file path does not contain special characters

Cannot Extract Chapters

Verify MP4 file contains chapter information
File may use unsupported chapter format
- Supported: QuickTime Chapter Track (standard format readable by MP4Box)
- Not supported: Some legacy proprietary formats like Nero Chapter
- QuickTime Chapter Track is the most common format used by major tools like iTunes, HandBrake, and FFmpeg
Check if chapters are visible in other tools (e.g., VLC)

Chapter Text File (.txt) - Tool's Simple Format

Text file format used by Creator and Extractor tabs:


00:00:00.000 Intro

00:01:23.456 Chapter 1

00:05:47.890 Chapter 2

01:23:45.678 Ending

Each line: Time ChapterName (separated by space)
Time format: HH:MM:SS.mmm
Character encoding: UTF-8
Line ending: LF or CRLF

Format Conversion Process

This tool automatically converts between three formats:

1. Tool's Simple Format (User-facing)
00:00:00.000 Start

Human-readable and writable format
Used by Creator and Extractor

2. OGM Format (MP4Box Input)


CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000

CHAPTER01NAME=Start

Format required by MP4Box
Automatically converted by tool (no user action needed)

3. QuickTime Chapter Track (Inside MP4)
chpl atom (binary format)

Binary structure inside MP4 files
Automatically converted by MP4Box (no user action needed)

💡 Important: Users only handle the tool's simple format. Conversion to OGM format is done by the tool, and conversion to MP4 internal format is done by MP4Box automatically.

Development Language: Python 3
Libraries: tkinter, requests
External Tools: MP4Box (GPAC), MPC-BE/HC (optional)
Supported Format: MP4
Chapter Processing:
- Creator: Tool Format → OGM Format (tool conversion) → QuickTime Chapter Track (MP4Box conversion) → MP4 embedding
- Extractor: MP4 reading → QuickTime Chapter Track (MP4Box reading) → Tool Format (tool conversion)
- Remover: Supports all chapter formats including QuickTime Chapter Track

Version 1.0 (2026-01-23)

Initial release
Implemented three functions: Creator, Extractor, and Remover
MPC-BE/HC integration
Support for non-ASCII chapter names

MP4 Chapter Manager

Overview

Requirements

Required

Optional (for Creator only)

Usage

Creator Creating and Adding Chapters

Extractor Extracting Chapters

Remover Removing Chapters

Notes

Troubleshooting

"Cannot connect to MPC-BE" Error

"MP4Box failed" Error

Cannot Extract Chapters

File Formats

Chapter Text File (.txt) - Tool's Simple Format

Format Conversion Process

Technical Information

Version History

Version 1.0 (2026-01-23)