MKVtoolnix 6.8

Set of tools for creating, altering and inspecting the Matroska file format. Split , merge, extract and get information about MKV video files. It also supports video codecs and subtitle formats.

Matroska (MKV) files have become the de facto standard for compact HD video files. To create MKV files from various sources or to modify the structure of existing Matroska files, MKVtoolnix offers an open-source solution to inspect, modify, or produce new MKV files with the audio, video, and subtitle streams of your choice.

Actually, MKVtoolnix is not one tool but a toolbox that integrates various Matroska-related open-source utilities. Mkvinfo provides you with a list of all the elements contained in a Matroska file, its tracks, and even the codecs used. Mkvmerge joins the streams of various media files in a single MKV file, while Mkvextract performs the opposite operation – it takes out a selected stream out of the container and save it as a standalone file. Mkvpropedit is used to modify the properties of an MKV file without extracting its contents or build a new one. With this utility, you can change the segment information elements (such as the title) and the track headers (the default track, the language code, etc.).

All of these functions are wrapped up in a convenient interface called mkvtoolnix-gui. This GUI turns all those more or less cryptic program names into more accessible options and tags, such as Multiplexer (to create new MKV files), Info tool, Header editor, or Chapter editor. Useful as it is, the interface itself (and some of the language used in it) is not the most straightforward video tool you may come across. Designed by experts, it does seem to be designed also for experts or, at least, for those who really know what a MKV file is and how it works internally. If you want to make the most of the various tools included in MKVtoolnix, you will need to do your homework first.

One great thing about this tool that all users will surely appreciate is its batch-oriented working flow. The last two tags in the program’s main interface, namely Job queue and Job output, will let you design all your multiplexing or stream extraction one at a time and launch them all in one single operation. Given that some of these operations may take some time to finish (especially if you use large BD video files as source), this batch processing approach is certainly a great add-on to this suite of tools.

Do not mistake this program with the average video conversion and compression tool – MKVtoolnix gathers a set of professional and high-quality MKV-related utilities aimed at video connoisseurs looking for an uncompressed HD video compact container for their beloved movies and other video files.

v6.8 [Mar 3, 2014]
2014-03-02 Moritz Bunkus
* Released v6.8.0.
2014-02-28 Moritz Bunkus
* mkvmerge, mkvextract: new feature: added support for h.265/HEVC
by merging the patches from DivX/Rovi Corp. So far HEVC is only
supported as elementary streams and read from other Matroska
files.
2014-02-22 Moritz Bunkus
* mkvmerge: enhancement: The deprecated ISO 639-1 code "iw" is now
recognized for Hebrew.
2014-02-15 Moritz Bunkus
* mkvmerge: bug fix: The AC3 packetizer will re-derive the
sampling frequency and the number of channels from the
bitstream. This way obviously invalid information from the source
container like a sampling frequency of 0 Hz will be fixed.
2014-02-05 Moritz Bunkus
* mkvmerge: enhancements: AVI reader: audio chunks with obvious
wrong size information (bigger than 10 MB) will be skipped.
2014-02-03 Moritz Bunkus
* mkvmerge: bug fix: When reading M2TS files belonging to an MPLS
playlist mkvmerge will now only copy packets whose timestamps lie
between the »in time« and »out time« restrictions from the
playlist's entry corresponding to that M2TS file. Fixes #985.
2014-01-22 Moritz Bunkus
* all: Windows 64bit: fixed return value checks for opening
files. Fixes #972.
2014-01-21 Moritz Bunkus
* all: Windows: when redirecting the program's output with cmd.exe
(e.g. »mkvinfo file.mkv > info.txt«) the programs will no longer
write two line feed characters (\r) per carriage return character
(\n). Fixes #970.
* all: Windows: the default charset for the files created with
»--redirect-output« has been changed from the system's local
charset to UTF-8. Just like before it can be changed with
»--output-charset«. See #970.
* all: bug fix: Windows: messages written to the console (cmd.exe)
are not re-encoded to the local charset and back to UTF-16 before
they're handed over to ConsoleWriteW(). This fixes outputting
Unicode characters to the console that are not part of the local
charset. Fixes #971.
2014-01-18 Moritz Bunkus
* extract: bug fix: using names of non-existing files in
»attachments«, »chapters«, »cuesheet« or »tags« mode caused
mkvextract to crash instead of emitting a proper error
message. Fixes #964.
2014-01-17 Moritz Bunkus
* mmg: bug fix: fixed the check for WebM-compatible track types
for Opus.
2014-01-12 Moritz Bunkus
* mkvmerge: bug fix: fixed muxing Sorenson v3 (SVQ3) video from
QuickTime files.
2014-01-11 Moritz Bunkus
* mkvmerge, mkvextract, mkvpropedit: enhancement: attachments in
Matroska files with a missing FileUID element are not ignored
anymore even though they violate the specs. mkvmerge generates a
new FileUID instead.
2014-01-10 Moritz Bunkus
* mkvmerge: re-built with the 64bit build for Windows with a newer
compiler version in order to fix #957. It was due to a bug in gcc:
http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=56742
* mmg: bug fix: mkvmerge's file identification is written to a
temporary file with --redirect-output and from there into mmg
instead of directly from mkvmerge. This prevents from character
re-coding done by wxWidgets 3.0.0 on Windows. Fixes #959.
2014-01-09 Moritz Bunkus
* installer: enhancement: the architecture (32bit vs 64bit) is
mentioned in the interface.
* installer: bug fix: the installation directory for 64bit builds
will default to the proper directory (»C:\Program Files« instead
of »C:\Program Files (x86)«). Fixes #956.