HandBrake

this would be a really neat feature in combination with third party software that is used for cutting

according to your wiki https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/ChapterMarkers the current file format only supports chapter names

I would be very glad if you could enhance this by allowing to add timestamps after the chaptername (separated by a commas)

right now I need to add chapters after I encoded the file with handbrake by using mp4box which is another editing step that consumes time

what do you think about this?

As I understand it, the feature is only implemented for sources that include chapter information in them. If you can repackage your source into something like a Matroska, a possible workaround would be to insert chapter data into the Matroska using mkvmerge's chapter editor, then use the Matroska as your source for encoding. Since the source will have internal chaptering, the chapters will appear in Handbrake, and you'll be able to translate the result into your final encode, this time with correct keyframing. I've done this once or twice myself to custom-chapter unchaptered sources.

As WhosAsking said, it works for MKV. The downside is an extra merging step and disk space.

However, there were a couple of times I wanted to add chapters to a DVD source before encoding. I don't know if it is still makes a difference in HB 0.10.2, but in 0.9.9, HB will encode an I-frame at chapter stops, so we can jump to that frame quickly.

nhyone wrote:However, there were a couple of times I wanted to add chapters to a DVD source before encoding. I don't know if it is still makes a difference in HB 0.10.2, but in 0.9.9, HB will encode an I-frame at chapter stops, so we can jump to that frame quickly.

It still does because it's needed for proper chapter seeking. I see your point because you can't go straight from DVD to Matroska with custom chaptering (Handbrake will always use the DVD's chaptering). So the only practical solution I can see will involve dedicating space to an intermediary encode (as long as it's superior to your desired end product, you'll minimize generation loss) and then edit the chapters in the intermediate file before a final encode.

Expanding chapter import/export to include times/durations is a good idea. Unfortunately, it requires some fairly major work to implement "under the hood". So while we aren't ignoring or rejecting this request, it's difficult and at the moment, low priority.

You can write an excel macro to do the tedious part, then import the chapter info in Drax for Windows.