Version 20.0.0 "I Am The Sun":
Important notes
* Feature removal: several deprecated features have been removed:
* mkvmerge: the deprecated options --identify-verbose (and its counterpart
-I), --identify-for-gui, --identify-for-mmg and
--identification-format verbose-text
* all command line tools: support for the deprecated, old, proprietary format
used for option files
* all command line tools: support for passing command line options via the
deprecated environment variables MKVTOOLNIX_OPTIONS, MKVEXTRACT_OPTIONS,
MKVINFO_OPTIONS, MKVMERGE_OPTIONS and MKVPROPEDIT_OPTIONS
* mkvinfo: most of its code was re-written in order to lay the groundwork for
including its functionality in MKVToolNix GUI but with more features than
the existing mkvinfo GUI. The result is that a lot of its output has been
changed slightly while keeping the basic layout. Changes include but aren't
limited to:
* Several element names are a bit clearer (e.g. Maximum cache instead of
MaxCache).
* All timestamps and durations are now output as nanoseconds in formatted
form (e.g. 01:23:45.67890123). All additional formats (e.g. floating
point numbers output in seconds or milliseconds) were removed.
* Element names for chapters and tags are now translated if a translation is
available.
* Elements located in wrong positions within the Matroska document are
handled better.
While mkvinfo's output is mostly kept very stable, it is not designed to be
parsed by other utilities. Even though I've tried hard to cram all changes
and cleanups into this version, additional changes may be made in the next
couple of releases depending on user feedback and bug reports.
New features and enhancements
* mkvmerge: AVC/h.264 packetizer (framed): access unit delimiter NALUs will
now be removed.
Bug fixes
* mkvmerge: AVC/h.264 parser: when fixing the bitstream timing information
mkvmerge will now use exact representations of the desired field duration if
possible. For example, when indicating 50 fields/second num_units_in_tick
is set to 1 and time_scale to 50 instead of 5368709 and 268435456.
* mkvmerge: AVC/h.264 parser: mkvmerge no longer assumes that encountering
sequence parameter set or picture parameter set NALUs signal the start of a
new frame.
* mkvmerge: AVC/h.264 packetizer (framed): when mkvmerge is told to fix the
bitstream timing information, it will now update all SPS NALUs, not just the
ones in the AVCC.
* mkvmerge: MPEG TS reader: TS packet payloads will only be treated as PES
packets if the payload actually starts with a PES start code. The prior
behavior led to wrong timestamps and potentially broken frame data.
* mkvmerge: MPEG TS reader: mkvmerge will now drop incomplete PES packets as
soon as an error is detected in the transport stream instead of passing the
incomplete frame to the packetizer. An error is assumed either if the
transport_error_indicator flag is set or if the value of the
continuity_counter header field doesn't match the expected value.
* mkvmerge: Opus: when re-muxing Opus from Matroska mkvmerge will now write
"block duration" elements for all block groups where a "discard padding" is
set, too.
* mkvmerge: SRT reader: mkvmerge can now handle SRT files with timestamps
without decimal places (e.g. 00:01:15 instead of 00:01:15.000).
* mkvmerge: read buffer I/O class: the class could get out of sync regarding
the file position of the underlying file I/O class causing wrong data to be
returned on subsequent read operations. One result was that trying to
identifying MPLS files that refer to very short M2TS files caused mkvmerge
to segfault.
* mkvmerge: multiplexer core: if there's a gap in audio timestamps, a new
block group/lace will be started for the first frame after each gap. Before
the fix the frame after the gap was often stored in the previous block group
causing the gap to be in the wrong place: at the end of that block
group.
* mkvextract: AVC/h.264: if two consecutive IDR frames with the same
idr_pic_id parameter and no access unit delimiters are found between them,
mkvextract will insert an access unit delimiter in order to signal the start
of a new access unit.
* MKVToolNix GUI: update check dialog: Markdown links will now be converted to
clickable links.
* build system: fixed a race condition when creating new directories if rake
is run with -jN in newer versions of Ruby/rake.
Build system changes
* [cmark](https://github.com/commonmark/cmark), the CommonMark parsing and
rendering library in C, is now required when building the GUIs.
Version 18.0.0 "Apricity" 2017-11-18
New features and enhancements
* build system: when building with clang v3.8.0 or newer, `configure` will no
longer restrict optimization flags to `-O1` and use `-O3` again (older
versions of clang suffered from excessive memory usage with higher
optimization levels).
* build system: when building with mingw 7.2.0 or newer, `configure` will no
longer restrict optimization flags to `-O2` and use `-O3` again (older
versions of mingw suffered from bugs such as segmentation faults with higher
optimization levels).
* build system: stack protection is enabled when building with clang 3.5.0 or
newer on all platforms.
* mkvmerge: AVC & HEVC ES parsers: performance improvements by copying much
less memory around.
* mkvmerge: tags: reintroduced a workaround for non-compliant files with tags
that do not contain the mandatory `SimpleTag` element. This workaround was
removed during code refactoring in release v15.0.0.
* GUI: multiplexer: the "AAC is SBR/HE-AAC/AAC+" checkbox in the "audio
properties" section will be disabled if the functionality is not implemented
for the selected track's codec & container.
* GUI: multiplexer: the "reduce to core" checkbox in the "audio properties"
section will be disabled if the functionality is not implemented for the
selected track's codec.
Bug fixes
* mkvmerge: AAC ADTS parser: fixed interpretation of the
`channel_configuration` header element for ADTS files that do not contain a
program configuration element: value 7 means 7.1 channels.
* mkvmerge: Matroska identification: the `date_local` and `date_utc`
attributes will only be output if the identified Matroska file actually
contains the "date" header field.
* mkvmerge: WebVTT: mkvmerge did not recognize timestamp lines if the hours
components were absent.
* mkvpropedit, GUI's header editor: the `date` header field won't be added
automatically anymore whenever the segment info section is edited and the
`date` element is either deleted or not present in the first place.
Version 17.0.0 "Be Ur Friend":
Important notes
* The word "timecode" has been changed to "timestamp" everywhere it was
used in MKVToolNix. This affects program output (including mkvinfo's), GUI
controls, command line parameters (e.g. `mkvmerge --timestamp-scale …`) and
file formats. All programs remain backwards compatible insofar as they still
accept "timecode" in all those places (e.g. `mkvmerge --timecode-scale …`).
The reason for the change is wrong usage. What both the Matroska specification
and MKVToolNix used "timecode" for is normally called a "timestamp" in audio &
video domains. A "timecode" on the other hand has a specific meaning. As the
Matroska specification is moving towards implementing real timecodes, it will
also move towards correcting the verbiage. MKVToolNix is following this
change.
* mkvextract's command line interface has been changed to allow extraction of
multiple items at the same time. The first argument must now be the source
file's name. All following arguments either set the mode (e.g. `tracks`) or
specify what to extract in the currently active mode.
Those items that were written to the standard output (chapters, tags and cue
sheets) are now always written to files instead. Therefore the respective
modes require an output file name.
For example, extracting two tracks, the chapters and the tags can be done
with the following command:
`mkvextract input.mkv tracks 0:video.h265 1:audio.aac chapters chapters.xml tags tags.xml`
The old interface (specifying the mode first and the source file name
second) remains working and supported. However, it is now deprecated and
will be removed at the end of 2018.
New features and enhancements
* mkvmerge: AC-3: during identification regular AC-3 and E-AC-3 tracks will
now be identified differently for most container formats (exception: AVI,
Real Media, Ogg/OGM). The codec will be reported as `AC-3` for regular AC-3
and as `E-AC-3` for E-AC-3 tracks instead of the combined `AC-3/E-AC-3`.
* mkvextract: the command line interface has been changed to allow extraction
of multiple items at the same time. See section "Important notes" for details.
Bug fixes
* mkvmerge: AAC ADTS parser: mkvmerge will now parse the
`program_config_element` if it is located at the start of an AAC frame in
order to determine the actual number of channels. This overrides invalid
channel configurations in the ADTS headers, for example.
* mkvmerge: fixed AC-3 being misdetected as encrypted MPEG program streams
under certain conditions.
* mkvmerge: Dirac: under certain conditions (e.g. only muxing a single Dirac
track without any other tracks) mkvmerge was always setting the pixel width
& height to 123. The frame rate was wrong, too.
* mkvmerge: E-AC-3 in Matroska: if AC-3 cores and their corresponding E-AC-3
extension are located in two different Matroska blocks, then mkvmerge will
now re-assemble them into a single block and only use the first block's
timestamp.
* mkvmerge: SRT reader: fixed calculating the duration of entries starting
with at a negative timestamp.
* mkvmerge: VC-1: under certain conditions (e.g. only muxing a single VC-1
track without any other tracks) mkvmerge was always setting the pixel width
& height to 123. The frame rate was wrong, too.
* mkvmerge: command line options: an error message will be output if the
single-value-form of the `--sync` option is used and it isn't a number
(e.g. `--sync 0:asd`).
* mkvpropedit, GUI's header editor: both programs will now show proper error
messages instead of crashing when certain kinds of data corruption is found
when reading a file.
Version 16.0.0 "Protest":
New features and enhancements
* mkvmerge: MP4 reader: added support for Vorbis.
Bug fixes
* configure: the checks for libEBML and libMatroska have been fixed to require
libEBML 1.3.5 and libMatroska 1.4.7 as intended.
* mkvmerge: AAC reader: mkvmerge will now emit an error message for AAC files
whose header fields imply a sampling frequency or number of channels
of 0.
* mkvmerge: AVC/h.264 ES parser: fixed the calculation of reference
information for P and B frames. This also fixes some P frames being marked
as B frames and vice versa.
* mkvmerge: AVC/h.264 ES parser: only non-key frames that have the NALU header
field `nal_ref_idc` set to 0 will be marked as "discardable" in
`SimpleBlock` elements.
* mkvmerge: HEVC/h.265: the generation of the HEVCC structure stored in
`CodecPrivate` was wrong in two places: 1. the position of the number of
sub-layers was swapped with reserved bits and 2. the VPS/SPS/PPS/SEI lists
did not start with a reserved 1 bit.
* mkvmerge: output: the `doc type version` will be set at least to 2 if
certain elements are written (`CodecState`, `CueCodecState`,
`FlagInterlaced`).
* mkvmerge: output: the track header attributes `MinCache` and `MaxCache` will not be
written anymore.
* mkvmerge: Matroska reader: the "key" and "discardable" flags of SimpleBlock
elements will be kept as they are.
* mkvmerge: Matroska reader: if present in the file, the "white colour
coordinate x" track header attribute was written to both "white colour
coordinate x" and "white colour coordinate y" in the output file.
* mkvmerge: Opus output: mkvmerge will now put all frames with discard padding
into their own block group.
* MKVToolNix GUI: header editor: removed the check for external modification
when saving the file.
* MKVToolNix GUI: job queue: fixed calculation of total progress when
automatic removal of completed is enabled.
Version 15.0.0 "Duel with the Devil":
Important notes
* mkvmerge, mkvpropedit, GUI's header and chapter editors: the programs will
no longer add most missing Matroska elements that are mandatory but have a
default value in the Matroska specification (e.g. the `TagLanguage` element
with a value of `und` if it isn't present in its `SimpleTag` parent). Due to
this change libEBML v1.3.5 is now required.
New features and enhancements
* MKVToolNix GUI: multiplex tool: added a new entry to the "source files"
context menu labeled "Set destination file name from selected file's
name". It will force the GUI to consider the selected file to be the
reference for automatically setting the file name, no matter which file was
originally added as the first file. It will also force setting the
destination file name once if automatic destination file name generation is
turned off in the preferences. Implements part of 2058.
* MKVToolNix GUI: multiplex tool: added an option in the preferences on
"Multiplexer" → "Output" labeled "Only use the first source file that
contains a video track". If enabled, only source files containing video
tracks will be used for setting the destination file name. Other files that
are added are ignore. Implements the rest of 2058.
* MKVToolNix GUI: header editor: added support for editing the video colour
attributes. Implements the second half of 2038.
* MKVToolNix GUI: header editor: added support for the "video projection"
track header attributes. Part of the implementation of 2064.
* MKVToolNix GUI: job queue: selected jobs can now be move up and down by
pressing the `Ctrl+Up` and `Ctrl+Down` keys. Additionally, push buttons to
move them up & down are shown if the corresponding option is enabled in the
preferences. Implements 2060.
* mkvmerge: added support for the "video projection" track header
attributes. Part of the implementation of 2064.
* mkvinfo: added support for the "video projection" track header
attributes. Part of the implementation of 2064.
* mkvpropedit: added support for editing the video colour
attributes. Implements one half of 2038.
* mkvpropedit: added support for the "video projection" track header
attributes. Part of the implementation of 2064.
Bug fixes
* all: selecting the program's language (e.g. via the `--ui-language`
command-line option or via the GUI's preferences) did not work on Linux &
Unix if the `LANGUAGE` environment variable was set and didn't include the
desired language. Fixes 2070.
* MKVToolNix GUI: removed the keyboard shortcuts for switching between the
different tools (e.g. `Ctrl+Alt+1` for the multiplexer). They overlapped
with basic functionality on keyboards that use an `AltGr` key, e.g. German
ones, where `AltGr+7` emits `{`. As `AltGr+key` is implemented as
`Ctrl+Alt+key` under the hood, this means that `AltGr+7` is really
`Ctrl+Alt+7` which the GUI now took to mean "switch to the job queue"
instead of "insert `{`". Fixes 2056.
* MKVToolNix GUI: header editor: after saving the file the GUI wasn't updating
its internal file modification timestamp. That lead to the GUI wrongfully
claiming that the file had been modified externally when the user wanted to
save the file once more, requiring a reload of the file losing all
modifications made since saving the first time.
* mkvmerge: DTS handling: some source files provide timestamps for audio
tracks only once every `n` audio frames. In such situations mkvmerge was
buffering too much data resulting in a single gap in the timestamps of one
frame duration after frame number `n - 1` (the second audio timestamp read
from the source file was used one output frame too early). Fixes 2071.
* mkvinfo: fixed a null pointer dereference if an `EbmlBinary` element's data
pointer is a null pointer. Fixes 2072.
Build system changes
* configure: added option `--disable-update-check`. If given, the code
checking online for available updates will be disabled. The update check is
enabled and included in the GUI by default.
* libEBML v1.3.5 is now required.
Other changes
* mkvmerge: the option `--colour-matrix` has been renamed to
`--colour-matrix-coefficients` in order to match the specification more
closely. The old option name will continue to be recognized as well.
- restrict GUI option to Qt.
- disable compiler optimisation override
- new features:
- support for Apple ProRes videos in MOV/MP4 files
- much improves MPEG TS support
- support WebVTT subtitles
- output of Big Endian PCM to WAV supported
- ${TOOL}_OPTIONS can be used for passing additional arguments to
individual programs via environment
- support for core-less DTS streams consisting solely of XLL extension
sub-streams
- time codes computation for AAC, AC-3, DTS, MP3 and TrueHD packets
was rewritten
- support TrueHD tracks inside MPEG TS by keeping (additional) AC-3
audio track
- support MPEG-H p2/HEVC video in MP4 container
- support for AAC in LOAS/LATM multiplex if read from MPEG transport
streams or raw LOAS/LATM AAC files
- support for h.265/HEVC from MPEG TS and elementary streams
- support for teletext subtitles from MPEG TS
- faster format detection for text subtitle formats
- support for DTS audio streams in MP4
- support for VP9 from IVF and WebM files
- support for Opus
- support for reading ALAC from CAF and MP4 files
- 5 years of various bug fixes and GUI improvements.
memory and CPU time for certain input. Provide a variable
(CLANG_NO_VALUE_PROPAGATION_PASS) for selectively disabling it in those
places known to trigger it.
to address issues with NetBSD-6(and earlier)'s fontconfig not being
new enough for pango.
While doing that, also bump freetype2 dependency to current pkgsrc
version.
Suggested by tron in PR 47882