MKVEXTRACT(1) User Commands MKVEXTRACT(1)NAMEmkvextract - extract tracks from Matroska(TM) files into other files
SYNOPSISmkvextract {mode} {source-filename} [options] [extraction-spec]
DESCRIPTION
This program extracts specific parts from a Matroska(TM) file to other
useful formats. The first argument, mode, tells mkvextract(1) what to
extract. Currently supported is the extraction of tracks, tags,
attachments, chapters, CUE sheets, timecodes and cues. The second
argument is the name of the source file. It must be a Matroska(TM)
file. All following arguments are options and extraction
specifications; both of which depend on the selected mode.
Common options
The following options are available in all modes and only described
once in this section.
-f, --parse-fully
Sets the parse mode to 'full'. The default mode does not parse the
whole file but uses the meta seek elements for locating the
required elements of a source file. In 99% of all cases this is
enough. But for files that do not contain meta seek elements or
which are damaged the user might have to use this mode. A full scan
of a file can take a couple of minutes while a fast scan only takes
seconds.
--command-line-charset character-set
Sets the character set to convert strings given on the command line
from. It defaults to the character set given by system's current
locale.
--output-charset character-set
Sets the character set to which strings are converted that are to
be output. It defaults to the character set given by system's
current locale.
-r, --redirect-output file-name
Writes all messages to the file file-name instead of to the
console. While this can be done easily with output redirection
there are cases in which this option is needed: when the terminal
reinterprets the output before writing it to a file. The character
set set with --output-charset is honored.
--ui-language code
Forces the translations for the language code to be used (e.g.
'de_DE' for the German translations). It is preferable to use the
environment variables LANG, LC_MESSAGES and LC_ALL though. Entering
'list' as the code will cause mkvextract(1) to output a list of
available translations.
--debug topic
Turn on debugging for a specific feature. This option is only
useful for developers.
--engage feature
Turn on experimental features. A list of available features can be
requested with mkvextract--engage list. These features are not
meant to be used in normal situations.
--gui-mode
Turns on GUI mode. In this mode specially-formatted lines may be
output that can tell a controlling GUI what's happening. These
messages follow the format '#GUI#message'. The message may be
followed by key/value pairs as in
'#GUI#message#key1=value1#key2=value2...'. Neither the messages nor
the keys are ever translated and always output in English.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose and show all the important Matroska(TM) elements as
they're read.
-h, --help
Show usage information and exit.
-V, --version
Show version information and exit.
--check-for-updates
Checks online for new releases by downloading the URL
http://mkvtoolnix-releases.bunkus.org/latest-release.xml. Four
lines will be output in key=value style: the URL from where the
information was retrieved (key version_check_url), the currently
running version (key running_version), the latest release's version
(key available_version) and the download URL (key download_url).
Afterwards the program exists with an exit code of 0 if no newer
release is available, with 1 if a newer release is available and
with 2 if an error occured (e.g. if the update information could
not be retrieved).
This option is only available if the program was built with support
for libcurl.
@options-file
Reads additional command line arguments from the file options-file.
Lines whose first non-whitespace character is a hash mark ('#') are
treated as comments and ignored. White spaces at the start and end
of a line will be stripped. Each line must contain exactly one
option.
Several chars can be escaped, e.g. if you need to start a
non-comment line with '#'. The rules are described in the section
about escaping text.
The command line 'mkvextract tracks source.mkv --raw
1:destination.raw' could be converted into the following option
file:
# Extract a track from source.mkv
tracks
source.mkv
# Output the track as raw data.
--raw
1:destination.raw
Track extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract tracks source-filename [options] TID1:dest-filename1
[TID2:dest-filename2 ...]
The following command line options are available for each track in the
'tracks' extraction mode. They have to appear in front of the track
specification (see below) they should be applied to.
-c character-set
Sets the character set to convert the next text subtitle track to.
Only valid if the next track ID targets a text subtitle track. It
defaults to UTF-8.
--blockadd level
Keep only the BlockAdditions up to this level. The default is to
keep all levels. This option only affects certain kinds of codecs
like WAVPACK4.
--cuesheet
Causes mkvextract(1) to extract a CUE sheet from the chapter
information and tag data for the following track into a file whose
name is the track's output name with '.cue' appended to it.
--raw
Extracts the raw data into a file without any container data around
it. Unlike the --fullraw flag this flag does not cause the contents
of the CodecPrivate element to be written to the file. This mode
works with all CodecIDs, even the ones that mkvextract(1) doesn't
support otherwise, but the resulting files might not be usable.
--fullraw
Extracts the raw data into a file without any container data around
it. The contents of the CodecPrivate element will be written to the
file first if the track contains such a header element. This mode
works with all CodecIDs, even the ones that mkvextract(1) doesn't
support otherwise, but the resulting files might not be usable.
TID:outname
Causes extraction of the track with the ID TID into the file
outname if such a track exists in the source file. This option can
be given multiple times. The track IDs are the same as the ones
output by mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option.
Each output name should be used only once. The exception are
RealAudio and RealVideo tracks. If you use the same name for
different tracks then those tracks will be saved in the same file.
Example:
$ mkvextract tracks input.mkv 1:output-two-tracks.rm 2:output-two-tracks.rm
Tags extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract tags source-filename [options]
The extracted tags are written to the console unless the output is
redirected (see the section about output redirection for details).
Attachments extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract attachments source-filename [options] AID1:outname1
[AID2:outname2 ...]
AID:outname
Causes extraction of the attachment with the ID AID into the file
outname if such an attachment exists in the source file. If the
outname is left empty then the name of the attachment inside the
source Matroska(TM) file is used instead. This option can be given
multiple times. The attachment IDs are the same as the ones output
by mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option.
Chapters extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract chapters source-filename [options]
-s, --simple
Exports the chapter information in the simple format used in the
OGM tools (CHAPTER01=..., CHAPTER01NAME=...). In this mode some
information has to be discarded. Default is to output the chapters
in XML format.
The extracted chapters are written to the console unless the output is
redirected (see the section about output redirection for details).
Cue sheet extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract cuesheet source-filename [options]
The extracted cue sheet is written to the console unless the output is
redirected (see the section about output redirection for details).
Timecode extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract timecodes_v2 source-filename [options]
TID1:dest-filename1 [TID2:dest-filename2 ...]
The extracted timecodes are written to the console unless the output is
redirected (see the section about output redirection for details).
TID:outname
Causes extraction of the timecodes for the track with the ID TID
into the file outname if such a track exists in the source file.
This option can be given multiple times. The track IDs are the same
as the ones output by mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option.
Example:
$ mkvextract timecodes_v2 input.mkv 1:tc-track1.txt 2:tc-track2.txt
Cues extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract cues source-filename [options] TID1:dest-filename1
[TID2:dest-filename2 ...]
TID:dest-filename
Causes extraction of the cues for the track with the ID TID into
the file outname if such a track exists in the source file. This
option can be given multiple times. The track IDs are the same as
the ones output by mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option and not the
numbers contained in the CueTrack element.
The format output is a simple text format: one line per CuePoint
element with key=value pairs. If an optional element is not present in
a CuePoint (e.g. CueDuration) then a dash will be output as the value.
Example:
timecode=00:00:13.305000000 duration=- cluster_position=757741 relative_position=11
The possible keys are:
timecode
The cue point's timecode with nanosecond precision. The format is
HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn. This element is always set.
duration
The cue point's duration with nanosecond precision. The format is
HH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnn.
cluster_position
The absolute position in bytes inside the Matroska(TM) file where
the cluster containing the referenced element starts.
Note
Inside the Matroska(TM) file the CueClusterPosition is relative
to the segment's data start offset. The value output by
mkvextract(1)'s cue extraction mode, however, contains that
offset already and is an absolute offset from the beginning of
the file.
relative_position
The relative position in bytes inside the cluster where the
BlockGroup or SimpleBlock element the cue point refers to starts.
Note
Inside the Matroska(TM) file the CueRelativePosition is
relative to the cluster's data start offset. The value output
by mkvextract(1)'s cue extraction mode, however, is relative to
the cluster's ID. The absolute position inside the file can be
calculated by adding cluster_position and relative_position.
Example:
$ mkvextract cues input.mkv 1:cues-track1.txt 2:cues-track2.txt
OUTPUT REDIRECTION
Several extraction modes cause mkvextract(1) to write the extracted
data to the console. There are generally two ways of writing this data
into a file: one provided by the shell and one provided by
mkvextract(1) itself.
The shell's builtin redirection mechanism is used by appending '>
output-filename.ext' to the command line. Example:
$ mkvextract tags source.mkv > tags.xml
mkvextract(1)'s own redirection is invoked with the --redirect-output
option. Example:
$ mkvextract tags source.mkv --redirect-output tags.xml
Note
On Windows you should probably use the --redirect-output option
because cmd.exe sometimes interpretes special characters before
they're written into the output file resulting in broken output.
TEXT FILES AND CHARACTER SET CONVERSIONS
For an in-depth discussion about how all tools in the MKVToolNix suite
handle character set conversions, input/output encoding, command line
encoding and console encoding please see the identically-named section
in the mkvmerge(1) man page.
OUTPUT FILE FORMATS
The decision about the output format is based on the track type, not on
the extension used for the output file name. The following track types
are supported at the moment:
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
H.264 / AVC video tracks are written to H.264 elementary streams
which can be processed further with e.g. MP4Box(TM) from the
GPAC(TM) package.
V_MS/VFW/FOURCC
Fixed FPS video tracks with this CodecID are written to AVI files.
V_REAL/*
RealVideo(TM) tracks are written to RealMedia(TM) files.
V_THEORA
Theora(TM) streams will be written within an Ogg(TM) container
V_VP8, V_VP9
VP8 / VP9 tracks are written to IVF files.
A_MPEG/L2
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II streams will be extracted to raw MP2 files.
A_MPEG/L3, A_AC3
These will be extracted to raw MP3 and AC-3 files.
A_PCM/INT/LIT
Raw PCM data will be written to a WAV file.
A_AAC/MPEG2/*, A_AAC/MPEG4/*, A_AAC
All AAC files will be written into an AAC file with ADTS headers
before each packet. The ADTS headers will not contain the
deprecated emphasis field.
A_VORBIS
Vorbis audio will be written into an OggVorbis(TM) file.
A_REAL/*
RealAudio(TM) tracks are written to RealMedia(TM) files.
A_TTA1
TrueAudio(TM) tracks are written to TTA files. Please note that due
to Matroska(TM)'s limited timecode precision the extracted file's
header will be different regarding two fields: data_length (the
total number of samples in the file) and the CRC.
A_ALAC
ALAC tracks are written to CAF files.
A_FLAC
FLAC tracks are written to raw FLAC files.
A_WAVPACK4
WavPack(TM) tracks are written to WV files.
A_OPUS
Opus(TM) tracks are written to OggOpus(TM) files.
S_TEXT/UTF8
Simple text subtitles will be written as SRT files.
S_TEXT/SSA, S_TEXT/ASS
SSA and ASS text subtitles will be written as SSA/ASS files
respectively.
S_KATE
Kate(TM) streams will be written within an Ogg(TM) container.
S_VOBSUB
VobSub(TM) subtitles will be written as SUB files along with the
respective index files, as IDX files.
S_TEXT/USF
USF text subtitles will be written as USF files.
S_HDMV/PGS
PGS subtitles will be written as SUP files.
Tags
Tags are converted to a XML format. This format is the same that
mkvmerge(1) supports for reading tags.
Attachments
Attachments are written to they output file as they are. No
conversion whatsoever is done.
Chapters
Chapters are converted to a XML format. This format is the same
that mkvmerge(1) supports for reading chapters. Alternatively a
stripped-down version can be output in the simple OGM style format.
Timecodes
Timecodes are first sorted and then output as a timecode v2 format
compliant file ready to be fed to mkvmerge(1). The extraction to
other formats (v1, v3 and v4) is not supported.
EXIT CODESmkvextract(1) exits with one of three exit codes:
· 0 -- This exit codes means that extraction has completed
successfully.
· 1 -- In this case mkvextract(1) has output at least one warning,
but extraction did continue. A warning is prefixed with the text
'Warning:'. Depending on the issues involved the resulting files
might be ok or not. The user is urged to check both the warning and
the resulting files.
· 2 -- This exit code is used after an error occurred. mkvextract(1)
aborts right after outputting the error message. Error messages
range from wrong command line arguments over read/write errors to
broken files.
ESCAPING SPECIAL CHARS IN TEXT
There are a few places in which special characters in text must or
should be escaped. The rules for escaping are simple: each character
that needs escaping is replaced with a backslash followed by another
character.
The rules are: ' ' (a space) becomes '\s', '"' (double quotes) becomes
'\2', ':' becomes '\c', '#' becomes '\h' and '\' (a single backslash)
itself becomes '\\'.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLESmkvextract(1) uses the default variables that determine the system's
locale (e.g. LANG and the LC_* family). Additional variables:
MKVEXTRACT_DEBUG, MKVTOOLNIX_DEBUG and its short form MTX_DEBUG
The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --debug
option.
MKVEXTRACT_ENGAGE, MKVTOOLNIX_ENGAGE and its short form MTX_ENGAGE
The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --engage
option.
MKVEXTRACT_OPTIONS, MKVTOOLNIX_OPTIONS and its short form MTX_OPTIONS
The content is split on white space. The resulting partial strings
are treated as if it had been passed as command line options. If
you need to pass special characters (e.g. spaces) then you have to
escape them (see the section about escaping special characters in
text).
SEE ALSOmkvmerge(1), mkvinfo(1), mkvpropedit(1), mkvtoolnix-gui(1)WWW
The latest version can always be found at the MKVToolNix homepage[1].
AUTHOR
Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
Developer
NOTES
1. the MKVToolNix homepage
https://mkvtoolnix.download/
MKVToolNix 8.8.0 2016-01-10 MKVEXTRACT(1)
