Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 65

Thread: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Darmstadt (DE)/ Lund (SWE
    Beans
    23

    Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    This guide is intended to show how to create m4b audiobook files, complete with chapter markers, cover, tags and iPod-compatible. It is based on my python-based tool M4Baker:

    http://code.google.com/p/m4baker/

    Description:
    A simple tool for creating ipod-compatible, full-featured m4b-audiobooks. Based on SoX, faac and mp4v2.

    Features:

    * make chapter markers
    * add cover picture from various filetypes
    * change and add metadata
    * on the fly conversion
    * batch mode
    * support for many different input file types
    * sort input files by filename or id3-tag (tracknumber)
    * split audiobooks into parts automatically
    * move chapters between audiobooks

    As this program is primary for educational purposes, any suggestions and critics regarding my code are very welcome.

    Dependencies:
    python, sox, faac, mp4v2 (inclusive utils, i.e mp4chaps and mp4tags) pyqt and Qt
    For the CLI mode please use version 0.1.2 since it was removed in 0.1.90

    M4Baker is NOT a KDE but a Qt-app like e.g. vlc, so you wont need kde and it integrates nicely into every Desktop.


    1 Install

    Install the dependencies, on ubuntu 10.04 lucid run:

    Code:
    sudo aptitude install build-essential checkinstall mpeg4ip-utils sox faac python-qt4 libsox-fmt-all
    Download, build and install mp4v2:

    Code:
    wget http://mp4v2.googlecode.com/files/mp4v2-1.9.1.tar.bz2
    tar -xf mp4v2-1.9.1.tar.bz2
    cd mp4v2-1.9.1
    ./configure
    make
    sudo checkinstall
    cd
    Install m4baker:

    Code:
    wget http://m4baker.googlecode.com/files/...-0.1.91.tar.gz
    tar -xf m4baker-0.1.91.tar.gz
    cd m4baker-0.1.91/
    sudo checkinstall python setup.py install
    It is now save to remove the downloaded tarballs and the created directories. checkinstall and build-essential can be uninstalled as they are not needed anymore.

    2 Rip

    Skip this step if the audiobook CD is already ripped.

    Once m4baker is installed, rip your audibook cd using your favorite software. If enough harddisk space (700MB per CD) is availible, i suggest ripping to .wav files. If not, .mp3 will do the job, too.

    3 Convert to m4b

    1. start "m4baker" from the "Applications-> Sound & Video" Menu. For the command line interface, run "m4baker -h" in a terminal.

    2. click "Add", mark all soundfiles that should be includes in the book, additional files can be added later. Every file will become a single chapter. The files id3tags are read automatically. If no tags are found, file information is guessed from the filename.

    3. sort, rename, remove or add chapters as you wish. Adjust the audiobooks metadata and add a cover file. Set the ouput filename if the automatically generated one does not please you. Experienced users can adjust faacs quality settings in the faac command line. If no changes are made here faacs standard settings are used. These should be fine for most purposes. If needed, the book can be automatically split into parts. The upper limit is 10 hours which should work with all iPod models. Hit Ok now.

    If you have more audiobooks that should be processed, add them as described in steps 1 to 3. It is possible to edit or remove an audiobook from the process queue.

    Hit "Process" and get a coffee. Depending on the number of files and audiobooks to process this might take a long time, so one coffee might not be enough. In this case, get a sixpack beer instead.

    4 Transfer to iPod or play

    The finished m4b files can be played by most software players. As far as i know, vlc is the only linux software that can show and hanlde chapter makers.

    For adding the chapters to your ipod use gtkpod > 0.99.14 with aac support. To install gtkpod run

    Code:
    sudo aptitude install gtkpod-aac
    enjoy your audiobooks on your iPod!

    crabman

    EDIT: adjust to new version 0.1.2
    EDIT: adjust to new version 0.1.90
    EDIT: adjust to new version 0.1.91
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by crabman; October 14th, 2010 at 07:56 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Safad, Palestine
    Beans
    22
    Distro
    Ubuntu

    Talking Re: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    Crabman, thank you so much for this application. I've been forever looking for a Mp3 M4b converter that supports chapters marking for the iPod. Thanks to you, this application is perfect and with the help of your tutorial, everything seems to run smoothly. I was able to install M4Baker and I'm currently converting an audiobook for testing. I'll write back when it's done. I have a great feeling about it.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Darmstadt (DE)/ Lund (SWE
    Beans
    23

    Re: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    great to hear, let me know if you encountered any bugs or have ideas for new features

    crabman

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Beans
    1

    Re: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    You Sir, should receive the Nobel Prize in awesome.
    I too have been looking a long time for something like this. The instructions worked great as well.

    Vielen dank, and enjoy your sixpack.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    UK
    Beans
    1
    Distro
    Xubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

    Re: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    I've been using M4Baker for a couple of weeks now with good results - thanks for writing a great program

    I want to report an issue that is causing me problems, maybe you can do something about it in future releases... Files that are longer than 13 hours, 15 mins and 17 seconds won't play properly on ipod. I've been manually spltting my longer books into roughly 10 hour m4b files, but in order to not mess up the chapter times this involves loading all tracks into the gui and removing a lot of them individually. I've just done Stephen King's It and it took nearly half an hour to arrange for 4 m4b output files with chapters properly timed.

    So for long books, an option for M4Baker to automatically split into several output files would be fantastic; failing this, even being able to select and remove multiple files at once in the gui would make life much easier than pressing the remove button hundreds of times.

    Keep up the good work!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Beans
    5

    Re: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    Hi.

    I am getting the following error when I try to run m4baker. What am I doing wrong?

    Code:
    black@black-laptop:~/m4baker-0.1.1$ m4baker
    starting in GUI mode
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/usr/local/bin/m4baker", line 2, in <module>
        from m4baker.m4baker import main; main()
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/m4baker/m4baker.py", line 145, in main
        gui()
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/m4baker/m4baker.py", line 53, in gui
        ui = MainWindow()
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/m4baker/ui/mainwindow.py", line 68, in __init__
        self.setupUi(self)
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/m4baker/ui/Ui_mainwindow.py", line 53, in setupUi
        self.progressBar.setProperty("value", 0)
    TypeError: argument 2 of QObject.setProperty() has an invalid type

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Darmstadt (DE)/ Lund (SWE
    Beans
    23

    Re: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    @ nowayoutofhere
    thanks for the hint, ill have a look at this issue, it will be fixed in the next release. How big is a 13 hour m4b file? Im asking because i was wondering if it might be able to reach the 4gb limit of the fat32 ipod filesystem.

    @pearlzilla
    The error occurs while setting up the gui. Which version of pyqt are you using?

    crabman

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Beans
    10

    Re: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    I tried using your software to make a file with bookmarks, and while it did combine all of my mp3s into a single audiobook, which shows up in the iphone's audio book section, it didn't make any chapters. I have a m4b and a txt file with chapter information I assume.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Darmstadt (DE)/ Lund (SWE
    Beans
    23

    Re: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    Quote Originally Posted by Asitaka View Post
    I tried using your software to make a file with bookmarks, and while it did combine all of my mp3s into a single audiobook, which shows up in the iphone's audio book section, it didn't make any chapters. I have a m4b and a txt file with chapter information I assume.
    There are two possible reasons for this:

    1. There was no chapter info written to the m4b:
    To check this, open the file with a recent version of vlc and check if vlc recognizes the chapters.
    If vlc does not find any chapters, something went wrong while writing the chapter info to the m4b file. Please start M4Baker from a terminal, process the same audiobook again and post the output and the resulting .txt file here so i can fix this.

    2. Your iphone doesnt recognize the chapters:
    If you can see the chapters in vlc, there must have gone something wrong during the transfer of the m4b file to your iphone. Make sure you used the VERY latest versions of gtkpod/libgpod or itunes. ANY other software will lead to the iphone not displaying the chapters. If it still fails, this might be a case for the libgpod/gtkpod developers.

    Thanks for your feedback,

    crabman

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Beans
    10

    Re: Howto: Create iPod-compatible m4b audiobooks with chapters and cover

    I made a new file using the gui and command prompt, no problems, though I don't understand why a text file is left behind. I deleted the text file and loaded it into VLC and it worked, all 100 chapters. Then when I copied it to the iPhone, I got no chapters. Do I need to change any file settings when I copy? or something special? I'm using gtkpod 0.99.14 and using libgpod 0.7.2, from the help. I installed gtkpod before I installed gtkpod-aac, could that be the problem?

Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •