ejsjrnc
New member
Through trial and error and a little googling, some of us here on the forums have discovered a way to create an audiobook file for the iPod that has chapter stops embedded into the file (similar to the way audible audiobooks do.) I'm going to attempt to document this process step by step in this post. It's outlined in broad strokes in this thread.
Download Slideshow Assembler from here.
It requires that you have Quicktime 7.1 or later (pro is not required). You will also need iTunes installed. Also outlined below is a way to calculate the start times using ms excel (thanks to lintujuh for outlining this method. I was trying to do this myself and couldn't figure out how to format it correctly.)
1. Rip the cd's using itunes in your preferred grouping method in AAC format. If you are working from files already ripped, skip to step 2.
3. Create the POD file for the audiobook using the chapter start times created in step 2.
PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU ARE EITHER COMMENTING OUT OR DELETING THE desc, pcst, purl, and egid FIELDS OR YOUR FILE WILL SHOW UP IN THE PODCASTS SECTION WHEN YOU IMPORT INTO ITUNES.
Finally, sync to your iPod and enjoy chapterized audiobook goodness!
Download Slideshow Assembler from here.
It requires that you have Quicktime 7.1 or later (pro is not required). You will also need iTunes installed. Also outlined below is a way to calculate the start times using ms excel (thanks to lintujuh for outlining this method. I was trying to do this myself and couldn't figure out how to format it correctly.)
1. Rip the cd's using itunes in your preferred grouping method in AAC format. If you are working from files already ripped, skip to step 2.
a. either 1 file per chapter or 1 file per cd, etc
2. Calculate the start times of each chapter using excel. This can also be done manually, but I think the excel method is a LOT easier.a. create a playlist with your chapters and export the playlist as a .txt file.
b. Import the txt file into ms excel or a comparable spreadsheet program as a tab delimited file.
c. The only columns that are important for this application are the name and the time. The time is notated in seconds. The other columns should be deleted so that the name is in column A and the time is in column B.
d. Select columns C and D. Click on Format and select Cells. Set the format to Custom and enter "h:mm:ss" in the field.
e. Select Cell C2 and enter "=time(0,0,B2)", then copy this formula to the remaining cells in the column.
f. Select D2 and enter "0" for the value. Select D3 and enter "=D2+C2" into the cell. Copy this formula to the remaining cells in the column.
g. This column will be your list of start times for each chapter. - see FIGURE 7
a. field names in the pod file:
altfolder1 - this is the location that you should have all of your working files (images, if applicable and audiofile.)
basename - this will be the filename of the processed file.
audiofile - this is the filename of the unprocessed audio file.
shownotes - this is currently not implement in SSA or necessary for audiobooks. This field can be either commmented out by inserting a ";" in front of it or deleting the line altogether.
artwork - this is the image file that you wish to show as the album art in iTunes.
imgwidth and imgheight - this is the height and width parameters of the image files. Apple recommends 300x300 in their podcast specs.
editpointcount - this is the number of chapter points you will be inserting into the file.
basename - this will be the filename of the processed file.
audiofile - this is the filename of the unprocessed audio file.
shownotes - this is currently not implement in SSA or necessary for audiobooks. This field can be either commmented out by inserting a ";" in front of it or deleting the line altogether.
artwork - this is the image file that you wish to show as the album art in iTunes.
imgwidth and imgheight - this is the height and width parameters of the image files. Apple recommends 300x300 in their podcast specs.
editpointcount - this is the number of chapter points you will be inserting into the file.
b. metadata tag explanations
©nam - this is the Name field in iTunes
©ART - this is the Artist field in iTunes
©alb - this is the Album field in iTunes
©gen - this is the genre field in iTunes. Set this to "Audiobooks".
©lyr - this is the Lyrics tab in Get Info in iTunes.
catg - this is a category field that itunes uses. By default SSA has it set to podcast. You will want to edit this to music to prevent the file from showing as a podcast.
desc - this is a podcast specific field and should be either commented out or deleted.
pcst - this is a podcast specific field and should be either commented out or deleted.
purl - this is a podcast specific field and should be either commented out or deleted.
egid - this is a podcast specific field and should be either commented out or deleted.
©ART - this is the Artist field in iTunes
©alb - this is the Album field in iTunes
©gen - this is the genre field in iTunes. Set this to "Audiobooks".
©lyr - this is the Lyrics tab in Get Info in iTunes.
catg - this is a category field that itunes uses. By default SSA has it set to podcast. You will want to edit this to music to prevent the file from showing as a podcast.
desc - this is a podcast specific field and should be either commented out or deleted.
pcst - this is a podcast specific field and should be either commented out or deleted.
purl - this is a podcast specific field and should be either commented out or deleted.
egid - this is a podcast specific field and should be either commented out or deleted.
c. Each editpoint should be in the following format:
[Editpoint_#]
start=00:00:00.00
chapter=Chaptername
image=chapterimage.jpg (The image tag is only necessary if you want to have the album art change on every chapter mark.)
start=00:00:00.00
chapter=Chaptername
image=chapterimage.jpg (The image tag is only necessary if you want to have the album art change on every chapter mark.)
4. Drag and drop the POD file onto SSA.exe. It will process the chapter points and create a file named "basename.m4a" in the location specified in altfolder1.
5. Rename the file extension from m4a to m4b.
6. Slideshow Assembler inserts a black box with dimensions specified in imgheight and imgwidth if there is no chapter art specified. To remove this from the file, you will need mp4box. It is a command line utility. You will need to run "mp4box -info basename.m4a" to find the track with the jpeg-vide stream. In this instance, it is track #3. Once you know the track number to remove, run "mp4box -rem #id" where #id is the stream you wish to remove.
7. Drag and drop the file into your iTunes library and it should show up in the Audiobooks section.
8. When you play the file in iTunes, you should see a Chapter menu that will let you jump to the chapter points that you have created.
Finally, sync to your iPod and enjoy chapterized audiobook goodness!
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