How to Extract Chapters and Timestamps Using FFmpeg

Extracting chapters and their corresponding start times from video files is a common task for video editors, archivists, and developers. This article provides a straightforward guide on how to use the FFmpeg suite to quickly extract chapter names and start times from a video file and save them directly to a text or JSON file.

Method 1: Extracting Clean Chapter Lists Using FFprobe

FFprobe (which comes bundled with FFmpeg) is the best tool for gathering media information in a readable format. You can extract chapter names and start times directly to a text file using the following command:

ffprobe -v error -show_entries chapter=title,start_time -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 input.mp4 > chapters.txt

How it works:

-v error: Suppresses unnecessary log details, showing only errors.
-show_entries chapter=title,start_time: Specfies that you only want to extract the chapter title and its start time.
-of default=noprint_wrappers=1: Formats the output as a clean list without extra XML/JSON-like tags.
input.mp4: Replace this with the path to your video file.
> chapters.txt: Saves the console output directly to a file named chapters.txt.

The resulting chapters.txt file will look like this:

start_time=0.000000
title=Introduction
start_time=125.500000
title=Chapter 1: Getting Started

Method 2: Extracting Chapters in JSON Format

If you need to use the data in a programming script or web application, you can export the chapter details in JSON format:

ffprobe -v error -print_format json -show_chapters input.mp4 > chapters.json

This creates a structured chapters.json file containing start times, end times, timebases, and chapter titles.

Method 3: Extracting Standard FFmpeg Metadata

If you plan to import these chapters into another video file later using FFmpeg, you should export the metadata in FFmpeg’s native format:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -f ffmetadata metadata.txt

This generates a metadata.txt file containing the global metadata and specific chapter blocks formatted like this:

[CHAPTER]
TIMEBASE=1/1000
START=0
END=125500
title=Introduction