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

[crunchyx]

Just used m4baker, this frontend program is great. Thanks Crabman.

[Clopy]

For all the people that are having trouble finding the setup.py file, it's inside the directory where you untarred it. Don't go inside the m4baker directory.

[besnef]

This worked great to create a chaptered m4b. However I am not seeing the cover art on my ipod.

I tried by using the gui mode first specifying a jpg file for the cover (170x170 pixels); this did create a .png but when I loaded the file onto the ipod (using gtkpod) the cover art was not showing. I tried the same thing with a different set of files and got the same result.

I then tried using CLI mode, specifying the .png file created by the first process as the cover but when I loaded it onto the ipod the cover art was still missing.

I'd like to determine whether the problem is with the file or with the transfer to the ipod (or some combination). Is there any way to check the cover art short of loading it onto the device? This would be the equivalent to opening the file in vlc to check the chapter data.

Any ideas? Is there anything obvious that I am doing wrong?

[crabman]

@ besnef: you can use mp4art --list <your_audiobook>.m4b to check if the file contains a cover art file.

Please tell me if m4baker causes the error so i can fix it.

Crabman

[besnef]

Thank you for the information.

I checked the .m4b files and they did not contain cover art. I was able to use mp4art -add to add the cover art and then it did appear on the ipod.

The issue does seem to be when the m4b file is created.

I'll take a look at that this evening and see if I can tell anything else about what is happening.

[crabman]

Thats good to know. Currently m4baker uses "mp4tags -P cover.png" to add the cover.

Could you check if manually adding the cover using mp4tags fails on your audiobook file?

[besnef]

I tried

mp4tags -P cover.png audiobook.m4b

without success but

 mp4art --add cover.png audiobook.m4b

works fine.

I had originally wondered whether spaces in the filenames might have affected it but renaming the files produced the same result.

[k3lt01]

I've installed m4baker on my 2 main machines, and may I say it is a brilliant program. It worked except for 2 things, this is on my 2 machines:
1. I get a job queue set up and start it working when it is finished it never completes more than 1/2 of the jobs in the queue.
2. I set it up to do another series of jobs and it fails immediately yet it creates the relevant chapter text files and thumbnails.

I have re-installed it completely on my laptop but to no avail, it still wont complete anymore jobs. I have gone looking for the "missing" m4b files thinking it may have created them but not put them where I asked it to and I noticed it has locked the mp3 files it was supposed to use to create the m4b audiobooks.

[k3lt01]

Any thoughts or suggestions on what is happening with m4baker on my machines?

Like I said it is a brilliant program as the m4b files it did make are excellent, but I would like to do more with it if I can.

[k3lt01]

Just thought I'd let you know I went to try it again on my desktop but the menu entry in Applications > Sound & Video has disappeared. It did that on my laptop the other day but it returned after a reboot, no such luck on my desktop unfortunately. I can get it to start using a terminal though. It still wont complete a job now though.

I also tried it again on my laptop but it still wont complete a job.

Looking for any help you can provide, if you want any more details please don't hesitate to ask.