MKVToolNix 18.0.0 Released with Performance Improvements

MKVToolNix, free and open-source Matroska libraries and tools, reached 18.0.0 release with some small bug-fixes and a couple of performance improvements.

Changes in MKVToolNix 18.0.0 include:

• When building with clang >= v3.8.0 or mingw >= 7.2.0, configure will no longer restrict optimization flags to -O1 and use -O3 again.
• Stack protection is enabled when building with clang 3.5.0 or newer on all platforms.
• AVC & HEVC ES parsers: performance improvements by copying much less memory around.
• Reintroduced a workaround for non-compliant files with tags that do not contain the mandatory SimpleTag element.
• The “AAC is SBR/HE-AAC/AAC+”, and “reduce to core” checkbox in the “audio properties” section will be disabled if the functionality is not implemented for the selected track’s codec & container.
• Fixed interpretation of the channel_configuration header element for ADTS files that do not contain a program configuration element: value 7 means 7.1 channels
• Matroska identification: the date_local and date_utc attributes will only be output if the identified Matroska file actually contains the “date” header field.
• WebVTT: mkvmerge did not recognize timestamp lines if the hours components were absent.
• GUI’s header editor: the date header field won’t be added automatically anymore whenever the segment info section is edited and the date element is either deleted or not present in the first place.

How to Install MKVToolNix 18.0.0 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and their derivatives, you can install the 18.0.0 release via the official MKVToolNix repository via following steps.

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command to add the repository for Ubuntu 16.04, Linux Mint 18.x:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://www.bunkus.org/ubuntu/xenial/ ./" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mkvtoolnix.list'

Replace xenial in the code with zesty for Ubuntu 17.04, or artful for Ubuntu 17.10. And input your password when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. If you have a previous release installed, upgrade the software via Software Updater utility:

Or run commands to install or upgrade the software packages:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install mkvtoolnix-gui

Uninstall MKVToolNix:

To remove the software repository, launch Software & Updates utility and navigate to Other Software tab.

To remove the software run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove mkvtoolnix mkvtoolnix-gui