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sandreas
m4b-tool
PHP2018–2025
sandreas / m4b-tool

m4b-tool

m4b-tool is a command line utility to merge, split and chapterize audiobook files such as mp3, ogg, flac, m4a or m4b

Command LineLibraries & SDKs
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
3Distinct people
30Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1.6KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

m4b-tool is a command line utility to merge, split and chapterize audiobook files such as mp3, ogg, flac, m4a or m4b

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 10:49:33 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year30 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2018-06-20 18:04:29 UTC to 2025-08-10 11:12:32 UTC.

024682018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 3 submissions, 0 comments20182019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 6 mentions; 4 submissions, 2 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments20212022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 8 mentions; 0 submissions, 8 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 5 mentions; 0 submissions, 5 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC330
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC642
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC808
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC505
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

5 sources
sandreas·Dec 13, 2023
I created a few audio tinkering utilities, e.g. - m4b-tool[1], an audio book utility - tone[2], an audio tagger mainly for myself because the existing tools did not fit my needs or weren't FOSS. I did never think so many people would be interested. By the end of the year I plan to make my first donation of my github sponsoring income to a charity project. Currently I'm working on `pure-todo`, a todo list with sqlite, REST API and JWT based user management. The first approach was to publish it with a single index.php file without ANY dependency, but this is something I have to think over again. Maintenance will be a nightmare :-) Next FOSS project I will work on is `Tone Audio Player`, a fully cross platform (Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, WASM) audio player app, that fully supports background playback without stuttering. But C# / A
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valonia UI is just not there yet, I'm currently switching to flutter. [1]: https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool [2]: https://github.com/sandreas/tone
In Ask HN: What apps have you created for your own use?
sandreas·Oct 27, 2023
The iPod is such an underestimated device... I'm still searching for a comparable replacement of my iPod Nano 6G / 7G. The thing is: Even modern Android players throwing tons of features at it, can't really compete with the user experience. Most people only listen to music, so they will never miss the awesome audio book and podcast integration of the whole iPod line (besides the good music ability). The iPod Nano is many years old and still: - Is REALLY small - Already has bluetooth low energy - Supports cable headphone remote controls (EarPods have questionable audio quality, but the remote works absolutely flawless) - Can play a variety of formats for a really long time with a 220mah battery - Supports audio book single files with chapters (m4b format) I modded many iPod Classics with Rockbox and iFlash Quads, but the origina
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l interface is hard to beat in terms of audio books. Unfortunately repairing iPod Nanos is really tough compared to the iPod classic 2009 (even this device already supports the cable headphone controls). Currenlty I'm trying to mod an iPod Nano 7G to have a 600mah battery by milling out the backplate, keeping the original BMS and placing an iPod Mini Battery (which fits perfectly in size, when the backplate is milled out). This way I hope I will have the only iPod Nano 7G with interchangeable batteries ;) The best alternative I found so far is the Unihertz Jelly 2(e) Phone with selfhosted Audiobookshelf and different player / sync apps, but the experience is nowhere near the iPod... It's bigger, way thicker and the headphone controls are "unstable". Not to talk about the app crashes, unsupported android background service playing and missing / non-working chapter controls. Disclaimer: I'm the developer of m4b-tool[1] and tone[2], so I know what I'm talking about :-) [1]: https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool [2]: https://github.com/sandreas/tone
In iPods now considered vintage tech– so of course sold out at Urban Outfitters
sandreas·Sep 23, 2023
hehe, that's how I made `m4b-tool`[1] - a command line tool written in PHP (!) using external tools to merge audio files to a single iTunes compatible m4b file. It started as one single simple script and now has grown into a maintenance hell of a thing, but I still use it on a weekly basis :-) Unfortunately atm I cannot even afford the time to redirect the github sponsoring income to charities[2], but by the end of the year, this might change. [1]: https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool [2]: https://pilabor.com/projects/github-sponsors/
In It's okay to make something nobody wants
sandreas·May 8, 2023
There is also https://www.vorleser.net/ for german users. In case you want to take it a step further, you could convert the `mp3`s to `m4b` format (one file per audio book), which internally uses an `mp4` container aac codec, chapters for separation and extended metadata. It's well supported on iTunes / iPods / iPhone as well as Jellyfin, Kodi, Plex, etc. and the files have lower bitrates than mp3 providing similar quality. (see https://github.com/seanap/Plex-Audiobook-Guide#optional-auto...) There is also https://www.thorsten-voice.de/en/motivation-vision-english/ (see my comment below), if you would like to generate your own german audio books via TTS and AI. A self hosted audio book server is audiobookshelf (https://www.audiobookshelf.org/) which comes with an app that is open souce and supports offline listening. Tools to convert `mp3
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` to `m4b` and edit metadata: - AudioBookConverter - https://github.com/yermak/AudioBookConverter (GUI, cross platform) - Chapter and Verse - http://lodensoftware.com/chapter-and-verse/ - m4b-tool - https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool (command line, cross platform) - tone - https://github.com/sandreas/tone (command line, cross platform) Note: I'm the author of the last two tools.
In Free Public Domain Audiobooks

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