Cannot join files.

[RedDwarf1]

I have encoded a video file into 4 sections. I have joined the end 3 sections and then I encoded the start larger section using some filters and intended joining the large start to the smaller joined 3 parts after the encoded start section had finished.

Well the end 3 sections joined fine and played okay as well. But after finishing the start it will not join with the end section. It keeps throwing up an error:

The video streams data have incompatible data formats
(Mismatch detected in opaque codec data at byte 14 of the format data)

All 4 sections were encoded with the same codec, same resolution, all packed Bitstream and same fps. The only difference was the bitrate. Different bitrates were used in each section. The first section has a 1112kbps bitrate, the second section 1077kbps, the third section 58kbps, the fourth section 980kbps. The last 3 sections join together fine but those last three sections will not join to the first and give the error shown.

Anyone know why this is and how to correct it?

[squid_80]

I'm guessing you used full processing mode for the start section (since filters were used) and a different mode (fast recompress or normal recompress) for the other sections?
The bad news is I don't know an easy way to fix it, unless you know what you're doing with a hex editor.

[RedDwarf1]

Ah yes that is how I did it, I remember now. Well spotted. I did use fast re-compress for speed on the end sections.

I have got it joined but I could not use VirtualDub, I had to use AVIDemux to get it done. That did it without a problem and did not complain.

I does seem strange that it will not join two video files just because they were processed that way, I would of thought they would be compatible.

[squid_80]

The difference is the colorspace used to feed the codec, this results in a different format header being written. It's irrelevant when using a codec like xvid or divx but virtualdub doesn't know this, it handles all codecs the same for the sake of compatability.

[RedDwarf1]

The funny thing is AVIDemux works and I am sure that that program is based upon VirtualDub.