Raw DV/File joining problem?

[AShepherd]

I hope someone can help me, I've been trying to solve this for months.

I've been given the unedited footage of my friend's wedding by the photographer. It has been split into part files and I cannot figure out how to join them.

The exact folder contents are as follows:

Part1.000 ~4GB
Part2.000 ~4GB
.
(and so on)
.
Part7.000 ~4GB
Part1.001 ~4GB
Part3.001 ~1.5GB <-- (there is no Part2.001)
Part4.001 ~4GB
.
(and so on)
.
Part7.001 ~3GB
Part1.002 ~3.8GB
Part4.002 ~4GB
Part5.002 ~3.5GB
Part6.002 ~4GB
Part6.003 ~390MB


GSpot tells me that they are Raw DV files (IEC 61834).

These files will not play individually, on any media player I've tried (VLC, MPC, Quicktime Pro).
I have tried using HJSplit and MasterSplitter, but they begin the joining at .001 files. The resulting file is unplayable (just a second or so of blocky colours on VLC and Quicktime).

There are also 7 .avi files named Part 1.avi to Part 7.avi, each between 200MB and 500MB. The curious thing is that they do not contain any video, just audio that is clearly from the wedding.

Running them through GSpot confirms that 99% of the size of the files is audio data (for example, Part 1.avi has 3.99MB video and 426MB audio according to GSpot, roughly 58mins in length).
GSpot says the video codec used is CDVC - Canopus DV Codec, audio is PCM Audio.

I tried playing them through VLC and VirtualDub, but I get only audio. Media Player Classic won't play it at all.

Any ideas on what to do?

I'm running Windows XP. I read somewhere that it's possible the files were created using Kino on Linux, and using a dvgrab command I could read the files and store it in a different format.
I suck at most things Windows related let alone Linux, but I installed Linux via Wubi and ran Kino. It wouldn't play any of the part files, saying it was not a valid file. Anything more than that was beyond me.

I'm completely stumped on what to do. Join the files before attempting anything? Or should the part files play by themselves? And using what platform/program?

Please help!

[Ghitulescu]

Ask the photographer of the friend of yours what kind of files he gave you.

[AShepherd]

Ask the photographer of the friend of yours what kind of files he gave you.

That would be the easiest solution, indeed!

However, all attempts to contact him have been fruitless. He has since left the company he was with when he filmed the wedding, and no one knows how to get hold of him.

[Ghitulescu]

I can only assume that all the files with a certain ending belong to the same movie that was split at 4GB boundaries. Maybe a COPY/B a+b+c film would do the trick

[AShepherd]

I can only assume that all the files with a certain ending belong to the same movie that was split at 4GB boundaries. Maybe a COPY/B a+b+c film would do the trick

Could you expand on that, please? I'm nowhere near as proficient with this stuff as you guys!

[Ghitulescu]

Which part (of two) do you want to expand? The grouping or the joining?

[AShepherd]

Which part (of two) do you want to expand? The grouping or the joining?

Both! I'm guessing it's a command I have to enter into somewhere. Where would I start?

[Ghitulescu]

Start->Run->CMD<enter>
COPY/B a+b+c film
where a,b,c,etc are corresponding file parts and file is the name of the joined movie.

[AShepherd]

Start->Run->CMD<enter>
COPY/B a+b+c film
where a,b,c,etc are corresponding file parts and file is the name of the joined movie.

Right, I eventually managed to do as required, joining Part 1.000, Part 1.001 and Part 1.002. The resultant file (which I called P1) size was the sum of the constituent parts, so it seems I did it correctly.

What should I do with this joined file? It doesn't play in VLC/QPro/MPC as far as I can tell.

[Ghitulescu]

I have absolutely no idea, try to use various DV converters and/or DV-in enabled software and/or file extensions

[AShepherd]

I have absolutely no idea, try to use various DV converters and/or DV-in enabled software and/or file extensions

Well, I tried using Canopus DV File Converter and Ulead DV Converter, but I had no luck whatsoever unfortunately.
Thanks for your help though mate.

I may have had some sort of progress attempting something via Linux though.

I've got Kino installed via my Wubi Linux install. I experimented a bit using the dvgrab command:

dvgrab -f [dv1|dv2] -I <filename>

I tried both the dv1 and dv2 options, on both a part file (Part 1.000) and the joined file that I got from the COPY/B command earlier (Part 1.000+Part 1.001+Part1.002).
After some processing, it said "End of pipe", followed by a message (the same for all permutations of files/options tried) saying:

"dvgrab-001.avi": frame dropped: timecode ??:??:??:??
This error means that the ieee1394 driver received an incomplete frame.
"dvgrab-006.avi" 852.94 MiB 6858 frames
Capture Stopped
Warning: 1 dropped frames.

The resulting file will actually play in Kino, but the video travels at about 10x and the picture is very jumbled, with green blocks and artifacts, but occasionally you can see glimpses of the original video. So perhaps this is a step in the right direction.

However, I have no idea how to proceed, especially using Linux.

Any Kino experts here have any ideas?