Tool to join videos WITH re-encoding??

[katzenjoghurt]

Again looking for a tool... :)

While many tools are proud to be able to join files
without reencoding (provided the bitstreams fit)
I really don't find any working one that allows to
reencode either video or audio if the streams aren't
fully compatible.

Okay... I can put them in the timeline of Magix Video
Deluxe or some other overblasted Video Editor forcing
me to encode both... video AND audio.... but a simple
tool...?


Avidemux SHOULD do it... but unfortunately this tool
simply doesn't seem to work for me and I always come
out with bad files.

StaxRip... once more I must say I'm to dumb to use
it. Set 1700kbps and wanted to merge-encode a whole
folder... and it fed 7000kbps to x264...



(Though it's a general question... the actual case is
wmv => mp4/mkv (H264) whatever...)

[D9JK]

I can't get Staxrip to merge-encode into a single file, not even when the videos come from the same source (only the first file will show on the job list).

[katzenjoghurt]

Got the same problem.
I read that others have it too... and I got the impression
that it's simply broken for quite some while.

It SEEMED to work after I put the files in one folder and
chose the "directory batch" mode.... at least it read all
the files then in the summary.

But I quit when I saw that it kept passing 7000kbps to
x264 ... god knows from where.

[Danisan]

You could try Freemake Video Converter (http://www.freemake.com/). It has a very nice interface and is easy to use. It joins files very well in my (limited) experience with it.

[hello_hello]

I think you'd have to manually re-encode the streams from each file which need to be re-encoded, replace the streams, then join the encoded versions together as a single file.
I don't think there's any converter GUI which will merge two video files together while only re-encoding the video of one, or the audio of the other etc... If you want to selectively re-encode you'll probably have to do some of the work manually. I think every GUI I've used which lets you join files while re-encoding forces you to re-encode either the video of both, or they'll let you copy the video of both, but won't let you copy one while re-encoding the other. Same when it comes to the audio.

I generally work with MKVs, so assuming MKV for the moment..... if I had two MKV files with incompatible audio streams I'd use MKVCleaver to extract the audio stream from each MKV, re-encode one or both streams to make them compatible, then I'd open each MKV with MKVToolNix (MKVMergeGUI) and replace the old audio stream with the new version. I'd save each as a new MKV, then I'd use MKVMerge to join the two new MKVs as a single file. You'd use a similar process when re-encoding the video from just one MKV but not the other etc.
For MP4s you can do the same thing with YAMB (dog slow compared to MKVToolNix and MKV), and for AVIs it's VirtualDub. You should be able to use Avidemux for multiple file types, but I never seem to have a lot of luck with it either.

I can never get my head around StaxRip so I use MeGUI. If for example I wanted to re-encode just the video in one MKV so I could join it to another, I'd extract the audio using MKVCleaver, then use MeGUI to re-encode the video while adding the extracted audio to the output (no audio re-encoding). When MeGUI is finished I'd then join the MKV it produced to my second MKV using MKVToolNix, etc, etc, etc....

If you want to re-encode the video and audio from both files while joining them together as a single file you can use MeGUI and an AVISynth script. A basic one might look like this:

AlignedSplice(DirectshowSource("video 1.mkv"),DirectshowSource("video 2.mkv"),DirectshowSource("video 3.mkv"))

Use notepad to save the above as a text file and change the extension to AVS (a basic script like the above will only work if each video is the same resolution). Open MeGUI's AVS Script Creator and use the above AVS script as the input video. From there you can use MeGUI to crop and resize the video etc (all the usual stuff) and re-encode it as a single file. It should load the same script for the audio part of the conversion too.

[katzenjoghurt]

Thanks hello_hello.

I know all the tools you mentioned.
Though I never fiddled around with AVISynth Scripts.

Yet, I was really looking for a one-click-solution.
Doesn't go in my head, that there is none but
Avidemux that often (I correct that, as I said
"always" before) just doesn't produce a playable
file and we have to do it by hand.

I now found a commercial tool that did the job
in 3 seconds... although audio didn't fit as other
tools said. Dunno what trick it used. However...
result video plays and is readable and encodable
by other tools.

WMVs are always troublesome though. And not
Open Source coders best friend anyway. :devil:

[hello_hello]

FormatFactory an AnyVideoConverter are both free, one click tools. AnyVideoConverter seems pretty good at maintaining audio sync. I think they'll both join files while encoding and both should give you the option to encode one stream but copy the other etc.

[katzenjoghurt]

Looked into AnyVideoEncoder.
It doesn't seem to have stream copy.

Super can do though. The GUI is a mess but I'll do
some encodings with it when I find the time.

Didn't check FormatFactory... never heard of that one.

The commercial tool I mentioned is "Ultra Video Joiner".
This one just worked for me and joined files where
other tools wouldn't. 25$ is pretty hefty for a video
joining tool though.