Problem joining files

[dbhta]

Hi there.
I have a little problem joining files and need your help.
I have a divx movie (512 x 384, 29.970 fps, DivX Codec 4.12) that doesn't fit on one cd.
So i thought to re-encode part of the movie at lower bitrates to save space,
and then join it with the rest of the movie (wishfull thinking).

I re-encoded part of the movie (Full Processing mode, Compression DivX Codec 4.12, 1pass),
say movie1 (same resolution, same fps as the original movie)
and i also have another part of the movie (Direct stream copy)
say movie2 (same resolution, same fps).


I tried to join the two files as following:
Open movie1
Appen Avi segment movie2
Then i get an error message
'VirtualDub Error
Cannot append segment: The video streams have different data formats'

Any ideas why i get these error messages and what am i doing wrong?? :(


PS
Both of the files start and end with a keyframe.
I use Virtual Dub 1.4.7 for the compression and the joining of the files.
Tried to unistall the divx codec and virtual dub and then re-install them
but with no luck.
I also tried Nandub for the joining but with no luck.

[Acaila]

Did you encode one part with full processing and the other with fast recompress mode? VDub can't merge those two together because the colordepth flag isn't the same.

You can manually change that flag with a hexeditor though, so VDub can join them.

[dbhta]

I encoded one part (movie1) with Full Processing mode, and the other part (movie2) with Direct Stream copy.
I haven't used fast recompress.
And the thing is that 2 months ago i've done the same thing with another movie, and it worked OK.

[Acaila]

You can't encode a movie with direct stream copy. That method leaves the original video intact.

How did you originally encode the 2nd part?

[Acaila]

You can't encode a movie with direct stream copy. That method leaves the original video intact.

How did you originally encode the 2nd part?
And what is the color depth of both part 1 and part 2?

[Acaila]

You can't encode a movie with direct stream copy. That method leaves the original video intact.

How did you originally encode the 2nd part?
And what is the color depth of both part 1 and part 2?

[dbhta]

Hallo Acaila.
My original divx movie (dvd rip, that i want to fit on 1 cd) has these properties:
(640 x 480, 16 Bits, 167336 Frames, 25.000 Frames/Sec, 191 KB/Sec, DivX codec)

The parts of the movie that i've made are these :
1st part (movie1) 640 x 480, 24 Bits (Full Processing mode)
2nd part (movie2) 640 x 480, 16 Bits (Direct Stream copy)

I used Full Processing mode for the 1st part of the movie
cause i wanted to re-encode it with lower bitrate
so that i can save up space.

I used Direct Stream copy for the 2nd part of the movie
cause i wanted to leave that original part of the video intact (as you mentioned).

So (with your help) i found out that i tried to join two files with different color depth.
Can i do that or i must re-encode the 1st part (movie1) not with Full Processing mode but with fast recompress?
You mentioned that i can manually change the colour depth flag with a hexeditor, so VDub can join them.
I saw that VDub has a hexeditor. I used it to open an avi file but couldn't find the colour depth flag. Do you know if there is a guide for using hexeditors?

Thanks for your help.
PS.
In case you haven't figure it out, yes, i am a newbie.

[Acaila]

Thank you for the extra info.

So you are indeed trying to put a 24-bit and 16-bit movie together. VDub can't do this, nor can any other program that I know of. The hexeditor method that I mentioned is a very easy way to fix this problem, and doesn't change the movie at all. By changing the flag VDub now thinks both movies are the same and processes them normally.

VDub's hexeditor can show you what each byte represents, what you need is color depth. I don't know the exact byte, but it should be somewhere around 186. Change the 16-bit to 24-bit for one movie and then join them together.

I'm not very happy with hexeditors myself, because I don't like the hex values. Decimals are more logical for me.
An easy program is UGE (Universal Game Editor), this program is basically a hexeditor that instead of showing hex values, shows decimal values. You can easily find the color depth with this, just search for a byte that is 16 in one file and 24 in another.

And all of us started out as newbies, so I don't mind.

[dbhta]

Thanks Acaila for your help.
It helped me a lot.
Keep up the good work. :)

[angelleye]

I'm working with video clips that I personally captured and encoded using Divx 5 and Lame MP3. It's 2 quarters of a football game that I'm trying to append together. I've followed the same procedures for 3 weeks in a row with no problems...until this time. The 3rd and 4th qtrs of this one are giving me problems.

When I try and append the 4th to the 3rd....I get the same message you all saw except mine is audio:

"Cannot append segment: The AUDIO streams have different data formats"

When I take a look at the file information they both show up as the same: Lame MP3 CBR 128kbps.

I can tell you this..I mentioned above I followed same procedure as before...and I did..however this one during the capture got the a/v synch quite a bit off. Therefore I had to go through 3rd and 4th quarter and save a bunch of different parts for each one...synching the a/v for each part. I appended all those parts w/o any problems and ended up with a/v synched pretty damn close to perfect for my final 3rd and 4th quarter avis. But now I'm trying to append those 2 together and it's giving me the error.

I hope I haven't confused you too much. Any information on this would be great. Thanks!