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Combining 2 .m4v files ...

eVolcre

eVolcre

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 7, 2003
1,979
587
I have a movie, Gangs of New York that came on 2 discs. I've gone ahead and handbraked the two parts individually and now have 2 iTunes compatible files. How do I combine both of them into one large movie file?

I have QT (not Pro), VLC and Mpeg Streamclip

eV
 
Just accept the fact that it cannot be done. To do so requires many things to be true (same constant bitrate, avi container, running Windows) and will completely axe the quality of the encode. There is no easy solution to putting two files together.

You could try something like iMovie and pasting the two videos back to back and exporting. You will lose a significant amount of quality due to the fact that the entire video will be re-encoded in a lower quality format and bitrate though.
 
The thing is, I actually did this 3 weeks ago but don't remember how. Same situation Once upon a time in America was the movie, I handbraked it, ended up with two files and somehow mgerged both of them into one m4v.

For the life of me I just can't remember how I did it!
 
You can copy and paste in one movie into the other in QuickTime (might require Pro, I forget). You might be able to do this with MPEG Streamclip too, although I haven't tried.

You can also use DVD2OneX (paid software) to join the video_ts folders of each DVD and then run the whole thing through HandBrake again.
 
eVolcre said:
The thing is, I actually did this 3 weeks ago but don't remember how. Same situation Once upon a time in America was the movie, I handbraked it, ended up with two files and somehow mgerged both of them into one m4v.

For the life of me I just can't remember how I did it!
Click to expand...

Let me know if you do. I have 2 or 3 movies like this and I just put them aside for this very reason!
 
geoffreak said:
Just accept the fact that it cannot be done. To do so requires many things to be true (same constant bitrate, avi container, running Windows) and will completely axe the quality of the encode. There is no easy solution to putting two files together.
Click to expand...

Why would you need the same bitrate? If that were the case, variable bitrate movies wouldn't be playable. Not sure why you think it needs to be in an avi container. And Windows only?
 
spice weasel said:
geoffreak said:
Just accept the fact that it cannot be done. To do so requires many things to be true (same constant bitrate, avi container, running Windows) and will completely axe the quality of the encode. There is no easy solution to putting two files together.
Click to expand...
Why would you need the same bitrate? If that were the case, variable bitrate movies wouldn't be playable. Not sure why you think it needs to be in an avi container. And Windows only?
Click to expand...

That was a failed attempt at trolling a topic that has no answer (that I know of) yet.

Combining VIDEO_TS files seems to be the only way to obtain the results desired.
 
randy98mtu said:
Let me know if you do. I have 2 or 3 movies like this and I just put them aside for this very reason!
Click to expand...

I couldn't figure it out. I know I used MPEG StreamClip but couldn't replicate what I did before.

I ended up leaving them as Part 1 and Part 2 with different artwork in iTunes. Not that much of a hassle to switch the DVD through FrontRow and if its a 3+ hour movie, I might want to take a break anyway

eV
 
With quicktime pro... open up both movies (each half in separate quicktime windows). On the first half of the movie go to edit and click select all. Then go to the 2nd half of the movie, and with the 2nd half q'd to the very beginning go to edit and then paste. This will paste the first half directly in front of the second half on one file. Then click save as, give it a new name, and choose to save it as a full copy. It will take a couple minutes and it will be done.
 
Bcos17 said:
With quicktime pro... open up both movies (each half in separate quicktime windows). On the first half of the movie go to edit and click select all. Then go to the 2nd half of the movie, and with the 2nd half q'd to the very beginning go to edit and then paste. This will paste the first half directly in front of the second half on one file. Then click save as, give it a new name, and choose to save it as a full copy. It will take a couple minutes and it will be done.
Click to expand...

This solution, at least for me, does not work with plex. Plex will play the first half fine, but when it gets to the transition between the two it gets choppy and eventually just freezes.
 
geoffreak said:
Just accept the fact that it cannot be done. To do so requires many things to be true (same constant bitrate, avi container, running Windows) and will completely axe the quality of the encode. There is no easy solution to putting two files together.

You could try something like iMovie and pasting the two videos back to back and exporting. You will lose a significant amount of quality due to the fact that the entire video will be re-encoded in a lower quality format and bitrate though.
Click to expand...

Haha, you're pretty funny. Guess the dozen or so movies I've done was just smoke & mirrors.

Use MPEG Streamclip. File/Open Files and select the two movies you want to stitch together (named xxxxxx1 & xxxxxxx2 so they're in the correct order and select the x1 first). Streamclip will open the two together and you can scroll to view what it'll look like together. Then I just do a Save As... / MP4 and it saves the combined movie as one with no loss of quality. Just make sure you Handbrake at the same settings and you're golden.

Need Windows....good one..
 
I downloaded the MPEG Streamclip app and tried to combine the .m4v files and save to a single file but it says that it could not be saved as a (avi, mov, mp4 etc.) file. What gives?:confused:
 
I might be a little late to the party but this thread was near the top on my google search.

1) I handbraked 2 files into .m4v
2) Opened the first segment in Quicktime Player Version 10.1 (501.5)
3) EDIT > ADD CLIP to END....
4) navigate to segment 2, choose
5) close the window and you will be asked where to save it.


my file is still exporting... i assume this technique won't degrade the quality. but, its pretty simple.
 
casinnova said:
I might be a little late to the party but this thread was near the top on my google search.

1) I handbraked 2 files into .m4v
2) Opened the first segment in Quicktime Player Version 10.1 (501.5)
3) EDIT > ADD CLIP to END....
4) navigate to segment 2, choose
5) close the window and you will be asked where to save it.


my file is still exporting... i assume this technique won't degrade the quality. but, its pretty simple.
Click to expand...

Try using MKVtools' "MP4 Video" Join feature...I've done that with my handbraked files and it worked perfectly.
 
I use Elgato turbo.264 HD to combine movies into one. There is a hardware version and a software only version. Both versions will combine multiple video files into one. and it supports different video formats. I use the one that came with the hardware acceleration dongle.

http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/Turbo264HD/product1.en.html
http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/Turbo264HD-software/product1.en.html

In the program you drag and drop the video files you want to combine into the window. At the bottom sleet "1 Movie" and it will show a chain link connecting the video files. Check to ensure they are in the correct order and if not you can drag and reorder the files. Click start and your done.

Very easy.

combinevideofiles.jpg
 
On the Windows side of things, there's plenty of software that will do this... Admittedly, it ain't free, but it works. Pinnacle Studio is one that I have. It's worked nicely in combining different clips. Though, it does a full re-encode, so that may not be what you want. Still, it's completely possible.
 
TuckBodi said:
Haha, you're pretty funny. Guess the dozen or so movies I've done was just smoke & mirrors.

Use MPEG Streamclip. File/Open Files and select the two movies you want to stitch together (named xxxxxx1 & xxxxxxx2 so they're in the correct order and select the x1 first). Streamclip will open the two together and you can scroll to view what it'll look like together. Then I just do a Save As... / MP4 and it saves the combined movie as one with no loss of quality. Just make sure you Handbrake at the same settings and you're golden.

Need Windows....good one..
Click to expand...

I remember that I used Streamclip to successfully combine my two Godfather II mp4s, but the resulting file altered the aspect ratio. I played around with it for quite some time and could not figure out how to rectify the problem. I still have the two files sitting on my desktop.
 
I have 2 m4v files created using Handbrake. These are the extended version of LOTR.

When I tried mkvtools (dragging and dropping them), it does nothing.

I tried mpeg streamclip but saving produces an error "movie can't be save in this format". I selected mp4 as the output format. mov seems to work fine tho.
 
Last edited:
casinnova said:
I might be a little late to the party but this thread was near the top on my google search.

1) I handbraked 2 files into .m4v
2) Opened the first segment in Quicktime Player Version 10.1 (501.5)
3) EDIT > ADD CLIP to END....
4) navigate to segment 2, choose
5) close the window and you will be asked where to save it.


my file is still exporting... i assume this technique won't degrade the quality. but, its pretty simple.
Click to expand...


Just saw this. I just drug both movies into quicktime but this looks cleaner and easier to do. Im still exporting Pearl Harbor.

AJ
 
I could not get this to work with QT. It made something after 2 hours that was 3 hours long but it was a black screen when I played it with no audio. Tried it a few way. Now trying mpeg stream clip.
 
well after waisting a lot of time today I will be keeping Pearl Harbor in two rips.

QT won't do it on 10.1 Its apparently broken or something as it has an export feature for iPod/apple tv

MKVtools or MP4tools won't do it. I get errors.

mpeg streamclip does it but won't keep the 5.1 dolby.

So I'm keeping both files separate until something better comes along.

AJ
 
Something like this would be nice:

---
join avi files and fix header

# download mencoder binary
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mplayerosx/ffmpegXbinaries20060307.zip

# open the Terminal

# cat file1.avi file2.avi file3.avi > output.avi
# mencoder -forceidx -oac copy -ovc copy output.avi -o output_final.avi;
---


You can join multiple files with cat (also m4v), but I don't know how to fix the m4v header?! The example above is only for the avi container.

Cheers
 
Whats really weird is I took the same two movies in QT and trimmed them down to 2 minutes each then joined them and exported and it worked fine. Apperently something with the two whole versions of disc 1 and two from pearl harbor is not working. Also loosing 5.1 audio for some reason, it only shows stereo in iTunes.
 
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