Stitching Two m4v files together

[Big Alsie]

So here is the problem, I have been ripping my DVD collection for use on my TV. After i get the video file from handbrake i put it through lostify or metax to tag all the metadata. Everything has been going smoothly except for the handful of movies i have that are spread across two discs (LOTR, Sleepers, etc.). The only program i am aware of that will stitch two files together is quicktime pro. However, the resulting file is a mov and all chapter data is lost in the process. Plus, lostify doesnt work with mov files.

Is there a program out there that will combine two m4v files without changing the file extension or losing chapter data? Has anybody else had this same problem? Any solutions or workarounds out there? Please help.

 

[roidy]

Quicktime Pro can join m4v files, not sure if it will retain the chapter data but you can always retag it after.

 

[jaw04005]

There are several, but before you choose one I just wanted to mention a few things.

Chapter files are actually text documents that are stored within the video container. There can only be one chapter file per movie. Therefore, unless the program is specifically designed to insert the second movie’s chapter list into the previous movie’s chapter list and change the time code, it’s going to screw the chapter list up.

.M4V is just a special iTunes container file that can hold additional data beyond the capabilities of .MP4 container. For example, the .M4V container can hold AC3 (surround sound) file information and FairPlay DRM information.

If the files you’re wanting to join don’t contain AC3 soundtracks, you shouldn’t concern yourself with whether or not the program has converted it to MP4. It doesn’t matter. And if it bothers you too much just rename the .MP4 or .MOV file to .M4V. Again, for the most part, they’re compatible.

SimpleMovieX
http://simplemoviex.com/SimpleMovieX/index.var

MPEG StreamClip
http://www.squared5.com/

VisualHub does this if you can find it (it’s been discontinued)

QuickTime Pro 7 (there’s no QuickTime Pro version of Quicktime X)

 

[Big Alsie]

There are several, but before you choose one I just wanted to mention a few things.

Chapter files are actually text documents that are stored within the video container. There can only be one chapter file per movie. Therefore, unless the program is specifically designed to insert the second movie’s chapter list into the previous movie’s chapter list and change the time code, it’s going to screw the chapter list up.

.M4V is just a special iTunes container file that can hold additional data beyond the capabilities of .MP4 container. For example, the .M4V container can hold AC3 (surround sound) file information and FairPlay DRM information.

If the files you’re wanting to join don’t contain AC3 soundtracks, you shouldn’t concern yourself with whether or not the program has converted it to MP4. It doesn’t matter. And if it bothers you too much just rename the .MP4 or .MOV file to .M4V. Again, for the most part, they’re compatible.

SimpleMovieX
http://simplemoviex.com/SimpleMovieX/index.var

MPEG StreamClip
http://www.squared5.com/

VisualHub does this if you can find it (it’s been discontinued)

QuickTime Pro 7 (there’s no QuickTime Pro version of Quicktime X)

Thanks for help but i have another question. So if i use SimpleMovieX, i will be able to import the resulting file into itunes and stream it to my TV??

 

[jaw04005]

Thanks for help but i have another question. So if i use SimpleMovieX, i will be able to import the resulting file into itunes and stream it to my TV??

Yes. The file should be no different.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Another option you can use (what I used on LOTR) is DVD2One. This way you combine 2 DVD image files into 1 (chapters and all), then HB as usual.

It was just a thought.

HTH

 

[Big Alsie]

I have been playing around with DVD2OneX and have had success joining two dvd rips into one seamless file, but i seem to lose chapter markers when i do this.

Can someone please post a step by step to combine two vobs and not lose chapter info?

EDIT: figured it out after creating two "movie only" copies of the dvd to be joined.