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Mpeg/AVI splitter/joiner?

B

bug

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 2, 2004
188
21
Vancouver, BC
Hi All -

I'm looking for OS X software for splitting and joining mpegs and avis with minimal user interaction. ie. I don't want to have to use a movie editor and drag all the clips in, arange them and then export them, I'd like to just drag and drop them into a box and press 'join' :)

In windows I was using PeckJoin for AVIs and Ordix Mpack for Mpegs, but I haven't found anything quite like them for OS X. I'm perfectly willing to use CLI tools or X11 tools if you know of any as well. Under linux (and OS X) I can join these files just by 'cat'ing them together on the command line, but that has problems if you are missing a file, or if one is named improperly, or is missing frames. Its nice to have a program that will give you warnings about these things.... that and I'm lazy and like to drag and drop!

If there truly is nothing like this, I'll give a shot at making one, but I thought I'd ask before I waste my time and find out there's a great one out there.
 
Thanks for that - but it seems like this only splits them and joining them is what I'm having the most trouble finding an application for.
 
So - unless I'm missing something, ffmpegX doesn't let you join an arbitrary number of files at once (I'm way to lazy to do a two file join 30 times) and MacHacha doesn't actually merge video files (unless they are in a supported split format, which mine are not - and I'd kinda like a program that warns about missing frames, etc).

Oh well, I'll keep looking...
 
Well, let me dig a little deeper here. One of the reasons why there may not be stand alone app that does what you want is because there isn't really any need for it. For instance, if you're combining split video files that you got off of newsgroups (usenet), then what you need is a good newsreader and a good newsgroup server. If that's the case, what you need is the newsreader called Hogwasher and there are tons of great newsgroup servers, but my isp does a great job for me so I can't tell you any names off hand. If that was your problem, then there's your answer. If not, tell us what your actual problem is and maybe we'll be able to give you a better answer.
 
motulist said:
Well, let me dig a little deeper here. One of the reasons why there may not be stand alone app that does what you want is because there isn't really any need for it. For instance, if you're combining split video files that you got off of newsgroups (usenet), then what you need is a good newsreader and a good newsgroup server. If that's the case, what you need is the newsreader called Hogwasher and there are tons of great newsgroup servers, but my isp does a great job for me so I can't tell you any names off hand. If that was your problem, then there's your answer. If not, tell us what your actual problem is and maybe we'll be able to give you a better answer.
Click to expand...

I am indeed trying to do exactly that. I don't really see how the server has anything to do with it, but I'm using easynews and using Unison, Pan or XNews for newsreaders depending on where I'm at.

Yes, the newsreaders will join split files that are split across multiple messages - but a huge percentage of the time I download video content and it is split before it is posted - and not split into rar parts or .001 files, but split like this:

Name-A-1a.mpg
Name-A-1b.mpg
Name-A-1c.mpg

Where A is a series, 1 is the video number in a series, and a,b,c are the split part identifiers (so you only want to join the a, b and c parts). It could also be split like this:

Name01.avi
Name02.avi
Name03.avi

or even like this:

Name-01-ExtraInfo.mpeg
Name-02-ExtraInfo.mpeg
Name-03-ExtraInfo.mpeg

or:

Name1aStuff.mpeg
Name1bStuff.mpeg
Name1cStuff.mpeg

or in any other strange way of indicating the parts.

They are NOT named like this:
Name.mpeg.001
Name.mpeg.002

I don't have a problem with those ones, as they were split at the file level and can just be joined using 'cat' or any number of file joining tools.

...so I don't really see how a newsreader can make the correct assumptions about how to join them, but if there really is such a reader, then hail to that reader.

There is also the problem where some video formats are not tolerant of missing parts, so lets say Name02.avi downloaded as a complete file, but there were no PAR files and it is about 300K smaller than it should be, and you don't know where those 300K were lost. With some codecs if you just join the parts on the file level (with no checking) then you end up with a large file that will only play until the first error is encountered. The joiners that I have used in Windows will do what they can to correct the file - obviously you end up with skips, but the file is able to find its next index frame correctly, etc.

I did try Hogwasher at some time - there was a reason I moved on, I can't remember exactly why. I think it had what I felt was a restrictive limit to how many headers it would download at once with no more clicking (if this is not the case, please excuse me, it has been a while since I was looking at newsreaders).

Anyway - let me know if this is what you were thinking of. If so, I will try Hogwasher and if it actually will join all these things automatically, I will give you a prize ;) ...also, please let me know how the usenet server makes any difference (other than file completion rate) - I just can't see what you are getting at there, but I'm willing to learn.
 
bug said:
not split into rar parts or .001 files, but split like this:

Name-A-1a.mpg
Name-A-1b.mpg
Name-A-1c.mpg
Click to expand...

Really? I dl a LOT of video files off the net (I basically use it as a tivo I don't have to program) and it's extremely rare that I see one split like that. The unix cat command that you mentioned should work on those.

bug said:
...also, please let me know how the usenet server makes any difference (other than file completion rate) - I just can't see what you are getting at there, but I'm willing to learn.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I meant. My news server literally, and I do mean literally, never misses a post. That way if there ever are files that have no pars, it makes no difference as all parts are always present.

And if you wanted to, an applescript could very easily be written to do all these type of file handling, cating, and warning capabilities you said you wanted done. But thats a bit more involved than it sounds like you're trying to get.

Keep trying, I'm sure there's a solution out there.
 
Well, don't install jFuse - it removed iMovie, iPhoto and iMovie HD from my drive! Now there are just '?' icons where they once were and spotlight can't find them anywhere.
Damn, I have been setting up software on this computer for days now, and I don't know what else it may have removed. I have never seen an installer remove existing software from a system before, I always thought users claiming this was happening to them were just making stupid mistakes.
 
ARG!

Does anyone know what package iMovie and iPhoto are in? There's an iTunes package on the Tiger DVD, but I can't find an iMovie or iPhoto package. I'll probably have to reinstall anyways now just because I can't know for sure what else is missing.

I'm really mad at the jFuse people - this is really lame.
 
OK, waking this thread up again...

That last link points to a program that seems to have very little to do with what I'm looking for, and jFuse (after getting it to work) is terrible for a whole list of reasons (10x slower than similar programs on the PC, the GUI has no drag and drop, and you have to select every file one at a time - god the pain!).

Surely there is something out there that will join AVI / Mpeg files? On the PC I'm using Ordix MPack for mpegs and Peck's Power Join for AVIs. The Ordix software is nice, but Peck's Power join (written way back in '97) is dated to say the least.

Under linux there is a utility called 'avimerge' (along with other avi tools to fix them, split them, etc). Unfortunately they don't seem to be in Fink, and even in Linux I can't find a GUI to them. I'm getting pretty tempted to port them and make some simple Java GUI - but it seems like there should already be a good tool for this (the avi tool on the PC is no good either really).

Still no word from anyone on this? Is anyone aware of a port of 'avimerge' from Linux with a GUI?

...looks like I'll have an xmas project if I get no responses, but it seems like such a simple program I feel like I must be missing something (like maybe OS X does it already and that's why no one has made a tool).
 
motulist said:
Really? I dl a LOT of video files off the net (I basically use it as a tivo I don't have to program) and it's extremely rare that I see one split like that. The unix cat command that you mentioned should work on those.
Click to expand...

Unix cat command does not deal with the fact that each AVI file has its own header information. The joining tools I've used before take the header out of the beginning of each file and generate a new header to insert at the beginning of the new file. This may work with mpegs (don't know) but I know it doesn't work correctly with AVIs.
 
You can join files with QuickTime Player. Not sure about the free version, but the Pro version work fine.

First make sure you have the needed plugin to play the audio and video stream (ex. DivX or MPEG-2), then perform these steps:
1. Open file 1 with QuickTime and move the time slider to the end
2. Drag and drop file 2 over the QuickTime player
3. Drag and drop file 3 over the QuickTime player
4. ....
5. File -> Save File As
 
solaris said:
You can join files with QuickTime Player. Not sure about the free version, but the Pro version work fine.

First make sure you have the needed plugin to play the audio and video stream (ex. DivX or MPEG-2), then perform these steps:
1. Open file 1 with QuickTime and move the time slider to the end
2. Drag and drop file 2 over the QuickTime player
3. Drag and drop file 3 over the QuickTime player
4. ....
5. File -> Save File As
Click to expand...

Can you confirm a few things for me about this (before I shell out for the Pro version)?

I need to confirm that this IS NOT re-encoding the file. I need a tool that simply merges video files, strips out the old headers, and generates a new header for the merged file. I don't want a tool that is recompressing the video to create the merged file.

...and secondly - your first step "Open file 1 with QuickTime and move the time slider to the end" concerns me. So does this mean that for every file I add I have to manually drag the slider to the end? That will just not do.

I need something where I can drag and drop (or at the least mass select from a menu) multiple files into the application, drag them up and down to make sure they are in the correct order, and then hit a single button that will merge them all together with no decompression or recompression.

There are a multitude of PC programs that will do this, unfortunately all the ones that will do this for AVIs are terrible (Easy Video Joiner looses audio sync immediately and the company's support emails just get bounced back, Peck's Power Join is so old it just isn't up to today's standards for a host of reasons, Aviser re-encodes the files "AVI joiner" I've just never had work properly).

I'm to the point where I'd even be fine if someone knew a good linux or Windows program for this since they just don't seem to be available in great quantities.
 
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