Join 18 .avi files with VirtualDub

[nlec]

I used VirtualDub to split one long 26 GB .avi file into 18 parts that I burned onto 6 DVD+Rs. Now I want to join them back together. What is the best way to do that? Should I copy all 18 files from the 6 DVDs back to the hard drive first, or can I keep appending files from the DVDs as I go along? Splitting was easy. It looks like re-joining them back together is not so easy.

[themaster1]

18?word

I believe u can join a couple of streams like2 ,3 but more i don't know.
Anyway:
First open a video normally,then add another one with the option "Append avi segment"

[nlec]

I read it's possible to join A+B and then proceed with AB+C, ABC+D, etc. I was hoping to avoid all those intermediate files along the way to A+B+C+D+... +Q+R.

I am also going to try WinRAR to store the original avi file (it's DV25) without compression, breaking it up into 'volumes' that can be burned individually to DVD. On restore I believe WinRAR will call for the subsequent parts in sequence.

The drawback with WinRAR is that if any of the parts become un-readable, the whole thing will be lost for good. I was hoping VirtualDub had something a bit more elegant than what I've seen so far.

[gadgetguy]

If you copy all of the files to hard drive and name them sequentially, you can use VDub. Open the first, Append the second, and all the rest will automatically be appended.

[nlec]

I'm doing it now. The projected filesize estimate is twice as large as what the final joined result should be. I'll wait for it to finish here...

24 GB...
25 GB...
26 , 27 GB...

Bah. It just passed 31 GB and there are only 28 GB in the individual files that make up the set. I should have known. The estimated file size in the progress dialog was twice as big as it should be. Abort. The progress bar shows it's only half done.

It doesn't work. Time for a bug report I guess.

[gadgetguy]

You're doing what now? If you have loaded the files and are saving to avi, did you remember to set the video for direct stream copy? Or did you leave it at the default uncompressed.

[j4gg3rr]

You can try serving them all to Virtualdub with an AVISynth script like:

AVISource("C:\1.avi","C:\2.avi","C:\3.avi","C:\4.a vi","C:\5.avi")

Also AVIDemux2 and Aviutil can append multiple files and save stream copy.
Link to AVIDemux2 http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1014652#post1014652

[nlec]

I copied all the parts from the DVDs back to a subdirectory on the disk. "dir" in that subdir shows about 28 GB total for the 18 files.

vdub.00.avi
vdub.01.avi
...
vdub.16.avi
vdub.17.avi

They're all the same size except for the last one which is a little smaller, as expected. I started vdub, set Direct Stream Copy on video and audio and opened vdub.00.avi. I moved to the last frame and did "Append AVI Segment". I picked vdub.01.avi, the next one in the sequence, and left the "Autodetect additional segments by filename" checked. Then I did "Save as AVI..." to a new file in a separate directory.

Right away the estimated output size in the progress dialog was something like 51.865 MB. About double what it should have been. I aborted when the output file grew to about 32 GB since I was running out of disk space. At that point the progress bar showed the operation was only about half-way finished, and the estimated output file size was holding steady at over 51,000 MB.

The original file was a straight non-stop transfer from a camcorder over Firewire, so there shouldn't have been any issues with mismatched frame rates. It's all straight DV25 from beginning to end.

Can you spot anything I did wrong?

[nlec]

I figured it out. VirtualDub creates a set of files when you split an avi that cannot be directly re-joined again by VirtualDub. Unless you rename the first file in the numbered sequence before you start (i.e. the foo.00.avi file).

In my case, I renamed foo.00.avi to part1.avi first. Then, I opened that renamed file first in VirtualDub and selected the SECOND file in the set, e.g. foo.01.avi, as the 'append' file. When I did this everything went right and the final .avi is exactly the same length (time and number of frames) as the original.

I think when it goes into "append mode" and the "autodetect" option is ticked it treats both the second 'append file' that you choose AND the first file you open as sequences to be processed consecutively. That is, if you do it the way I described in my last post, it will consider the entire sequence of foo.00.avi ... foo.17.avi to be the first file, and the second append file you choose, i.e. foo.01.avi, will be treated as foo.01.avi ... foo.17.avi.

A simpler examle: let's say you have 4 parts, A, B, C and D. You open A and tell it to append B, thinking it will automatically pick up C and D when it finishes with B. But what it really does is this

(A+B+C+D) + (B+C+D)

If it's not a bug then it's a poor implementation of a badly designed feature that's documented even worse.