Basic AVCHD/MP4 editing (title/join) without reencoding ?

[webvan]

I've seen searches for cutting/joining without reencoding and Yamb/MP4Box do the job but I'd like to go one up on that by adding a title and maybe some intermediate titles between scenes (not transitions of course that would require reencoding). No luck so far...

I created a simple title with MS Movie Maker in 1280x720/29.97fps and tried joining that to my dashcam 1280x720/29.97fps files but no go, the titles get ignored. I tried joining without the audio but that doesn't help, both with MP4Box and YAMB only the Dashcam files appear in the joined file. Avidemux doesn't do better in copy mode but does work with reencoding.

Any tips on what I could try to make the files "compatible" or is there software out there that could do that out of the box? Thanks!

[poisondeathray]

videoredo, solveigmm video splitter will probably work with less fuss


But if you encode in specs similar to your dashcam, you have a higher chance of appending the files with mp4box and similar tools

If you use mediainfo (view=>text) it will give some of the information about the dashcam files

[webvan]

Thanks, will look into these. Right, I forgot to mention I'd given mediainfo a try and couldn't see any obvious difference between the titles files and dashcam files at the video level. Any recommendation on what could create some simple titles better than Windows Movie Maker ?

[poisondeathray]

Any recommendation on what could create some simple titles better than Windows Movie Maker ?

It depends on what you mean by "simple titles", and "better than" - did you mean in terms of content or encoding specs ? WMM won't give you fine control over encoding parameters

[smrpix]

I forgot to mention I'd given mediainfo a try and couldn't see any obvious difference between the titles files and dashcam files at the video level.

Usually there are lots of differences, even if they are superficially the same as far codec, raster size, frame rate etc.

Most likely you will need a smart renderer to make this work properly such as videoredo or TMPGenc Smart Renderer.

[webvan]

Well just a title file that would be easy to join with the Dashcam files.

These are the specs of my Dashcam files :

General
Complete name : F:\DCIM\100MEDIA\LOOP0099.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : JVT
Codec ID : avc1
File size : 112 MiB
Duration : 3mn 0s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 5 207 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2014-08-15 12:29:35
Tagged date : UTC 2014-08-15 12:29:35
AMBA :


Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 3mn 0s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 5 168 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 6 187 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.187
Stream size : 111 MiB (99%)
Title : Ambarella AVC
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-08-15 12:29:35
Tagged date : UTC 2014-08-15 12:29:35

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 3mn 0s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 32.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 704 KiB (1%)
Title : Ambarella AAC
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-08-15 12:29:35
Tagged date : UTC 2014-08-15 12:29:35

[webvan]

And this is the title info

General
Complete name : F:\Intro.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 230 KiB
Duration : 7s 19ms
Overall bit rate : 268 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2014-08-17 14:35:04
Tagged date : UTC 2014-08-17 14:35:04

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=30
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 7s 19ms
Source duration : 7s 7ms
Bit rate : 262 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.009
Stream size : 224 KiB (98%)
Source stream size : 224 KiB (98%)
Encoded date : UTC 2014-08-17 14:35:04
Tagged date : UTC 2014-08-17 14:35:04
mdhd_Duration : 7007

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 7s 19ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 2 250 bps
Nominal bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.93 KiB (1%)
Encoded date : UTC 2014-08-17 14:35:04
Tagged date : UTC 2014-08-17 14:35:04
mdhd_Duration : 7019

[smrpix]

Yes, lots of differences that will prevent a clean join. The audio is radically different, but even the video has more than enough to cause trouble.

[poisondeathray]

"Easiest" is going to be one of those other programs, or the other one some people use is TMPGEnc Smart Renderer, as smrpix stated above but I havent used that one

But you're using different profile baseline@L3.1, no CABAC, different GOP settings

There maybe other things different as well, mediainfo doesn't reveal all the pertinent info. If you upload a small sample of a dash cam video, I can have a closer look and perhaps make some suggestions.

Or if you're just going to look at one of those 3 programs, then that would be the easiest least fuss way to go

[webvan]

Thanks, I'll give VideoRedo and TMPGEnc Smart Renderer, a try, hwat's the 3rd one?

Going with my original plan some further thought, the titles really don't have to be anything fancy so conforming them to the Dashcam files by reencoding would be the way to go, the question is how! Maybe with Avidemux?

[webvan]

Thanks again for the tips. I've had a chance to give these two a try and TMPGEnc Smart Renderer seemed to work best with little reencoding, transitions and titles, unfortunately it doesn't read the clips from my other action cam (Mobius), only sees them as audio and won't import them. In VideoRedo there doesn't seem to be a way to save the sequence of files stitched together, which is a bit of an issue, and it complained about the framerate of some files too.

Would be interested to know what the third software that does smart reencoding is, thanks!

[poisondeathray]

In videoredo, you add the project to the "joiner"

The other smart rendering software is soleveigmm video splitter
https://www.videohelp.com/tools/SolveigMM-Video-Splitter

You can still use avidemux / some x264 derivative and attempt to append , but you need to upload a sample clip if you want more help with the settings

What does mediainfo say about the Mobius clips ?

[webvan]

Thanks, that one looks pretty promising ! I have an audio mismatch 96/32/1 (Dashcam) vs 32/48/2 (Mobius) that is causing problems though so I'm reencoding the Mobius audio to 56/48/2 with avidemux, can't see a way to batch process though.

[poisondeathray]

I have an audio mismatch 96/32/1 (Dashcam) vs 32/48/2 (Mobius) that is causing problems though so I'm reencoding the Mobius audio to 56/48/2 with avidemux, can't see a way to batch process though.

You can use other tools to batch process the audio . I would probably use an ffmpeg script

I don't know what you numbers are supposed to indicate? bitrate/sampling rate/channels ? Are they both AAC-LC ?

They still won't match unless that's a typo (mono for Dashcam?)

[webvan]

Yes, sorry, that's what the numbers indicate. Actually avidemux can "remix" to 2 channels so that seemed ok...except that I'm noticing that avidemux is not completing the conversion process for some reason, it seems it doesn't like the files produced by the Solveig trimmer, hehe...this is like pulling teeth! By now my joining would have been done and encoded with Vegas

[smrpix]

By now my joining would have been done and encoded with Vegas

And the quality loss would be so minimal you wouldn't notice it except on a highly magnified freeze frame.