How to convert a .ts stream ?

[ffooky]

I catch up on US TV shows via the internet and some are available as HD streams. These come in 100MB pieces which I join together with nullpacketstripper and watch with VLC. I'd like to convert some to h.264/xvid but have had no luck with Handbrake or ffmpegX. Handbrake will accept each individual 1 minute-long file but not the joined leviathan, whether I instruct nullpacketstripper to strip the PIDs or not. Can anyone suggest an alternative means of joining/converting. I have Ubuntu installed if a Linux-based method is available.

[Baldrick]

Tried mpeg streamclip?

[jman98]

Yes, I have a suggestion, but you're not going to like it. It will work though. Install either Parallels or Fusion from VMWare. Run Windows in a VM and convert in Windows. Or run BootCamp and boot Windows and do the work there. I have a Mac at work and they are OK, but to be blunt, some things are just a lot easier to do in Windows. The problem with Macs is that if something doesn't work like you are finding, you probably only have 1 or 2 programs that can do the job and if they don't work you are stuck. At least with Windows there are a variety of programs, including some free ones (I'm thinking of X.264 here) that can encode H.264 or X.264.

[JoachimS]

Try Visualhub on your individual clips and turn on the join option. VisualHub joins files after the conversion.

[ffooky]

Baldrick
I tried Streamclip a while ago but I'll have another bash and see what gives.
jman98
I don't have any great objection to using Windows but I had great difficulty getting my triple booting system up and running and it was either XP or Ubuntu that had to go....the penguin won.
JoachimS
I was intending to use CRF and I imagine there'll be problems with joining files but I'll certainly give it a spin after next Monday.

[albloom]

If it plays in VLC, why not use VLC to export to MPG?

[ffooky]

The thing is that I want x.264, otherwise VLC would indeed be a great option.

[ffooky]

I was delighted to find that selecting all the individual pieces with MPEG Streamclip caused it to open them as an unbroken stream and I am now able to convert to x.264 with the same tool. I'm used to the relatively idiot-proof nature of Handbrake's options so some of the configuration alternatives are going to require a bit of research.

Thanks for all the advice offered.