Advice for combining two WMVs and possible encoding them to Xvid?

[majax79]

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could recommend a program(s) to combine two WMV files and then potentially reencode them in Xvid format? I tried using Avidemux and of course it shutdown as soon as I tried to open these with it. I figured I'd try as it's the only video editing tool I use.

Here's the video information for one of the WMVs. It's probably too much information:

Format : VC-1
Format profile : MP
Codec ID : WMV3
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Video 9
Codec ID/Hint : WMV3
Duration : 43mn 16s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 750 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.081
Stream size : 232 MiB (92%)

[guns1inger]

No, it's about the right amount.

The simplest and safest way is probably to use a short Avisyth script to join the two clips, and then load this into virtualdub to encode.

The script could be as simple as

DirectShowSource("pathtofirstvideo/video1.wmv")+DirectShowSource("pathtovideo2/video2.wmv")

With you substituting the correct paths and video names. Put that in a text file called join.avs, and load join.avs into virtualdub (of course, make sure you have avisynth installed first).

[majax79]

Thank you for the information This is certainly quite technical.

Is there an automated program such as Total Video Converter that could be recommended? If not, I will do what you've instructed.

[jagabo]

If you put the AviSynth script in the same folder as the WMV files you don't need the full path names, just the filenames:

DirectShowSource("video1.wmv")+DirectShowSource("v ideo2.wmv")

[majax79]

Ok, thanks for the tip.

[majax79]

Ok, I completed the combine and re-encoding process as Avi.
It took about an hour. The input size of the two wmv's combine was about 400MB. The combined file size was 1.6GB.

Does the below information seem ok?

Compression
XviD MPEG-4 Codec (I left the default settings alone)

Average bitrate (kbps): 802 - was changing frequently

Input (decompression) format is:
YUV420

Output (compression) Format is:
RGB888

[jagabo]

Examine your final file with GSpot or MediaInfo. Post what is reported. I suspect you didn't compress the audio.

[majax79]

I checked the audio and you're right. I didn't compress the audio. Direct stream copy was selected. I've never used Virtualdub so I wasn't sure what to select.

I discarded the video so I don't have the information. I'll try again with Full Processing Mode in audio selected. Any advice on which audio compression to use?

I forgot to mention that my video bitrate was 384.

[jagabo]

You should have kept the file (if you were otherwise happy with the video). In VirtualDub you could Direct Stream Copy the video and just compress the audio and it would only take a minute or so.

If you don't need a file of a specific size I recommend you encode with Xvid in single pass target quantizer mode with a quantizer of ~3. That will give you decent quality (relative to your source) and usually a reasonable file size. If you want higher quality (larger file size) use a lower quantizer. If you want a smaller file (lower quality) use a quantizer of 4. I would stay between 2 and 4. Below 2 you just get really big files with no visible increase in quality. Above 4 the video starts to degrade.

[majax79]

Thank you for the information.

For the audio compression, I donwloaded LAME MP3. I'll probably just do 128kb/s CBR Stereo.

[majax79]

Hm, this time I have a problem. Should I just try a simple file joining program first then convert it to avi?

It freezes at 39%. Here's the log:

[i] Dub: I/O thread has not cycled for thirty seconds -- possible livelock.
(Thread action: reading video data from disk) (Current address: 7C90E514)

[i] Dub: Processing thread has not cycled for thirty seconds -- possible
livelock. (Thread action: waiting for video frame from I/O thread)
(Current address: 7C90E514)

[i] Dub: I/O thread has not cycled for thirty seconds -- possible livelock.
(Thread action: reading video data from disk) (Current address: 7C90E514)

[i] Dub: Processing thread has not cycled for thirty seconds -- possible
livelock. (Thread action: waiting for video frame from I/O thread)
(Current address: 7C90E514)

[i] Dub: I/O thread has not cycled for thirty seconds -- possible livelock.
(Thread action: reading video data from disk) (Current address: 7C90E514)

[i] Dub: Processing thread has not cycled for thirty seconds -- possible
livelock. (Thread action: waiting for video frame from I/O thread)
(Current address: 7C90E514)

[majax79]

Ok, so after getting Boilsoft video joiner and it combined the two files in about 2 minutes.

I then installed the WMV plugin and I realized I didn't have proper codecs.

I found wmv9VCMsetup.exe and installed the proper WMP codecs.

I'm going to try and encode it now.