Please help in joining AVI files with Allok Video Joiner...

[Ardavan]

Ok, here's my situation. I have a movie which is broken down into two AVI files, each roughly 693MB in size. What I'm looking to do is join the files without suffering any quality loss. If someone knows the ins and outs of this program please help.

What I'll do is first I'll load the first media file into VideoInspector and adjust the settings in Allok according to the information VideoInspector provides. I'll set the video codec to Xvid MPEG-4 (I'll leave the advanced settings and options at default), the audio codec to MP3, and change stretch mode to "resize preserving aspect ratio". VideoInspector reports that the resolution of the movie is 512x320, but Allok doesn't seem to have an option for custom resolution so I figured just to set it at 480x480. The last time I attempted a joining it stalled out at 70% and when I investigated the problem the target file was at 7.93GB! Allok couldn't finish joining because there wasn't any space left on the hard drive. So I need to know what I'm doing wrong. The only thing I can think of is on one joining attempt I set target quantizer to maximum quality, but at last attempt I set it back to default and still had the same problem. The target file was over 1.5GB at 26% on my last attempt.

My overall objective is to join the two AVI files while maintaining the same video/audio quality (if not improving it--if someone could also give info on settings in Allok to make a letterbox version that would be great as well), but I don't want the target file to be any larger than 1.4GB. I've also tried Open Video Joiner, but that program doesn't seem to work well with the Xvid codec.

[redwudz]

If they are AVI files and they are both the same format, why not just join them in VirtualDub? Open the first file, then select 'Append segment' and you are done. Can't get much easier.

If you save them with a 'Direct stream copy' there will be no changes in the files. You should be able to letterbox them also with the 'Resize' filter, then use 'Fast Recompress' and there should be little or no loss in quality. Be sure to select the same codec as the original file when saving. And same encoder settings.

[Ardavan]

"Could not append AVI segments because they are of different sampling rates". Thanks for the tip, but VirtualDub didn't want to work out for me. I did play around with it for a while, but every time I overcame one problem another would arise. Right now it's going to come down either to Open Video Joiner (I finally got it to work with the Xvid codec) or Allok Video Joiner. Unless someone can give me a heads up on a different program. Allok is easier to use and has more functionality, but everytime I've tried to do a join with Allok it never finishes the task because it eats up all the free space on the hard drive and the incomplete joined file is always 6GB+. I have managed to do a successful join with Open Video Joiner and get the file as small as 4.2GB while still maintaining very good quality, but that's the best I've been able to do thus far.

What I do quite simply is this: I'll load the movie AVI file into VideoInspector and right down all the specs it reports back to me. Then I'll load up my joiner program and load both the AVI segments into it. I will then set the resolution, frame rate, the aspect ratio, the video and the audio codec according to what VideoInspector displayed. I play around with the resize and the target quantizer settings and I think that may be the problem. Now, I have been able to do successful joins, but they all overshoot my target output size of 1.4GB for the target file. Like I said before the smallest I've been able to get is 4.2GB, any lower than that and I compromise the video quality. So what can I do to compress the final joined file down to 1.4GB and still have very good video quality? I thought Xvid was supposed to be better than Divx and have a better compression rate?

[redwudz]

You will have problems joining two files of any type if they are 'different sample rates'. You should change one or the other so both are the same. Then do the joining.

What you are doing should not be complicated. I do it with Vdub and other video programs all the time. If they end up a more than 1.4GB, you aren't joining, you are re-encoding them. I am assuming they are Xvid already?

[mats.hogberg]

...and why are you joining them? For most purposes, you don't have to join your source file, if you're aiming at reencoding to something else.

/Mats

[Ardavan]

First of all, mats.hopberg, I'm not aiming to reencode them. I am merely just trying to join them and it shouldn't be this complicated since I've done plenty of joins before, but for some reason Open and Allok Video Joiner both like to reencode this particular movie as opposed to just joining. You got me as to why.

Yes, Redwudz, they are Xvid already. Now, I'm very new to VirtualDub and haven't played around with it much so I'm gonna need your help. That is if you don't mind. It is the audio streams that are of different sample rates: 2326.00000 (CD1) vs. 28415.00000 (CD2). When I refer to CD1 and CD2 I'm referring to the two separate AVI segments.

I load up CD1 into Vdub and this is the first message it informs me: "VirtualDub has detected an improper VBR audio encoding in the source AVI file and will rewrite the audio header with standard CBR values during processing for better compatibility. This may introduce up to 11262 ms of skew from the video stream. If this unacceptable, decompress the entire audio to an uncompressed WAV file and recompress with a constant bitrate encoder. (bitrate: 226.6 +/- 14.1 Kbs)." I get the same message with CD2 except for the bitrate which is now 227.3 +/- 13.8 Kbs.

So please help me out here. Short of going through all the trouble of decompressing and then recompressing the audio streams for both CDs (which I wouldn't even know where to begin with Vdub), how can I get both audio streams to the same sample rate? And if I do have to go through the above trouble please outline it simply for me in Vdub.

[redwudz]

MP3 VBR audio, that explains your problem

It causes all kinds of problems. Here's one guide to reconvert it back to regular MP3 and after you do that, you should have no problem joining the videos. https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?link=101

I'll check back in a while, gotta go.

EDIT: Here's another guide for WAV extraction using VD Mod:https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280779&highlight=wav

I use Audacity for conversion back to MP3 CBR. Goldwave or other programs can do that also.

When I export the WAV from VD, I leave VD open. After the audio is converted to MP3 CBR, select that audio file with VD in the 'Streams' menu where you just were. Move it to the top and delete or disable the old audio. You should be able to resave the whole file with the new audio with 'Fast Recompress'. You will need to select the Xvid codec. It should get saved fairly quickly without re-encoding the whole file. Do the same process with the second file. Then you can just select the first modded file in VD, then append the second and use 'Direct Stream' and they will be quickly joined. Or use your other joining software.

You may have to do this fairly often so it's something to learn.

A lot of videos from the net have MP3 VBR audio. Almost always a problem if you want to join them.

[Ardavan]

Yes! That worked and solved all of my problems. Thanks for all your help redwudz.

[redwudz]

Great! Now you will know what to do the next time you run into one of those.

[EatMoreChickens]

When I export the WAV from VD, I leave VD open. After the audio is converted to MP3 CBR, select that audio file with VD in the 'Streams' menu where you just were. Move it to the top and delete or disable the old audio. You should be able to resave the whole file with the new audio with 'Fast Recompress'.

I'm totally confused, what "Streams" menu is there? I have VirtualDub 1.4, 1.49 and 1.6, and none of them have a streaming menu??? pls help. tia

[redwudz]

I use VirtualDub Mod. I just left off the 'Mod' in that quote. That's where the 'streams' menu is. Sorry, I don't have the regular VD on this computer, but the idea is similar.

EDIT: Here's a couple of guides for audio extraction, the first for VD and the second VDMod:

https://www.videohelp.com/virtualdubaudio.htm

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280779