How do I solve this file joining problem?

[A_Shepherd]

I've looked everywhere for a solution to this but I can't seem to find anything, so I apologise if this has already been covered.

I have been given the unedited footage of my friend's wedding by the photographer. It has been split into part files and I cannot figure out how to join them.

The exact folder contents are as follows:

Part1.000 ~4GB
Part2.000 ~4GB
.
(and so on)
.
Part7.000 ~4GB
Part1.001 ~4GB
Part3.001 ~1.5GB <-- (there is no Part2.001)
Part4.001 ~4GB
.
(and so on)
.
Part7.001 ~3GB
Part1.002 ~3.8GB
Part4.002 ~4GB
Part5.002 ~3.5GB
Part6.002 ~4GB
Part6.003 ~39MB


GSpot tells me that they are Raw DV files (IEC 61834).

I have tried using HJSplit and MasterSplitter, but they begin the joining at .001 files. The resulting file is unplayable (just a second or so of blocky colours on VLC and Quicktime).

Do I need to rename the files or use a different program? I'm not even sure what order to join them in! I am at a total loss. Please help!

I am using Windows XP.

[ggtop]

Hi,
don't know which program the photoking used to split them, but it was obviously to create chunks of max. 4GB size. Maybe because of FAT32 limitation.

But first be sure to keep the original files for a backup before you play around joining.

There are various tools to join avi files (that would be the correct extension!): VirtualDub, AviDemux, AviMux_GUI.

I would think that the part numbers belong together starting with the lowest number in the "extension" (.001 e.g.)
But you can preview them using VLC before joining, can't you? (Just drag&drop into the windowand you don't have to care about the extension)

ggtop

[Bjs]

Q: I have been given the "unedited footage" of my friend's wedding by the photographer

A:

Get back to your friend and ask them to get back in touch with the photographer ... you need a few answers such as camera used, software used if edited ... and if anything related to firestor was used ... there a pain in the rear if not set properly or you end up with a non-usable file.

As in this forum link

Second relates to "unedited footage" as there appears sections are missing ... why is the question... and is also why you cannot just join them.

[A_Shepherd]

Hi ggtop,

The files are actually raw dv files, and as such many programs won't touch it! I tried opening and appending the parts with VirtualDub, but it refused to open it. Same with AviDemux.

I have tried opening the individual parts with VLC, but all I get is a few seconds of garbled blocky colours before it stops. Should the individual parts be able to play properly before joining?

Another thing that puzzled me was in what order do they join? To clarify, would part1.000 join to part1.001 to part1.002 etc, or would it be part1.000 to part2.000 to part3.000 etc?

In any case, I need to figure out how to join them!

[poisondeathray]

try winrar or 7-zip to join

[A_Shepherd]

Q: I have been given the "unedited footage" of my friend's wedding by the photographer

A:

Get back to your friend and ask them to get back in touch with the photographer ... you need a few answers such as camera used, software used if edited ... and if anything related to firestor was used ... there a pain in the rear if not set properly or you end up with a non-usable file.

As in this forum link

Second relates to "unedited footage" as there appears sections are missing ... why is the question... and is also why you cannot just join them.

As in the thread you linked to, its been extremely difficult getting hold of this photographer. He's not been answering his cell for a fortnight, and the company he works for say he's away for some time.

So the missing pieces are what's causing the problem?

I'm not sure if it helps, but in the same folder there two files called "intro titles" and "bride montage" with .ppj extensions, which are associated with Adobe Premiere.

Does this info shed any light on what I could try to get this to work?

[Noahtuck]

try winrar or 7-zip to join

Ditto

[A_Shepherd]

try winrar or 7-zip to join

I've tried doing things with the file using winrar, but I'm not quite sure what I'm doing!

Could you simplify it for me?

[ggtop]

DV format only has I-frames so every part should play fine individually...if it was in an avi container. But it seems that it isn't. Maybe he captured the files on a MAC. Maybe this makes a difference? To be honest I don't know...
Did you have success in opening one of the files with winrar or 7-zip. Maybe the photographer has put the whole video in an archive and splitted that. That was what Noahtuck and poisondeathray suggest.

The best way is to ask the guy what he has done

ggtop

[poisondeathray]

Archives are usually split by name . So they would run run part1.000, part1.001, part1.002 .... (i.e. complete part1 would corresponds to part1.avi) . That's probably why there isn't part2.001 , because there is only 1 part, part2.000 (ie. the complete part2 it's not longer than 4GB - if it was larger than 4GB, there would be a part2.001)

If it is a vaild archive that winrar can read, open part1.000 and it should automatically append the rest , then hit "extract to" and select the folder you want to extract to .

If it doesn't automatically append, go up one level in the directory structure (there is a little icon with up arrow) still within winrar, then marquee select or ctrl select a group (the group would be all part1 components) , and then push "extract to"

Raw DV has .dv extension . So part1.dv . You can open it in mpegstreamclip for example, and re-wrap it into something else

[A_Shepherd]

I've been trying desperately to open the files (correctly I hope) using WinRAR and 7-Zip, without success.

WinRAR will not open part1.000, giving an error message saying "The archive is either in unknown format or damaged". If I try to select part1.000 to part1.002 and click "Extract to", I get the message "No archives found in selected files or folders".

Trying to open part1.000 with 7-Zip is similar, error message says "Cannot open as archive". However, if I select the group part1.000 to part1.002 and attempt to extract it, 7-Zip processes the files for a while and gives me a file "Part 1", and also the error message "Cannot open file part1.000 as archive". Looking at the new file "Part 1", it's roughly 8GB, so I think it's joined part1.001 and part1.002, but has problems with the .000 extension for some reason. I tried it with the other part files and had the same problem, it doesn't like .000 apparently.

Am I doing something wrong?

[poisondeathray]

It looks like you are doing it correctly, even if you "miss" a piece, winrar will tell you part1.xxx is missing or some error message like that

So it's probably not a valid archive, or at least one that winrar understands

What happens if you try part2.000 - the single / unsplit one ?

Have you tried renaming extension manually (e.g. part1.000 => part1.avi) ?

As mentioned earlier, it would be best to contact the photog

[A_Shepherd]

Trying to open part2.000 gives the same problem unfortunately, error messages stating it cannot be opened as an archive.

I have tried renaming the files to a couple of different formats (.avi and .dv for example), but when opening it (with VLC player and Quicktime) I simply get a second or so scrambled colours, the same as when I try to open it before renaming.

The photographer has been impossible contact sadly, hence this being the last resort!

Any more ideas?

[poisondeathray]

I can't imagine a photographer (or is he a videographer) would use an obscure format

You can try ffmpeg to see if it understands it. It can wrap raw video files

It's a command line application , so just try it on part2.000 , and see what it says about the file

ffmpeg -i part2.000

You can download an autobuild binary (ffmpeg.exe) from here
http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/

[Noahtuck]

Yeah from the naming structure i thought it must be some kind of split WinRar archive also.....

This one is small enough you could probably upload it so people can check it out,

Part6.003 ~39MB

The limit here looks to be 30mb but you could upload it to www.zshare.net
& then post the link,

[A_Shepherd]

After much hair pulling I managed to get some sort of answer. First I tried running it through WinFF, because I know it uses ffmpeg with a simple GUI and also because I run away like a little schoolgirl whenever I see a command line window.

However, after some experimenting I got ffmpeg to have a look at the file. All I managed to get was some info regarding the duration and bitrate etc. It basically said the following:

dv @ 01d0ce70 duration: 00:19:51.88 bitrate: 28799 kb/s

Stream #0.0: video: dvvideo, yuv420p, 720x576, 28800 kb/s, PAR: 118:81, DAR: 295:162, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc

Stream #0.1: audio: pcm_s16le, 32000hz, 2 channels, s16, 1024 kb/s

Stream #0.2: audio: pcm_s16le, 32000hz, 2 channels, s16, 1024 kb/s


That was it. Can you glean anything from it?

[A_Shepherd]

Yeah from the naming structure i thought it must be some kind of split WinRar archive also.....

This one is small enough you could probably upload it so people can check it out,

Part6.003 ~39MB

The limit here looks to be 30mb but you could upload it to www.zshare.net
& then post the link,

Oops, sorry Noah, I made a bit of a mistake, it's actually 390MB. I'm currently on an unbelievably slow wireless network that will take possibly several millenia to upload. I'll try and upload it on a faster connection as soon as I can get access to one.

[poisondeathray]

Can you glean anything from it?

yes, it means ffmpeg can "read it" and you should be able to rewrap it with ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i part2.000 -vcodec copy -acodec copy part2.avi

try that on that 1 file , and see if it opens in vdub or some other NLE

since they are DV , you should be able to convert each individually (intraframe compresion) , but if that doesn't work you could try to append the split segments in ffmpeg , or dos copy then re-wrap in ffmpeg

[A_Shepherd]

I attempted to do as you instructed, but ffmpeg ran into an error as soon as it started the encoding process:


avi @ 01e66c80 st:0 error, non monotone timestamps 30 >= 26

av_interleaved_write_frame<>: Operation not permitted


Not sure if I've made a mistake (I really do suck at command prompts), or if the file has stumped ffmpeg?

[poisondeathray]

try .mov or .dv instead e.g.

ffmpeg -i part2.000 -vcodec copy -acodec copy part2.dv

(and it's not really encoding, it's "repackaging" the contents by copying the audio & video streams)

[A_Shepherd]

Attempting .dv gives the following error:


Can't intialize DV format!
Make sure that you supply exactly two streams.

Could not write header for output file (incorrect codec parameters ?)


Attempting .mov gave the exact same error as with .avi.

[poisondeathray]

ok try this

ffmpeg -i part2.000 -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map 0:2 -vcodec copy -acodec copy part2.dv

or this

ffmpeg -i part2.000 -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -vcodec copy -acodec copy part2.dv

the 1st copies the 2 audio streams (each are stereo) , the 2nd copies only the 1st audio (ignores the 2nd audio)

[A_Shepherd]

It says:

Number of stream maps must match number of output streams

[poisondeathray]

^did you try the 2nd option above ?



if not try no audio (also try .mov, .dv) , you can add audio in later

ffmpeg -i part2.000 -vcodec copy -an part2.avi

[A_Shepherd]

Sorry, didn't see that!

However, same error as with the first .dv attempt:


Can't intialize DV format!
Make sure you supply exactly two streams

Could not write header for output file etc....

[poisondeathray]

hmmm that error doesn't make sense to me , that supplies 1 audio , 1 video (and the previous command was 1 video, 2 audio) ...

did you try the "no audio" command above ? (try it for .avi, .dv , .mov)

[A_Shepherd]

Missed that one too!

Still no luck.

The .avi and .mov give identical errors as before: non monotone timestamps 30 >= 26

The .dv gives a similar error but with a slight difference: non monotone timestamps 108000 >= 93093

[poisondeathray]

Well I renamed some raw dv files I had (file.dv) to "file.000" and did some ffmpeg tests and it seems to work on those

ffmpeg seems like it should work for your files, because it "reads" the file ok

Sorry , I'm not sure what else to try....

[A_Shepherd]

It's highly possible the weak link here is me...

You gave it a damn good shot though, really appreciate your efforts mate.

If you have another brainwave overnight, let me know!

[poisondeathray]

maybe try enosoft dv processor ? it's does a lot of things dv

keep on tryinig to reach the photographer - I can't believe that a professional photographer would be unreachable for extended periods , unless they were on vacation or something