Joining mp4 and aac files together?

[|Supreme|]

Ya I heard this program called yamb works but kept getting import errors. I encoded it from xvid to mp4 using x264 codec in virtualdub. Has aac audio that I encoded from wav file too. Any ideas? Just want to take both and join them together.

[Baldrick]

import errors? what is the exact error msg?
what version of yamb? 1.6 or the 2 beta?

[|Supreme|]

1.6 version.. was linked in some guide I was using. Basically just would say failure to import files

[j4gg3rr]

MeGUI > Tools > Muxer > MP4

[|Supreme|]

Ok, yamb isn't working. I tried the 2.0 preview version. Kept saying all my files didn't exist.

And for MeGUI I can't get it to run, says I need some NET framework v 2.0.50727 atleast I've seen some links for 2.0 but I don't know if thats high enough. And seen a 3.0. Any ideas? Maybe get 3.0?

I don't have service pack 2 for xp at the moment though

[celtic_druid]

"from xvid to mp4 using x264 codec in virtualdub"??
VirtualDub can only output to avi and I wouldn't recommend using x264 via VfW anyway.

Anyway mp4box can't handle AVC input in an avi container. Only MPEG-4 Part 2 (Xvid, etc.). You would need to demux to a raw H.264 stream.

[|Supreme|]

How could I do that celtic_druid? And does MeGUI use mp4box too, meaning it wouldn't work either?

I went from having mpeg 2 700 meg files and wanting to make them smaller but x264 made videos look better at the size I wanted compared to xvid. But took longer to encode and now taking longer to figure out how to merge these mp4/aac files

[celtic_druid]

Try avi2raw from mpeg4ip. Depending on your settings though, you won't get all the original frames (limitations of VfW).

Once again, if you use VDub it isn't "merge these mp4/aac" it is "merge these avi/aac" and technically you could just use AVI-Mux GUI to have AVC/aac in an avi container.

[|Supreme|]

Ah, avi-mux gui sounds like a better idea if it can work. I'll give it a shot.

But also if its an avi container, how come I can't reopen it back in virtualdub? I got an error about that. (sorry kind of a noob to this container talk)

[|Supreme|]

Hmmm, and when I saved the x264 files in vdub they were labed .mpg's. Also Avi-mux gui program isn't accepting my .aac files ;o Might accept mp3 though.

Man does anyone know what i'm doing wrong? I just wanted to go from a mpeg2 mpeg file to a mp4 file with optional aac audio, if not then mp3 I guess.

[Soopafresh]

That's because the vfw h264 codec isn't "standard" avc/h264. Mp4box (the brains inside of Yamb) will reject it. You can let AutoMKV transcode your source file into an MP4 container with "standard" avc and aac files.

[|Supreme|]

Well, I spent like 2 days encoding, because slow computer plus good quality settings and x264 takes longer than xvid to encode. So don't want to do that again.

I really don't care that much about the audio, AAC or MP3 is fine. I just liked AAC because can be same file size as MP# but better quality.

So anyway to join the nonstandard x264 video with any form of audio? I still have the source MPEG2 files to get the audio from.

[celtic_druid]

Actually the issue with VDub not opening the file is probably because x264 isn't a codec. It is an encoder only. So you can encode something via it, but not decode it. You need ffdshow with AVC VfW decoding enabled.

AVI-Mux GUI should accept aac audio. Perhaps yours is in an mp4 container? As far as I remember it can't handle that.

If you want an mp4 though you can forget about AVI-Mux GUI. I was just pointing out that it would allow you to have aac in an avi container.

Storing MPEG-4 Part2 in an avi container was already very common, so mp4box supports supports Xvid/DivX avi input. No reason why avc support couldn't be added. Just that it doesn't need to and there is no reason to add it since avc in avi is not common and not to be encouraged.

[j4gg3rr]

You have something against MS Updates?
http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx
MeGUI > Tools > Muxer > MP4

[celtic_druid]

The limitations are with mp4box though, so it doesn't matter what GUI you use, they will still be there (the limitation in regards to avi input for AVC as well as any other limitations).

[|Supreme|]

Well for the sound I used Belight and neros aac encoding engine. Pretty sure its an aac. But avi-mux won't load it. Even though it says it supports aac files. Weird.

But anyways is there anyway to switch containers somehow? I mean the file is pretty much mp4 besides that I would think. Using virtualdub mpeg2 I would have also included the audio but it wouldn't allow me to do that. And so far the only way to link up the audio is to play it on winamp while video runs on videlan or something.

Or I guess the only solutions is using avi2raw from mpeg4ip with the encoded material. Or AutoMKV with the source material and start all over again? No others that involve using the current encoded files i have now?

[celtic_druid]

Nero by default I think outputs aac in an mp4 (m4a extension) container.

mp4box won't have a problem muxing mp4 audio. You just need to sort your video out first.

[|Supreme|]

Hey think I just found the solution I was looking for. I was thinking about what you said. That I couldn't create a mp4 file because its in an avi container. So I was thinking to just try to merge them the avi way. Didn't try avi-mux gui though.. but

I did have virtualdubmod. And I installed ffdshow to get vdub to open the x264 file and just added the mp3 stream. It wouldn't accept aac stream. So I have to sacrifice the slightly superior aac 192kb quality vs. mp3 128kb quality.

So it works Was pretty easy too. Although its still in avi container or w/e but the video is the size I wanted it with the better quality I wanted to get from x264 rather than xvid.

[celtic_druid]

Why 128k mp3 instead of 192k?

Also, VDubMod should have let you open and mux without ffdshow. If there is no decoder it should just lock the video to direct streaming, which is what you would want anyway.

[|Supreme|]

hmmm i don't know .. I think 192 might make the file too big.. But I could try 160 or something and 192.. See what the size differences are.

Yeah well I tried opening it in Virtualdub Mpeg2 program first. And it didn't work. I figured the other vdub programs wouldn't work either. And I saw a bunch of threads about ppl saying they couldn't open mp4 files without using ffdshow.

[j4gg3rr]

I've finally found a solution that tests OK!
AVIDemux is able to get raw *.264 out of AVI containers.
Just choose MPEG Video as the output container and name the output file *.264. This file will mux into an MP4 container with your AAC using MeGUI/MP4Box.

Get latest build and more info here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=995920#post995920

[celtic_druid]

Don't think MPEG Video would give you raw output although AVIDemux can do mp4 output itself. MP4box may also handle AVC in a TS container.

[j4gg3rr]

While AVIDemux can convert h.264 in AVI to MP4 the resulting file is unplayable using Hali and MPC MP4 splitters.
VLC and MPlayer work!!

Below is MediaInfo of an extracted file using AVIDemux's MPEG Video as container and stream copy from a VDubMod FFDShow H.264 FOURCC(h264) AVI.
Indeed Gspot also reports the container as MPEG Elementary Video << {1 vid}

Exactly the same as a raw *.264 file encoded using MeGUI X264 or VDubMod ffdshow outputing raw frames to file.

General #0
Complete name : D:\Temp\1.264
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format/Family : AVC
File size : 13.6 MiB

Video #0
Codec : AVC
Codec/Info : MPEG-4 AVC
Codec profile : High@L5.1
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 256 pixels
Aspect ratio : 2.500
PixelAspectRatio : 1.000
DisplayAspectRatio : 2.500

EDIT:
A quick hex compare also shows content to be exactly the same between a raw stream outputed by ffdshow and one extracted from the corresponding ffdshow encoded AVI using AVIDemux's MPEG Video as container. Only the later is missing some 26 kilobytes at the end of the file.

[Soopafresh]

I feel your pain. I transcoded an entire season of a series using Mencoder h264 and mp3 into an AVI container a little over a year ago. Now I want to play them on the iPOD. No biggie, just mux them into an MP4 container, maybe convert the audio into .AAC. Uh.....NO...NADA...zilch, Nyet.

[celtic_druid]

You are right, it does work for avi input. I tried with mp4 input and it didn't output a valid file.

Still easier to use mpeg4ip I think. Just avi2raw input.avi output.264 mp4creator can also extract valid tracks from mp4's.

As for iPod's... They don't support mp3 audio in an mp4 container? It is perfectly spec compliant.