merging avi's with different resolution without quality loss

[surfer]

Is it possible with a free program to merge different avi files with different resolution without conversion so keep the original quality?
I have used Virtualdub and avidemux but they both want avi's with the same resolution so i must convert all avi's....

[poisondeathray]

nope

even if you used uncompressed, or lossless compression (huge filesize) , you still have to resize - which implies quality loss or at least deviation from the original

[surfer]

nope

even if you used uncompressed, or lossless compression (huge filesize) , you still have to resize - which implies quality loss or at least deviation from the original

In the old days i could copy the avi files to one large file. So this isn't possible anymore?

[Baldrick]

In the old days? It has never been possible to join video with different resolutions without reconverting to same size...or else it wont be valid video file.

So just resize one of the video to the same size(and codecs, etc) as the other and join.

[surfer]

In the old days? It has never been possible to join video with different resolutions without reconverting to same size...or else it wont be valid video file.

So just resize one of the video to the same size(and codecs, etc) as the other and join.

I tried this with Ultra video joiner. Nothing changes in the program but when i have merged the files they are not beiing played in Windows nor with my mediaplayer (unsupported format). Though i have everything in the program set : as original.....
How is this possible?

[guns1inger]

It is not possible, as has been explained. You cannot join videos of differing resolutions into a single video without re-encoding. This joiner program you have used has potentially attempted to do this, and created a worthless file that won't play. You have to resize everything to the same resolution, and re-encode all the parts that have changed.

[surfer]

It is not possible, as has been explained. You cannot join videos of differing resolutions into a single video without re-encoding. This joiner program you have used has potentially attempted to do this, and created a worthless file that won't play. You have to resize everything to the same resolution, and re-encode all the parts that have changed.

Yes thanks, you made that very clear..

But i have two same files, same resolution (wmv9) etc, They play very well, but when i merge them with Ultra Video Joiner, and it becomes one wmv file without adjusting enything so all settings at same as original, the file won't play anymore with mediaplayer and also not with my mediaplayer asus o!play...

[[_chef_]]

You may have read the posts but I think youhavent understood them all.

avi is not wmv. Joining (differently specced) video files without (partly) re-encoding will never be possible.

[jagabo]

Some containers support resolution changes (and other property changes like frame rate, bitrate, audio skew, etc). MPEG transport streams, for example. AVI does not. I don't know about MWV. In any case, it sounds like Ultra Video Joiner isn't working properly.

[DarrellS]

I used to use a program called Video Edit Magic that would join different file types with different resolutions. I believe when it encoded the file, it saved it as the lowest resolution. I believe that Pinnacle Studio 8 and 9 would do this also (maybe just different resolutions). Neither of these programs are free though.


http://www.deskshare.com/vem.aspx

[CthulhuSaves]

Actually, it is possible to do this. I've done it. Problem is (and thus my reason for searching on the subject) is that I completely forgot how I did it.

It was earlier this year, and I'd ripped a DVD with multiple segments that I wanted to join into one, final video file. I remember that the first time I joined them it screwed everything up. The first part displayed fine, but when it got to the widescreen clip, that part was distorted and crammed into the previous portion's resolution. So I did something different, and tried again, and the second time it worked great. The earlier segments were all playing correctly, and when it got to the widescreen portion, the player (VLC) simply changed to match the new display ie. One clue is that it does show the file title again, as if I were loading an entirely new video, but otherwise we're talking about a single file.

Also, to clarify, this was a quick slap-'em-together joining. No re-encoding or anything like that was done. I remember that much, at least. Unfortunately, now that I've run into the same scenario and need to do it again, I'm stumped as to what I did before. I've tried every bit of software I can think of that I might have used before, but nothing's working. Everything either wants to reencode the video, or complains about the different resolutions.

Oh, one other note. Even though the final segment fires-up as if it were a new, different video, VLC still displays the correct total runtime for the full video. That part doesn't suddenly "restart" or anything.

If any of this rings any bells, my poor memory would appreciate the help.

[Tom Saurus]

I think you should take two of your files and get them to match up in dimension, bit rate, frame rate and use AviDemux to patch them together. You won't know how much quality you are going to loose until you experiment. It might turn out better than you think. Just make sure you keep your original files, and if the files don't meet your standards, you just delete the new files and you still have your originals to try something else with. If things don't match up correctly you end up with a corrupt file that won't play or one that the audio is way out of sync and a variety of other stuff can get askew as well.

[Cornucopia]

@CluthuSaves,
What you did was join 2 files OF THE SAME RESOLUTION together. 720x480 with a 4:3 aspect ratio and 720x480 with a 16:9 aspect ratio are BOTH 720x480. What you were able to do was somehow (still a mystery) keep the AR signalling data flag intact even at the changes. That's not necessarily so hard.
What I find interesting is that some PLAYER chose to acknowledge those changes - WITHIN a so-called title - rather than read the flag at the beginning and keep it that way througout.

However, the OP's real world requirement of A) different resolutions in different segments and B) not re-encoding is not possible with the currently available codecs and containers, (with the partial exception of Quicktime. In QT, A combined video track would take the resolution of the highest rez element, with all other tracks sitting in the top left corner).

Scott

[AlanHK]

The question is, why would you want to do this?
If you just want the videos to play continuously, many video players support a playlist -- usually just a list of filenames as text.

Naming the file with .m3u suffix often works -- this I think was originally used by WinAmp for MP3 playlists, but if the player can play video as well, it works for any kind of file.

[CthulhuSaves]

Hey Scott! Long time. I never did figure out how to place two parallel video streams in the same AVI container, as I was trying to figure out how to do. You might not recall, but I wanted to have the B&W and Colorized versions of a film in the same container, so I could switch between them as desired, just like multiple audio tracks. Spiffy idea, and I'm still convinced it can be done (even with AVI), but I haven't put much into figuring it out lately.

Anywho, your comment above reminded me, and yep, that's exactly what I did. The video was ripped at the same dimensions as the others, and thus was distorted, so changing the flag set that right, and since the reported dimensions were the same, the joining software had no problem appending one onto the other. VLC plays it just fine, reports the correct total length, and merely reads the second flag at the correct time and changes its window size accordingly. Looks like I'll have to re-rip that off-size segment for this newer project, and do it at the same size as the others, then repeat what I did before to get it to play properly in the final video. Oy, lots of tedious work for such a silly little hurdle.

[CthulhuSaves]

The question is, why would you want to do this?

Why does anyone rip a DVD into an AVI (or MP4 or MKV, etc) file? Just because it's stored on the DVD in chapters doesn't mean I want the end result to be that way, I want my combined "movie" that I can carry around on my media devices (or in my case, I got one of those WD Passport hard drives, and man, they are awesome --entire collections of your favorite movies and music in your pocket. Sweet). Either the makers of the DVD made one of the segments a different size as a ripping deterrent, which I don't think was the case, or it simply fit that particular segment and is merely a minor obstacle for me (this I'm sure of, really --it's a DVD of old short films, and the off-sized segment is one that they added some new material and CGI to, so the widescreen presentation makes sense, I suppose).

[AlanHK]

The question is, why would you want to do this?

Why does anyone rip a DVD into an AVI (or MP4 or MKV, etc) file?

A million reasons. Which is why I asked.

Just because it's stored on the DVD in chapters doesn't mean I want the end result to be that way, I want my combined "movie" that I can carry around on my media devices (or in my case, I got one of those WD Passport hard drives

If that's your target, look at the doc and see if it supports a playlist. Quite likely it does.