Your experience with COPY /B for joining MTS videos?

[Tommy2013]

Hi all,

So I have a Canon that produces MTS files and splits them up when they hit the 2 gig mark. So 0001.MTS, 0002.MTS, 0003.MTS, etc.

I would like to combine these into a single MTS file without having to reencode them.

I read that you could use the command-line "COPY /B 0001.mts+0002.MTS+0003.MTS 123.MTS" to do this.

I tried it with 3 MTS files and it seems to have worked. The only concerning issue is that MediaInfo reports the final video stream to be 33:14 seconds and the final audio stream to be 33:13 seconds.

There has been some discussion that combining MTS files with other techniques results in some audio slipping issues. I'm not entirely sure if that is the case here or is just an anomaly.

I'm doing another test now but am interested to know if anyone else has any experiences with this?

Thanks,

Tom

One note, this method may also not work properly for joining random (i.e. non-sequential) MTS files.

[Tommy2013]

I did another test and it does seem to work perfectly. I am using xplorer2 (a windows replacement) that has a "merge files" command which saves me from the command line.

[Cornucopia]

If you ever read my past posts on this topic, you would know why that is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

Scott

[Tommy2013]

If you ever read my past posts on this topic, you would know why that is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

Scott

I've tried searching the forum and your posts and don't see anything from you regarding this specifically. Of course with over 7000 posts it was a bit difficult to try and look through all your posts. If you want to point me to something please do.

Other posters have indicated the copy /b does work, i.e.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/309675-Playback-of-MTS-files-(Canon-HF-series)-usin...D-Media-Player
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/285086-Mini-Guide-AVCHD-to-Anything-Using-DGAVCdec/page6
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/285086-Mini-Guide-AVCHD-to-Anything-Using-DGAVCdec/page10

If you or anyone else has specific knowledge or experience joing mts files exported sequentially from a videocamera using this process I would like to hear more. The main issues I hear are from people trying to join non-sequential mts files, which this process is not recommended for as I understand it.

[Cornucopia]

Well, here's ONE of them (not the longest one, but I don't have time to track them all down): https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/349238-Annoying-problem-Re-Merging-AC3s?p=2186898&v...=1#post2186898. That didn't even go into the bit where the headers are supposed to give the player an indication of runtime (# packets/frames/msec), and there is a disconnect between what it tells you it's going to show and what it actually gives you.

IOW, you "lucked out" this time. Doesn't mean you will next time. Lots depends on the players' support or compliance to the specs, and how flexible they are with non-standard files such as yours.

Scott