Concatenate all these AVIs into a single 1TB AVI

[SameSelf]

I wrote out 0.5 TB of lossless AVIs for a BD I am building, only to discover I need to now concatenate all these into a single AVI, which equates to 1 TB for a single project.

My life sucks.

EDIT: My apologies for ranting. Let me outline my problem and see what is the best path forward.

I have two sets of files: a group of intermediate Lagarith lossless AVIs with no audio that are the source for raw .264 encodes. Now I need to produce a single raw .264 encode instead of a group of files. It seems there are a few ways I can proceed:

1. Stitch together the raw .264 files. Requirements: Needs to be lossless and maintain bluray compliance.
2. Stitch together the lossless AVIs into a single AVI and re-encode that to a single raw .264 file. Requirement: needs to be lossless.
3. Use Avisynth to stitch the AVIs together and feed that to x264. Requirements: not sure at this point.
4. Build a new timeline in PPro and write out a new lossless AVI (this is a last ditch solution).

I am leaning towards #3.

[_Al_]

2. load all avi clips into VirtualDub (load first one, then use File/"Append avi segment" for each), set Video/"Direct Stream Copy" and save it as, ... to join all avi files
(you need extra space)

3. join it in Avisynth, does not need that extra space (better)
first_avi = Avisource("1.avi")
second_avi = Avisource("2.avi")
third_avi = Avisource("3.avi")
first_avi ++ second_avi ++ third_avi

[SameSelf]

Thanks, Method 3 seems like the preferred way to go. Method 2 would require 0.5 TB of space, ugh. Plus, I push the AVI through Avisynth anyway because I do some downscaling and frame rate conversion to get them bluray compliant. This video stuff can really make your head spin sometimes.

[redwudz]

SameSelf, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks,

Moderator redwudz

[LMotlow]

I push the AVI through Avisynth anyway because I do some downscaling and frame rate conversion to get them bluray compliant. This video stuff can really make your head spin sometimes.

Downscaling to what frame size? BluRay comes in several frame sizes, each has their set requirements for frame rate, interlaced/progressive, GOP size, etc., etc. What kind of frame rate conversion? If you mean you're dropping frames, good luck. https://www.videohelp.com/hd#tech

[SameSelf]

SameSelf, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks,

Moderator redwudz

If you review the edit history of my post you will see that I tried to edit the title to something more descriptive of my problem. I am not sure "Concatenate all these AVIs into a single 1TB AVI" is accurate either. But now I can't edit the title. Maybe something like:

"Should I Concatenate the lossless AVI intermediates and re-encode, or the raw .264 encodes, for BDMV authoring?"

EDIT: I love how the answer morphed into NEITHER! Rather, frameserve them through Avisynth and re-encode. Love it!

So maybe the the title should be changed to "How To Frameserve Multiple AVIs through Avisynth for x264 encodes"

[SameSelf]

Downscaling to what frame size? BluRay comes in several frame sizes, each has their set requirements for frame rate, interlaced/progressive, GOP size, etc., etc. What kind of frame rate conversion? If you mean you're dropping frames, good luck. https://www.videohelp.com/hd#tech

I am taking my 1920x1080p29.97 recorded in ProRes HQ and downscaling it to 1280x720p59.94. So it's all good.

[LMotlow]

I am taking my 1920x1080p29.97 recorded in ProRes HQ and downscaling it to 1280x720p59.94. So it's all good.

Thanks for letting us know.

You're using QTGMC to deinterace and one of the Spline resizers. we hope.

[SameSelf]

No need for QTGMC, the footage is native progressive already.

I thought I would post back my results. I went with Method #3 of stitching the AVI's together using Avisynth and frameserving that to x264 to re-encode, which took about 14 hours (2-pass encodes take forever!). I ran into a small hiccup because I didn't realize that I had accidentally written out some of the AVIs in the YUV space and the others in RGB space. The Lagarith codec defaults to RGB in PPro, and there were a few times I was not thorough in checking the settings. The stitch algorithm requires that the inputs files be the same, at least in colorspace. Fortunately, the problem was solved with the following:

video1 = AVISource("E:\video1.avi").ConvertToYV12(interlaced=false, matrix="rec709")
video2 = AVISource("E:\video2.avi").ConvertToYV12(interlaced=false, matrix="rec709")
video1 ++ video2

Avisynth really is the Swiss army knife of video tools. So relieved this worked. I was really despairing when I realized I needed a single timeline for the BD I am authoring but had written all the lossless intermediates out as separate AVIs.

The next step was stitching together the associated audio files for each AVI. That was simple though using ffmpeg.

Now, back to finishing my BDMV.

[PuzZLeR]

Just saw this thread now. Yeah, I too would of easily went with #3 from your choices.

Avisynth really is the Swiss army knife of video tools.

Yes indeed, but it's a "swiss army knife" that is "jack of all trades" but one that is relatively good at everything.

I rarely even use an actual editor anymore. I write scripts for a mass majority of my edits. It helps that I use lossless alot these days, and my edits are more or less basic stuff, but still would find creative things to so with AviSynth regardless.

The next step was stitching together the associated audio files for each AVI. That was simple though using ffmpeg.

For this part I like Audacity, but ffmpeg is fine though.

Now, back to finishing my BDMV.

Best to do all edits before the final encode as you did here. Now you can author raw streams properly. And I certainly wouldn't use a menu/authoring program to do my blu-ray encodes either. This is the swiss army knife I wouldn't use.

[SameSelf]

Thanks for the tips. I mainly use Avisynth for chaining up my workflows, like frameserving my AE/PPro projects to x264 when I don't need to do 2-pass encodes (e.g. Youtube delivery). But sometimes, Avisynth does things even better than Adobe, like resizing. AFAIK, Adobe only uses bicubic resizing, and I need to downrez my 1080 footage to 720 for BD. So I am using the Spline36 resizer in Avisynth. The only thing that worries me is 10-bit support in the filters. But since this is my first struggle to author a BD I am saving that for the next one.

As for letting the authoring program encode, yeah, that is a non-starter for me, for multiple reasons. First and foremost, it is not nearly as fast as x264. As it is, x264 took 14 hours for the 80 minute encode. Who knows how long DVDA would take. Also, I am wrestling with DVDA to get it to stop wanting to re-encode a fairly elaborate menu I put together in AE with a bunch of keyframed composited effects. I have no idea what encoder DVDA uses, nor do I care, but it totally garbles the menu. Very frustrating. One of the many headaches I have encountered trying to author this dang BD. With any luck, I will finish in time to hand it out as a Christmas gifts.