How can you join two .avi files?

[nfasano]

I'm really getting desperate here. I am trying to join two large .avi files into one large file and nothing is working for me. They are the same resolution and framerate, as well as the same codec (XviD, I think). They play perfectly in mplayer, but in quicktime there is no sound unless run thru DivX Doctor II or DivX Validator, and even then the sound is choppy (this seems to be the case for a lot of PC encoded avi's which is why I play them in mplayer). When I use DivX Tool to extract the mp3 soundtrack, it plays choppy as well. This has pretty much prevented me from Option 1 which is just joining them in Quicktime Pro.

So, I tried using some Windows programs in VPC. AVI joiner just gives me a 'cannot join' message and EZ joiner doesn't seem to work. Therefore Option 2, Virtual PC doesn't seem to work either. I hate using Windows anyway.

The 'Split me' program for OS X looked promising but doesn't seem to work for anyone. It uses mencoder, so I thought I'd just go into the commandline and try to do this manually using the directions here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/encoding.html#fixing. This gives me a bunch of errors and then quits. I think Option 3, using mencoder, is the most promising, but I still don't understand mencoder well enough to get it to work.

So, I'm out of options, but I thought maybe there's someone out there who has done this, either in OS X or VPC who could help me out. Thanks guys.

Nick

[Thomas-MacFreak]

Could this help?

cat file1 file2 > file3
mencoder -ovc copy -oac copy -o out.avi -forceidx file3.avi

[dcsos]

This is really easy to do with mencoder in the Terminal.app

But what good is it if its out of SYNC?

You're posting I hope so someone will let us know this can be done while maintaining sync

[Thomas-MacFreak]

Yep, the syncing sure is a problem.

I tried to use D-Vision 2 to do the same, but the movie goes out of sync.

[galactica]

use FFMPEGX
go to TOOLS, then to 1st browse field, choose the 1st .avi
use 2nd browse to choose the 2nd .avi

click JOIN

[ZeroSix]

^^^ works every time!

[Thomas-MacFreak]

^^^ works every time!

No it doesn't

Believe me. I have just asked major4 about it, and this is what he said:

"Splitting is a complicate operation with the mpeg format and the above method using mencoder is not perfect. I'm looking for better methods to be implemented in future versions.

btw... joining is more critic and prone to error than splitting."

If you have downloaded splitted AVI files from the net, that are splitted on a PC (with better tools) you get good video/audio sync when you join with ffmpegX (the mencoder method). The problem is if you split your AVI files your self, with the mencoder method, and then try to join them again. Then you get a bad result

[galactica]

thats why you shoudl always demux/remux a split/join file