Combine multiple wmv files to one large file

drkstr · 04-26-2006, 09:31 AM

Hello, I've been using LiVES for most of my video editing. (combining, splitting and what not) I have run into a problem with wmv files however. It will load them up okay but I can't seem to do anything with them. I tried encoding them to DIVx using mencoder but the loss in file quality was significant.

A) is there a utility that can merge multiple wmv files into one?

or

B) is there a way to encode WMV's to an easier to use format without losing a lot of quality?

thanks!
...drkstr

satinet · 04-26-2006, 11:26 AM

it may sounds wierd, but i think you can actually cat such files into each other.

e.g

cat file1.wmv file2.wmv > newfile.wmv

i might be clutching at straws, but it worked for me with avi....

drkstr · 04-26-2006, 11:36 AM

That was a good idea, I should have tried that. It merged them together per file size, but it only plays to the end of the first clip. I don't know a lot about wmv codecs, but I think the heavy encoding on them is what prevents video editors and things such as 'cat' to manipulate them. I wonder if there is some way to crack the file so it doesn't stop when the end of the first file comes up. I will keep looking but I have been pretty unsuccessful so far.

thanks!
...drkstr

satinet · 04-26-2006, 11:38 AM

yeah i can imagine. WMV files aren't too good on linux. Maybe you can convert to another format or find the origionals in another format........

merge together per file size? you need to explictly name the files in the cat command. you can't do "cat *.wmv > newfile.wmv" as this will come out in the wrong order..... see what i mean?

something like "cat part1.wmv part2.wmv part3.wmv > new.wmv"

drkstr · 04-26-2006, 11:50 AM

yeah I know, I meant that the file size of newfile.wmv was equal to the file sizes of the 2 clips added together.

I tried converting to DIVx but the loss in quality was to great to be useful. I used the default lavc DIVx50 codec. Do you know anything about mencoder or ffmpeg? Are there any better options to use to preserve file quality? I was wanting to convert it to a regular avi with no compression but did not see any options to do so.

thanks for the help!
...drkstr