Solved I want to join 2 small AVI files without degrading the quality

[whs]

Coming soon to your computer!...​

Video Editor Smackdown!!!
3 or more Video editors duke out. Which one will wear the Rusty Seal of Approval? ​

Don't miss it​

That's not a joke

If you really want a video editor that will provide a lossless encoding, you should use any GUI that uses h264 codes and capable to make B frame .

Gordianknot, AutoGK, VirtualDubMod, Handbrake, megui, avidemux, etc are just different GUIs, not mot than that . They all are based on h264 .

Does that mean they cannot deal lossless with other formats (other than h264).

 

[RknRusty]

I'm tinkering now, and I'm a total noob with videos. If y'all can be patient with me, my time comes in bits and pieces(sorta like my movies), and I have learned all I can with AVI Trimmer. It doesn't stitch together different movies, but does a simple job of trimming one AVI very quickly. All the others do this too, so it will probably sink to the bottom of the list. Tonight I'm working with Windows Movie Maker using WHS's tutorials. Thanks for that, WHS. I may move on to VirtualDub next.

Rusty

 

[Wishmaster]

Provided both files have the exact same settings, another alternative is YAMB.

Use the "Join Supported Files" Option.


Add your files and Mux them together.

The result will be a single .MP4, unless it absolutely must be a AVI file.

The Video itself will NOT be recoded, so theres no quality loss at all. Only a change in the container that holds them.



Also, MKVmerge will work just as well, but the result will be a MKV file. Again, no recoding, just a joining into another container.



If the files you wish to join are very different from eachother (in bitrate,codecs etc) then recoding may be needed to get the result you're looking for.

 

[RknRusty]

Okay, Wishmaster, YAMB is on the list of contenders. After the first round, Windows Live Movie Maker knocked out AVI Trimmer with one dismissive backhanded swat. No chance for recovery there. By the time I stitched together two good 2 minute movies of my model stunt flying exhibition, I was getting pretty good with it.
I guess the only option for saving locally is to save as a WMV. I need to learn more about packaging.
I'll let WLMM upload it to Youtube when I hit the sack in a little while. I couldn't tell if any quality was lost except for one jerky frame in one of the movies.
Maybe it was a one round fight, but after all the suggestions y'all have offered, I think I should try some others out. So, this weekend I will play with it some more.

 

[RknRusty]

Here's one I did last night with WLMM. It has a couple of transitions and two segments stitched together.

‪Lil Jumpin Bean Aerobatics Sunday 7-24-2011‬‏ - YouTube

It should work at 720p HD without having to append "&fmt=22" to the URL. It looks okay at full screen considering Youtube recoded it. The second segment fades in at about 1:26. Keep in mind this was shot with a Samsung PL210 point and shoot camera, not a camcorder. I should have a similar video up with another plane in a couple of hours.

 

[Arc]

Does that mean they cannot deal lossless with other formats (other than h264).

h264 is not a format, it is a codec, like xvid.... but a better one. Many a formats use this codec, like mp4, mkv and avi .

 

[whs]

Does that mean they cannot deal lossless with other formats (other than h264).

h264 is not a format, it is a codec, like xvid.... but a better one. Many a formats use this codec, like mp4, mkv and avi .

Hmm, I know that. Sorry for using "format" in lieu of "codec" - English is difficult, LOL. But back to my question - what if I have e.g. .wmv ??

 

[Arc]

Hmm, I know that. Sorry for using "format" in lieu of "codec" - English is difficult, LOL. But back to my question - what if I have e.g. .wmv ??

The GUIs I have mentioned in the earlier post can convert from any format to .mkv or .mp4 (.avi is somehow backdated, and a few GUIs dont support it nowadays) , and all the encoding they do are lossless.

Out of those, Handbrake is the most easy one to operate, but it cannot join/split a file .

 

[whs]

Hmm, I know that. Sorry for using "format" in lieu of "codec" - English is difficult, LOL. But back to my question - what if I have e.g. .wmv ??

The GUIs I have mentioned in the earlier post can convert from any format to .mkv or .mp4 (.avi is somehow backdated, and a few GUIs dont support it nowadays) , and all the encoding they do are lossless.

Out of those, Handbrake is the most easy one to operate, but it cannot join/split a file .

Thanks Arc for the info.

 

[Wishmaster]

avi is somehow backdated, and a few GUIs dont support it nowadays) , and all the encoding they do are lossless.
.

In addition to Arcs info, I too have ran into a few instances where a .avi was not supported.

However, I found that by using the app I mentioned earlier (YAMB) it can remux a .avi's video/audio stream without recoding into a MP4 container to get around this issue.

So if if you run into this issue, and wish to use one of the programs he mentioned, this may be a good option. It can then work with the file easily.
An extra step, but it doesnt take but a minute.

 

[RknRusty]

Didn't want to leave this thread hanging.
Once I tried WLMM I was happy with my results, just for my simple purposes, as can be seen by the link in post #25. (here's one with a hotter airplane) If I get more ambitious I'll come back and try some more of everyone's suggestions.
Thanks for all the help,
Rusty

 

[kado897]

Very good. How many windows has he flown it through?

 

[RknRusty]

I have chopped a couple of tips off those oak trees but that's good for laughs if I have an audience. That courtyard is a church, so I really would hate to put it through one of their stained glass windows.

Imagining choir practice and a plane comes crashing through bouncing off the walls.
It's a small courtyard so I have to keep a clear 100' circle and short lines, about 35' from the control handle. No problem.

 

[kado897]

Yes. It still takes a great deal of skill though.

 

[dsperber]

I'm making videos of my model stunt airplane with a Samsung camera that records pretty good 720P AVI files. It moves very fast so I have to have decent quality just to follow the action. I tried Free Video Joiner and it's easy to use but it severely degrades the quality. Their home page says "Quickly join and without any quality loss... join AVI, WMV, MOV, MPEG, MPG files." But the output file is severely degraded. For example, I joined a 438 MB and a 330 MB AVI movie and the output file was a blurry 62 MB AVI. It wasn't worth using, especially after converting it to Flash for Youtube. Maybe I need a better program for that too.

Just in passing, I happen to own a license for the two Briz products "Video Joiner" and "AVI Splitter". I hadn't installed them in my latest Win7 reinstall, but your comment pushed me to try this out to see if your observations were correct. I had previously used the "joiner" program to join AVI files and it did exactly what it claimed to be able to do.

Note that there is a prerequisite for no re-compression, as stated on their product description:

MPEG and AVI files with identical parameters (such as frame size, frame rate) can be joined without recompression quickly and without quality loss.
​

So, I experimented by joining two H.264 AVI's: (1) about 142MB, and (2) about 120MB. These both are 1280x720p HD video clips, so they have the identical frame size and frame rate as required.

Sure enough, when I then pushed the "join files" function the dialog that asked me to specify the output file target location also had the "join without recompression" box checked, and all of the items below it (that could specify a new frame size, frame rate, compression codec, etc.) were all grayed out since it had pre-populated the "join without compression" checkbox. Obviously this could be done because the two AVI's satisfied the requirement that they were identical frame size/rate.

I then pushed the "join" button and the two AVI's were literally joined together with NO RE-COMPRESSION. The output file is about 262MB in size, and is absolutely the identical original two 1280x720p HD AVI clips now joined perfectly back-to-back with zero re-compression. Took about 3 seconds to do the whole thing.

I suspect your situation perhaps involved attempting to join two clips that did not have identical frame size/rate values, or perhaps you'd un-checked the "join without compression" checkbox so that the lower re-size/compress parameters now were active. Since the default new frame size is 320x240 and who knows what compression codec, this seems like the only explanation for why your output was so small and crummy. I can't imagine that the "free" version can't do this, but maybe that's how they get you to buy it.

Actually, I didn't think they offered a "free" version anyway. Were you trying it out via the 7-day trial period? Perhaps they disable the "join without compression" feature in the trial version so that you'll buy it, but it seems like unless the user could actually see that it would really work he wouldn't likely buy it anyway! So I'm puzzled about what you ran, what you did, whether you un-checked that box (if it was even available), and why you got the results you did.

Now granted, I have a paid license to the product and am not using the "free" version, so maybe that's the difference. But I can absolutely attest to the fact that this "Video Joiner" works perfectly, and exactly as advertised. The result IS a back-to-back input AVI files 1 and 2 with zero re-compression in the resulting output AVI file. And the program can do this because the two input files have identical frame size/rates.

I'm just reporting my results using this product.

 

[RknRusty]

I'll revisit the software and see if I missed some options. I don't recall it having the ones in your screenshot, so I bet my version may be stripped. It is a free version with no trial limit. As far as there being differences in the two clips, the movies were shot back to back with the same Samsung point and shoot camera. I set it to video mode and handed it to my friend and as far as I know he did as instructed and just pushed the Record button.

 

[dsperber]

I'll revisit the software and see if I missed some options. I don't recall it having the ones in your screenshot, so I bet my version may be stripped. It is a free version with no trial limit.

Ahh... just checked your actual original link, to the program you had called "Free Video Joiner" in the text.

Turns out we're describing two different programs.

(a) Your program is, in fact, called "Free Video Joiner".

(b) The program I was referring to is from a software company named Briz, is named "Video Joiner", and is not free. You can download it for a 7-day trial. Purchase price is $19.95.

And the program I'm talking about DOES do exactly what you want, completing in seconds. As long as the input files have the same frame size and rate, the output will NOT be re-compressed or re-sized.

As far as there being differences in the two clips, the movies were shot back to back with the same Samsung point and shoot camera. I set it to video mode and handed it to my friend and as far as I know he did as instructed and just pushed the Record button.

Obviously the problem is not your input files. It's the fact that we were talking about two different programs.

Sorry for the confusion.

But I do suggest looking into the non-free Briz Video Joiner product, which though it is non-free is priced extremely reasonably and does EXACTLY what you want with an extremely simple user-interface.