Is there a free software that can join Mpeg-2 videos without re-encoding?

[DaDude]

I use a DVD recorder to record shows from TV and I'm trying to edit out the commercials. I have many softwares that can snip out parts of the video and I use it to snip out the parts of the videos that I want and I would like to piece it together to make it commercial-free.

So let's say I record an episode of a TV show and the half-hour show goes something like this...

Beginning

Commercial Break

Middle

Commercial Break

End

So, I have many softwares that will clip the parts that I want. So, I clip the parts that I want, i.e. Beginning, Middle and End, because I don't want the commercials. However, I have three separate clips (Beg, Mid, End) and would now like to simply piece them together without re-encoding since it results in quality loss. I have tried many softwares, such as Mpeg2Cut2, and many of these softwares just screw up the video. It does a horrendous job! It will not piece together a video without causing any sort of weird side effect.

I don't understand. It's a simple thing.... I just want to join these mpeg videos together and make it one mpeg video! That's it!!

Is there any free software out there than can perform this simple thing without any problems?

Thanks!

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Kates_Video_Cutter__d5680.html

You can the Kate's.

[giantpotato]

Never tried it myself, but Comskip http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/ might be what you're looking for.

[Karl L.]

There is a thread on a similar topic here, but there is no polished solution posted. However, you could probably create your own script without too much hassle based on the information posted in the aforementioned thread, if you're so inclined.

[LUTZIFER]

Ultra Video Joiner. Been using it for many years.

[Noir Angel]

I think you can do it with Virtualdub as well

[+BudMan MVC]

Im pretty sure you can copy them into one file copy /b this how I recall doing it in the past

copy /b snip1.mpg+snip2.mpg+snip3.mpg newfile.mpg

When I get a chance I can verify that -- but I thought you were going to go the digital route.. Converting the files to h.264 should not in any way degrade the quality, if it is - your doing it wrong ;)

[DaDude]

When I get a chance I can verify that -- but I thought you were going to go the digital route.. Converting the files to h.264 should not in any way degrade the quality, if it is - your doing it wrong ;)

It is.

And the digital route is WAY too time consuming. Takes over an hour to convert a 45 minute show to h.264. Formatting to DVD and burning will take less than 20 minutes....

And is this what you're talking about?

http://txpress.blogspot.com/2007/01/join-multiple-video-mpg-files-in.html

I just googled it now and saw that link. I can try it when I get home. I hope it's that simple.

[+BudMan MVC]

Well let me fire up my dvd recorder tonight and to a little testing of my own. So I can get mpeg2 file to work with.

But you could also just use the mpg files as your digital copy - burning it to DVD is the part I don't understand.

So did you try out the copy /b command..

edit: I have some titus and seinfeld dvd's -- might just grab an episode off those to do the test with so I don't have to bother spending the recording time on dvd recorder to get a file to work with. I doubt the older dvds are encrypted? So should be able to just copy the vob off and change convert it to h264.

[DaDude]

Well let me fire up my dvd recorder tonight and to a little testing of my own. So I can get mpeg2 file to work with.

But you could also just use the mpg files as your digital copy - burning it to DVD is the part I don't understand.

So did you try out the copy /b command..

I'm not at home now. I'll try tonight.

I burn to DVD so I don't have to store on my hard drive and also, I can play the files on a DVD player. Extracting mpg files from formatted DVDs is very easy. So, I can always take the DVDs I burn and turn them back into video files in no time.

[+BudMan MVC]

Ok I just grabbed a vob off one of my titus dvds

Complete name : D:\testmpeg2\VTS_01_2.VOB

Format : MPEG-PS

File size : 1 024 MiB

Overall bit rate mode : Variable

Video

ID : 224 (0xE0)

Format : MPEG Video

Format version : Version 2

Format profile : Main@Main

Format settings, BVOP : Yes

Format settings, Matrix : Custom

Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15

Bit rate mode : Variable

Maximum bit rate : 8 802 Kbps

Width : 720 pixels

Height : 480 pixels

Display aspect ratio : 4:3

Frame rate : 29.970 fps

Standard : NTSC

Color space : YUV

Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0

Bit depth : 8 bits

Scan type : Interlaced

Scan order : Top Field First

Compression mode : Lossy

Fired up handbrake - picked normal as the preset and 2 minutes later

Now have MUCH smaller file only 325MB vs 1024 MB of the VOB

Complete name : D:\testmpeg2\test.m4v

Format : MPEG-4

Format profile : Base Media / Version 2

Codec ID : mp42

File size : 318 MiB

Duration : 21mn 15s

Overall bit rate mode : Variable

Overall bit rate : 2 092 Kbps

Encoded date : UTC 2013-01-25 11:53:03

Tagged date : UTC 2013-01-25 11:55:25

Writing application : HandBrake 0.9.8 2012071700

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : [email protected]

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames

Codec ID : avc1

Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding

Duration : 21mn 15s

Bit rate mode : Variable

Bit rate : 1 927 Kbps

Width : 720 pixels

Height : 480 pixels

Display aspect ratio : 4:3

Original display aspect ratio : 4:3

Frame rate mode : Variable

Frame rate : 29.970 fps

Minimum frame rate : 9.785 fps

Maximum frame rate : 29.970 fps

Standard : NTSC

Color space : YUV

Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0

Bit depth : 8 bits

Scan type : Progressive

Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.186

Stream size : 293 MiB (92%)

Writing library : x264 core 120

Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=1 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=2 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=1 / keyint=300 / keyint_min=30 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=10 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

Encoded date : UTC 2013-01-25 11:53:03

Tagged date : UTC 2013-01-25 11:55:25

Color primaries : BT.601 NTSC

Transfer characteristics : BT.709

Matrix coefficients : BT.601

As to quality - I am not seeing any loss in it.. Maybe I am not as tuned to video quality of DVD video at max 720x480 from the source resolution on my HD TV or my computer monitor that runs at 1280x1024 resolution?

Lets say there some loss in quality - at only 1/3 of the size.. I can live with it ;)

edit: BTW got me wanting my titus on my server - not sure why I had never bothered to rip it before. So fired up makemkv - which is using mpeg2 in the mkv container so they are HUGE.. But makes it real easy to pull off the episodes as titles and only grab the audio you want if there is other lang, commentary, tracks.

Then just popped those files into a handbrake queue. First 2 disks done without even really thinking about it. Just click a few buttons when I think about it as I go about my morning surfing, etc. Takes longer to copy the video off the dvd then it does for handbrake to convert them to smaller size and better format. I will get a few more of the dvds copied over before I head out to work - and then just let handbrake convert them while gone.

My point of this - is who really cares if takes 2 minutes or 20? Just queue it up and let run when your sleeping or away from the house, etc.

[DaDude]

Im pretty sure you can copy them into one file copy /b this how I recall doing it in the past

copy /b snip1.mpg+snip2.mpg+snip3.mpg newfile.mpg

Ok, just tested it. The good news is, it joined the files. The bad news is that it had the same side effect as the other softwares I tried. I tried to remove the commercials from a 60 minute show. After I snipped the videos and joined them, the commercials that I removed are gone (which is what I wanted, of course), but the timer still clocks at 60 minutes!!! When I formatted it to DVD, it still clocks at 60 minutes. When I tried playing the DVD file on the computer, it plays fine but the timer just gets messed up because the video is less than 60 minutes, but the timer on the video is insisting it's 60 minutes. Now, when I tried playing on a DVD player, the player gets stuck on the edited parts. I hope I'm not confusing anyone, but I can't help it because it is a very confusing problem.

But long story short, this did not merge successfully. It merged, but it's obviously badly merged together since the timer got messed up and the DVD players freak out at the edited parts. Sigh! It doesn't look like this simple thing can be done. I'm just going to give up, leave the videos the way they are, and just add chapter stops after the commercial breaks. That way I can just press "skip" on the remote to easily bypass the commercials when I rewatch these videos.

[+BudMan MVC]

If the time is messed up - hmmm idx for mpeg is at the end of the file? So ok its possible that some stand alone player that does not reindex the file on load might have issues. You would have to reindex the file I would think

Stand alone players for DVD are old school ;)

I would think avidemux could prob reindex the file for you. Or prob mencoder -forceidx

[p1p3]

If you can live with mkv files mkvtoolnix can mux mpeg files and have a nice gui. Just add the first file and append the rest and they should play without issue. I didn't try with split files but i downloaded samples from here and they played fine in mpc-hc when joined.

You should also have a look at ffmpeg if you are not afraid to use the command line . Here are instructions for splitting and joining.

[+BudMan MVC]

He doesn't want to use any sort of modern container for his files, nor does he want to use a modern codec. He wants to write the files to DVD so he can play them in his dvd player.

Think of it of 1999, and he is partying there ;)

He says that converting the files to h264 messes up the quality of his recorded to a dvd files which then pulls off creates a menu for and then reburns to dvd. Problem he is having now if he edits the file to pull out the commercials he is left with 3 or 4 snips of video that he wants to rejoin. But the index would be off when done this way and standalone players are not going to reindex on the fly like many software players do to forgive the issues in the file.

So he needs to join them back together and create a new index for the now shorter file. I would assume ffmpeg would do that - but he doesn't want to spend any processing time on the file ;)

[DaDude]

Apparently you guys don't care about quality loss, but I do. Even if it's just a little, I don't like it. That's one of the reasons why I'd rather buy a movie on Blu-ray and why I upgrade some of my DVD movies to Blu-ray. I want to watch my movies and shows in the best quality I can.

And my friend, if you're insisting that DVD is out and h264 is in, you're wrong. BLU-RAY is the new thing!! And as far as I'm concerned, all Blu-ray players play DVDs. So as long as Blu-ray players are around, then my DVDs are playable.

So, if you want to "get with the times," then ditch h254 and buy Blu-ray instead. :rolleyes:

[DaDude]

Stand alone players for DVD are old school ;)

My friend, everything today is old school. You buy one thing and few months later, something new comes out which renders your item obsolete, or "old school." And like I said, the new thing today is Blu-ray, not h264. Blu-ray delivers the BEST 1080p picture and audio quality. So, buy Blu-ray and ditch h264.

And I don't buy standalone players anymore. All my standalone players are my older players that I bought over a decade ago. Apparently, DVD players don't break down as easily as VCRs, so while all of my VCRs are gone, all my DVD players are still alive... even my 15 year old Sony DVD player.

[Mulrian]

Dude Blu-ray is not the new thing today. It's only a matter of time until all media is digital on a hard drive on some server somewhere. It won't be too long until all physical media is obsolete.

After all what are the benefits of having Blu-ray over all your movies in a digital format on your computer hooked up to your TV? There isn't one. Not sure why you are moaning that digital formats provide worse quality than Blu-ray, because they simply don't. After all Blu-ray is just a DVD with a bigger capacity that allows for larger digital files (meaning better quality) to be put on them

[DaDude]

Dude Blu-ray is not the new thing today. It's only a matter of time until all media is digital on a hard drive on some server somewhere. It won't be too long until all physical media is obsolete.

After all what are the benefits of having Blu-ray over all your movies in a digital format on your computer hooked up to your TV? There isn't one. Not sure why you are moaning that digital formats provide worse quality than Blu-ray, because they simply don't. After all Blu-ray is just a DVD with a bigger capacity that allows for larger digital files (meaning better quality) to be put on them

Physical media will not die. Blu-ray sales keep rising, which means it's a very successful format. Just because a few of you go all-digital, it doesn't mean everyone else it doing the same. And it's hard to go all digital because it makes it easy for people to copy and share files with others. With Blu-ray and DVDs, the formats are encrypted to prevent such a thing.

And people told me not to hook up a computer to the TV. Everyone told me to buy a media player instead. To be honest, a computer makes more sense because you can always install softwares to play any type of video file you want.

And yes, converting any file to another format will also result in quality loss, maybe not noticeable to you, but it's there. Just like MP3 files have lower quality than CDs.. yet people dance away listening to MP3s on their Ipod. Most people don't care, but many audiophiles will not listen to MP3s, only CDs, because CDs sound significantly better!

[Mulrian]

No, CD's are not better quality than all MP3's. The problem is that there are a load of bad quality <100kbps MP3's out there that yes do sound awful. Better so many now are 320kpbs+ which sound considerably better than any CD will.

Not sure who told you not to connect your computer up to you TV, but all I can say is they obviously don't know what they are talking about.

Its hard to go all digital because of all the sharing? No, thats what makes it so easy!!

No physical media will never die completely, but it will get closer and closer. Blu-ray sales may be on a slight increase in sales, but not even close to the increase in digital sales or the uptake in streaming services like Netflix. Add to that the slump in DVD sales and physical media is on the downturn. Thats not the case for digital though. Not saying its all a good thing, but its happening.

[DaDude]

No, CD's are not better quality than all MP3's. The problem is that there are a load of bad quality <100kbps MP3's out there that yes do sound awful. Better so many now are 320kpbs+ which sound considerably better than any CD will.

Actually, there is still some quality loss. I used to not be able to hear the difference, but I finally got convinced when I spoke to a few audiophile nuts. They made me listen to the difference on their high-end equipment and you can notice it when listening there. But on the average equipment that non-audiophile nuts own, you really can't hear the difference. And believe me, I call them "audiophile nuts" because they can hear the difference so well that they swear LPs sound better than CDs and MP3s that they actually still buy them.

Not sure who told you not to connect your computer up to you TV, but all I can say is they obviously don't know what they are talking about.

I'm glad I can just do that because I have a laptop and a PC in port on my TV. I can just hook it up and enjoy the files. I know that there are some cheap media players that people referred me to, but after reading those reviews at Amazon, I can see that they are problematic and I'll just get what I pay for. In short, they're cheap for a reason. If I want something good and problem-free, I need to spend a couple of hundred dollars. At least a laptop is guaranteed to play ANY digital file without any issue. If I do encounter a problem, I can simply install a better software. A laptop is the most future-proof route than a digital media player, since a media player is limited.

Its hard to go all digital because of all the sharing? No, thats what makes it so easy!!

Easy for you, but hard for the studios financially since people are not obtaining their movies legally. That is why studios are fighting to keep physical media alive.

No physical media will never die completely, but it will get closer and closer. Blu-ray sales may be on a slight increase in sales, but not even close to the increase in digital sales or the uptake in streaming services like Netflix. Add to that the slump in DVD sales and physical media is on the downturn. Thats not the case for digital though. Not saying its all a good thing, but its happening.

What about 3D Blu-ray? Seems like that's another new thing and what has made my 2D HDTV and 2D Blu-ray player obsolete. If anything, 3D Blu-ray and 3D TVs are going to take over, not digital files. Frankly, the thought of 3D home entertainment makes me sick, but it's the new fad that I've been hearing about a lot lately!

[DaDude]

By the way, I need clarification here. Since you guys are telling me to ditch DVDs and go all-digital, does that mean I should not buy DVDs anymore? There are many DVDs out there (and more to come) that you can't find anywhere else. So, does that mean I should not buy them? Or are guys saying that it's ok to buy them, but just rip and convert them to h264?

[Mulrian]

Definitely keep buying DVD's. They're not anywhere near gone yet and they are much cheaper at the moment. But yeah when you buy them, rip them to your computer using a good codec, and you should end up with your own home media centre if you hook it up to your tv.

Thats pretty much what I have going on at the moment. Bought a 2TB drive and everytime I buy a new DVD I rip it and shove it on their. I still buy a lot of cheap DVDs and the 2tb drive is pretty much full already, so I may have to buy another in the near future. It makes it so much easier for me though. Instead of trawling through all by discs. I just browse my whole library on my computer and hit play. I wouldn't say they are full HD quality, but thats only because they are DVDs. They still look the same coming out of my tv as they would playing on my dvd player.

[DaDude]

Good, that puts me more at ease. I'm a big classic movie and TV show fan and they're getting harder to find nowadays. It's a miracle that a lot of them made it to DVD, but sadly, I don't think they would get released on any other format, physical or digital.

[Nomad_]

My bad, the software I posted Is not free.

On Edit - This Is the software I use.

http://www.alloksoft.com/fast_joiner.htm

[+BudMan MVC]

Just at a complete loss to how you think a conversion means loss of quality - comes down to how your converting it.. That dvd of your yours is just digital file on a optical media vs a digital file on a hdd or a ssd, or a br or a compact flash or whatever the next form of storage is.

You do understand that some of your BR are in h264 - br players must support 3 format h262 mpeg2, and h264 mpeg4 and smpte VC-1 and the producer of the br can use which ever one they want. If they go the mpeg4 avc or VC-1 route they can get about twice the run time on the same br single layer 25GB bd-rom.

I understand what your doing, I understand the recording to the dvd of your input, and even keeping this copy as backup. What I don't understand is the re burning to disk again.. When you could just use the digtial media file on larger storage and access it like a library vs having to swap in disks back and forth.

Your like the guy that didn't want to get away from floppy and go hard when hard could store so much more! ;) You have everything arranged in your stacks and stacks of floppies and could not understand that its much easier to just put all those files on 1 disk vs many and be able to access anything instant.

This is the point I have been trying to make the whole thread. Your file is digital on your DVD or on your BR, I am just suggesting that store then on one big disk vs a bunch of little ones. As to the container your mpeg be it 2 or 4 file is in -- how does that change the quality?? It DOESN'T unless you tell it to - if you want to continue to use mpeg 2 --- go for it. You just might want to put it in a different container - say mkv vs some container meant to be understood by standalone players.

The container can store the video or audio streams in whatever format or quality you desire. Now myself change over to mpeg4 vs mpeg2 because its a more efficient compression format. You do understand that mpeg2 is lossy compression as well.. mpeg4 is just more efficient at it than that older format.

If you loosing quality in converting the stream from mpeg2 to mpeg4 it in how your doing the conversion and what settings you pick for the new file. Sure if you pick a lower bitrate its quite possible to see loss of quality, not the process in general or the new format that is causing the loss in quality.

btw: I am a huge fan of the classics myself. I have few jack benny and burns and allen and some abbot and costello dvds I picked up on the bargin bin at walmart. Have then sitting here on my desk waiting to be ripped.. Because I sure an the hell am not going to go looking for these disks when I want to play them. Get up off my couch find the things, open up the container and then put them in some player then back to the couch, etc. When I can simply browse my library and click play on the file I want to watch ;)

And I have a growing collection of humphrey bogart films, some of which are not that good of quality because they were ripped from vhs copies that were recorded off tv. So yes I would be happy to pick them up in a remastered br if it was available, etc. But then I would rip it and put in my library for ease of access.

edit: Its been mentioned already I do believe but makemkv is one example of just changing the container. It pulls the mpeg2 stream and audio streams from your dvd and puts then in the mkv container. It doesn't alter the streams in anyway. Just puts them in a different container. If you think there is loss of quality in that process your not understanding the process.