VLC HowTo/Merge videos together

2015-11-20T22:26:43Z

OpenIDUservsv02: an example for windows where many users find this example difficult.

==Merge & Transcode==

If you have more than one source files that need to be merged into a single output file, the general way is this (no transcoding is necessary if all streams match):

{{%}} '''vlc file1.ps file2.ps file3.ps --sout "#gather:std{access=file,mux=ts,dst=all.ts}" --sout-keep'''

NB that whenever you use sout, your video and audio codecs must "be appropriate" for the mux you use (in this case, ps works with a ts mux, so we're ok). See [[Transcode#Transcoding_with_the_Wizard]]

If you want to write your files out to a mux that doesn't support the current audio or video encoding, or if you are wanting to join streams that do not have matching video/audio, then it is recommended to transcode as well. Here is an example.

% '''"PATH_TO_VLC" -vvv FILE1.EXT FILE2.EXT FILE3.EXT ETC.ETC --sout-keep --sout=#gather:transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=1024,scale=1,acodec=mp4a,ab=192,channels=6}:standard{access=file,mux=ts,dst=out.mpg} --sout-all'''

% '''"PATH_TO_VLC" -vvv FILE1.mp3 FILE2.mp3 FILE3.mp3 ETC.ETC --sout-keep --sout=#gather:transcode{acodec=mp3,ab=128}:standard{access=file,mux=dummy,dst=out.mp3} --sout-all'''

Next edit the path to vlc, input files, and transcode parameters to meet your needs.

For Example in Windows (all input files are in the same directory from where the command is executed):
% '''"C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" -vvv FILE1.mp3 FILE2.mp3 FILE3.mp3 --sout-keep --sout=#gather:transcode{acodec=mp3,ab=128}:standard{access=file,mux=dummy,dst=combinedout.mp3} --sout-all'''

See also [[Documentation:Modules/gather]]

Or you can use file appending:

% '''vlc go.ps.1 go.ps.2 go.ps.3 vlc://quit --sout-file-append --sout=file/ps:go.ps'''

==Non Interactive Mode==

To do any of this in "non interactive" mode, add '''-I dummy''' and also "vlc://quit" to the end of your list of inputs. See [[Transcode]] for more detail.

==Other options==

Overall, none of the ways VLC offers to combine streams appears to merge them with correct time signatures<ref> even when replayed in VLC (causing seeking errors), so a non VLC option might work better. Please update if you find one. Straight concatenation works at times. See also https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjWmZ0umsuZHdHNzZVhuMTkxTHdYbUdCQzF3cE51Snc&hl=en for a list of several various 3rd party "video joining" utilities.

[[Category:How_To]]

VideoLAN Wiki - User contributions [en]

VLC HowTo/Merge videos together