View source for VLC HowTo/Merge videos together

==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'''

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

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]]