[mactropolis]

Hi,

I have several MPEG files that are in "MPEG-1 Muxed" format (audio & video combined into 1 track). I would like to be able to join or stitch the clips together into one continuous cross-platform movie file, preferable still in MPEG format.

I know all about Quicktime Pro and I have allready tried using QT Player, however the Quicktime Player application refuses to allow me to Copy the movie even after I select it on the timeline. After using the shift key to highlight/select the segment of a movie, I would normally then go Edit>Copy and easily and painlessly Edit>Paste the content into a new movie or an existing movie. However, very oddly, this procedure does not work with the MPEG-1 files I have here. I'm not trying to seperate the audio from video or anything like that, just concatenate several "MPEG-1 Muxed" clips together.

Does anyone know if this is possible? Any software program exists that could allow me to accomplish this task? Have I overlooked something?

Thanks in advance,

[Macanoid]

try 'mpgtxwrap' - it's on versiontracker!

[dtriska]

The MPEG format is meant for distribution, not editing. That's why it can be difficult to alter these files.

With that said, try this. It's a GUI for mpgtx.

[mactropolis]

Originally posted by Macanoid:
try 'mpgtxwrap' - it's on versiontracker!

I did:
http://www.versiontracker.com/php/se...&action=search

Are you aware of the developers home page so I can check it out there?

[Uncle Skeleton]

search for mpgtx

[gator]

Originally posted by mactropolis:
I did:
http://www.versiontracker.com/php/se...&action=search

Are you aware of the developers home page so I can check it out there?

http://www.biermann.org/philipp/mpegcut/

[cnelson87]

try MPEGWorks. it will join, split, and mux/demux mpg1 and mpg2.

[mactropolis]

Originally posted by cnelson87:
try MPEGWorks. it will join, split, and mux/demux mpg1 and mpg2.

Thanks. Where do you think I can find the latest version of MPEGWorks anyway?

[Fothb]

Are the MPEGs encoded at the same resolution? If all you want to do is combine two smaller files into one big file, you can simply use the Unix tool "cat" like so:

1. Open Terminal
2. cd to the directory where the two MPEGs are located.
3. cat file1.mpg file2.mpg > bigfile.mpg

This works brilliantly for VOB files and MPEG files, but it doesn't for movies that require specific header information (.mov, for example). You can combine as many files as you want:

cat file1.mpg file2.mpg file3.mpg etc.mpg > realbigfile.mpg

[cnelson87]

my bad, it's mpeg2works. try versiontracker:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20867

Originally posted by mactropolis:
Thanks. Where do you think I can find the latest version of MPEGWorks anyway?

[mactropolis]

Originally posted by Fothb:
Are the MPEGs encoded at the same resolution? If all you want to do is combine two smaller files into one big file, you can simply use the Unix tool "cat" like so:

1. Open Terminal
2. cd to the directory where the two MPEGs are located.
3. cat file1.mpg file2.mpg > bigfile.mpg

This works brilliantly for VOB files and MPEG files, but it doesn't for movies that require specific header information (.mov, for example). You can combine as many files as you want:

cat file1.mpg file2.mpg file3.mpg etc.mpg > realbigfile.mpg

Are you serious? Is it that simple? Yes, I believe the clip files are the same resolution because their clearly have only been divided up for easier download (smaller chunks).

But what exactly do you mean by resolution anyway?

[Uncle Skeleton]

That cat trick will cause you nothing but trouble. The resulting file plays fine in highly tolerant players like VLC, but it's not a correct file. If you play it in QuickTime you will see something people here tend to call "layering," because it will only play the one segment at a time. At first it plays only the first segment. But if you go to the end and then scrub backwards you see only the second segment, and it looks like each segment is layered over the last one but there's no way to switch bewteen these "layers" (on purpose that is). If you play around with it long enough you can eventually see every segment (I think). Anyway, chances are you'll run into problems with that file down the road

[Fothb]

By "resolution" I meant the width and height of the movies. You can't use 'cat' to slam together two movies of different width and height settings.

Also, take heed of Uncle Skeleton's warning. Using 'cat' doesn't work for everything. For me, it works if my movies both came from the same source and are in the same format (for example, both MPEG1) and both have the same width and height values. I've been able to make video DVDs by using 'cat' on two VOB files with success as well, but there are certainly times when it won't work.

I was actually turned on to using 'cat' myself by the creator of Sizzle, and I was turned on to using Sizzle by Uncle Skeleton. Small world, eh?

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
That cat trick will cause you nothing but trouble. The resulting file plays fine in highly tolerant players like VLC, but it's not a correct file. If you play it in QuickTime you will see something people here tend to call "layering," because it will only play the one segment at a time. At first it plays only the first segment. But if you go to the end and then scrub backwards you see only the second segment, and it looks like each segment is layered over the last one but there's no way to switch bewteen these "layers" (on purpose that is). If you play around with it long enough you can eventually see every segment (I think). Anyway, chances are you'll run into problems with that file down the road

[Uncle Skeleton]

yeah small world. Mr Sizzle and I both probably use cat a lot on elementary streams that are either going onto or coming off of DVDs. That method is perfectly fine for the likes of m2v, ac3 and vob, but for whatever reason they're not kosher with mpg. I'm sure he could tell you why if you asked him, but I can't.

If you are going to put your joined mpeg files on a DVD, I'd be interested to know if cat'ing the mpegs before authoring the disc is a problem or not. If you try it, be sure to report whether it works