Best way to concatenate nine 10-minute Flash videos?

[Verlager]

I have nine 10-minute Flash videos, downloaded from youtube.com which I want to combine into a single video. I have winff for conversion. And I have Avidemux for combining the files (if it will do that). Two part question: What intermediate format should I convert the youtube flash videos to, so as to make them readable by Avidemux or other Linux editors? And is Avidemux the best tool for this operation? The final format makes no difference to me, I just hope to avoid formats like .flv, .swf, and .mov.

Any suggestion is appreciated. I'm new to this, and while I'm embarassed to be asking such a newbie-type, uninformed and unenlightened question in the context of both video editor selection and codec, I am glad to receive your suggestions.

[disturbed1]

There's so many ways to do this.

One thing that you have to make sure of first. In order to combine the files together, they all need to be the same FPS, resolutions, and same audio (sample rate, and I think bitrate+cbr/vbr).

I've noticed avidemux has issues with cutting/editing vbr mp3 videos. Joining then encoding is fine.

Try loading the flvs into avidemux and see what happens

If you need to encode them to another format first, try this in a terminal, be sure to cd to the directory of the flvs first. I would do this if I planned on editing the files, or encoding to another format with a different editor (Kino).

for i in *.flv;do mencoder "$i" -ovc libdv -oac pcm -vf scale=720:480,hqdn3d=2:1:2,harddup -o "$i".avi;done

That's just a simple loop that will encode every .flv file with mencoder to dv format with uncompressed audio scaling it to 720x480 with a slight denoise filter. Tune it how you want. Load the output avi's into what ever program you want.

But I'm a command line junkie, and AviDemux should work

You could also change the above loop to use xvid for video and lame for audio (or just copy it) then avimerge/avidemux to join the files together. It would be easier just to append avimerge to the script since you're already at the command line.

[GMaq]

Hi Verlager,

I believe the latest AviDemux 2.4 will open .flv's so if it will join them (not sure haven't done it myself) that should be all you need......OR..... You could use WinFF or AviDemux and convert them to DV (in WinFF you'd have to make a preset like this "-target ntsc-dv" and call the file extension ".dv") then import them into Kino or Cinelerra and spit out the assembled nine as DV and convert them to whatever from inside Kino (it exports into many formats) or with WinFF.

**EDIT** disturbed1 typed faster!

[disturbed1]

There's quite a bit of chatter about this WinFF. Curiosity is getting to me, I'll have to check it out now

[Verlager]

Hi Verlager,

I believe the latest AviDemux 2.4 will open .flv's so if it will join them (not sure haven't done it myself) that should be all you need......OR..... You could use WinFF or AviDemux and convert them to DV (in WinFF you'd have to make a preset like this "-target ntsc-dv" and call the file extension ".dv") then import them into Kino or Cinelerra and spit out the assembled nine as DV and convert them to whatever from inside Kino (it exports into many formats) or with WinFF.

Well, yes, Avidemux will (sort of) open .flv files. One at a time. And it won't play them perfectly like vlc will. Instead, with Avidemux, you will see on-screen awkward refreshes and other artifacts. So, that's NFG. But something interesting here: disturbed1 prefers mencoder, while you would (I presume) employ ffmpeg as your stock encoder. Is it purely a personal preference, or is one transcoder a better choice in this instance? Do you use both? I'd like to hear any comments you have on the reliability of these encoders. Not trying to start a flame war here, though!

[disturbed1]

They are both great. I seriously doubt given the same options there is little if any difference between the two.

I prefer mencoder because that's the documentation I've read the most, and the first encoder on Linux I learned to use. The thing is, both mencoder and ffmpeg call the same outside libraries depending on what codec you choose. Encoding to xvid calls......xvid, encoding to mp3 calls............libavcodec or lame, and so on. IMO mencoder has better filters, if you need to use them. BTW - libavcodec is part of ffmpeg, which are the same libraries used for decoding video by VLC, mplayer uses tons of ffmpeg libraries as well to decode video.

If you perfer GUI apps over command line, then there may not be a better one than WinFF, which uses ffmpeg. Yes I've been playing around with it here lately, and am quite impressed for a GUI app

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libavcodec
http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/ <-- notice the url

[Verlager]

Try loading the flvs into avidemux and see what happens

If you need to encode them to another format first, try this in a terminal, be sure to cd to the directory of the flvs first. I would do this if I planned on editing the files, or encoding to another format with a different editor (Kino).

for i in *.flv;do mencoder "$i" -ovc libdv -oac pcm -vf scale=720:480,hqdn3d=2:1:2,harddup -o "$i".avi;done

But I'm a command line junkie, and AviDemux should work

Avidemux does not work for this project. And this Mencoder command line generated nine 0-byte files, exiting briefly each iteration with this error message:

MEncoder 2:1.0~rc1-0ubuntu13.1 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (Family: 15, Model: 3, Stepping: 3)
CPUflags: Type: 15 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x1634833
libavformat file format detected.
VIDEO: [FLV1] 320x240 0bpp 15.000 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:35 fourcc:0x31564C46 size:320x240 fps:15.00 ftime:=0.0667
================================================== ========================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 22050 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 8.0 kbit/1.13% (ratio: 1000->88200)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
================================================== ========================
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Opening video filter: [harddup]
Opening video filter: [hqdn3d=2:1:2]
Opening video filter: [scale w=720 h=480]
================================================== ========================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffflv] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg Flash video)
================================================== ========================
VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try adding the scale filter, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try adding the scale filter, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.

Exiting...

Note this is done on my junk P4 rig, not my fancy new one!

[disturbed1]

You'll have to remove the hqdn3d=2:1:2 filter, or change the color space.

What is the end format you're looking to have?

If you're only looking to convert the file to an avi, then join them do this -

for i in *.flv;do mencoder -ovc xvid -oac copy -xvidencopts fixed_quant=2:me_quality=6:trellis:chroma_opt:vhq=4:lumi_mask:profile=dxnhtntsc -o "$i".avi;done

That will encode them to xvid avis at a fixed quantizer of 2, without changing the frame size, and copying the audio file instead of encoding it. Once finished open segment 1 into avidemux then append 2, 3....... or try avimerge -i *.avi -o file.avi to merge all of the avis together.

[Verlager]

This just in from the WHY DID I EVEN BOTHER? Dept.

I converted all nine of the little flash files to avi format and loaded them up sequentially into Kino. Tried to export them, and after 2 minutes, *poof*, Kino crashed. Linux will never have a viable NLE, video editor. I'll just build up another Xpro Q6600 comp and use a windows video editor. Guaranteed to succeed. Bet.

[disturbed1]

I know the feeling, because a program has never crashed in Windows

Since you wanted to use Kino, why didn't you just import the flvs directory into Kino? Instead of converting to avi format just to have Kino convert to dv?

Did you at least re-launch Kino to notice that it saved your project automatically, including all of your previous edits?

[Verlager]

You wrote this:

for i in *.flv;do mencoder -ovc xvid -oac copy -xvidencopts fixed_quant=2:me_quality=6:trellis:chroma_opt:vhq=4:lumi_mask:profile=dxnhtntsc -o "$i".avi;done

But I think you mean this:

for i in *.flv;do prefix=${i%.*}; mencoder "$i" -ovc xvid -oac copy -xvidencopts fixed_quant=2:me_quality=6:trellis:chroma_opt:vhq=4:lumi_mask:profile=dxnhtntsc -o "$prefix".avi; done

[disturbed1]

You wrote this:

for i in *.flv;do mencoder -ovc xvid -oac copy -xvidencopts fixed_quant=2:me_quality=6:trellis:chroma_opt:vhq=4:lumi_mask:profile=dxnhtntsc -o "$i".avi;done

But I think you mean this:

for i in *.flv;do prefix=${i%.*}; mencoder "$i" -ovc xvid -oac copy -xvidencopts fixed_quant=2:me_quality=6:trellis:chroma_opt:vhq=4:lumi_mask:profile=dxnhtntsc -o "$prefix".avi; done

Nope, meant what I posted. I like KISS, and tend to allow the scripts I post easy to understand by even those prone to PEBKAC problems. Allows for the person to customize to their liking You'd be surprised how many people attempt to type commands in and can't tell the difference {[(.

[Verlager]

Do you see where your version lacks a "$i" ? Also, strangely, the resulting avi files (after my CLI fix) have no audio when played in vlc, but audio is fine when played in mplayer.

[disturbed1]

Do you see where your version lacks a "$i" ? Also, strangely, the resulting avi files (after my CLI fix) have no audio when played in vlc, but audio is fine when played in mplayer.

I see now It was late, and must have missed it

Take a look at the vlc messages (view - messages) to see what the problem is.

[Placio74]

@carrie_joy
It's Linux subforum - Your tool require Windows 2000 and above.

[EDIT]Uh... carrie_joy post removed (pobably just stupid advertsing).

[guns1inger]

Unless it is either the linux version of AVI Demux, or something peculiar to the flv files you are working with, I have never experienced any issues using AVI Demux 2.4 (windows version) with flv files. It happily cuts, joins filters without issue. I also like AVI Demux because it is one of the few that handles VBR MP3 correctly and does allowing joining and cutting without sync issues. Again, this is with the windows version of AVI Demux.

[salamanderca]

In Linux, using FFMPEG:

Convert all your flash video files into MPEG-2's using FFMPEG:

ffmpeg -i input1.flv -target ntsc-dvd output1.mpg
ffmpeg -i input2.flv -target ntsc-dvd output2.mpg
ffmpeg -i input3.flv -target ntsc-dvd output3.mpg

etc.

Then simply concatenate the files:

cat output1.mpg output2.mpg output3.mpg > outputall.mpg

You can write the resulting file to a DVD and watch it on a DVD player, in fact.

[Verlager]

I wouldn't use that method. It's not sophisticated.

[AlanHK]

I'd end run the FLVs and use http://keepvid.com/
Paste in the Youtube links, download high quality (well, sometimes) mp4.