All together now

March 8, 2008 11:22 AM

How can I stitch some video files together?

I have some video files (both .flv and mpeg4 formats) that I'd like to stitch together - that is, stitch the .flv files to other .flv files, or mpeg4 to mpeg4. If they need to be converted to something else, please advise.

The files are 25-50 MB in size, and all have sound.

I'm running a 1GHz powerPC powerbook G4, 10.4.11. I have iMovie and VLC. I'd like to be able to do this with what I've got; if I have to acquire something else, I'd like it to be free (though that's not a dealbreaker), and it would be great if it's something you've personally used. I'll probably need some hand-holding.

posted by rtha to computers & internet (5 answers total)

iMovie can handle mp4 files I think... open it up, import the video files and drag them to the timeline, and export (somewhere in the menu). It will compress them as well, although you can change how much.

.flv files are somewhat more obstructive; afaik you will need to convert them to a nicer format first. Vixy has a Mac version of a .flv converter you could use. Then, as above, import them into iMovie and export a rendered video.
posted by katrielalex at 11:48 AM on March 8, 2008

VisualHub can join files of arbitrary types together into a single file of any other arbitrary type, though they will be transcoded in the process.
posted by Mwongozi at 12:42 PM on March 8, 2008

(But it will do the transcoding for you.)
posted by Mwongozi at 12:42 PM on March 8, 2008

Seconding VisualHub. I use it for a very similar stitching process, and it works beautifully. Their support people are also extremely friendly.
posted by NucleophilicAttack at 7:50 AM on March 9, 2008

Thanks, all. I may give VisualHub a shot - I already use iSquint, and I like it.

iMovie wants the files to be smaller than 9 MBs, and I'm not going to upgrade to quicktime pro just to chop them up into even smaller pieces so that I can join them together.
posted by rtha at 6:59 PM on March 10, 2008