Merging files leading to issue when playing

[snowoli]

Hi,

First of all please note this problem is present on both versions of TS Doctor so it's not specific to the v2.0x

Here is what I've encountered :

- From several TS files that I first cut and saved I need to merge them together
- The cuts are going ok but the merging is problematic
- The merging itself occurs right and finishes without problem
- At the end it's impossible to play the final merged file. I've got a black screen in VLC. However I can play the file in Potplayer.

It looks like a VLC issue but I'm wondering if TSD isn't a bit guilty as wel since all my usual works used to work fine with VLC so far.

Any idea ?

[Mam]

Sounds like the "ever again and well known" VLC bug that strikes you too.

Move out (or delete) ANY .TXT, .LOG, .SRT files with names like the movie from that folder before starting VLC!
VLC "hangs" if it finds one of those files, it tries to load them as Subtitles although .TS format has imbedded (and only imbedded) subtitles already. It fails, does not crash, but just sits around and waits for Godot or somebody.

You will find dozens and more reports like this in this (german) or other forums, the VLC crew knows the bug for decades (okok, lets say "for some years") already, but does not fix it for an unknown reason.

Delete/move those files and see it working again!

[snowoli]

Thx for your reply Mam.

However I'm used to that problem you've described. I always delete those files because I know it's causing problems to VLC to play the videos.
Here, even if I did delete those files, it can't be played. I had to use Adobe Premiere Pro to join all the parts and encode them into a MP4 file which I wish I did not have to do cause it's boring and so slow... and doesn't keep the .ts format !

If you have any other explanations... ?

[Mam]

If you have any other explanations... ?

Hmm, the only other thing I can think of is that the two parts differ in format somehow. If PIDs dont match or video formats, VLC might get into troubles, but then, usually it starts to play one and then breaks if it finds the format change later on.

Obviously reencoding (with Premiere) helps, of course this also corrects any possible format errors. And yes, its slow as a dog and surely nothing for every days use (it also produces max quality files only which fill up your hd fast).
Try a more sane program like handbrake + mkvtoolnix. Reencode the two parts with handbrake (make sure that you use the same output settings for both of them!) then join them with mkvmerge. This should be about 10times faster than premiere and also gives 10 times smaller files.

But still, no TS anymore, you will get MP4 or MKV too, depending on the settings.

[Oldman13]

Joining ts files to a new ts file is simple, using the procedure described in:
http://www.izitips.com/video-tips/how-to-join-merge-ts-files-together/
Give it a try.

[Oldman13]

I did a quick test, and indeed noticed transition problems with vlc.
Using the procedure mentioned above, the joined file has a wrong time setting. Repairing this joined file with TSD gives a ts file, which correctly plays with vlc.
Suc6