Concatenating .wmv files

[Raymond Richards]

I have several .wmv files that I wish to join into one
working file.
I used the COPY command in DOS as follows :-
COPY source1.wmv/B+source2.wmv/B destination.wmv/B
This produced a file that was of the size source1+source2
but when played it only displayed the source1 segment.
The initial source files were to display for 2 mins each
but the destination file, though showing the file size to
be the sum of the two source files, only displayed a
duration time of 2 mins.
I am 78 so I guess I have missed something simple.
Can anyone help an old guy 'Down Under' in Australia?
Regards
Ray Richards.

 

[Alan Byers]

Hi Raymond,What O.S. are you using?,because you are in a Win XP news group
and talking about DOS.Hope you are not trying to run an XP app.in DOS.

 

[Guest]

You haven't missed anything simple, it just isn't as easy as that. I know you can use this method for joining mpeg files together but this approach dopes not work for avi/wmv files. As they are in wmv format I would recomend usign windows movie maker (WMM)(mainly because it's free and almost certainly installed on your pc already). import the files individually and then drag them to the timeline at the bottom of the screen. Then you can save them as one file. You will need to specify the compression ratio which will largly depend on the original quality of the individual clips and what you intend to use the video for (web sire email etc). For example there is no point in using 2.5Mbs compression if the originals are only 150kbs, as you will not gain any quality but use far more disc space. On the other hand using 150kbs compression on video clips that were originally 2.5mbs will save space but degrade the quality a great deal. If you do not know the original quality experimentation is probabbly the best method. I don't think WMM is able to tell you the compression ratio of the original clips (other programs may be able to although I do not know of any).