Join multiple video files into one

Websites sometimes split video files into smaller parts to make it easier for users with low bandwidth access to the Internet to download the videos without facing issues such as timeouts or interrupted downloads. Once downloaded it is rather tiresome to watch these movies because you have to click on each part which naturally means a short pause between the current and the next part of it, or add them all to a playlist.

The following trick allows you to join multiple videos files into one big file so that it is much easier afterwards to watch the full video in one go and without having to rely on playlists or loading videos manually one after each other. The method depends largely on the file type of the video files. If you have multiple mpg files for instance, you can use the command line to easily join them together. The copy trick won't work for container file types such as mkv for instance.

Mpg and mp4 work definitely as I tested the copy command with those file types.

Join multiple video files

Start the command line with the shortcut Windows-R to to bring up the run box. Type cmd and hit the enter key, this will load the command prompt window.

Enter the following line on the command line, make sure you enter the right filepath to the movie. I suggest you move the files to the top of a hard drive to ease the amount of typing that needs to be done or use the CD (change directory) command to navigate to the folder the videos are stored in.

copy /B "C:\movie1.mpg" + "C:\movie2.mpg" + "C:\movie3.mpg" "C:\completemovie.mpg"

This joins movie1.mpg, movie2.mpg and movie3.mpg into completemovie.mpg. You can add more movies to join more parts without any issues.

You need additional programs if the video files are in a different format. For avi files, use the freeware VirtualDubMod instead and unpack it to your hard drive. Run the tool and select File > Open Video File. Browse to the first part of the avi video and select it. Select no if a "VBR audio stream detected" is displayed on the screen.

Click on File, append Segment and select all other parts of the movie here. Once this is done click on File, Save As and save the newly merged movie file to your hard drive.

You may also want to check out our guide on joining video files using freeware programs and our review of the free Cut Video Audio Merger which provides similar functionality.

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