Program to run consecutive MPEG’s file?

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I would like to use a program to consecutively play all of the MPEG files in a given folder — much like what a “Slide Show” program does with a bunch of JPEG files.
Does such a program exist??

Thank you.

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Basically, these new-fangled digital cameras can record small video clips as MPEG files. I would like to stick all of the related MPEG files into one “Video” folder and then run a program or script that will sequentially play each of the videos. Sounds simple — but how do I do it?

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Try Camel’s Mpeg Join and Cinax’s IFilm Edit.

To have a perfect “join,” it’s important to have the same specifications for all the MPEG files. Each file must have the same resolution, video, and audio or it will not play correctly. This means it may display funky effects or simply not play at all. MPEGJoin can’t verify that the specifications are different before joining.It may be necessary to recompress each MPEG file using the same specifications and then join them. This reduces the likelihood of a badly joined MPEG file. You can also download Camel from The Profiteer’s Lame Homepage.

SMBP

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Have you had look at IrfanView 3.80? Since it can play MPEGs, the slideshow function may do what you want, with minimal effort. I don’t have clips to test it with, but it works fine with WAVs.

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Hi R2,

It’s also been mentioned somewhere in this forum that one could join MPEG files by zipping the whole bunch you want to join with compression set to none. You would then have to change the extension of the resulting zip file to .mpg and voila. This has not worked for me.
With regard to Camel MPG Join, with certain MPG files it will happen that once you join them, the resulting file is bigger (approximately the summation of the single MPGs), BUT when you play it, only the first MPG plays (ie, you got a bigger file equal to the first of your list). In the rest of the cases, CMPG Join has worked great.

Now, there’s another approach you’d want to try – the asx approach.

An .asx file is basically a text file that gives Windows Media Player information on how it shoud reproduce a video stream (hey, I’m no programmo nor technician, so pundits feel free to correct me). The videos to reproduce can be hosted remotely or stored in your HD. AFAIK, ANY FORMAT (most commonly .asf and .wmv) can be played.

So, what you have to do is:
1) “Program” your .asx file. I learned how to do it when I downloaded AsfTools, which lets you create an .asx file to play a sequence of either .asf or .wmv videos stored in your pc, and I then edited the .asx file with a text editor. I want to remark that I did it, so it’s really not that difficult.
2) Play the .asx file. I believe Windows Media needs a codec or two, but it’ll download as soon as you tell it to play the file.
3) If your need to play files other than .wmv or .asx in a sequence is recurring, you can consider creating an Excel “template” to generate .asx files more easily (I dunno if there’s an app out there that will do this).

Of course, first things first. I suggest you download AsfTools, have it create your first .asx file, then go for the edition. If you find it too troublesome, please post back. I really believe it’s not too difficult and you shoud give it a try. Besides, the .asx approach lets you view the video files played in a sequence whereas you preserve the original files. Most of the times it’s unnecessary to keep the original files, so having a Joined file and doing away with the rest is fine. But at times you’ll find handy the possibility to keep the original ones. Of course, you can keep both the individual and the Joined files, but this doubles the HD space you must dedicate. Just a thought.
As for the Excel template, if everything went awrite, I can give you some ideas on how I created mine.

HTH

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Hi, Diegol ~[indent]

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It’s also been mentioned somewhere in this forum that one could join MPEG files by zipping the whole bunch you want to join with compression set to none. You would then have to change the extension of the resulting zip file to .mpg and voila. This has not worked for me.

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[/indent]Using WinZip, you need to add them one at a time, make sure the compression is set to ‘None’ each time, and then change the extension to ‘.mpeg’.

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Hey, Bruce,

I remember trying that too, but to no avail. The funny thing is that I think I ‘understand’ why it should work (if my ‘understanding’ is right, it should work with .mp3 files as well), but it doesn’t. I’ve even tried it making sure the files were ‘joinable’ using Camel MPG Join (or another MPG joiner I have at home, I cannot recall its name), but I’ll give it a final try. Worst things have beaten me, I don’t want this one in the record.

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I gave it the last try and have 3 things to say:

1) It ain’t beaten me- I was obviously doing something wrong. Thanks Bruce for putting me back on track .
2) It also works if you create a .rar file with compression set to store (using Winrar- this equals compression = 0)
3) My prediction was right: you can join .mp3 files with this technique.

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Right on!

Out of sheer curiosity, do you recall what you did differently the previous times

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I don’t. It’s really simple, save a couple of key steps one must be aware of. I remember paying heed to every detail, but it didn’t work. The only thing to note is, all the previous times I had failed to get it right at home. It has now worked at… er, work.

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Thank you ALL. I think I have plenty of options now!

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Hi Bruce:
This has been a great thread!

I found that you didn’t have to add them at one time (WinZip 8.0). You can select a bunch & right click for a context menu “WinZip/Add to Zip file…”. When the dialog box comes up, just set the compression to zero.
Cheers,

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Hi, Phil ~

Yes it has!

What you are saying is true most of the time, however, there are occasions when you may need them stitched together in a particular order and WinZip, without apparent logic, re-sorts them as I experienced in this old post.

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. Yep, sure enough. In my experiment, I didn’t bother to check the order. The order listed in winzip (from DOS names) didn’t correspond to the play order. I just tried it your way–one at a time–& was able to order it the way I wanted.

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I wonder

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Dunno, but you might think about posting that in Lounge Matters to see what kind of response you get….

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I’ve been after something similar for a while. As you say, it should be pretty simple to do – nothing more than a playlist with, say, a drag & drop interface from Windows Explorer. This could then generate & run a batch file or similar, which could play each .mpg in turn. I was going to write one myself, but will wait for it to appear in my favourite media player Moopeg… soon according to the home page.

Alan

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IrfanView 3.80 does it already! For “continuous” play use “0” in slide advancement automatic after n seconds. Doesn’t quite have the drag & drop interface to generate a playlist, but still simple. You navigate to where your files are in the slideshow dialog and add what you want to the slideshow. The list can then be saved as a text file, an executable, or a screensaver. It can also load a slideshow from a text file, and since the text file is just a list of filenames, with paths, it’s easy to create externally.

PS Thanks R2 for the original question – I had made rather limited use of Irfanviews slideshow to date – now I know better!

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Thanks for that information. IrfanView never ceases to amaze… now there’s something for the wishlist – definitive, comprehensive, complete documentation of all the things IView can do. Every time I see it mentioned, some new hitherto unknown feature/ gem seems to pop up. It’s a brilliant piece of software and it’s a pity there isn’t a manual that does it justice.

Alan

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GREAT info!!! I hadn’t thought of that. So IrfanView will do just about anything!! I think I’ll fire the cook
One thing though: currently there aren’t IrfanView plug-ins to view all type of video files, so the asx approach is still interesting for sequence-viewing, say, divx avi files, which I found to be unjoinable (e.g. using Peck’s Power Join), or other video file types currently not supported by IrfanView.

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Just to spread the information, I actually ended up doing this a different way. My goal was to stick a bunch of still images and video files on to a CD. Eh, it actually ended up being .avi files for the videos, but I don’t think it matters.

I wanted to have some way for the recipients of the disk to be able to click something and have all the video files play sequentially. Since not all users have the great IrfanView program, I did not want to use any third-party software if I could avoid it. Otherwise, I would have to stick the entire program on each of the CD’s…

Well, the “play list” idea works perfectly well — I was just very unsure about if it would work from a CD. It has to use “relative referencing” for the addressing of the play list — lo and behold, it does!

So… you simply have to create a text file that lists all the video files you want to play — just like this:

video1.avi
video2.avi
video3.avi

Name this text file with an “.m3u” extension and save the file in the exact same folder that holds the .avi files (relative referencing). IF Windows Media Player is your default .m3u program, it uses the file as a continuously cycling play list. Works for me and it takes minimal effort. If you have all the files in one folder, you can create the playlist instantaneously using DOS or a command window:

dir /b *.??? > videos.m3u

Where “???” is the extension of the video files in question (e.g., .mpeg, .avi, etc.). Pretty slick and easy.

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Hi, R2 ~

This is very,very slick & easy! You can also mix video filetypes by separating them w/ a semi-colon:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
© Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:Documents and SettingsBruce G.F. Krymow>cd my documentsclips&flicks

C:Documents and SettingsBruce G.F. KrymowMy DocumentsClips&Flicks> dir /b *.mpg
; *.mpeg; *.wmv; *.avi > VideoSet6.m3u

I am trying my hand with w/ music and sound, but haven’t found the proper working extension yet.

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Great tip R2. I’m busy with it already . I had no idea that .M3U filetypes existed. And in its oft’ understated brilliant simplicity, it’s good ol’ DOS to the rescue again. The only drawback I’ve encountered with the method is that the DIR command defaults to ordering by datestamp. Many of my folders contain mpegs that are logically named to reflect the “chronological” order. This limitation can be overcome, in part at least, by using the /O switch in the DIR command. Something like this:

Start –> Run –> command /c dir *.mpg /b /on > run.m3u

In this case, the /ON switch orders the directory list by filename. Other options are available – DIR /? gives details.

As to the drag & drop capability, selecting multiple files in a Windows Explorer folder and dropping onto a simple batch file might do the trick:

:LOOP
DIR /b %1 >> playlist.m3u
shift
if not (%1)==() goto LOOP

Late Addition – Now that I know what to look for, here’s a link to what I was looking for in the first place :
A simple freeware m3u playlist editor. Drag-n-drop media files into the order you want. m3uEdit 150KB

Potential drawback (or maybe asset): Files are listed with fully qualified pathnames e.g. C:mediaclip6.mpg
BUT you can generate the .m3u with local/relative filenames e.g. clip6.mpg via DOS or batch file then easily open & edit in m3uEdit.

Alan

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Thanks — to everyone. I had not even looked that the datestamp issue. The film clips I was working with were all from a digital camera, so they were already arranged in order by time, and if not, the names were alphabetized by default — you know, like avi0001.avi, avi0002.avi — by the camera.

Now I have een more choices. This has been very instructive.

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Hi R2,

Very good info!!! I was aware of m3u files as lists for listenting to music (eg in Winamp), but didn’t know they also worked with videos. One of my officemates pointed out that the latest version of winamp 2 (ver 2.9x maybe) now also supports video files, so one having this ver. shouldn’t bother reassociating m3u files with Windows Media Player. I, however, use winamp for musical purposes only and won’t have it play videos. I prefer older versions that go easier on resources.

I agree with TimOz- this one makes it to StarThreaddom in less than you can say ‘StarThread’.
Add to his strange equation the fact that the one who posted the original question ended up stunning the rest of the crew with his own findings .

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“strange equation “? If you mean “2+2=5”, that’s my shorthand for synergy.

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