How to Put Video Clips Together - With MP4box Linux Tool

Once upon a time, I was searching the Internet for a way to combine video files. There are quite a few free and paid for software programs available in order to accomplish this task. However, most of them require you to run these files through an encoder.

This can be extremely time consuming. I found a Linux tool called MP4Box. I love Linux for exactly this reason.

You will need to install this software with the apt-get Advanced Packaging Tool on Debian derivation Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and YUM Yellow Updater Modified on Redhat linux distributions, for example Fedora. Also, you can install this manually from source, but that is another more technical discussion. MP4Box actually comes with gpac project on advanced content.

You will need to install gpac project on advanced content in order to then use MP4Box. You can type this following command on a Debian derivation Linux distribution operating system in order to install. You will need root privileges in order to install this software.

apt-get install gpac

Now that you have it installed you can start combining video files. This package was case sensitive when I used it with Ubuntu. What this means is that you will need to spell it out correctly including upper or lower case characters when you run this command.

MP4Box

Also, I found out that you have to specify a temporary folder when running this command. On this Ubuntu Linux distribution operating system, I run the following command in order to concatenate multiple video files into one file.

MP4Box -tmp /mnt/c/Users/USER/Videos -cat x.mp4 -cat x.mp4 -new xxx.mp4

Remember MP4Box command is case sensitive. Specifying -tmp with a path tells this program where to save any temporary file(s). You will want to choose a directory that is writeable.

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I chose the same folder that I store and save video files for convenience. You can set this to any folder that has write permissions. Finally, in the above example the -cat variable tells this program to concatenate these files which means to combine them sequentially.

The entire second file gets added after the first file so that when you play it back it is one file. Each time you specify a file you want combined you must preface it with the -cat variable. Also, the -new variable tells this MP4Box tool to create a new file that combines two or more video files.

x.mp4 is an example name of your video file(s) you want combined. xxx.mp4 is an example name of your new file. This tool saves me a ton of time, instead of waiting for a video encoder to process this project. This program is supposed to support Audio Video Interleave, Moving Picture Experts Group 4, Moving Picture Experts Group, Transport Stream, and 3rd Generation Partnership video formats.

I have only used this program with MP4 video files.