# Recommend a joiner program for me

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-joiner-program-for-me/333747>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 2, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-joiner-program-for-me/333747 "2005-12-02T16:39:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-joiner-program-for-me/333747/1 "2005-12-02T16:39:32Z")

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I’m looking for a program to join video files (taking a group of seperate files and merging them into one). I want something that’s simple to use. I mostly want it for WMV files but I’d like one that joined AVI, MPEG, and Quicktime files as well. I’m looking for a shareware program I can test out before buying, so while I don’t mind demoware or nagware, I don’t want any crippleware. After downloading and rejecting about twelve different programs so far, I’ve decided to get a little more focused in my search and ask for recommendations.

Any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-joiner-program-for-me/333747/2 "2005-12-02T18:01:01Z")

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Microsoft used to have a free video toolkit that worked for wmv files. I don’t believe it was compatible with anything else, though, and you had to use the command line. Still, it worked very well and was fast. Wish I could remember what it was called…

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**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-joiner-program-for-me/333747/3 "2005-12-02T18:28:23Z")

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For wmv files, i just tend to use Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker. It’s a bit clunky and annoying at times, but it does the job OK.

For avi files, i use [VirtualDub](http://www.virtualdub.org/), which is a great little program, and is free. It will also impoprt and convert mpg files, and can use a variety of avi-type codecs, including the very good xVid codec (which you have to download separately; i use [Koepi’s binary](http://www.koepi.org/xvid.shtml) version of this codec).

And for mpg files i use [TMpgEnc](http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html), which is also free unless you want mpg2 encoding capability. This program will also import and convert (and then, if you want, join) non-DRM copies of windows video, like asf and wmv.

I don’t have anything for joining Quicktime movie files.

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-joiner-program-for-me/333747/4 "2005-12-02T19:34:06Z")

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I have used [MPlayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/) to do this. It’s a command-line utility so it’s great for quick-and-dirty joins when you don’t need to do any extensive editing. The program is free software (as in, free to use, modify, and redistribute). Binary versions for Mac OS X, MS-Windows, and GNU/Linux are available on the website, and source code is provided.