Almost everyone knows VLC — the media player with a traffic cone icon. What most people don’t know is that VLC can provide more than video and audio playback. It can work as a basic video editor.
In addition to splitting and rotating videos, converting audio and video files, recording screen, and ripping DVDs, VLC can merge videos just like most video editing software.
You are probably thinking that the type files and size that it can merge is limited.
But it isn’t.
VLC media player can:
Besides providing plenty of audio and video decoders, one other charm of VLC is that you do not have to worry about incompatibility with your operating system. VLC supports most platforms, this includes:
The big question is: How do you merge videos using VLC?
We will guide you through the two basic methods of merging videos with VLC, address problems you are likely to encounter, and the best part — we will give you a permanent solution to ‘video not playing issue”.
Let’s get into it.
If you haven’t already, you will need to install VLC in your device.
Image source: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
VLC will only merge videos in the same file format. If they are not in the same format, you need to convert your video files using VLC.
Begin the process by launching the VLC application.
Click on “Media” from the menu bar and choose “Convert / Save”. Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+R.
It will open a dialogue box as shown below. Click on the “Add” button on the right side of the dialogue box.
The “Add” button will take you to the files on your device. And you can choose the video files you would want to convert.
Make your selection and click “Open”.
Each file will be added to the open dialogue box in your VLC. In our illustration below, we have chosen the file named “Wildlife”, which is in WMV format.
At the bottom, on the right side of the dialogue box, select “Convert/Save”.
A drop-down menu will appear, select “Convert”. You could also use the keyboard shortcut Alt+O.
It will open yet another dialogue box.
Select “Profile” and a drop-down menu will appear with a long list of output formats that you could use. Pick your preferred file format, and have your videos in the same format.
In our case, we have chosen MP4, the first choice in the list.
Once you have made your choice, go to the “Destination” section. Select the destination by clicking on “Browse”. You will be redirected to your device’s “Libraries” and you can pick the location you would want to store your file and the name you would want to give it.
Selecting a different name for the converted file will help you have two files – the video in its original format and in its converted format.
We have saved our converted file as “Wildlife2”
Next, click “Start”.
Check your storage location for the converted file.
Here are our results, ‘Wildlife’ is in WMV format and ‘Wildlife2’ is in MP4 format.
Now it’s time to start merging your videos in VLC.
We will show you how to merge videos using two methods.
Once you convert your videos successfully, merging them will be a piece of cake.
It will be an easy 3-step process, quite similar to the conversion step:
To get started, click “Media” on the menu bar and select “Open Multiple Files”.
Like we did on the conversion step, add the videos to be merged by clicking on “Add” and choosing your files from your device’s storage. In our illustration, we will be merging two videos – Wildlife2 and Oceans. Both videos are in MP4 format.
At the bottom-right of the dialogue box, select the “Play” button and select “Convert” from the drop-down menu that appears.
Another dialogue box will pop up. On the destination section, there will be a field labeled destination file. Clicking on “Browse” allows you to choose the name you would like to give to the merged videos and the location you want to save it on your device.
You can also:
To complete the merging process, click “Start”. The familiar VLC playback screen and status bar will appear, it means your videos are merging.
But there is a problem with this process.
Depending on the operating system in your device, VLC may refuse to give a name to your merged videos, and this means you cannot merge the videos.
You will find that the Destination field will read “Multiple Files Selected”, and cannot be customized as in our case below. The “Browse” button will also be missing.
This means you cannot save the individual video files as one merged file. Hitting the “Start” button will be fruitless.
In this case, you can use another method to merge your videos using VLC — the command line method.
We will be honest. Combining your videos using the command line will not be as easy as using the VLC interface.
It will be a tad technical. But it is more efficient if you need to combine multiple videos at a go. And this is the only method that will work with some operating systems, such as Linux.
Here are the steps for this method.
"vlc location" video1.mp4 video2.mp4 --sout "#gather:std{access=file,dst=merged.mp4}" --sout-keep
We will break it down for you:
The videos can be a s many as you need to merge.
Change the file names in the command to match the names of your videos. In our case, we will replace “video1” and “video2”with Ocean and Wildlife2, which are the videos we are merging. And we will replace “merged” with merged sample, which is the name we will give to the merged videos:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" Ocean.mp4 Wildlife2.mp4 --sout "#gather:std{access=file,dst=merged sample.mp4}" --sout-keep
If the command results in an error, check that you have the program path of VLC right. We are referring to this part of our sample command: "C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe".
To get the exact program path of your device, right click on your VLC program and from the pop-up menu that appears select “Properties”. The program path will be the part highlighted in blue and labeled “Target”.
Here is the program path for our device’s VLC, which is what we have used in our command.
Let’s compare the details of the merged video to the original videos.
Names
Wildlife2
Ocean
Merged sample
File size
18.9 MB
5.57 MB
20.2 MB
Resolution
1280*720
1280*720
1280*720
If you try to play your merged videos file and find that it has errors, such as:
This could only mean that something did not go right during the conversion.
You can first check if your source videos are corrupted by trying to open them using another media player, such as Windows Media Player.
Another issue could be that VLC did not complete the merging process, or a video codec issue occurred but VLC completed the merging regardless.
Here are a few steps you can take to try and correct the problem:
Just like your videos will not merge if they are not in the same file format, VLC will also not merge videos that are in portrait orientation, or other orientations. It can only merge videos with landscape orientation.
If some of the videos you want to merge are in portrait orientation, you will need to rotate them.
Begin by opening the video would want to rotate. Open it using VLC media player.
We will be using our “Oceans” sample video that is in a portrait orientation to illustrate this process.
Click on “Tools” from the menu bar. And in the drop-down menu that appears, select “Effects and Filters”. You could also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+E.
In the dialogue box that appears:
You can change your video’s orientation by rotating it by 90, 180, or 270 degrees. You can also choose to flip or transpose it. Work around the options provided to get your video to be in landscape orientation and match your other videos.
We selected rotate by 90 degrees. Here are the results.
Click “Close”.
Next you need to properly save the video you have rotated.
Go to the menu bar in VLC and click on “Tools”. Scroll down the drop-down list that appears and select “Preferences”.
A new dialogue box will open.
The dialogue box will close and take you back to VLC.
Next:
This saving process will give you two versions of your video, one in its original portrait format, and another in a landscape format.
If for any reason you want to undo the rotation setting in the video, go to “Tools” on the menu bar of VLC. Select “Preferences” and at the bottom of the dialogue box that opens, choose “Reset Preferences”.
A merged video that is not playing properly could be caused by third party antivirus software or your dialogue boxs Defender Firewall.
The anti-virus tool or firewall could be blocking an important component, making VLC to experience issues when trying to play the video.
You can try one of these:
A VLC player that is not up to date could be the reason your merged videos are not playing as they should. Try updating it to the latest version:
A dialogue box will pop-up, and if the VLC is up to date the message “You have the latest version of VLC media player” will appear.
If there are updates available:
VLC media player comes with an in-built repair feature, but it only works for AVI video files.
Go to VLC. Select Tools from the menu bar and choose “Preferences”.
On the dialogue box that opens, choose Inputs / Codecs from the top section of the dialogue box.
On the files section in the same dialogue box, open the drop-down list next to “Damaged or Incomplete AVI file” and choose always fix. And then “Save”.
If your video is playing video and not audio, the audio troubleshooter of your computer might fix the problem.
Go to “Start” on your computer. Search ‘Troubleshoot’ and select it. Under ‘Hardware and Sound’ and choose “Troubleshoot Audio Playback”.
Run the troubleshooter.
A heavy or high-resolution video can cause VLC to lag due to insufficient video cache. You can try to resolve this by increasing the file cache value.
Go to “Tools” on the VLC menu and choose “Preferences”.
At the bottom of the dialogue box that opens, select “All”.
On the left side of the dialogue box, click the arrowhead next to Inputs / Codecs.
On the right side, scroll down to the “Advanced section and increase the value next to “File Caching” to around 700-1000ms. You can also increase the value next to “Network Caching”.
Click “Save”.
If you are still facing a lagging issue when trying to play your merged video, you could also try to restrict the number of threads running in the background by changing the FFmpeg value. Too many threads in the background could cause VLC to lag.
In the same dialogue box, click on the arrowhead next to “Video Codes”. In the drop-down list that appears, choose FFmpeg. On the right side of the dialogue box, next to “Threads”, restrict the number of threads to 2. Click save to save your settings.
Still have a problem trying to merge your videos?
VLC is a terrific program with numerous features that make it a favorite for many people. But trying to merge your videos using the convert feature can become unsuccessful. And using the command line method — which feels like programming — can be troublesome.
Worse, you could dot all the i’s, cross all the t’s, and still end up with a merged video that won’t play right.
You don’t have to go through all the trouble. Use a more straightforward alternative — Keevi.
Keevi is a content repurposing tool that will help you find everything you need to create content that is engaging. And you don’t need any training to get it right, or master some codes.
With Keevi, you will also not have to worry about installing it in your device or checking for updates frequently. It is a web application with a friendly user interface.
It provides a fully customizable video player, with lots of exciting features.
Unlike VLC, Keevi does not limit you to only merging your videos. It will work with you from finding the videos you will work with to editing the merged videos to suit your purpose.
Keevi goes the extra mile for every step you have to take in merging your videos. From sourcing the original videos to merging them, and putting them to use.
For sourcing your videos, you can:
Once you merge your videos, Keevi allows you to tweak your merged video. You can:
You can then use the merged video as you intended. Keevi allows you to:
These are just a few of the features that Keevi have to offer. You can enrich your content and take your video marketing to the next level.
It makes it easy for you to create impressive videos without being a tech expert. You can use them in your video marketing to grow your audience and business.
Merging your videos using Keevio is as easy as it gets. Unlike VLC or other heavy professional video editors, all you need are a few steps to successfully merge your videos using Keevi:
Now it's time to add a little oomph to your video.
You can add a text to your merged video. Click on “Text” and type your words in the box labelled ‘Text’. As you type, the words will appear inside your video.
Choose the point you would want the text to appear on the video by selecting the start and stop time at the bottom of the text box.
You can then change the appearance of the words to match your video or its purpose by clicking on “Styling” and “Animation”. You will get various options for the colour, font type, and font size of your text, and a lot more.
You can add a fun element to your video using emojis and giphy. Click on Stickers at the top of the video and scroll down the emojis and giphy section to make your selection.
You will get the option to rotate the sticker and choose the starting and ending point. To delete the sticker, just select it and click on the delete icon.
You can add subtitles to your videos by clicking “Subtitles”.
Keevi gives you three options:
Once you are satisfied with your merged video and its appearance, it's time to use it.
Click on “Export” on the top-right side of the dialogue box. It will take you to the “Download Your Video” page. You can either share using social media channels, download the video, or copy it to be pasted in your destination.
There are plenty of ways merged videos could benefit you:
Combining two or more videos seems like a tedious job. And true, it can be tedious if you don’t have the right tool and the right guide to complete the process successfully.
Without these, you could spend hours trying to merge your videos and end up with something shabby.
We have provided you with the guide on how to properly merge videos. It’s up to you to get the right tool - Keevi.
With Keevi, merging your videos will be an easy, straightforward process with little room for error.
What’s better, Keevi provides more than merely combining the videos. You get to customize the merged video to serve your purpose — marketing, entertainment, or any other purpose.
Give it a try, sign up today.
