Use ffmpeg copy codec to combine *.ts files into a single mp4

Question

I've got a bunch of ts segments described by a single index.m3u8 file:

index.m3u8        
segment1_0_av.ts  
segment2_0_av.ts  
segment3_0_av.ts  
segment4_0_av.ts  
segment5_0_av.ts

I know they are all encoded the same way. ffprobe gives me the following:

Input #0, mpegts, from 'segment1_0_av.ts':
  Duration: 00:00:10.00, start: 0.100511, bitrate: 1251 kb/s
  Program 1 
    Stream #0:0[0x100]: Video: h264 (Main) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p, 960x540 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 12.50 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 25 tbc
    Stream #0:1[0x101]: Audio: aac ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 105 kb/s
    Stream #0:2[0x102]: Unknown: none ([21][0][0][0] / 0x0015)

I'd like to combine them into a single mp4 container. But when I try commands like:

ffmpeg -f concat -i filelist.txt -c copy output.mp4

where the generate the filelist.txt from the index.m3u8 file, it complains about not being able to read various files. But converting the ts files themselves seem to work fine. I think I'm not using ffmpeg properly.

How do I use ffmpeg to combine the ts files described by index.m3u8 into a single mp4 container using the copy codec?

Solution 1

I'm not sure why ffmpeg is giving you an error. However ts is one of the few formats that can simply be concatenated. Then, once you have a single ts, transmux to mp4.

Under windows:

copy /b segment1_0_av.ts+segment2_0_av.ts+segment3_0_av.ts all.ts
ffmpeg -i all.ts -acodec copy -vcodec copy all.mp4

Under GNU/Linux, using bash:

cat segment1_0_av.ts segment2_0_av.ts segment3_0_av.ts > all.ts
ffmpeg -i all.ts -acodec copy -vcodec copy all.mp4

Solution 2

Using copy or cat to combine the files like szatmary's current top answer might leave you with a file that plays far past the limit and can't seek along with playback issues.

Instead, to combine these files properly use ffmpeg as instructed in https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Concatenate. (Install ffmpeg here if you don't already have it https://github.com/adaptlearning/adapt_authoring/wiki/Installing-FFmpeg.)

If you're too lazy to read my first link, you basically have to create a .txt file listing all the files you want to combine like so (which my first link gives instructions on how to do easily) in the folder where you're doing the concatenation:

file '/path/to/file1'
file '/path/to/file2'
file '/path/to/file3'

Here's a copy paste from my first link on one way to create a text file if you have Windows on commandline for instance but obviously you can make the file manually or however you want:

(for %i in (*.ts) do @echo file '%i') > mylist.txt

Double check that your .txt file looks good and is formatted correctly!

After this, on commandline run:

ffmpeg -f concat -i mylist.txt -c copy all.ts

where 'mylist.txt' is the .txt file you just made.

Check if the resultant file plays video correctly. From here, you can transmux to mp4 as usual if you like:

ffmpeg -i all.ts -acodec copy -vcodec copy all.mp4

Solution 3

Putting all together

Using Juan Aquino's answer (and correcting the first command to be compatible with Bash and using the natural ordering of files), plus 7vujy0f0hy's answer, a simple working script for a Linux Bash shell is:

#!/bin/bash
for i in `\ls *.ts | sort -V`; do echo "file '$i'"; done >> mylist.txt
ffmpeg -f concat -i mylist.txt -c copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc video.mp4

Solution 4

The correct way to concat multiple video files from m3u8 playlist is

ffmpeg -i "index.m3u8" -codec copy output.mp4

---

• the m3u8 playlist can be on web or locally in directory
  • it contains list of file paths relative to the playlist
• -codec copy to avoid encoding
• container type matters:
  • *.mp4 is fine but it seems little slow to mux when playlist is fetched from web
  • *.mkv or *.ts worked best for me

Solution 5

2017 answer

But when I try commands like ..., it complains about not being able to read various files.

When I execute ffmpeg -i some.ts -c copy some.mp4 on a certain video, I get this error message:

Malformed AAC bitstream detected: use the audio bitstream filter 
'aac_adtstoasc' to fix it ('-bsf:a aac_adtstoasc' option with ffmpeg)

av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted

Not surprisingly, executing ffmpeg -i some.ts -c copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc some.mp4 fixes it.

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Comments

[Camilo Martin]

You may also need -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc.

[Elisa Cha Cha]

Get a new enough ffmpeg and it will now do this automatically.

[Ronnie Royston]

interesting to note that the command is NOT ffmpeg copy ..., it is copy ... (under Windows)

[user]

That for %i in (*.ts) do doesn't sort correctly for i >= 10. Apart from that, everything works, thanks. Indeed, there were problems with the concatenated file, not to mention that the file made using your method has turned out to be 16% smaller (I had 1400 parts by 400kb).

[Sphinxxx]

Actually, when I tried this, there was a slight "stutter" between the segments in the final video. So at least in that one case it helped concatenating the TS files first.

[qwr]

@user for numbers in order you can iterate through numbers like for i in {1..10}; do echo file \'$i.ts\' >> list.txt ; done

[markshep]

For me this causes an audio stutter at each join point, whereas the accepted answer doesn't. The resulting file is also marginally larger with this method.

[j3141592653589793238]

@markshep Did you find any solution for the audio stutter/popping sound?

[Tadej]

Thanks for the sort part. That's what I was missing.

[Dave]

Wow. This is amazing. Thank you.

[MartyMacGyver]

Depending on the source, rather than concatenating with ffmpeg, do it via cat (e.g. cat *.ts >> all.ts in Linux or copy /b *.ts all.ts in Windows) then doing the transmux step. When I did that, my audio glitches went away. (And of course it does depend on the file naming as to whether the wildcard will combine the files in the proper order. If nothing else, concatenate the binary data manually.)