I have figured out so far that you can cut a section from a video with avconv with a command like this (cuts from 1:00-3:00):
avconv -ss 00:01:00 -i "input.avi" -t 00:02:00 -c:v libx264 -crf 23 "output.mp4" But how would I cut two (or more) sections from the video and combine them into one video? For example, taking 1:00-3:00 as above, plus 8:00-10:00, making a final 4 minute video.
I guess I can do them separately then concatenate them, but is there a simpler way?
I believe you will have to cut separate chunks, then concatenate them. Don't use cat for that, as timecodes will be all over the place.
If the video chunks are mp4, use mp4box (from the gpac package) for concatenation:
mp4box -cat vid1.mp4 -cat vid2.mp4 ... -cat vidN.mp4 -new vid1-N.mp4 ffmpeg already has an option called concatenate. It works with most formats, not just for mpg files.
You can find instructions in the ffmpeg wiki.
For combining videos use:
cat video1 video2 > video3 If you would like to use the combined video in website, you could try a new technology, called popcorn.js. You should see this video to understand how to combine multiple videos without any software and to start any video from wanted seconds. It's very interesting.
For the whole process of cutting and combining videos maybe you need a script like this:
#! /bin/bash folder="/home/user/path-to-folder" input="input.avi" out1="1.mp4" out2="2.mp4" combine="3.mp4" cd $folder avconv -ss 00:01:00 -t 00:02:00 -i $input -c:v libx264 -crf 23 $out1 avconv -ss 00:08:00 -t 00:10:00 -i $input -c:v libx264 -crf 23 $out2 # add as many lines as you like cat $out1 $out2 > $combine You only have to change the names of variables at the start of the script.
Also You could try MENCODER for joining videos:
mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy -idx -o output.avi video1.avi video2.avi video3.avi 
mktemp for temporary files created by the script) have been invented.