Merging 2 video files – .NET way

Hi again!

There are couple of video recording solutions for Windows and most of them are time limited. The following solution uses ffmpeg to merge different type of video files. It is using the 64-bit of ffmpeg. Use at your own risk 😛 Btw, it will merge more than one file into a file named as OUTPUT on your desktop. If the file exists, it will concatenate a randomized 3 letter to the output filename.

You need to have ffmpeg.exe in your Debug folder if you releasing with Debug in VS.

This console application would work as follows:

VideoMerger path_to_video_1 path_to_video_2 path_to_video_n

E.g.

VideoMerger C:\\mywedding.avi D:\\yourfunearal.avi

/* 
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
 * Company: ACME AB							 *
 * Programmer: Baran Topal                   				 *
 * WorkspaceName: VideoMerger					 	 *
 * Project Name: VideoMerger           			 		 * 
 * File name: Program.cs                                                 *
 * Version: 1.0                                                          *
 * not super clean code but works                                        * 
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;

namespace VideoMerger
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            if (args.Length == 0)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Usage:");
                Console.WriteLine("VideoMerger path_to_video_1 path_to_video_2 path_to_video_n");
                Console.WriteLine("E.g. VideoMerger C:\\video1.mp4 D:\\baz.mp4");
                Console.WriteLine("E.g. VideoMerger C:\\mywedding.avi D:\\yourfunearal.avi");

                Console.WriteLine("Merged video will appear on the desktop with the name as OUTPUT\n");
            }
            else
            {
                var p = new Program();
                p.MergeFiles(args);
                Console.WriteLine("Files are merged!");
            }
        }

        private void MergeFiles(string[] args)
        {
            string strParam;

            // 64-bit
            var Path_FFMPEG = @".\ffmpeg.exe";

            //Merging two videos               
            // var video1 = "C:/Users/Baran.Topal/Desktop/baaa.mp4";
            // var video2 = "C:/Users/Baran.Topal/Desktop/beee.mp4";

            var file = @".\input.txt";

            string[] videos = new string[args.Length];
            for (int i = 0; i < args.Length; i++) { videos[i] = "file " + args[i].Replace(@"\", "/"); } var extension = Path.GetExtension(args[0]); // string [] contents = new string[]{"file 'C:\\Users\\Baran.Topal\\Desktop\\baaa.mp4'", // "file 'C:\\Users\\Baran.Topal\\Desktop\\beee.mp4'"}; File.WriteAllLines(file, videos); var userDesktop = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop); string strResult = string.Empty; if (File.Exists(userDesktop + "\\OUTPUT" + extension)) { strResult = userDesktop + "\\OUTPUT" + RandomString(3) + extension; } else { strResult = userDesktop + "\\OUTPUT" + extension; } strParam = " -f concat -safe 0 -i " + file + " -c copy " + strResult; Process(Path_FFMPEG, strParam); } public string RandomString(int length) { Random random = new Random(); const string chars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"; return new string(Enumerable.Repeat(chars, length) .Select(s => s[random.Next(s.Length)]).ToArray());
        }

        private void Process(string Path_FFMPEG, string strParam)
        {
            try
            {
                Process ffmpeg = new Process();
                var ffmpeg_StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(Path_FFMPEG, strParam);
                ffmpeg_StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
                ffmpeg_StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
                ffmpeg_StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
                ffmpeg.StartInfo = ffmpeg_StartInfo;
                ffmpeg_StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
                ffmpeg.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
                ffmpeg.Start();
                ffmpeg.WaitForExit(30000);
                // ffmpeg.WaitForExit();
                ffmpeg.Close();
                ffmpeg.Dispose();
                // ffmpeg = null;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
            }
        }
    }
}