How to Combine Videos on Windows

Merging a video implies that you have multiple video files that you want to put together, cut and arrange into a single resultant video that’s nice to watch and that tells a complete story. Windows is the most popular OS and it’s great at working with multimedia. You can play, convert and manipulate videos without additional downloads. However, there’s no fully-fledged tool that comes with Windows that helps you to merge multiple videos, so lots of PC users are out of luck. Keep reading and learn how to combine videos on Windows using an easy-to-use online Video Merger or a third-party installable software.

Use 123apps Video Merger

Step 1: Upload a video

Click Open file and select multiple files on your HDD. Don’t worry if you can’t do that in one go. Most people have video pieces stored across multiple folders. You can throw in more clips anytime later.

Step 2: Merge the video

Throw in multiple videos using the Add feature. Arrange them on the timeline and use the clip borders to trim the clips in place. Also you can change the scale, position, playback speed and many more.

Step 3: Save the edit

Last but not least, you can select the output format. By default, it's MP4, and it works on most computers, running Windows 10 macOS etc. Slick Save when you‘re done and you’ll see the dialog window in a bit. Proceed and Save the rendered file to your HDD.

About 123apps Video Merger

With the Video Merger online tool, you can fix the black borders out from your video footage. Other than merging video, you can transform your captures, reposition them in a frame – all of it without a single download. 

Free

It’s a free tool without demo versions and watermarks. Just open it in a web browser of your choice and you are good to go. It’s the best option for editing video on Windows 10 and 11. It has a wide variety of input and output codecs so you shouldn’t worry about the compatibility of this free tool either.

Everything is Online

With the Video Merger tool you have a free online video merge editing feature always at your fingertips. You can access it not only from your PC that runs Windows 10 or 11, but from any other computer running any OS such as macOS, Linux, and others.

All video tasks are covered

Actually, it’s not just an online Video Merger microservice tool, but a complete video production suite that you can use to perform nearly any task such as cropping, retiming, resizing video, and a plethora of other applications. Switch from the Merger tool to another one that you need and continue working on your video without leaving this web application.

Your video is secure

Video Merger sits and functions solely on the web, so requires you to upload videos to its Web servers in order to process video clips. Don’t worry, because all the content is sent via a secure Web protocol with an SSL certificate (HTTPS). On the server-side, your video is only stored for a few hours while you process it and download.

Mobile-friendly

In today’s world, people shoot videos and store video clips on their mobile phones. You can save yourself a step of not sending it to your Windows computer first and uploading to online Video Merger. Just open the same page on your mobile device and you’re good to go.

Use VLC to crop videos

VLC is a video player that works across all platforms including Windows 10 and 11. In addition to being the most popular cross-platform video player, it can convert videos and apply filters, as well as put multiple videos on a playlist and publish it as a single video, which covers the need for a video Merger tool. The process is a little bit tricky, but stay with us, follow all the steps, and you will have your video merged in no time.

Step 1: Install

Download VLC media player for Windows by going to the VideoLAN .org website. Make sure you open the real website, not a phishing page that looks like VLC developers. Then install the executable file (.exe). Open video with VLC just to preview that it’s up and running.

Step 2: Select a playlist

In order to merge multiple videos, we need to create a playlist out of them. Select multiple videos that you want to put together and throw them into your opened VLC window. You can see the playlist contents by clicking on the list button next to playback buttons.

Step 4: Convert

Now, select Convert / Save from the top Media menu. Or hit Ctrl + R on your keyboard.

Make sure that all your files are in the list. Use the Add feature if you missed something. Click Convert / Save down below and then choose Convert (Alt + O). 

Play around with the Profile to output. Just make sure you’re selecting ad MP4 output with a compatible codec, such as H.265. Check the checkbox down below named Append ‘-converted’ to filename not to override the existing video footage. Click Start.

Note: Try not to use spaces in the names of your files and don’t give them longer names because at the next step we’ll need to type commands and file names.

After that, the bulk conversion process will run, converting all your footage into a format that can be merged into a single video.

Step 5: Combine Videos

Now that we get the converted video that has a similar format, we can do the actual merging by running a command. Open the Command Line in your Windows OS by clicking Win + R and typing `cmd`. Navigate to this folder by typing ‘cd’ and the full path to the directory where you have all these converted files.

Type the following command to connect all your videos:

$ vlc video1-converted.mp4 video2-converted.mp4 --sout="#transcode{vcodec=h265, acodec=mp4a}:gather:std{access=file, mux=ts, dst=final.mp4}" --sout-keep

Where video1-converted.mp4 and others will be the names of your video fragments that you want to put together. It can be two or more file names that you list, divided by spaces. It will launch the process of combining videos together

VLC disadvantages

Although VLC is a free tool and we recommend it for playing video on any platform, be it Windows or macOS – it works equally well on both, still it’s not an easy tool for video manipulations. First, there’s no timeline on which you can easily throw videos, cut them and publish the result with a nice and easy workflow and preview. For example, if you add files with varying dimensions, you need to crop them first and resize them to the frame of a parent video.

If you try to combine already trimmed, cropped and resized videos, it’s applicable to use this tool by following the steps provided before.

Use Clipchamp to combine videos

Clipchamp is a native video editing tool that substitutes Windows MovieMaker for Windows 10 and 11. It’s much superior in terms of usability, functionality, and efficiency. It’s easy to lose the grip and divert from completing the task, because this nice tool has so much to offer. Follow the steps below not to get distracted and complete the task of combining videos in no time.

Step 1: Import video Video

Because Photos is a built-in app in the latest Windows versions, there’s no need to install it. Open video files you want to combine and click the Edit and Create button at the top bar. To prevent any issues with saving your project, keep your work in your default user’s Photos or Video folder.

Step 2: Throw them on a timeline

You’ll have your project’s video library on the left panel and you can Import media by clicking the button there. Drag and drop videos from this panel to the timeline on the bottom-right. You can put videos one after another, trim them or stack them one above another. Whichever clip is above, it’ll take priority as a layer in a photo editing tool that’s on top.

Step 3: Add Effects and Export

You’re welcome to go artistic with Transitions, Adjustments and Effects and select a few from the templates. You can throw in Chromatic aberration, VHS and other video Effects as well as alter their intensity by moving the slider that appears next to the selected effect. Explore the right-hand side panel to get the result you want.

When you’re done, click the Export button that stands-out in the upper side of the window. Select the quality, for example 1080p, HD quality.

Step 4: Enjoy and Share

Wait while the video is being published. You can check out a video  preview as it’s being published. This process is not real time so it may be slower and faster than its original timing.. It may take from a few minutes to quite a long time depending on your computer’s performance. After it’s done, feel free to publish it to your social networks, such as YouTube, Instagram, etc.

Final thoughts on Clipchamp

The video has been put together, fast and easy, without downloading or purchasing a tool by a third-party manufacturer. The Clipchamp editor covers all day-to-day video editing tasks and more. You can do video production end-to-end, change video clips speed, apply artistic filters, fine-tuning adjustments and converting videos to multiple video formats. The main downside to this solution, is that all the source and the published video material is stored on your hard disk drive and it may run out of free space if you’re doing lots of video editing and publishing so watch for this retaining factor before you’ll need to delete something in order to publish again.

Clipchamp is Windows only, so if you run Linux, or macOS, you can’t use it.  A reasonable alternative would be an online Video Merger. It works equally well on all platforms and once you master it on Windows, you can use it on another computer of yours that runs another OS.

Final word

In this article we learned how to merge videos on Windows 10 and alike using an easy-to-use online video Merger or a third-party program that can be installed onto your OS. Also, we learned step-by-step the process in each option so you can relate whether it’s your option without even trying it.

Thank you for your time reading this article. We hope that our software selection will be a great help to successfully completing your task of combining videos. Now, you can weigh all pros and cons, and pick the right tool that will be capable of doing all operations with video that you require, including merging video clips, and many more.

FAQ

Do I need to upload videos online for merging them?

If you use Online Video Merger, you only need to upload them for a short period of time while your video is being processed online. After you download it, the video gets deleted in a bit. As for the way you upload video files, go to the online Video Merger by clicking Open file or by using drag and drop feature. 

Does Online Video Merger work with Windows only?

Because Online Video Merger is platform-independent, you can use it on any OS equally well. Start making videos on Windows and learn the ropes. Next time, upload and combine videos using your other computer that runs macOS without learning a new tool.

What file types can I merge

You can merge multiple video files of all different qualities including file extensions. Select a video file from your computer’s main storage. It might be in pretty much any video format such as .avi, .mp4, .m4v and a plethora of other ones.

How can I merge a video on PC?

Look no further – we covered everything on how to merge a video on your PC with the web-based tools and a few popular Windows video editing programs. Our editor’s pick is Online Video Merger for the web, and a simple yet convenient standalone app for Windows 11, Clipchamp.

How do I merge a video on Windows for free?

Open an online video Merger, upload a video from the HDD, edit online and save into a format of your choice. The finally rendered file will be downloaded back onto your HDD. It's that simple and it's free for anyone. It only requires a PC with Windows (e.g., 10 or 11 but older versions would also work just fine) installed and any web browser.

How do I merge a video in Windows 11?

You can either use a built-in Photos app to trim and merge videos, or install another third-party application to perform this operation, using your computer’s resources (CPU, RAM, Video Card, HDD, etc.). Alternative solution would be to use an online video Merger. That'll do this work for you online on distant Web servers for free.

Do I need to pay for a software to merge video on Windows?

No, there are plenty of analogs that are free from charge and can do exactly the same job of merging videos like paid video editing products. There are plenty of free software choices to merge video clips, either completely free or freemium tools that you can use for some time to do basic operations like the above mentioned. A modern alternative is the online Video Merger solution because it covers all needs and it’s free.

Can any video editing tool merge videos

Combining a video is quite a basic feature that’s included in all video editing tools that allow you to create projects. You can tell it when a tool has a timeline. You can throw video clips onto this timeline, crop them, rearrange and publish as a single video file. Online Video Merger has a timeline, it supports various video file formats for you to upload which makes it a perfect candidate to consider when you need to merge multiple videos into a single movie.

Is Windows Movie Maker available in Windows 10 and 11?

Windows Movie Maker is the name of the very popular video software editing tool on earlier versions of Windows. As for Windows 10 and 11, Movie Maker has been discontinued and we don’t recommend that you download and try to install anymore. You can’t download it from the official Microsoft website, therefore, it can contain malware. If you were a Windows Maker fan once, you can install a virtual machine like VMware that’ll isolate potentially harmful software from your real OS, but it’s too much of a hassle for this simple task. Use Photos app or Online Video Merger instead.