Got a bunch of dash cam videos sitting on your computer that you want to stitch together? This tool makes it really straightforward. Whether you're dealing with footage from a road trip, need to combine evidence from an incident, or just want to create one continuous video from your daily commute, here's exactly how to do it.
Getting Your Videos Ready
Before you start, take a look at your video files. This tool works best when your files follow certain naming patterns. Most Viofo dash cams automatically name files in a way that works perfectly, but it's good to understand what's happening.
The tool looks at your filename and figures out which camera recorded it. If your file ends with "_F" or just "F" before the file extension, it goes into the Front Camera pile. Files ending with "_R" or "R" go into the Rear Camera section. So something like "20240315_143022_F.mp4" or "video123F.mp4" gets sorted as front camera footage.
Don't worry if your files don't follow this exact pattern - the tool also looks for words like "front", "rear", "back" in the filename. And if it can't figure it out, everything just gets put in the front camera section by default.
Uploading Your Files
You can get your videos into the tool in two ways. Either click that "Browse Files" button and select multiple files from your computer, or just drag them directly onto the upload area. I usually prefer dragging because it feels more natural, especially when you're dealing with a bunch of files at once.
The tool accepts pretty much any video format your dash cam produces - MP4, AVI, MOV, whatever. I've tested it with files from various Viofo models and it handles them without issues. Once you upload, you'll see your videos automatically sorted into two columns - Front Camera on the left, Rear Camera on the right.
Each video shows up with its filename, how big the file is, how long it runs, and which camera type it's been assigned to. There's also a little eye icon you can click to preview the video before deciding whether to include it in your final merge.
Choosing What Gets Combined
This is where you get to be selective about what goes into your final video. You've got several ways to pick which clips make the cut.
The most precise method is checking individual videos using the little checkbox next to each one. This gives you complete control - maybe you want to skip that boring stretch of highway and just include the interesting parts of your journey.
If you want everything from one camera perspective, use the "Select All" button under either the Front Camera or Rear Camera section. This is perfect when you want to create a complete timeline from just one angle.
The tool keeps track of how many videos you've selected and shows you the total file size at the bottom. This is really useful for planning - if you're dealing with hours of 4K footage, you'll know roughly how massive your final file is going to be.
Setting Up Your Merge
Before hitting that combine button, you need to make a few decisions about how you want your final video to look.
The "Merge Type" dropdown lets you override your individual selections if needed. "Selected Videos Only" does exactly what it says - only the videos you've checked get combined. But you can also choose "All Front Camera", "All Rear Camera", or "All Videos" to grab everything from those categories regardless of what you've individually selected.
The "Sort Order" determines how your clips get arranged in the final video. "By Name" usually works well because most dash cams name files chronologically. "By Date Modified" uses the file's timestamp, which can be helpful if you've moved files around or renamed them. "By File Size" is less common but might be useful in specific situations.
Then there's the quality setting. "Original Quality (Lossless)" keeps everything exactly as it was recorded - no compression, no quality loss, no re-encoding whatsoever. The other options let you scale down the resolution while still maintaining lossless quality at that smaller size. So "Lossless 1080p" is perfect if you're dealing with 4K footage but want to reduce file size while keeping perfect quality at 1080p.
The Actual Combining Process
Once everything's set up how you want it, click "Start Combining Dash Cam Video Clips". The tool will show you a progress bar so you can see how things are moving along. Depending on how many videos you're combining and how long they are, this could take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes.
The tool tries to use something called FFmpeg for the heavy lifting, which is pretty much the gold standard for video processing. If that doesn't work for some reason (maybe your browser doesn't support it), it automatically falls back to a simpler method that still gets the job done.
During processing, don't close the browser tab or navigate away - everything happens locally on your computer, so the tab needs to stay active. You'll see the progress bar creeping along and a percentage indicator showing how far through the process you are.
Getting Your Final Video
When everything's finished, you'll see a green success message with a download button. Click it and your merged video downloads to your computer's default download folder. The filename includes the merge type and timestamp, so you can easily identify it later.
The output format depends on which processing method worked. If FFmpeg was successful, you'll get an MP4 file. If it used the fallback method, you'll get a WebM file. Both are widely supported, though MP4 is probably more convenient for most purposes.
Things to Keep in Mind
Here are some things I've learned from using this tool regularly that might save you some headaches.
Keep your video files organized before uploading. If you're dealing with a long trip, consider breaking it into chunks by day or by interesting segments rather than trying to merge everything at once. Your computer will thank you, and the processing will be faster.
Pay attention to file sizes. Since all processing is lossless, the output files can be quite large, especially with 4K footage. The different resolution options help manage file size while maintaining perfect quality - just at a lower resolution.
Use the preview feature liberally. Click that little eye icon to double-check that you're including the right clips, especially if you have a lot of similar-looking files. It's much easier to catch mistakes before processing than after.
If you're combining front and rear camera footage, think about whether you want them in the same video or separate ones. Sometimes it makes more sense to create two different merged videos - one for each camera angle - rather than mixing them together.
For really large merges, make sure your computer has enough free disk space. The tool needs room to work, and lossless video files can get pretty hefty - sometimes even larger than the original files depending on the processing method used.
When Things Don't Go as Expected
Sometimes the tool might have trouble with certain video files. This usually happens with unusual formats or corrupted files. If a video won't upload or causes problems during merging, try playing it in a regular video player first to make sure it's not corrupted.
If the merging process seems to hang or takes an unusually long time, it might be because your computer is running low on memory. Try closing other browser tabs and applications to free up resources.
The automatic camera detection works great most of the time, but if your files don't follow the expected naming patterns, you might need to rename them first. Most Viofo cameras use the right format by default, but if you've renamed files or they came from a different source, the sorting might not work as expected.
Remember that everything happens locally on your computer - your videos never get uploaded to any server. This means better privacy and faster processing since there's no upload time, but it also means the tool can only work as fast as your computer allows.
Why This Tool Exists
I built this because I got tired of dealing with complicated video editing software just to stick a few dash cam clips together. Most video editors are complete overkill for this simple task, and many of them want to upload your files to their servers, which I'm not comfortable with when dealing with potentially sensitive footage.
This tool keeps everything local on your computer. Your videos never leave your device, which means better privacy and faster processing. Plus, it's specifically designed for dash cam footage, so it understands the naming conventions and dual-camera setups that are common with these devices.
The whole thing runs in your browser, so there's nothing to install or update. Just bookmark this page and you're good to go whenever you need to merge some videos. It's designed to be straightforward and get out of your way so you can focus on creating the video you want rather than fighting with complicated software.