splitting mpeg captures (1 Viewer)

[Ted Lee]

hi all -

just wondering, is it possible to split an initial mpeg video capture?

for example, i have one two hour capture (from my camcorder) that i'd actually like to split up into three separate mpeg files for organizational purposes.

i'm using pinnacle studio 8 to do my dvd work.

thanks!

ted

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Look for a program called VideoReDo. It does a great job cutting MPEG.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

There is one called MPEG2Schnitt.

There is another called DVTool.

 

[Scott L]

Virtual Dub works wonders in Direct Stream Copy mode. Highlight what you want to take out, press delete and Save As. No recompression and very fast.

 

[Ted Lee]

thanks guys..i'll check these out. are any of them, by chance, free?

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

MPEG2Schnitt is free. You can get an older version of DV tool for free too. (You have to register to get the latest version.)

VirtualDub is also free, but as far as I know it only works with AVI files.

 

[Scott L]

mpeg-1 is np in Vdub but with mpeg-2 you need to frameserve it. If you're new to that then I'd go with the other options.

 

[Mark Dubbelboer]

if you're running xp they have something called microsoft movie maker
definitely free, but i think it only works with xp.

 

[Ted Lee]

jeff, am i missing something on dvtool? it looks like you can only split the mpeg by designating a file size? i couldn't find anywhere where you could split it by time. that's totally bizarre...???

videoredo is pretty awesome. definitely easy and intuitive to use. but they want like 50 bucks for it. i dunno ... it's so handy i may have to bite the bullet. unless i can do all the work in the next 15 days that is...

 

[Rob Gardiner]

TMPGEnc can split MPEG files but I think the version with MPEG-2 support costs $50.

Here is a version of VirtualDub (free) that accommodates MPEG-2.

 

[Mark Shannon]

Ted, I also am using Pinnacle Studio 8. Do you have the LE (free) version, or is yours more advanced?

Though they take up more space, WinDV is a small and simple program that makes AVI files out of your camcorder tapes, creating a seperate file for each "chapter" (each time recording is interrupted and the scene changes). An hour of video requires about 14GB however.

 

[Ted Lee]

well, i realized videoredo wasn't doin' it for me either. it wasn't splitting at the precise in and out points that i specified. plus, on occasion, it would do this weird audio thing where all the audio was slowed down. very irritating after a lengthy split. plus it would intermittently lock up.

but, it was good for skipping through a file and seeing what was on it. so, i ended up just manually doing a video log for all my captures. sometimes it's just easier i guess.

mark, i'm using the full blown version. so far i like it enough. if i start getting really into it, i may upgrade to 9, but for now i can't justify the cost. how do you like it so far?

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

As far as I know, MPEG files can only be split on certain frames.

 

[Ted Lee]

not sure jeff...possibly that may explain it, but it doesn't sound right. it was consistently off by about 60 seconds, no matter where i chose my in-point. and it was cutting off short of my end-point as well.

if it was always exactly 60 seconds, i could have lived with it...but it was sporadic.

plus that audio thing was annoying. i would let it split for 10 minutes ... only to discover the audio lag. irritating!

 

[Ken Chan]

With VideoReDo, it defaults to only splitting at the I-frames at each GOP (group of pictures). There's a checkbox in the Options dialog to allow frame-accurate cutting. In that case, it has to re-render the frames around the cut if it doesn't fall on the I-frame.

But GOPs are usually 15 or 18 frames long, about a half-second. So the cut would be off by at most that much if that was your problem. If it's off by a minute, that would be something else.

Who is making the MPEG? Maybe it has internal errors. For example, with an MPEG from ReplayTV, I could only see the first 12 minutes of a half-hour clip. I had to demux and remux it (using MPEG2VCR, but maybe something else would have worked) and then it worked fine.

 

[Ted Lee]

thx ken.

i checked the frame-accurate checkbox, but it still wasn't working. i pretty much played with all the settings, and none of them seemed to resolve the issue.

the mpeg's were made using pinnacle's capture thingy...dvc-10 (or something like that).

i thought maybe it was a gop thing (didn't know that was the term) ... but the in-points would be random. sometimes they would be long-before an i-frame..othetimes it would be right before or after it etc. same goes for my end-points.

i really did like the program and i almost bought it....but i'm glad i got to try it out first.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I've had no problems with VideoReDo. It has worked on all of the MPEG2 video I've needed it for. That's why I recommended it.