Editing AVI type files

[Robertos]

My O/S is Windows XP Prof ( 32 bit ) and I downloaded Avidemux2.5 ( 32 bit ) to achieve the following:

I have a video file ( avi ) playing for 52 minutes.As I am only interested in some scenes I intend to
eliminate most of it. To be more precise: I wish to keep the file from minute 2 to 6 and then again
from minute 25 to 30.The rest to be deleted.

The quality of the video is fine and needs no alteration.

My question is : how can I do it ? I tried for a long time without achieving my goal and
I wonder if anybody can provide me with detailed instructions.Please keep in mind that
I am a newbie in this field knowing next to nothing.

Thank you in advance

Robertos

[redwudz]

Highly compacted video formats have widely spaced key frames. Most editors can only cut on key frames. This makes frame accurate editing very difficult. Default keyframe spacing with Divx is about 300 frames. Other highly compressed formats have a similar problem. You can see why accurate editing can be difficult. VirtualDub has a 'Smart rendering' feature that just re-encodes around the cut point. Otherwise you may have o re-encode the whole file after editing, resulting on more quality loss. Not sure how AVIDemux works.

And Robertos, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks,
Moderator redwudz

[CSULB71]

AVIDemux also uses "smart render" if you cut on non-key frames, but if you don't need to be that accurate, pick a key frame that's close enough. I've found the best way to do what you want is to set the video and audio choices to 'Copy' and then make two separate clips of what you want to keep (file1.AVI and file2.AVI). It's always best to start a selection with a key frame, but you don't need to end the selection on a key frame. Then open file1 and 'append' file2 and save as whatever.AVI. You could use the edit/'delete' option to remove minutes 7-24, then select the "new" total range of minute 2 through the desired end frame to save, but I've found too many times that "smart render" produces an undesirable glitch at the cut points, so I don't recommend it.