Break MPEG .mov into smaller files?

[satcure]

Mac G4/1.4GHz, OS10.3.9, QuickTime Pro 6.5.2, iMovie 4.0.1, Toast 6.0.9

I have converted a friend's wedding movie by playing his tape in a VCR connected to composite video inputs of my EyeTV200 and recording. Then used EyeTV to compile MPEG movie file which Toast happily burns to a DVD for me.

However, some parts of the movie are too dark and some have faint audio. I would like to chop up the MPEG file, edit the individual clips (in whatever application will do this?), save them (as what?), rejoin them (how?) and load into Toast to burn a DVD.

Background: I'm a 54 year old electronics engineer; I've used Macs since they were invented; I know absolutely ZILCH about movies, movie files and terminology. I even had to look up the word "clip"! So please don't bombard me with acronyms without directing me to the translation.

Could someone point me to - or write me - a step-by-step guide?

I *have* searched but each attempt lands me finally on a page to download Windows software, which ain't helpful.

Mac G4/1.4GHz, OS10.3.9, QuickTime Pro 6.5.2, iMovie 4.0.1, Toast 6.0.9

Martin (UK)

[terryj]

my first question, since I don't know much about the EyeTV,
is can it record directly to native DV, rather than
compressed MPEG file?

if you can report this back, then I can give you a step
by step as to how to do it in iMovie.

[satcure]

Yes, I saved it as DV.

The file could not be imported: The movie “OSX HD/Volumes/Video/wedding DV.dv” cannot be imported. It is more than 9-1/2 minutes long, which would be more than 2 GB once converted to DV. iMovie clips must be less than 2 GB in size. You can use QuickTime Pro to break the movie into smaller pieces, and then import the movie in segments.

[thoughton]

PS: 'DV' is ((hopefully obviously) Digital Video, a largely-uncompressed format used by digital camcorders.

Like your site by the way, I shall be downloading some of your books when I get home tonight, especially the freeview stuff (planning on upgrading my aerial soon, i've been told we need a 'high gain' one?)

[rumplestiltskin]

Upgrade to iMovieHD (iMovie5, part of the iLife'05 package). It no longer has the 2GB movie limit.

[havema-1]

Oak Street Software has a handy AppleScript that can automatically split DV clips into smaller 9 minute chunks which iMovie 1-4 can handle.

http://www.oakstreetsoftware.com/qtscript.html#dvsplit

As mentioned above, the 9 min 28 sec clip size limit was removed in iMovie HD.

MPEG Streamclip can do limited MPEG editing. It also allows you to separate video and audio (a.k.a. demultiplex them) so you can tweak the audio track.

Doing anything but straight cuts to the MPEG video is more difficult so you may want to convert MPEG to some more readily tweakable format such as .dv.

http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html

[satcure]

Thanks!

I exported the movie from EyeTV200 in "DV" format.

http://www.oakstreetsoftware.com/qtscript.html

The script "Mov2DVparts" did the job while I walked to town and back.

I was able to load the clips into iMovie, add titles and change audio levels then burn to DVD with iDVD (which took hours and hours!)

However, the resultant DVD does not have sections (chapters?)

I would like to be able to jump to each section where I have inserted a title. Can I do something in iMovie which will cause iDVD to create these "chapters" (is that the correct word?)

[satcure]

Yeah, OK, easy if you RTFM!

1. Select a clip in the timeline viewer and move the playhead to the point at which you want to start a new chapter.

2. Click the iDVD button and click Add Chapter.

3. Type a chapter title next to the thumbnail that appears in the iDVD pane.

Thanks, guys. Sorted!