Using VirtualDub to cut avi in half -- losing quality?

[wchang99]

When you use VirtualDub to cut an oversize avi into two halves (or to join two halves), it does a quick run-through of the avi, processing it in some way, but is this re-encoding the avi in the traditional sense, meaning that quality is lost?

Or is it, like, just going through and checking the keyframes or whatever but not really touching the data or affecting the visual quality?

In other words should splitting an oversize avi into two halves be done only as a last resort or can it be done freely?

Thanks a lot... not for nothing that I posted this in the newbie section.

[hwoodwar]

I use the VirtualDub cut feature all-the-time and I don't see any degradation in quality. I use it both to split files in half and to edit out commercials. I'm not sure what extra it does when you save it back to avi.

Note: If you are just cutting and not making any other modifications like adding filters, setting the video to direct stream copy will speed up the save, and if the original was compressed it will maintain the same compression.