Way to clip unwanted material off usenet avi mpg mov without re-encoding?

[Milepost]

I've got some files in various formats (avi, mpg mov etc) which are typically from 250mb to 1.2 gig, they play fine on my computer.

Is there a fast, easy way to clip and remove unwanted material from them that is fairly instant as opposed to re-encoding them which seems to involve several minutes to several hours. I'm strictly looking for a quick way to save space and toss unwanted material out of these large files. I don't want to convert them to another format, add effects or menus or do anything other than cut some material out.

I have no experiance editing video. I'm hoping that there is a program that can chop out sections of a file fairly instantly without then having to re-encode it. I have no idea if this is even possible much less if such a program exists.

I was very glad to find this site yesterday, there is an incrediable amount of expertise here. Yesterday I searched for a couple of hours within the forum and read the How to's but couldn't identify whether what I want to do is possible from what I could understand.

I breifly tried Adobe Premiere yesterday but found when exporting it was re-encoding which was taking a lot of time. I could very well have been using the program improperly, I don't know.

Unless it is possible to do this chopping almost instantly, I'll probably just leave the files the way they are, although it's a shame to waste what probably amounts to several gigabits of space on unwanted material.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[jimmalenko]

You'll find that in the world of video, there are a number of fantastic freeware tools that can do the job (arguably) as good if not better than the big guns from corporate giants.

You'll also find that this site is a wealth of information - so be prepared for many more hours of reading.


For AVI, it is pretty hard to go past virtualdub. It has a number of variants that are designed to address certain problematic areas. You will only be able to cut on key frames without re-encoding, but it is great for quick n dirty edits - make sure that you set both Video and Audio to Direct Stream Copy !

For MPEG, Mpg2cut2, cuttermaran and mpeg2schnitt are all held in high esteem by a number of people here. Again, if you cut on I Frames then there should be no re-encoding.


Maybe take a look at https://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=8#8 - this might give you some other ideas to try.

[Milepost]

Jimmalenko,

Thanks for the reply. I downloaded VirtualDub. I used the settings you rec. and figured out to drag a file from windows explorer into the window which loaded it. I then used the cutting tools to set a start and finish to the cutting, making sure to use the locate buttons to only cut on "K" frames. Then I went to edit and hit delete, which removed what I had marked. Then I went to the file menu and saved it as an avi file. It worked great for some of the files.

However when I tried to load some of the files with the avi extension, VirtualDub gave me the following message.

VirtualDub Error

Couldn't locate decompressor for format 'XVID' (unknown)

VirtualDub requires a Video for Windows (VFW) compatible codec to decompress video. DirectShow codecs, such as those used by Windows Medio Player, are not suitable.


Is there something I can do to overcome this objection to some avi files?

Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

[Baldrick]

Install the xvid codec.

[Milepost]

Baldrick,

Thank you very much, problem solved.

As you can tell my skill and knowledge are very limited in regard to this. VirtualDub is exactly the kind of tool I was looking for, very fast and no re-encoding. The limitation of only being able to clip at "K" points is fine.

I'm now trying to figure out Mpg2Cut2 I've downloaded it. In reading the download instructions it also said to download audio dll's into windows system file if I wanted sound in preview. I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible and don't need sound in preview, so I didn't download the audio dlls. I don't know if that was ok to do or not.

After reading the help file I think?? I'm correct that this interface is a little different from VirtualDub in that in VirtualDub I place the to and from cutting tools on areas I want to cut out and discard. I may be wrong but I think in Mpg2Cut2 that the to and from indicators are for the material I want to save.

So I dragged a mpg file from windows explorer to the view pane on Mpg2Cut2. I got a message that it is a mpg1 file which is not fully supported. That being said it still accepted the file and allowed me to place my to and from markers. I then went to the file menu and chose "save this clip" and placed it in a directory.

I then tried to play the file in realplayer. I got a general error that said "class not registered".

Can you tell from this description what I've done wrong?

Do you think this is the best program for me based on my limited knowledge or is another better?

I don't know whether the problem is something I did or that Mpg2Cut2 just doesn't support this file type.

Thanks for your patience.

[Ai Haibara]

I'm not sure about RealPlayer's ability to handle all MPEG/MPEG2 videos properly. Have you tried playing them in a different player, including Windows Media Player?

[Milepost]

I just tried to open a shortened file in Windows Media Player and it refused to play and kicked back an error message of the following:

C00D11CD: Unknown error
Windows Media Player encountered an unknown error. This can occur when another program or operating system component encounters a problem but does not communicate the nature of the problem to Windows Media Player.

Error ID = 0xC00D11CD, Condition ID = 0x00000000

It must be either problem with me or Mpg2Cut2 not handling my orginial file type since Real Player plays the mpg file before I clip it.

Thanks for the reply. Anymore ideas?