[SOLVED] How to cut WMV without re-encoding?

[JestersTear]

Hi!

I have a 30 minutes wmv concert, out of which I wanted to get a 7 minute song. The problem I'm having is that all of the softwares I have tried until now don't just chop off the unwanted minutes, they seem to want to reencode the file altogether.

My file is 37,5 Mb and, with the reencoding, even when chosing divX 5.0, the resulting file is larger than my full original (even though I choose the same width, height and frame rate).

Is there any program that just removes the bits I don't want to, without forcing me to choose formats?

Original wmv:

• Size: 37,5 Mb
  Length: 30:11 minutes
  Width: 320 px
  Height: 240 px
  FpS: 15
  Bit Rate: 177 Kbps
  Audio Sample Size: 16 bit
  Channels: 1 (mono)
  Audio Sample Rate: 16 kHz
  Data Rate: 152 Kbps
  Video Sample Size: 24 bit
  Stream Name: video 2

Thanks in advance!

[Baldrick]

asfbin, not that userfriendly but it works on most wmv i have tried.

[Safesurfer]

Also the File Editor that comes with Windows Media Encoder (Version 9) lets you do basic cuts and does not reencode.

[JestersTear]

asfbin, not that userfriendly but it works on most wmv i have tried.

It worked like a charm!

Thank you!

[BiggerJim]

Cut Assistant is a GUI for asfbin:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/cutassistant

If you enter "-rkf" as additional command line option for asfbin (Verion 1.5 or later), you can even cut on non-keyframe positions. NOTE: if you try -rkf and asfbin gives you this error: "Decompression error: VCM decoding driver is not available", the you must install the VCM driver from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/de/9series/codecs/vcm.aspx

[grelga]

I'm trying to cut a .wmv of a stream downloaded from play.svt.se (a swedish tv channel)
However, asfbin keeps crashing during the cutting. I've tried both the GUI version (1.5) and the command line version (1.6). In the GUI version, I can load the file and choose a segment using the sliders, but get a crash when cutting. When using the command line version, and adding the -rkf parameter, I get the error BiggerJim mentions: "Decompression error: VCM decoding driver is not available". However, after I've installed wmv9VCMsetup.exe i still get the same error message.

Here's an example of such a wmv stream :
mms://qstream-wm.qbrick.com/00928/nyheter/2006/uttrar.wmv

Can someone help me find a way to cut files like that?
Do I perhaps have to do something else apart from just installing wmv9VCMsetup.exe (for example, do I have manually copy some of its files to the asfbin folder?)
I appreciate all help I can get!

EDIT:
this is what gspot says about the file:

FILE:
uttrar.wmv
3.37 MB (3,452 KB / 3,535,505 bytes)

CONTAINER:
File Type: ASF (.WMA/.WMV)
Mime Type: video/x-ms-asf
File incorrectly truncated.
· Original size:3.48 MB (3,569 KB / 3,655,129 bytes)
Sys Bitrate: 61 kb/s

USER DATA / METADATA:
AudeviceConformanceTemplate:L2
DeviceConformanceTemplate:L2
DeviceConformanceTemplate:L2
VideviceConformanceTemplate:MP@LL
DeviceConformanceTemplate:MP@LL
DeviceConformanceTemplate:MP@ML
Aud:WM/WMADRCPeakReference:27380
Aud:WM/WMADRCAverageReference:1462
WM/WMADRCPeakReference:27533
WM/WMADRCAverageReference:2065
WM/WMADRCPeakReference:27478
WM/WMADRCAverageReference:2067
Vid:Windows Media Video 9
Aud:Windows Media Audio 9.1
Aud: 48 kbps, 32 kHz, stereo 1-pass CBR

AUDIO:
0x0161 (WMA v2)
CBR
0x01:22050Hz 16 kb/s (1 chnl)

VIDEO:
WMV3
WMP v9 (VC-1 Simple/Main)
Codec Status Undetermined
176 x 144
1.222 (11:9)

EDIT2:
I did some more testing...
If I save the stream with SDP ( http://sdp.ppona.com/ ) asfbin can cut it. But SDP has no support for multiple stream downloading so a 1 hour stream takes 1 hour to download. In comparison, some download managers support multiple thread MMS downloading which is much faster. NetTransport (NetXfer) and ReGet are two examples. But files saved with both these applications crash asfbin. (The gspot data above is from the file that NetTransport saves.)

So maybe I should expand my question:
I'm looking for a multiple thread MMS downloader that outputs files that asfbin can handle. Or alternatively, some other asf cutter/joiner tool that supports the file that NetTransport or ReGet or some similar tool outputs.

I'd prefer if there was some way to get the files from NetTransport to be handled by asfbin. Is there perhaps some tool that can "clean up" the file before inputting it to asfbin?

[theewizard]

IMO of the situation, the problem is the source, it is encrpted or compressed for storage on the server, capturing the live realtime stream gives you the full correct stream, downloading/leeching the stream gives you the compacted stream, which cannot be edited

[grelga]

theewizard,
Well when I playback files saved through realtime and files saved through multiple threads I see no quality difference. So I think it's the "same" stream. The problem seems rather to be that it is incorrectly assembled in some way by NetTransport.

But I've found a solution now. I tried with some other download managers today and Flashget (
http://www.amazesoft.com/index_en.htm ) supports both 10 threaded downloads over MMS and outputs files AsfBin can handle (no VCM decoding drivers are needed).

So, problem solved! (by myself )

[teriyakijack]

I tried using ASFbin and it cut it no problems. However, the output file is asf file which isn't recognized by M3 Mobile converter (trying to put it on a SE phone), how do I get it back to WMV format so it'll be recognized agian?

[Midzuki]

Try renaming from "whatever.asf" to "whatever.wmv".
Every "naturally-born" .wmv is in fact a .asf file.

[Stiiv]

You could also try Steeper, which is another front end for ASFbin...but Steeper outputs wmv, is quick & very easy to use.

Edit: Duh. Steeper is a front end for ASFCut, not ASFbin....mea culpa. It's still a good tool, though.