Splitting .avi files

[awillem]

I am trying to archive old 8mm analogue video tapes and I have decided I want to do this in a high quality editable format. I think .avi format is the best way to do this and I realize it is going to take a lot of disks.

Can someone tell me how to split a .avi file into 20 minute or approximately 4 gig pieces? It certainly isn't obvious to me in Video studio 10 plus.

Thank you in advance.

Willem

[Ron P.]

Hi Willem,

If you are capturing to DV, then just tell VS to capture a fixed duration, that being 20 minutes. See page 47 of the manual. If you have existing files then load one in the timeline, and go to the 20 minute mark and cut.
It would seem that you are capturing to DV, since 20 minutes (roughly) would equal 4 gig. Based on that just cut your video clips every 15-20 minutes.

[heinz-oz]

How do you intend to get these analog files digitized?

Are you intend on editing these files after capture, appart from the splitting into smaller chunks?

Because we are talking VHS quality source material, trying to archive that in DV-AVI (if you can capture these in that format) is a waste of storage space.

If you only intend to archive and do some minor editing, consider a good mpeg hardware encoder or get someone professional to archive these in high bit rate mpeg2 files.

[Black Lab]

With your clip on the timeline, in Timeline View you:
Method 1 - move the cursor to the desired point and click the Scissors icon
Mothod 2 - move the Jog Slider to the desired point and click the Scissors icon
Method 3 - adjust the Timecode to move to the desired point and click the Scissors icon
All 3 methods do the same thing. Just a matter of preference.

[maddrummer3301]

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[awillem]

Thank you everyone for your replies!

If you are capturing to DV, then just tell VS to capture a fixed duration, that being 20 minutes. See page 47 of the manual. If you have existing files then load one in the timeline, and go to the 20 minute mark and cut.

Vidoman: It seems that this would only give me the first 20 minutes of my video. I didn't try it, but I did go to page 47 of the manual for more information.

If you only intend to archive and do some minor editing, consider a good mpeg hardware encoder or get someone professional to archive these in high bit rate mpeg2 files.

heinz-oz: Couldn't I just do this in Video Studio rather than paying someone to do it? (This is especially true since the quality of my original isn't that great? ) Do MPEG2 files give me the ability to edit it sometime in the future?

Black Lab: I tried using the various modes of cutting clips in the edit mode of Video Studio 10 and it doesn't seem to actually create a new .avi file. If I right click on the new video clip that is created it still has the original file name on it and I can't find a new file in my folder using Windows Explorer. Please let me know if I am doing something wrong.


maddrummer: This looks great! Thank you for taking the time to give me all this information. I will give it a try.

Willem

[Black Lab]

Black Lab: I tried using the various modes of cutting clips in the edit mode of Video Studio 10 and it doesn't seem to actually create a new .avi file. If I right click on the new video clip that is created it still has the original file name on it and I can't find a new file in my folder using Windows Explorer. Please let me know if I am doing something wrong.

Your original question was how to split a video file, so that is the answer I gave. To save it as a new video file go to Clip on the toolbar and choose Save Trimmed Video.

[awillem]

Black Lab:

Sorry. I see I wasn't clear enough on what I wanted. I am trying to split a .avi file into .avi pieces, i.e. I want the result to be high quality and editable in the future.

I tried the procedure you mentioned last, i.e. saving a trimmed video, and the software always tries to compress.

Willem

[maddrummer3301]

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[awillem]

maddrummer3301:

Thank you so much for your thoughts.

Willem

[awillem]

Maddrummer3301:

I tried the procedure that you suggested and it doesn't seem to work. The first time I tried it, I ended up with two files, one about 15 gig and one about 4 gig. The starting file is about 19 gig. Then I noticed that there is an options button on the 'create video file' page. I selected this and there are 5 buttons here: 1) entire project, 2) play after creating it, 3) perform smart render, 4) perform non-square pixel rendering, and 5) create video file with a specific duration. I tried different combinations of these options with the 'create video file with a specific length' unselected and it didn't seem to work at all.

It looks to me like this feature, i.e. create a video of a specific length, has been disabled in this version of video studio.

I can accomplish what I want by using the 'create a video file of a specific duration', but I have to do this for each 4 gig piece, so it would be extremely tedious and time consuming.

Do you have any other thoughts on how I might accomplish this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Willem

[maddrummer3301]

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[awillem]

maddrummer3301:

Thanks once again for your help/patience.

I still haven't been successful in getting it to work using the Movie Templates. I think I am doing exactly as you describe, but it won't make files the length that I have put into the template. It works well when I specify a length in time, however. I have tried many different options and I can't seem to get it to be controled by the Movie Template at all.

I have Video Studio 10+ version 10.0.0110.0Plus. Is it possible that there is a newer version that has this bug fixed? How would I get the newer version?

Also, can you explain your statement:

You can do it the hard way (specifing the time) but the videos will not be linked to the exact frames per file.

I ask this because this mode seems like a nice solution for me since it allows me to create the .avi files with my desired lengths, i.e. the size of a dvd.

Thanks in advance for any additional help you can give.

Willem