Trim .avi without infaling

dainova · Post by **dainova** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:00 am

Hi, all
I'm in need to split 700M avi into 3 parts and that task starts killing me.
I'm using VideoStudio11 and 1/3 of 700M file became 5G!!!!!
I tried to select all available output but it's still inflated tremedously, I uderstand taht DV.avi will do it, but I don't see any option to preserve original file property, which was taped on camcorder, then burn on dvd, then ripped into .avi with magic ripper.

thanks to all

dai

Post by **Ron P.** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:29 am

Welcome to the forums,

First a 700Mb avi file tells me that a high compression codec was used. AVI is a container or wrapper format for audio/video. Inside this avi wrapper can be one of hundreds of different codecs, such as raw-avi (65 gig per hour), DV-avi (13 gig per hour), DivX, Xvid, and so on.

Next since this video originated from a camcorder, was it a Mini-DV, Digital-8, High-8, VHS, camcorder? Do you still have the camcorder, and the original video tape? This would provide you with the best quality to edit. You could transfer the video from the camcorder via fire-wire (if the camcorder was a digital model and not analog), which would be DV (avi). Now if you no longer have the original material, then the next option would be best.

The video was ripped from a DVD onto your PC, to whatever AVI format. This involved a conversion, which degraded the video. You would be far better off, just placing the DVD into the DVD drive of your PC, and inserting the video using the Insert DVD/DVD-VR. This would give you an MPEG-2 file to work with. If you intend on editing the video, and then burning your project to another DVD, then you would not suffer any great loss in quality. DVDs must use MPEG-2 video files, unless you're using one of the High-Def (HDV, or AVCHD). Be sure when you are going to burn this project to a DVD that in the Project settings for the Burn Module you check "Do convert compliant MPEG files". This way only the edited parts of the video file will be recoded, not the entire video file.

Also if you create a video file (Share>Create Video file) before opening the burn module (Share>Create Disc), you can check to enable Smart Render. This again will only re-code those parts that have been edited. There is one thing to watch for, OOS (Out Of Sync) audio/video. Some have reported problems having the audio and video get out of sync when editing higher-compression video files. This sometimes occurs when using Smart Render..

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 12:27 am

Putting Ron's reply another way......

You wrote:....It's an AVI file ......

Sorry but that doesn't help much.
There are a small handful of file extensions that describe that a computer file is a video. These include
avi, mpeg, mov, rm, wmv, qt, swf
Plus a few others.
Think of these as groups of a certain form of video, within those groups are lots of individuals. Liken this to animals, there are dogs, cats, snakes, birds, rodents and so on.
Within these groups are several types. For instance a dog can be a Poodle, Jack Russell, Alsatian, King Charles, Greyhound etc.

The term avi can mean any one of perhaps a hundred different types such as DV, MPEG4, uncompressed, MJPEG, DivX, Xvid, RLE, YUV, Cinepak and lots more.

You need to be more specific.

dainova · Post by **dainova** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:09 am

Tx, Vidoman and sjj !

i don't have any original media, just this ripped .avi file :120min/700Mfile so i think it's Divx.
I'll need to some time to check it again as you told me. will keep you posted.
Is there any sientific way to determine true file extension/codec?
I can play it only with Vlan.

Thanks again for your help, your/our forum is really amazing.

Cheers
Dai

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 8:25 am

A free checker like GSpot will tell you the exact codec used...

dainova · Post by **dainova** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 3:48 pm

Thank,Ken and all

Container:
DivX Style "packed bitstream" AVI

User Data:
ISFT FairUse Wizart
USER Divx503b1393p
USER XviD0041

Audio:
0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Will try to find any place to keep this setting.

Cheers
Dai

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:33 pm

Yes, your clip is an Xvid (free version of DivX), one of the more highly compressed formats. Converting it to MPEG (1 or 2), or DV will result in a much higher file size.

DivX, Xvid are difficult formats to edit. Expect some loss in quality, and quite possibly having your audio/video going out of sync. These formats are not intended to be edited, just distributed/viewed on computers.

dainova · Post by **dainova** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 10:58 pm

thanks, Vidoman and all again.

Got so good education!!!

Best
Dai

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:31 am

DivX and Xvid - also MPEG4 are all very similar.
They are slowly creeping in to budget priced camcorders where recordings can be saved onto SD cards.

The beauty of these formats - in addition to being able to record onto SD cards which obviously are small and light and so make the camcorders smaller and easier to carry, are that the small file sizes make them ideal formats for sharing video over the internet. These formats are widely used by Television Stations who place their programs on the internet.

The drawback is that these formats
1. Cannot be saved as a "DVD" on a DVD Video Disc - they have to be converted to MPEG2 (you can also use MPEG1 but this is an old format designed for VCD SVCD type of discs) before you can create what is popularly termed a DVD.
2. These highly compressed formats were designed for distribution only and not for editing. Most users find that they need to convert them to something not so highly compressed before editing can take place.
It was due to this that you found the file sizes growing when you began to split them into 3 sections.