Semi-OT: Need a Free AVI Splitter

[mabas9395]

We talk about video related issues here, so this isn't too terribly off topic.

I use a miniDV video camera and when I download the file to my computer it will automatically divide the clips into individual files based on the date/time stamp of when the I shot the video. For my work flow, this is much easier than having one 60 minute video.

However, I got a new video camera late last year to replace one that broke and apparently the default setting is to NOT encode the date/time into the file. As a result, when I download the file, my capture program does not know how to seperate the clips. So I have a handfull of tapes that I would like to split the files.

I am looking for a program that will allow me to set begining/ending points for the clips and split it inot individual files for me. My files are AVI files.

I have a video editing program that I really like (Sony Vegas) but I'm not 100% sure if I use that if it will re-render the file for me and I'll end up loosing quality. I don't want to edit/re-render right now, just split my files to make them easier to sort/tag/manage/etc.

Anyone know of a free AVI splitter? I googled it but came up with a bunch of trial-ware (with watermarks) or suspicious looking websites so I'm looking for recommendations.

On the other hand, if anyone knows if splitting an AVI in a regular editing program will do any unwanted recompression or not, that would solve my problem too.

Thanks.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

For HDV, HDVSplit does what you want. I don't think it will work for regular DV though. You might try WinDV. It's a freeware capture tool. I can't recall if it does splitting on import.

Post import, you might try VirtualDubMod. I believe that it can split AVI files with re-encoding. You'll have to manually identify the split points.

 

[Groucho]

You may want to take a look at VirtualDub, which is free and very, very powerful. Like most things that are both of those, it can be a bit complex, though - but it's my go-to tool for recutting videos without losing quality. It doesn't like MPGs very much (though some hacks of it, like VirtualDubMod, can with varying levels of success), but it's great for videos in an AVI container. You will also want to install FFDshow if you haven't already; it should provide all the codecs that you'll need. (AVI is just a container, you also need codecs to decode the audio & video stream inside.)