Performing basic split/merge editing

[dansmith]

I'm working with DVD sources and encoding them for iTunes on a Mac. I occasionally find myself wanting to split or merge the original video (extracting a clip, or joining together a 2-disc movie). What's the best way to accomplish this (efficiently and with minimal degradation)?

- Handbrake has basic support for extracting clips, by setting the start and end chapters appropriately. That's good when the split point happens to fall on a chapter boundary, but that's often not the case. There doesn't seem to be any support for merging multiple titles or sources.

- iTunes lets you merge tracks on a CD before ripping, but I don't think that feature extends to video, or even to any files that are already in the library. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.)

- iMovie can perform arbitrary edits on QuickTime-friendly videos, but I assume simple split/merge operations still require a full re-encode of the file, which (I suspect) seriously degrades the quality, and takes a long time.

- mp3splt and mp3wrap are good examples of the kind of thing that would be ideal, but only work on mp3s. To extract a clip, it simply finds the right bit of compressed audio in the file and copies it. No re-encode necessary.

Any recommendations?

[pflau]

I am looking for the exact same thing. I hope nobody minds that I am going to bump this.

[TedJ]

Something like avidemux or MPEG Streamclip for splitting/editing, and DVD2One for seamlessly joining 2 disc movies.

[Chris_BBR]

In OS 10.5 use QuickTime Player 7 Pro, or for OS 10.6 QuickTime Player 7 (that's the optional install that lives in Utilities, not the default QuickTime Player X that lives in Applications), then save to .mov without having to re-encode the original content (see QTP Help->Editing and Authoring).

Cheers, Chris

[mduell]

Splitting: Obtain a recent HB snapshot with p2p support.

Merging: If your source is DVD, just concatenate the VOB files. You'll have to provide chapter markers in a separate file if you care about those.

[JackNF]

Avidemux is definitely the tool you're looking for, it's a snap to trim and/or join video files without re-encoding, provided the clips match (resolution, audio streams, codecs, etc., which shouldn't be a problem if you're working with DVD video before encoding to something else).

[pflau]

In OS 10.5 use QuickTime Player 7 Pro, or for OS 10.6 QuickTime Player 7 (that's the optional install that lives in Utilities, not the default QuickTime Player X that lives in Applications), then save to .mov without having to re-encode the original content (see QTP Help->Editing and Authoring).

Cheers, Chris

I tried to use QuickTime Pro to do some splitting/merging but found that it saved the finished file in such a way that it has multiple video/audio tracks such that some players (VLC, for instance) get confused and only play the first track. I could not find a way to "flatten" the finished file down.

[pflau]

Avidemux is definitely the tool you're looking for, it's a snap to trim and/or join video files without re-encoding, provided the clips match (resolution, audio streams, codecs, etc., which shouldn't be a problem if you're working with DVD video before encoding to something else).

I tried Avidemux and it has very bad audio sync problem and thus is not useable.

[chewiekw]

I have a VOB that has many titles and i am trying to save it to one big file. IS this the same thing you are trying to do? I can;t seem to do this in HB.
Any thoughts on what i am doing wrong?

[Richey1977]

I'm also after a solution to this. How do I concatenate VOB files?

[dynaflash]

How do I concatenate VOB files?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=How+do+I+concatenate+VOB+files

[mduell]

Windows: copy /b VTS_01_01.VOB+VTS_01_02.VOB+VTS_01_03.VOB bigmovie.mpg

*nix: cat VTS_01_01.VOB VTS_01_02.VOB VTS_01_03.VOB > bigmovie.mpg

[Deleted User 13735]

I'm working with DVD sources and encoding them for iTunes on a Mac. I occasionally find myself wanting to split or merge the original video (extracting a clip, or joining together a 2-disc movie). What's the best way to accomplish this (efficiently and with minimal degradation)?
Any recommendations?

If you were on Windows, just one suggestion:

VideoReDo