Splitting and Trimming mpeg files

vivona wrote on 5/2/2007, 6:06 PM

I have a bunch of mpeg files transferred from a hard drive based camcorder. One is 3.4GG in size and contains a lot of useless footage. Others are almost as large. I would like to back up my mpeg files to DVD (as files, not DVD playable video) for archival purposes.

I want to split and trim my mpeg files. If I bring them into VMS and do the trimming and render it out, it seems I would have a generation of decompression and recompression which could introduce artifacts. Does anybody know of a freeware mpeg file splitter that can split the actual file without having to decompress/recompress it first?

Comments

owlsroost wrote on 5/3/2007, 12:28 AM

There is a listing of MPEG editors here - http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/video-editors-mpg-dvd

Of the freeware ones, I think 'Mpg2Cut2' - http://www.geocities.com/rocketjet4/ - is the only one that handles MPEG files without de-muxing them first.

Of the commercial software, VideoRedo and MPEG Video Wizard are both very good, frame-accurate native MPEG editors (both have limited-time trial versions available).

Tony

vivona wrote on 5/7/2007, 5:56 AM

Thank you for the link to videohelp. In addition to the list of MEPG editors, there is a lot of interesting information there.

I was a bit concerned about the Alpha and Beta status of Mpg2Cut2, though I have bookmarked that site for future consideration.

I did find another MPEG editor that claims to edit without re-encoding. It is at http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/guides/dvd/cut-trim-edit-mpeg-fast.htm and is called Free Fast MPEG Cut. I have tried it and see no degradation, though if I select the entire original file and output it, the resultant file is a bit smaller. I don't know why.