[MEncoder-users] Cutting MOV file

[Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto]

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 4:58 PM, Rytis Daugirdas <rd_ree at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm very new to mencoder and just trying to use it for cutting movies of various formats. So far it worked fine with AVI files but now I've got a problem with cutting a MOV file:
>
> mencoder -ss 00:01:00 -endpos 00:02:00 -ovc copy -oac pcm file.mov -o test.mov
>
> I used "-oac pcm" as suggested by mencoder (it didn't like "-oac copy" for some reason).

What error do you get with "-oac copy" ? The bitrate of the original
AAC stream is probably around 128 kbps or 192 kbps. With -oac pcm, you
will be getting a bitrate of 1411 kbps, without any quality increase.
Maybe you are not concerned about file size, but I just wanted to make
you aware of this gross inefficiency.
>
> MEncoder 2:1.0~rc2-0ubuntu13+medibuntu1 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
> CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU          6420  @ 2.13GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 6)
> CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
> Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
>
> WARNING: OUTPUT FILE FORMAT IS _AVI_. See -of help.
You are generating an AVI file with a .mov extension.
1) If generating an AVI file is OK for you, than change the output
filename from test.mov to test.avi

2) If you don't want AVI, use proper mencoder options to generate your
desired file format (I don't know what would these options be).


Also, if you just want to cut a movie, perhaps it would be better to
use mkvmerge. This tool is specialized in muxing into the Matroska
file format. It will be less likely to give you any error, and the
Matroska file will be a little more efficient (occupy less space for a
given quality) than the AVI file. In Gentoo, the tool mkvmerge is part
of the mkvtoolnix package.

You can use it like this:
mkvmerge --split timecodes:1:00,3:00 -o output.mkv input.mov

This will split input.mov at 1 minute and 3 minutes, generating
output-001.mkv, output-002.mkv and output-003.mkv. input.mov is not
modified.

Mkvmerge can read almost any file format with almost any stream inside.
Matroska files can be read by any decent modern software media player,
like mplayer, vlc, totem, kaffeine, etc.