After cutting AVIs, must file be re-written?

[TakuSkan]

After experimenting with a few AVI editors and reading through a number of forum posts, I'm beginning to suspect that there's really no way to delete a few seconds here and there from an AVI file, and then save the file without having to re-write the entire file.

Is there any way around that? I've tried VirtualDub which will only write to a new file. And from the little I've read on these programs, the same seems to be true:

* Cuttermaran - DvDShrink - AviUtil - Aviedit

Am I right there, have I missed something for one of those, or is there another app that can do it?

Thx,

TS

[CWR03]

You can't edit and save a file like that without re-writing it to the hard drive. It can't overwrite the data while the file is open just like you can't use a Xerox machine to copy the image on one side of a page to the other side of the same piece of paper.

[TakuSkan]

Thanks for confirming that CWR03. I guess deleting data from an AVI file may be a bit like adding additional ID3V2 tags to an MP3 where they didn't exist previously. The MP3 has to be totally re-written. I've only started working with video in the past few days now. Have had lots of questions, but have found answers for most via info from Doom9.

TS

[setarip_old]

@Taku

Hi!

Two things I wanted to point out:

1) You do understand that, when using VirtualDub to delete portions of an .AVI, you should set BOTH "Video" and "Audio" to "Direct Stream Copy" - so that no RE_ENCODING is done and the saving process will be quite brief

2) The inability to save your edited version to the same folder/directory, with the same name as the original, actually provides a safety net for you - in that you'll still have the original available should you find you still need it

[TakuSkan]

:eek: :scared: ..you should set BOTH "Video" and "Audio" to "Direct Stream Copy"
Thanks for that! Earlier today I freed up enough room on a 2nd drive, and saved a file there I'd clipped the ends from with VD. I had 2 problems. 1st, the copy stopped at 4GB because I forgot the drive was FAT32. But playing back the segment that was written, I found the file had problems. I think the video portion was not there (my bad memory. It seems I've been able to play back partial segments of non compressed AVIs like that before. So I was wondering if I'd not got something set right in VD.

Am freeing up space on my NTSF formatted drive to try the process of saving the edited 15GB AVI capture again. Just have to wait for the data to get burned to a DVD backup disk.

2) The inability to save your edited version to the same folder/directory, with the same name as the original, actually provides a safety net for you - in that you'll still have the original available should you find you still need it
Yeah... like the difference between MS-DOS and Windows, some programs just go ahead and do what you tell it to, not checking to see if it means overwriting a file with the same name, and prompting you for confirmation. I just had to delete some files in DOS that Windows refused to delete. It was a trip to see no prompt there again (it's been a few years) like Windows asking if I was sure I wanted to delete them. Just hit ENTER... and am just put back to the DOS prompt. :eek:

TS

[setarip_old]

15GB AVI capture again. Just have to wait for the data to get burned to a DVD backup disk.

Am I misinterpreting that the data is 15Gb? If it is 15Gb, you won't be able to fit it on one DL DVD...

[TakuSkan]

Am I misinterpreting that the data is 15Gb? If it is 15Gb, you won't be able to fit it on one DL DVD...
Hmmm... Until I realized I was having problems with the FAT32 4GB file size restriction, I've been capturing video signals from VCR tapes of 1 hour recorded programs in 4GB (2GB??) increments. Then I've been using VisionExpress to write two one hour programs to a standard DVD+R single layer 4.5GB disk using the multiple 4GB files.

The total size of the multiple non-compressed AVI segments for about an hour of video is somwhere around 15-17GB, no? And writing 2 sets of them to DVD+R(SL) disks hasn't been a problem yet, that is if my memory is accurate about all this.... ;)

Will I run into problems using VE to write one single big 15GB uncompressed AVI to these DVD+R(SL) disks because if its size for some other reason? Seems VE is pretty smart at figuring how to set appropriate compression settings that know about zip about at this point.

Thx,

TS

[setarip_old]

I think I must still be misunderstanding you - A single layer, single-sided DVD ("DVD5") can hold only 4.37Gb of data, so how can you write a 15Gb file to one DVD?

[TakuSkan]

Compression... no? From what I think I've learned in the past few days working with this, it appears most, if not all data written to DVD video disk is compressed before writing the disk... yes/no?

I've been capturing all of my videos to uncompressesd AVIs. Seems VisionExpress, and most of the DVD authoring programs I've seen use compression when necessary to fit the data onto the target DVD disk.

Am I not understanding something very basic here??

[setarip_old]

As I said, I must have misunderstood you. I interpreted your posts as saying you intended to write 15GB of UNCOMPRESSED .AVI data to one single layer, single-sided DVD. This is physically impossible;>}

You have now clarified this (Or I now understand you to mean) by saying that you'll be using some type of compression program to compress this 15Gb of data to fit on a single layer, single-sided DVD - apparently NOT AS STORAGE, rather as a means of creating a PLAYABLE DVD.

Is this correct?

[TakuSkan]

Is this correct?
Yeah... As I said, it appears this is the way most all data is written to commercial film releases on DVD. I've only been playing with this for 3-4 days now, but that's what I've gathered from my own experiments, and from what I've gathered from information online.

As I've seen from working with LAME MP3 compression for a few years now, audio and video can be compressed to almost an infinate number of different levels depending on a number of different variables set in the compression encoder.

I thought LAME had a lot of variables for encoding audio. But when you get into encoding video, the variables just seem to go on and on forever!

[setarip_old]

Yeah...

OK...