Split MM captured DV without loosing frames or quality

[giantMIDGET]

Hi,

I captured a few videos from my DV camcorder using MS movie maker 2. I want to burn them to DVD media, keeping the original frames and quality. So, I tried to split the videos with Virtual Dub using Direct Stream Copy.

But I encountered a problem:
Virtual Dub could not load movies captured with MS movie maker for some reason.
I searched the web and found a Panasonic codec that support MS DV. Now I can load and watch the video, but there is no sound.

How do I solve the MS-DV vs. Virtual-Dub conflict?
How do I achieve my original goal – split and burn DV to DVD media?

I am sorry to say I do not have the videos on tape anymore – just the DV files – so I can’t capture them again.
But for future reference – should I capture videos with applications other than MS Movie Maker?

Please please help

Thank you.

GM

[paglamon]

What is the file extension?

[giantMIDGET]

The file ext is AVI.
All media/video players and video editors i tried were able to load and play these files, and they all identify them as DV. Virtual Dub - the only one that has the Direct-stream-copy option - can't handle the files.

[benbryant]

Please download and try the newest "ffdshow" from the link below:

http://ffdshow.sourceforge.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Getting+ffdshow

After installing it, go to Start > All Programs > ffdshow > VFW codec configuration > go to DV, click on "disable" and select "libavcodec" and click OK to apply the change. Sometimes the ffdshow requests to remove the Panasonic DV codec. If it does that, just go to Windows > system32 to look for and delete the files "pdvcodec.dll" and "PANADV.INF". Good luck

Regards

[anonymez]

btw new location for latest ffdshow builds (milan cutka isn't compiling his own anymore) here http://www.x264.nl or http://bittekeinspam.googlepages.com

[giantMIDGET]

It doesn't work. I still get no sound when I play the video with Virtual Dub.
Is there another freeware i can use to split and join movies with direct stream copy at the frame of my choice ?

[moonrocks]

For DV-AVI files I've used SolveigMM_AVI_Trimmer_1_2_beta to split them. It has a preview window and you can set start and stop points and save any section of your avi. It's freeware:

http://www.solveigmm.com/?Products&p=AVITrimmer

[giantMIDGET]

I tried SolveigMM AVI trimmer and splitter, and I have a concern:
While Virtual Dub identifies every frame of the DV as a key frame the SolveigMM doesn't.
I can't really see what frame i'm in with the splitter, but i can see that DV and SMM are not in sync when i'm using the "next key frame"...

So, i can't really clip the videos at the exact frames i want.

Any suggestions ?
hanks

[moonrocks]

Yes, as you mention it, that seems to be what's happening. Although SolveigMM AVI trimmer doesn't identify key frames on it's own, what if you use VD to identify the precise frame cuts you want, then plug those timestamps into SolveigMM AVI trimmer.

In SolveigMM AVI trimmer you can type in precise times for start and stop. As a test I opened a DV-AVI in both VD and AVI trimmer. I picked the frame I wanted the cut on in VD. This timestamp didn't show up on its own in AVI trimmer. Then I plugged that timestamp into AVI trimmer as the stop point.

When playing back the cut AVI trimmer file in another instance of VD, AVI trimmer appeared to cut on the precise frame VD had first identified with its timestamp. With both pre and post cut avi files open in separate instances of VD, they are the same frame.

Granted, rough test, and I'm not sure of the precision or reliability, but if it's accurate it might a workaround.

[moonrocks]

Well, I did a little more testing on SolveigMM AVI trimmer's ability to cut at any designated frame by timestamp information alone. I'm pretty sure it's reliable in its ability to do that.

I created a 5 second .avi file from individual .jpg files. Each .jpg was imprinted with its framenumber to make frame identification 100% accurate. Loading the .avi file in Virtualdubmod I used the timestamps there to tell AVI trimmer where to cut.

Each time I cut with AVI trimmer it always cut on the frame I picked in Virtualdubmod. I think Avi trimmer is OK for accuracy at cutting where you tell it to cut by timestamp. Here's the .avi file I created for testing in case you want to check it out:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze29b8h/mongoland.avi