Editing AVI file

[rcboosted]

Running mountain lion and avidemux 2.64 r8694.  I have h.264 .mov and .avi files from my various video recorders.  With .mov files, I can hit the up and down arrow to scan the video quickly through I frames and cut out the parts I don't want.  With the .avi files, I can only step frame by frame using the left and right arrow key which is painfully slow.  Is there a way to jump through i frames like with the .mov files?

[fkuebler]

I have the same problem. In my case I first do a conversion (with Handbrake to mp4), which generates I frames again, and then do the cutting with Avidemux on the mp4 file.

[rcboosted]

Thanks for the reply.  I checked out Handbrake.  It looks promising, but do you know if it can do lossless conversion?  Basically just changing the container from .avi to .mov or .np4 without decoding and reencoding the video?

[mean]

It's a limitation of the avi container with h264 in it

[rcboosted]

With mov container, mp4cam2avi can easily convert mov to avi container.  Is the reverse not possible?  Even if it's a windows app, I can run it under win in OSX.

[fkuebler]

...
It looks promising, but do you know if it can do lossless conversion?

Unfortunately the Handbrake people explicitly don't want to support this for the video parts of a container.

[fkuebler]

...
Basically just changing the container from .avi to .mov or .np4 without decoding and reencoding the video?

While Handbrake can't do it, I quickly checked for an alternative for you on MacOS. Thank God it's really easy:
a) Install http://www.fosshub.com/MKVToolNix.html
b) Start it (mkvmerge comes to the UI) and do an "add" for the avi file
c) Accept all defaults and push the "Start muxing" button at the bottom.

Without reencoding it generates an mkv file, which has I frames enabled and can be easily edited with Avidemux (and possibly be output into a container of your choice).

[styrol]

On OS X you may try QuickTime based MPEG Streamclip which supports saving to AVI, MOV, MP4 and DV as container format. You can jump to keyframes using the arrow up and down key and mark a selection using the I (IN) and O key (out).

[fkuebler]

On OS X you may try QuickTime based MPEG Streamclip which supports saving to AVI, MOV, MP4 and DV as container format.

FWIIW: My experience with MPEG Streamclip is negative. It doesn't really support HD, is generally somewhat unreliable and since about 2 years, the software is no longer maintained.

MKVToolNix is reliable, at least in my own experience. The combination of MKVToolnix and Avidemux serves the same purposes of what MPEG Streamclip intended to do, but it does fulfil the expectations.

[rcboosted]

...
Basically just changing the container from .avi to .mov or .np4 without decoding and reencoding the video?

While Handbrake can't do it, I quickly checked for an alternative for you on MacOS. Thank God it's really easy:
a) Install http://www.fosshub.com/MKVToolNix.html
b) Start it (mkvmerge comes to the UI) and do an "add" for the avi file
c) Accept all defaults and push the "Start muxing" button at the bottom.

Without reencoding it generates an mkv file, which has I frames enabled and can be easily edited with Avidemux (and possibly be output into a container of your choice).

MKVToolNix is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for the awesome suggestion!

I went from using XP converting mov to avi and edit using VirtualDub to using OSX converting avi to mkv and edit using avidemux.  Full circle.

[fkuebler]

MKVToolNix is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for the awesome suggestion!

I went from using XP converting mov to avi and edit using VirtualDub to using OSX converting avi to mkv and edit using avidemux.  Full circle.

Glad that it worked for you! I'm still a layman, but moving myself through all those lengthy and painful circles I have learnt a German proverb:

On the ocean, in the courtroom, and dealing with media files, you are in The Lord's hands...

And sometimes The Lord suddenly decides for a short blip of grace...   

Meanwhile I can gladly say: the combination of TS-Doctor (dealing with sat receiver TS streams), Handbrake, MKVToolNix, Avidemux, and sometimes Subler (for re-establishing iTunes properties for a Handbrake-generated and then Avidemux-edited mp4), serves all of the flexible workflow needs for generating and maintaining my high quality videothek. And with the exception of TS-Doctor (I use Parallels for this), all work native under MacOS. Strongly recommended.

[styrol]

Meanwhile I can gladly say: the combination of TS-Doctor (dealing with sat receiver TS streams), Handbrake, MKVToolNix, Avidemux, and sometimes Subler (for re-establishing iTunes properties for a Handbrake-generated and then Avidemux-edited mp4), serves all of the flexible workflow needs for generating and maintaining my high quality videothek.

A lot of applications are needed, I tried them all (apart of TS Doctor), and the combination of iFFmpeg (for remuxing, e.g. TS files to MP4) and MPEG Streamclip (for cutting) and MKVToolnix (for merging files and dealing with more audio tracks) does the job in my case.

Handbrake is great, but it's only a converter (re-encoding would be the last resort). Unfortunately Avidemux is still to unreliable and buggy (see your own other posts).

[fkuebler]

...
and the combination of iFFmpeg (for remuxing, e.g. TS files to MP4) and MPEG Streamclip (for cutting) and MKVToolnix (for merging files and dealing with more audio tracks) does the job in my case.

Initially I tried MPEG Streamclip quite often. But I found that it cannot really deal with large HD files, especially 1080p, and I was discouraged by a reaction of the developer: he did draw a new software on the horizon (which at the same time acknowledged, that MPS would no longer be maintained), which did not materialize for now nearly 2 years (he is from Berlusconi country, BTW :-).

So I looked for other possibilities, and now I feel settled. Especially Handbrake is superb, because I want to generate my hand-tailored files anyway.