6 hour .flv opening only first 2 hours . . .

[sfnch]

Hi, little help . . . I have a 3GB flv file of a 6 hour bike race.  I would like to edit out a few adverts, chop off the beginning and the ending overlong re-runs and maybe convert to avi . . .

. . However, when I open the flv in Avidemux 2.6.8 it is only showing as 2 hours 9 minutes and 3 seconds (the first 2 hours of the race) and the sounds seems to be way out of sync as well.

Any ideas?   Thanks in advance.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Delete the corresponding .idx2 file. Try reloading video. If it fails again, try remuxing with mkvtoolnix mkvmerge GUI.
If the codec used is either Sorenson Spark or VP6, you probably need to re-encode the video (ffmpeg, avconv or handbrake) would do. Handbrake select android device to encode to.

[sfnch]

Thanks for the reply Jan . . . but, could you give me a clue as to where is the corresponding .idx2 file ??  I searched for .idx and .idx2 on the C:\ and installation partition  -  nothing.

Video
Codec 4CC:   H264
Frame Rate:  25.000FPS

ExtraDataSize:  44

Audio
Codec:  AAC
Channels:  Stereo
Bitrate:  8000 Bps / 64 kbps
Frequency:  44100 Hz

[mean]

the file would be needed if it's not too large

[sfnch]

Thanks, but it's a 3 GB file.  I just remuxed it with the mkvmerge and loaded the mkv into Avidemux . . . It let me set the 'A' at the beginning but then won't play it so I can set the 'B' . . . won't play, won't do anything.  I'm reloading it again to try muxing to .avi but it takes 25 minutes to load . . .  I think there should be a crash log as well . . .

[sfnch]

No.  It opens OK as an .avi, the full 6 hours, and I managed to set the A and B to delete the first 3 minutes OK as required but it will not Save it without CRASH . . .

. . I've re-opened the crashed file a few times but it will not Save it without the CRASH, etc

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Avi not a good idea ... as you already found out. Reload crash bad idea to. Close avidemux, restart avidemux and load video.

.idx2 files should be found in the original folder from the source video used with the same name if the avidemux started indexing. In windows shows only if it is allowed to show system files.
Is the .flv file playing in VLC? If not the file is probably damaged. Internet download? Some websites take countermeasures and send you rubbish instead of video file.

Try playing that re-muxed mkv with vlc. That would give an indication if there is playable video.
If it plays with VLC: try moving the slider to the right: once it shows a video frame: use once keyboard up arrow key and mark [A ],
then use slider and try to move to end. If that worked: use once keyboard down arrow and mark [ B].
Save that video to work with.
If all that fails and only if  .flv plays in VLC : https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php.

[sfnch]

The .flv file plays perfect in Media Player Classic x64 bit, no problems.

The re-muxed .mkv file plays perfect in Media Player Classic x64 bit, no problems.

. . I don't know what VLC is, I had a look and it says it is a Media Player . . .

The flv and mkv are working OK in my media player . . . but, when they load into Avidemux that's when the problems start.

All my hidden and system files are shown but I haven't seen any .idx2 files . . .

[Jan Gruuthuse]

With .mkv no .idx2 are created. Shut down all none essential programs on your computer. Current mkvmerge GUI = v7.3.0 ('Nouages') 64bit
Normally avidemux should start loading this mkv could take some time to do this. You do use the latest nightly? win32 bit 2014/10/19 or win64 bit 2014/10/19. Unpack and replace its contents where avidemux is installed.
.mkv loads in two step process. You should see these when loading. After finishing step 2 you should have something on avidemux canvas: either a picture or some static noise. With static noise move the slider to the right until you have a picture.

If all fails, can you obtain a flv with same issues, maximum size 100 MB? Upload to dropbox or similar web service and provide a link here. Or use some kind of cutter and provide a sample (100MB) of that 3 GB mkv file.

I can't advise you on what is safe cutter for windows. (unsafe = malware, virus). I'm not on windows, perhaps window user(s) can you advise on this

You are not over stretching your computer limits? CPU, memory, free hard disk space? Processing HD video could cause issues on your system.

[AQUAR]

Will avidemux remux this media file into the MP4 container?
Set Input for video and audio to copy mode and
And set Output container to MP4.

Just suggesting this as the media file has h264 in it.
Might not work though (hard to say without a sample!).

[sfnch]

A quick reply . . . last night I had a go at the "Handbrake" solution . . . It seemed to be OK . . . It resulted in a 7GB mp4 . . . It loaded into Avidemux OK, played OK, I edited out the beginning adverts OK and set about editing out the remaining few adverts from the six hours . . . quite a little job. Everything was going fine until I messed up about half way through, my fault entirely, so I simply cancelled the whole thing and I'll have another go tonight or a bit later. Should be a lot easier as I kept notes of the advert timings 

So far, so good . . . many thanks for the help . . . I'll update when the job is finished.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Good you got it working 
Small demo how to cut in avidemux 35 MB download
- how up cut video at begin, from 0:00:00.000 to ..:..:.. . ...
-- go to to end of that block use keyboard up/down arrow only to mark cut point! Mark [ B]
-- press keyboard simultaneous [Ctrl][X] to cut. All content before [ B] is cut.

- how to cut video in between:
-- go to approx begin of cut, use keyboard up/down arrow only to mark cut point! Mark [A ]
-- go to approx end of cut, use keyboard up/down arrow only to mark cut point! Mark [ B]
-- press keyboard simultaneous [Ctrl][X] to cut. All content between [A ] and [ B] is cut.

- how to cut video at end:
-- go to approx end of video, use keyboard up/down/left/right arrow to mark cut point! Mark [ B], under condition no join is needed at this end of video
-- save video. Video is now saved from 0:00:00.000 to point marked with [ B]

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Will avidemux remux this media file into the MP4 container?

Not certain either, most likely not, as it seems avidemux freezes up. If you would have a good mp4 remux program, you could try that. Don't have experience with those.
Most likely there were small errors in the flv container.
When I come across stubborn videos, I 1st try mkvtoolnix, less time consuming, no need to extract video and audio.
If that fails re-encoding with handbrake to mkv takes much more time but most likely successful to obtain an editable file.

[sfnch]

Bingo.   Original Job Done.   It might have one duff edit in the middle somewhere but it's only a six and a half hour bike race   

1)  .flv remuxed with the mkvmerg into an .mkv
2)  Didn't work at all so used the "Handbrake" solution to get the .flv into an .mp4
3)  After random edits tried to save with Mp4 Muxer - resulted in a 1 KB file . . .not so good 
4)  After random edits tried to save with Mp42 Muxer but was just saving audio, so cancelled
5)  After random edits tried to save with .Avi Muxer and crashed.

6)  Used intra frames to edit throughout but when tried to save with .Mkv Muxer it says edits are not on key frames - Went ahead with the save anyway and I now have a 7GB edited .mp4 file with just the one minor edit fault.  I'm happy.

I still have the original .flv file so now I know the solution and the edit timings I can go over it again one rainy afternoon.

Many thanks guys, I couldn't have done it without you !!

[sfnch]

Actually, I don't quite know what I've got . . . I saved with the Mkv Muxer and got an .mp4 file.  Just as a check I saved it again with the Mkv Muxer and got a file with exactly the same size but with an .mkv extension . . ?

Hmmm . . .