Splitting QuickTime into shorter clips

I recently converted 1000's of feet of old family (film) movies to MPEG, and wish to ultimately bring into iMovie. How can I use Quicktime to break MPEG clips into shorter segments?
I am using 'Quicktime 7.1.0 Pro'. I see 'trim to selection' but it's not highlighted. Could someone explain how to use this so I can create shorter movie clips from a larger MPEG movie file. (much THANKS!)

I recently converted 1000's of feet of old family (film) movies to MPEG, and wish to ultimately bring into iMovie. How can I use Quicktime to break MPEG clips into shorter segments?For best quality, I would normally recommend capturing your media directly in the DV format which is already compatible with iMovie. However, assuming you are not willing or unable to go back and start over, use MPEG Streamclip (free) and the QT MPEG-2 component (which I assume you already have installed) to either "trim" and convert the source to iMovie compatible files (or convert entire master files to DV and "trim" as you edit in iMovie).
I am using 'Quicktime 7.1.0 Pro'. I see 'trim to selection' but it's not highlighted. Could someone explain how to use this so I can create shorter movie clips from a larger MPEG movie file.QT Pro (even with the QT MPEG-2 component installed) is only "playback" compatible with "muxed" MPEG file formats. Thus, the edit options are not accessable for either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 files. In addition, even if they were, your exported files for use in iMovie would not have any audio. Use an MPEG based third-party application for "trimming" and/or conversion to iMovie compatible compression formats which retain audio.

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Import not splitting scenes into separate clips

I am having a problem that I never encountered before upgrading to iMovie 6.
When I import my Mini DV footage, iMovie no longer splits it into separate clips with each scene break. And, yes, I have selected the "Start a new clip at each scene break" option in Preferences (I have even tried deselecting it, and then re-selecting it). The separate clips option always worked with iMovie 5.
I end up with one long clip, and have to spend extra time manually splitting it up. Very annoying.
My camcorder is a Samsung SC-D351.
Any thoughts?
Message was edited by: H S Rollans

Thanks, David and Robert. Robert got me thinking in the correct direction, and David came to the same (correct) conclusion that I did.
Because the problem first happened after I upgraded to iMovie 6, I wrongly assumed it must be a software issue. However, the problem was indeed the camcorder's internal clock. When I checked the info on the last (uber-long) clip I had imported, it told me the create date was 2017.
Once I replaced the camcorder's internal battery and reset the clock, all was well. So, I feel a bit like a dummy. But thanks for letting me bounce my question off you, and for steering me in the right direction. Hopefully this thread will help somebody else with the same problem in the future.
Oh, and thanks to Smtr for trying to help.
Message was edited by: H S Rollans

Editing long clips into short clips and naming them differently

I've got a long clip that I'm trying to break up into lots of shorter clips and give different names to. So I loaded the clip into the timeline, press Control-V where I want to cut, and then drag that clip back into the Browser. But every time I drag a new one to the Browser and rename it, the names of the other clips change to be the same as the just-named clip.
What am I doing wrong? What's the easiest way to do what I'm trying to do?
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RE: timecode when capturing.
Timecode is always captured (DV in this case) as long as you do not use 'non-controllable device' as the capture protocol. When you use 'non-controllable device' no timecode is delivered even if it did exist on the tape.
Put another way, if there is TC on the tape, Capture Now will bring it in as long as you have 'Firewire' or 'Firewire Basic' (whichever is appropriate for your capture device) selected.
There is one other way to capture full tapes and still get individual editable clips (and I HATE subclips ...). Squarebox makes a simple app called Live Capture Plus that will capture a complete tape in one pass then break the resulting large file into individual clips based on start/stop detection. It works quite handily and will allow you save your drive mechanism if you are using your camera as a deck (and Canons are not known for robust tape subsystems). If you combine LCP with CatDV you have a robust cataloging system as well.
Good luck.
x

What is the easiest way to cut imported video into shorter clips?

For Christmas I am converting old family movies from 8mm tapes to an external hard drive for my parents. I have done some research and found that the external hard drive will be able to work with their blu ray player if it is reformatted to Fat 32. That part I have done--unfortunately Fat 32 will only save files up to 4 GB in size, and the videos I am importing are about 30 GB for each tape. Is there a simple way to break each import down to 4 GB a clip that is less time consuming than me overviewing every import and stopping it every 10-15 minutes? Thank you for your time everyone!

If each tape is 30GB I guess my first question would be what format are they saved in? And MP4 file might only be 600MBytes and playback for just over an hour. I don't know if the Blu-ray would play all file formats but MP4 might be an option and it would help shrink those file sizes a bit.

Need to split long movie into many clips to edit video

I upgraded to iMovie 11 from iMovie HD 6...it was a long wait to get audio and video editing that was at least as good as HD 6. We had some 40 year old Super 8 movies digitized and used HD 6 to split them into clips so I could edit parts that were almost black, or some almost totally blown out. I realized that this could probably be done better with 11, so purchased it, but couldn't import the HD 6 clips. Was told I had to export the whole movie as a single clip, then import into 11 and break them apart again to edit.
While I was proficient in HD 6 enough to produce some good stuff, iMovie 11 is befuddling to me, which is a surprise since I do fine with the latest iPhoto, which uses similar terms and processes. I have ordered David Pogue's book; while waiting for it to arrive, my main question is: how do I split this 75 minute movie into multiple clips for editing purposes? Apparently splitting can only be done in the project library, and apparently 11 will only let you split into 2 or 3 clips???
Thanks for any help.

First, you may not need to spit the event clips at all. You can select short bits of the long event clip and drag it into your project as you wish.
Having said that, there are good reasons to split event clips. For example, the 75 minute movie may contain many logical events that you wish to split out by date. In this case, iMovie 11 can do it, but I would not recommend it. It is a slow process and is prone to error.
I would recomment that you use a free app called MPEG Streamclip from Squared Five (google it).
To use MPEG Streamclip, drag your long clip into MPEG Streamclip.
Then, move the cursor to the "in" point of the clip, and press i. Move the cursor to the "Out" point of the clip, and press o. Then, FILE/EXPORT TO QUICKTIME (or FILE/EXPORT TO DV if it is DV). Then repeat until you have done this for all clips you want.
If you know the date and or time of the footage, name your file
clip-yyyy-mm-dd hh;mm;ss
(let mpeg streamclip provide the extension). This will provide metadata that iMovie will use to put the event in the right year and month.
When finished splitting your long clip, import into iMovie by using FILE/IMPORT...MOVIE

"Import" splits takes into clips and loses footage

When importing footage from both my Sony HDV camcorder (directly) and my Sony DVCAM camcorder (via a Sony DSR-11 deck) to my Mac Mini using firewire cables, FCPX breaks some takes into multiple shorter clips.
Whilst this could just be annoying, it's much worse than that as it loses footage as it does it, at the unwanted clip breaks.
FCP Studio used to give the option of auto splitting imports into clips, FCPX appears not to.
Any ideas for preventing the automatic splitting of takes?
Thanks.
P.S. Most recently, my one minute of colour bars is now six separate clips!

I don't run iMovie 08, so am not entirely familiar with it's use. I think that you can export each iMovie 08 clip to a new iMovie 08 project, then export that new project (containing one clip) to Quicktime, and from there import into iM6 for editing.
Here are a couple of threads for you to look at.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6959493&#6959493
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6855152&#6855152

Is there a way to make a long clip into a short clip without compressing it any further?

Is there a way to make a long clip into a short clip without compressing it any further?
I went through all my old formats (VHS, hi8, miniDV, etc) and captured them. They end up as .mov files. Some of the longer 2hr ones are about 28GB.
If I am making a new project and I want to edit in short clips from several of these longer files, is there a way to save a short clip from an existing file without compressing it any further?
In other words, lets say I have 10 2hr files, but I know I only want 1 minute from each. Is there a way to select the good 1 minute from each .mov file that I want to use and a version of this 1 minute from each in the folder I am working on the project in, without compressing them??? I like to keep all of the content I am working with on a project in its own folder in case the project needs to be moved from one hard drive to the next while I am working on it. I would hate to have to make a folder that is 280GB or more when I only need a minute from each larger file.
I hope I have asked this in a way that is understandable. Maybe there is a term for what I want to do, that I don't know yet that has its own help section too. Thanks for any assistance

Thanks Jon - That's kind of where I started, but the part of that I need help with on is the second to last step.
"Export using a codec that matches the source material. "
The codec they were captured in is .mov at DV quality, but then after picking .mov, there are so many other options to choose from as far as compression goes from sound quality and settings, to how many passes, etc. I just want the new clip to be of the same quality as the original clip. It looks so complicated and its not clear to me what options to pick to match the original.
Is there a setting or preference that helps you to match the compression settings of the original clip? Or is there a way to detect the settings of the original clip so I can repeat that in the shortened clip??

Splitting video into clips

video downloaded from DVD will not split into clips for editing how can I split into clips. The DVD is from an old camerea not compatable with windows 7 so have to download from DVD . jules

juliej44
It sounds like whatever was put on disc was put on a DVD-R Intenso brand disc.
Probably the tape content was put on that DVD-R disc in DVD-VIDEO format. It gets more complicated if it gets put on the DVD-RAM type disc (which does not seem to be the case).
To verify the format of the material on your DVD disc, put the disc in the burn tray, go to computer, and Open the drive. You should see at least two folders, OpenDVD, VIDEO_TS, and maybe AUDIO_TS. Those folders are indicative of a DVD-VIDEO format.
http://www.fileinfo.com/help/video_ts_folder
Now back to Premiere Elements and the Video Importer. The video editor is not going to rip off clips from the DVD-VIDEO format. It is going to rip off VOB video files which contain a fixed number of files before it generates additional of its kind for additional video content.
Once you have the video VOB files (typically starting with VTS_01_1.VOB...spot the larger file size ones), in the Video Importer, you bring them into the project where you split them into clips that you want. You can do that in the Preview Window with the Set In Set Out point.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WSA27F29AF-97BB-4bdc-AF98-65113182EDF6. html
http://www.atr935.blogspot.com/2013/06/pe11-project-assets-organization-for.html
Please review the above and then let us know if any of it helped for the task that you want to perform with Premiere Elements.
Thanks.
ATR

How To Automatically Split A Large Clip Into Smaller Clips

I captured several one-hour tapes with an older version of Windows Movie Maker.
They are AVI files.
I'd like to work with the footage when I purchase Premiere Pro CS5.5 or CS6.
Each tape is composed of several starts and stops of the record button, so lots of individual clips inside of the hour-long captured footage.
In Premiere Pro CS 5.5, is there a way to automatically split a large clip into smaller clips at the points where I started and stopped the camera?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Flyingfish,
I cannot tell you that.
Historically, with "consumer" CODEC's, PrE often gets native support, before PrPro.
However, with "professional" CODEC's, such as RED, PrPro has those, but PrE will likely never get them. There are some pro CODEC's, that PrPro does have, that PrE is missing, but I do not have a list.
Good luck, and wish that I had more info for you.
Hunt

Split event before selected clip grayed out

When editing movies, the option "split event before selected clip" is always grayed out...can anyone help???

The reason to split an event is to make the footage easier to find when you start making projects. For example, if you shot a birthday party on the afternoon and a football game at night, they might import into the same Event (based on date). You could select the first clip of football and right-click/Split Event Before Selected Clip. Now you have two Events...a birthday party event and a football event.
This has nothing to do with sharing and projects.
A single project can use clips from many events.
And you can make many projects from the clips in a single event.
The project does not duplicate the footage that is stored in the Event, it just references it.
A project is really a text file that is a recipe for building a movie. The recipe is executed when you "Share" or render your movie.
For example the Project file might say
"Look in Event XYZ and grab frames 1 through 200 from the third clip.
Add an audio track from iTunes, and mute the audio track from the Event.
Add a title that says this or that.
Apply some color correction in these parameters.
Now look at Event QPR and grab the second and third clips, but trim off the last 10 frames."
Etc.
Hope this helps.
If you want to share multiple movies from an Event, you just create multiple projects that reference the event. Choose the frames you need by dragging and dropping. And then share the projects.
No need to get QuickTime Pro involved.

What can I do about error -50 in a video with only short clips (less than 1 sec)?

I get Error -50 when trying to export a music video with lots of short clips I just made in imovie 8.0.6. After googleing the problem i realize that its probably the short clips (under 1 sec) that are the problem.
Is there any way to get around this?
Would really appriciate the help!!!

As a test Depress an hold the option key while launching iPhoto - create a new test library and import a few photos into it - report back with the results and if this problem repeats in the new test library
LN

I am using final cut express. It seems that any clip over a certain length, say 5 min, does not fully transfer! All shorter clips are perfectly fine. Is there some reason why longer clips are not fully transferred? (a half blue circle shows up on the tran

I am using final cut express 4. It seems that any clip over a certain length, say 5 min, does not fully transfer! All shorter clips are perfectly fine. Is there some reason why longer clips are not fully transferred? (a half blue circle shows up on the transfer list, indicating that the clip was not fully transferred. When I check in the capture scratch folder, sure enough the whole clip is not there!
Is there some glitch in final cut express that only allows short clips to be transferred in full?

Thanks for the reply. I'll try to answer all the questions (I am a relative novice). Your help is appreciated.
By the way, the other reply I received suggested the following:
In Final Cut Express>System Settings>Scratch Discs make sure the Limit Capture/Export File Segement Size To: is not checked.
I did this and it was already unchecked. So this is not the answer...
The strange thing is, I have been logging and transferring with FCE for 2 yrs without any problems at all with shorter clips, but have come up against the problem with long clips (over 5 or so min) the whole time. I got around it by simply making sure I stopped recording after less than 5 min while shooting footage. OR if I accidentally got a long clip, I import into imovie and then import into FCE. Not very streamline and I worry about compressions altering quality!
I am now trying to import a 20 min and a 17 min clip and it only transfers around 3 minutes of each, I have re-tried several times and it happens repeatedly. The blue circle in the transfer list shows up as a half blue circle instead of full. Clip cuts off after 3 or so minutes.
ANSWERS
how you are ingesting the files
From external flash drive connected directly to mac using FCE.
the format of the source footage
digital via ext flash memory. Frame size :1929X1080 / 25fps
what camera shot the footage
SONY HXR NX5
how you are connecting to the computer
from flash memory directly via usb
what version of FCE you are using
4
what OS your computer is running
10.6.8
what model Mac
macbook Pro intel Core i7
what drive you are using for Capture Scratch
3TB external drive (plenty of room left)

How can I put a short clip to good use?

I have a very short clip, less than 4 seconds, which is difficult to work into my sequence. I'm reluctant to discard it for sentimental reasons. Any suggestions as to what type of special effects I can play so I can keep it?
I've been working for several days on motion and I'm finally getting the hang of how it work, so, I would like to keep it simple.
Thank you in advance.

As we have no details it is a question that is impossible to answer ............ rather like, "I have got 3 notes of music, how can I create a symphony?"
However, not being one to run away from the impossible, how about making freeze frames?
One possibility would be to use slow-motion on the clip as has been suggested and finish it with a freeze-frame.

FCP 10.1 DV capturing from camera breaking the scenes into unwanted clips by flashing a black screen on import window. But its fine and accurate with adobe premiere pro cc ? Any solution * Advance Thanks

FCP 10.1 DV capturing from camera breaking the scenes into unwanted clips by flashing a black screen on import window. But its fine and accurate with adobe premiere pro cc ?
Any solution * Advance Thanks

FCP X will import into separate clips every time it detects a scene change (as when you stopped and started recording in the camera). There is no option to avoid this, as far as I known.
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Why won't "Split events before selected clip" work?

In IMovie'11, when I select a clip from an event and want to split it, I go to File, and the option "Split events before selected clip" is not highlighted, so I cannot do that task! Has anyone else had that problem? In fact if I select a clip in an event and go to Edit, and to the option "Split event" it also is not hightlighted so I cannot do that either! This is very frustrating as I am trying to organize my videos in order to burn them to a DVD.

Oops sorry - I'm new to iMovie, except for a short one I did a couple years back from stills. I only take the occasional one with my p&s camera - so it's mp4's - but now I've got a project I want to do for my son and his band. So, another learning curve
Yes I've been trying to split clips in the events browser. And sometimes the "split event" option come up black, but most times it's greyed out. Sometimes I even get the black and greyed-out in different places within the same event. I can't find any logic behind it, it appears to be random.
I haven't come across anything called "the timeline" - so don't know what that is. I searched it just now in iMovie but nothing came up.

Splitting QuickTime into shorter clips

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