Hello everyone!
Recently, I sent away about 4 hours of old 8mm home video footage to a company called Memorable to get digitized. They did an absolutely fantastic job transferring and restoring the 8mm film, it looks incredible (it's all home movies from the 1950s through the 1970s). However, it's all out of order (i.e. my Dad, who appears in the videos, will be 3 years old one minute, and then it'll skip ahead to when he's like 17).
Ideally, I'd like to cut up these 4 hours of video and organize the smaller videos into separate folders on my hard drive. This way I'd be able to organize all the videos chronologically for a much better viewing experience.
In order to do this, I'm looking for a program (free or paid, I don't care as long as it works) that will allow me to cut/trim these videos without them being re-encoded. I don't want to lose any quality or alter the videos in any way; I just want to cut/trim them. I also want to be able to cut/trim the videos at exact, precise locations (i.e. I don't want any of the previous or next "scenes" to appear at the beginning or the end of the current "scene," if that makes sense).
They are all mp4 files, and they are 16 frames per second.
I have read multiple posts on this message board about this topic, but the posts are all fairly dated and I thought I'd re-post the topic here in case anything has changed in the last few years. I did try multiple suggestions that were given on this message board in other posts, but I still haven't found a program I'm fully happy with. If anyone has any suggestions whatsoever, I would sincerely appreciate it!
For now, here are my results with the programs I've tried so far:
#1) Smart Cutter Ps/Ts: Fairly impressive. I tested this out and compared it in Sony Vegas side by side to the original video. As far as I can tell, it is the exact quality of the original mp4 file. However, it did cut out 2 frames early initially (meaning there should have been 2 more frames at the end of the video). Maybe this is because it has to transcode the first few and last few frames of the video? (Not sure how it works?) Very easy to use though. Other than that, it's pretty decent! (A top option so far).
Additionally, in doing another test, while most of the video matches up with the original mp4 video in Sony Vegas, the last 30 frames (exactly 30 - I counted) gets slightly out of sync with the original video. Again, maybe because it has to re-encode a little bit in order to work properly? This results in the new video being 5 total frames shorter than the original one.
#2) Boilsoft: Also very impressive - exact quality of the original. And it literally allows you to cut the file by the millisecond. The only problem (and pain in the neck) is it doesn't allow you to scrub any more than by 1 second - yikes! So although you can specify the exact frame to the millisecond, it kind of becomes a guessing game. So it takes a long time to try to fix it. If anyone knows any way to make this program be more precise, it'd definitely be my top option.
#3) LosslessCut: Great program, and I've used it for other mp4 files and it's worked absolutely flawlessly - however, it's not very accurate with these mp4 files for whatever reason. I'll tell it to cut the video at a certain point, and it'll cut it like 2 seconds ahead of when I tell it to (so I end up getting 2 seconds of another "scene" at the beginning of each clip, which I really want to avoid). It's a pain in the neck to try to adjust - so I'd prefer not to use this.
#4) VideoReDo TV Suite (have to purchase to use): Initially when I tried it out, the finished product was full of errors and glitches. But this happened when it was set to "Tools," "Options," "Editing Accuracy: Frame Accurate," and I saved the video as an H.264 MP4. Then, I changed it to "Editing Accuracy: GOP Accurate," and I saved it as "H.264 MP4." This worked fairly well, but not perfect. For whatever reason, it started the video 4 frames before I told it to (so it starts a little earlier than it should have). Also, the first 12 frames are out of sync with the original MP4 file - it must have recoded the start point and so it's a little out of sync (barely, but noticeably in Vegas). This definitely is not noticeable when watching the video in Windows Media Player, so this isn't a huge deal. Possibly an option.
#5) Cut Assistant: This looks like it could be promising, but in all honesty, I couldn't figure out how to save the file after setting save points!
#6) SolveigMM Video Splitter: This also looks so promising and so good, but it IMMEDIATELY hangs up as soon as I import my mp4 file into it, lol. I tried it like 5 times and it just hangs up! It could be because it's the demo mode.
#7) My MP4Box GUI: Interesting program! Technically speaking, this worked flawlessly and was easy to use. However, very limited options - you don't scrub through and select the frame you want to split. Instead, you tell it the exact second you want it to split the video by. Because of this, it's not precise at all - you only get to break it down by seconds, so this would be very messy.
Other options I tried but decided not to use:
Avidemux: Useless, doesn't even recognize my mp4 file.
H264TS_Cutter: Doesn't work on mp4 files, I tried it and no luck!
MeGUI: Way too confusing and over my head, haha.
That's all I've tried so far. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it! I'm looking for a quick, easy, and most of all accurate and precise program that can accomplish my goal (seems like it should be so easy!).
Thanks so much for the help!
Tony
Recently, I sent away about 4 hours of old 8mm home video footage to a company called Memorable to get digitized. They did an absolutely fantastic job transferring and restoring the 8mm film, it looks incredible (it's all home movies from the 1950s through the 1970s). However, it's all out of order (i.e. my Dad, who appears in the videos, will be 3 years old one minute, and then it'll skip ahead to when he's like 17).
Ideally, I'd like to cut up these 4 hours of video and organize the smaller videos into separate folders on my hard drive. This way I'd be able to organize all the videos chronologically for a much better viewing experience.
In order to do this, I'm looking for a program (free or paid, I don't care as long as it works) that will allow me to cut/trim these videos without them being re-encoded. I don't want to lose any quality or alter the videos in any way; I just want to cut/trim them. I also want to be able to cut/trim the videos at exact, precise locations (i.e. I don't want any of the previous or next "scenes" to appear at the beginning or the end of the current "scene," if that makes sense).
They are all mp4 files, and they are 16 frames per second.
I have read multiple posts on this message board about this topic, but the posts are all fairly dated and I thought I'd re-post the topic here in case anything has changed in the last few years. I did try multiple suggestions that were given on this message board in other posts, but I still haven't found a program I'm fully happy with. If anyone has any suggestions whatsoever, I would sincerely appreciate it!
For now, here are my results with the programs I've tried so far:
#1) Smart Cutter Ps/Ts: Fairly impressive. I tested this out and compared it in Sony Vegas side by side to the original video. As far as I can tell, it is the exact quality of the original mp4 file. However, it did cut out 2 frames early initially (meaning there should have been 2 more frames at the end of the video). Maybe this is because it has to transcode the first few and last few frames of the video? (Not sure how it works?) Very easy to use though. Other than that, it's pretty decent! (A top option so far).
Additionally, in doing another test, while most of the video matches up with the original mp4 video in Sony Vegas, the last 30 frames (exactly 30 - I counted) gets slightly out of sync with the original video. Again, maybe because it has to re-encode a little bit in order to work properly? This results in the new video being 5 total frames shorter than the original one.
#2) Boilsoft: Also very impressive - exact quality of the original. And it literally allows you to cut the file by the millisecond. The only problem (and pain in the neck) is it doesn't allow you to scrub any more than by 1 second - yikes! So although you can specify the exact frame to the millisecond, it kind of becomes a guessing game. So it takes a long time to try to fix it. If anyone knows any way to make this program be more precise, it'd definitely be my top option.
#3) LosslessCut: Great program, and I've used it for other mp4 files and it's worked absolutely flawlessly - however, it's not very accurate with these mp4 files for whatever reason. I'll tell it to cut the video at a certain point, and it'll cut it like 2 seconds ahead of when I tell it to (so I end up getting 2 seconds of another "scene" at the beginning of each clip, which I really want to avoid). It's a pain in the neck to try to adjust - so I'd prefer not to use this.
#4) VideoReDo TV Suite (have to purchase to use): Initially when I tried it out, the finished product was full of errors and glitches. But this happened when it was set to "Tools," "Options," "Editing Accuracy: Frame Accurate," and I saved the video as an H.264 MP4. Then, I changed it to "Editing Accuracy: GOP Accurate," and I saved it as "H.264 MP4." This worked fairly well, but not perfect. For whatever reason, it started the video 4 frames before I told it to (so it starts a little earlier than it should have). Also, the first 12 frames are out of sync with the original MP4 file - it must have recoded the start point and so it's a little out of sync (barely, but noticeably in Vegas). This definitely is not noticeable when watching the video in Windows Media Player, so this isn't a huge deal. Possibly an option.
#5) Cut Assistant: This looks like it could be promising, but in all honesty, I couldn't figure out how to save the file after setting save points!
#6) SolveigMM Video Splitter: This also looks so promising and so good, but it IMMEDIATELY hangs up as soon as I import my mp4 file into it, lol. I tried it like 5 times and it just hangs up! It could be because it's the demo mode.
#7) My MP4Box GUI: Interesting program! Technically speaking, this worked flawlessly and was easy to use. However, very limited options - you don't scrub through and select the frame you want to split. Instead, you tell it the exact second you want it to split the video by. Because of this, it's not precise at all - you only get to break it down by seconds, so this would be very messy.
Other options I tried but decided not to use:
Avidemux: Useless, doesn't even recognize my mp4 file.
H264TS_Cutter: Doesn't work on mp4 files, I tried it and no luck!
MeGUI: Way too confusing and over my head, haha.
That's all I've tried so far. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it! I'm looking for a quick, easy, and most of all accurate and precise program that can accomplish my goal (seems like it should be so easy!).
Thanks so much for the help!
Tony