Thanks in advance for any advice. I'm a beginner. I've been researching this for a couple of days now, without much luck. I've read about the difference between containers and codecs, just enough to realize how complex video editing is.
Since I'm using a Mac, the tools seem much more limited.
I would like to do simple joining and splitting of WMV files on my Mac without re-encoding, which I assume will not result in any loss of quality in the video. I don't mind limiting my splits to I frames. Naturally the simpler and faster the tool can do this, the better.
I am open to any suggestions and want to find the best tool for this job, whether the tool is free or up to $50 or so, in cost. I appreciate all the members here sharing their extensive knowledge and experience, helping those like me who are just getting started.
I've been using Avidemux version 2.6 for splitting and joining other file types for a while now, but have not had good luck with WMV files, which I don't even think it claims to support. It's great for me, because I just set video and audio to copy when doing the splitting/joining, select save, give it name and in no time the edited video is ready. I tried a few times to save as a different format, but because I didn't know what I was doing, the results were awful. So for now, i'd like to stick to just simple splitting and joining and saving in the same format as the original for the tool I'm looking for.
I learned enough to know to install Flip4mac and Perian on my Mac so WMV files could be played. I even went so far as to buy Flip4mac Pro to solve this problem, which allows splitting and joining WMV files, but it seems I can only save the edited file as a MOV file instead of WMV file.
I don't know if editing with Flip4mac Pro as I'm doing is lossless, especially if the file can only be saved as a MOV file. It could also be Flip4mac can do this, but I didn't know how.
I was also wondering for future reference, if I should leave any WMV or MOV files as they are, after the joining/splitting, or whether I should change their format to the MP4 container with H.264. I will only edit them once, then save them.
I'm OK with leaving them in their current format, if changing it would result in a quality loss in the video.
The files will only be stored and used on a desk top computer, so resizing or sending them is not an issue.
Your thoughts on any tools you'd recommend for the splitting/joining WMV and MOV files, as well as whether I should convert these files to another format is greatly appreciated.
Thanks very much.
Since I'm using a Mac, the tools seem much more limited.
I would like to do simple joining and splitting of WMV files on my Mac without re-encoding, which I assume will not result in any loss of quality in the video. I don't mind limiting my splits to I frames. Naturally the simpler and faster the tool can do this, the better.
I am open to any suggestions and want to find the best tool for this job, whether the tool is free or up to $50 or so, in cost. I appreciate all the members here sharing their extensive knowledge and experience, helping those like me who are just getting started.
I've been using Avidemux version 2.6 for splitting and joining other file types for a while now, but have not had good luck with WMV files, which I don't even think it claims to support. It's great for me, because I just set video and audio to copy when doing the splitting/joining, select save, give it name and in no time the edited video is ready. I tried a few times to save as a different format, but because I didn't know what I was doing, the results were awful. So for now, i'd like to stick to just simple splitting and joining and saving in the same format as the original for the tool I'm looking for.
I learned enough to know to install Flip4mac and Perian on my Mac so WMV files could be played. I even went so far as to buy Flip4mac Pro to solve this problem, which allows splitting and joining WMV files, but it seems I can only save the edited file as a MOV file instead of WMV file.
I don't know if editing with Flip4mac Pro as I'm doing is lossless, especially if the file can only be saved as a MOV file. It could also be Flip4mac can do this, but I didn't know how.
I was also wondering for future reference, if I should leave any WMV or MOV files as they are, after the joining/splitting, or whether I should change their format to the MP4 container with H.264. I will only edit them once, then save them.
I'm OK with leaving them in their current format, if changing it would result in a quality loss in the video.
The files will only be stored and used on a desk top computer, so resizing or sending them is not an issue.
Your thoughts on any tools you'd recommend for the splitting/joining WMV and MOV files, as well as whether I should convert these files to another format is greatly appreciated.
Thanks very much.