View Full Version : Splitting an M2T file


Michael Rich
February 21st, 2006, 10:00 AM
Anyone know of any tools that I can take a very large M2T file (10GB+) and split it into chunks so that I could burn them seperatly onto a DVD-R? I've been trying to archive my M2T's since my HD is filling up, but most are too large to fit onto a single disc.

Let me say I'm not wanting a scene detection utility or anything like that, I just want something to split it so the files could then be placed back to back on the timeline and fit together just like they had been as one large file (i.e. no skips, drop outs, etc.).

Thanks,
mike

Randall Allen
February 21st, 2006, 04:25 PM
Most any backup software and even many of the disc burning packages will span multiple disks. I have Nero 6 and have seen the option for it though I have never had cause to use it.

Randy

Michael Rich
February 22nd, 2006, 08:31 AM
Yea I had thought about spanning, but did not want to do that since you basically have to un-span back to HD in order to even review the file. If I can split the files, I'd be able to put the DVD in, load the clip and review and if its the one I need, pull it off and work with it.

Thanks for the idea though, I think I have Nero 7 if push comes to shove.


Thanks,
mike

Robert M Wright
February 22nd, 2006, 02:26 PM
I don't know any first hand, aside from TMPGEnc maybe, but you can find tools to split MPEG files cleanly. A good place to look is videohelp.com. I have TMPGEnc 2.5 which I think literally could do the split, but it's sure not set up for it, and the resulting files would be program stream files (not transport stream).

Germain Gilbert
March 1st, 2006, 06:03 PM
There is a free tool for splitting MPEG-2 TS files (HDV)


HDVSplit version 0.7


http://strony.aster.pl/paviko/hdvsplit.htm


Des-it do the job for you ???


Best regards

Germain

Michael Rich
March 2nd, 2006, 09:13 AM
I've talked to the guy who does HDVSplit and right now all it does it automatic scene splitting, which is not what I need. He has an item on his todo list where you'll be able to load up a M2T file and choose the split location and it will break it into two M2T files.

I already have used HDVSplit to capture live HDV video from my HC1 though, from what I can tell, it worked pretyt good. Prior I had used VLC, but it was a lot more cumbersome to set up to capture the video.


Thanks,
mike

David Kennett
March 3rd, 2006, 03:48 PM
Michael,

I just use the editor that came with the JVC to edit portions of a completed pgm into small enough chunks. There's no re-rendering, and it's quite fast - about half the running time. Also, dual layer burners and discs are getting quite cheap now - minimizes the problem.

Laurence Kingston
March 7th, 2006, 08:58 AM
MPEG EDIT from womble.com will do exactly what you need: split files at the places of your choosing without rerendering.

You just select your new in and out points and hit the red button, give the split file a new name and hit enter. You can even batch file your output so you don't have to wait for each file to copy before moving on to the next. I highly recommend it.

Graham Hickling
March 7th, 2006, 12:49 PM
Laurence, I just tried out both the March'05 and Dec'05 versions of Womble's MPEG Video Wizard.

I made various copies and splits of an .m2t file I'd captured via Premiere2.0/AspectHD. The resulting file appears to be identical in all it's file properties to the original...but it is about 5% smaller.

But unlike the original, it won't play in my installation of Windows Mediaplayer 10 (with the Nvidia purevideo decoder installed). And it also won't export back to my HC1 via HDLink.

I certainly prepared to believe this must be a quirk of my system - you don't have these issues, right?

The new file did load happily into Procoder, and back into PPro2, so its not like the footage is getting badly corrupted or anything. Nevertheless, these subtle glitches in Mpeg transport streams are a real pain in the butt when it comes to pondering good archive solutions!

Laurence Kingston
March 7th, 2006, 02:47 PM
That is exactly why I recommended MPEG VCR instead of MPEG Wizard. They are at the same web site and when you buy MPEG WIZARD you also own a licence for MPEG VCR. Anyway, if you split m2t files back with MPEG Wizard, the Purevideo decoder can't read them but if you split them with MPEG VCR it can. MPEG VCR is better for this anyway because you can batch file the output files so that you can split a bunch of files more efficiently.

I'm sure this has something to do with the irregular GOP sequence that MPEG Wizard generates. I don't know if you can copy MPEG VCR split files back to the camera. I haven't tried that but I'll bet it works just fine.

Graham Hickling
March 7th, 2006, 03:34 PM
Thanks! You mentioned MPEG EDIT in the earlier post and so I dithered between whether that meant MPEGVideoWizard or MPEG2VCR on the Womble site - looks like I picked the wrong one!

I'll try MPEG2VCR now and report back.

Graham Hickling
March 7th, 2006, 03:57 PM
Partial success.

As Laurence predicted, m2t files produced by Womble's MPEG Editor (a.k.a MPEG2VCR) play nicely with on my system using Windows Media Player 9 with NVidia's Purevideo decoder installed.

They won't load back onto my HC1 via HDLink over firewire, however.

Laurence Kingston
March 7th, 2006, 09:02 PM
I had never tried that. It's good to know. Darn! Anyway, it's still useful and I can back them up (as I already do) to DVD-R.

Graham Hickling
March 7th, 2006, 09:25 PM
Yep, darn. My workaround for now is to import the Womble clips back onto the PremierePro timeline and then hit 'export to tape' to get them back to the camera via firewire.

They don't get re-rendered - no red line appears above them - but they perhaps get remuxed as it takes a (not-unreasonable) period of processing before they are sent out to tape.

This works for both the VideoWizard and VideoEditor clips, by the way...

David Tyler
December 10th, 2007, 05:19 PM
Found this thread very helpful. I have a similar issue - ie want to split 12+Gb m2t files to put onto DVD-R and DVD+R DL disks. In this case its to play on a Sony PS3, which will play m2t data files right off the disk.

Problem I've got is that it doesn't see the m2t files saved using MPEG2VCR. The PS3 just thinks the disk is empty. I don't particularly want to go through writing the new trimmed files back out to tape and reading them back in again in the hoping of 'cleaning' them in some way, so does anyone know of a solution to this?

Thanks

Graham Hickling
December 10th, 2007, 06:04 PM
Wow - I barely remember writing some of those posts from...2004!

I havent tried PS3 playback at all but three suggestions:

1) Will the PS3 play an HD program stream (usually they are .mpg whereas .m2t signifies transport stream)? If so, its fast to remux from one to the other (see below).

2) Since 2004 a very handy utility called mpegstreamclip has been developed. My guess is it will either split your original files, or else fix the faulty files you've split already. Or both. It can also do remuxing to and from ts and ps http://www.squared5.com/

3) This might be worth a try too: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MPEG2Repair

Chris Barcellos
December 10th, 2007, 06:14 PM
Just a note about Vegas 8. It apparently will allow you to split now, and it won't reencode otherwise untouched material. Seems to me you could take your 10 gig file and split it on the time line at a opportune point, and then go to render and it should copy the split. It actually has a message come up that says something like its not reencoding.

David Tyler
December 11th, 2007, 01:27 PM
Thanks for these 2 very helpful replies. I'll try mpegstreamclip which I'd actually already downloaded but didn't think to check. I have Vegas 6d but haven't upgraded to vegas 8 as I don't really need the extra faciliities. Worth remembering though if needed.

Thanks again and I'll report back.
David

Claire Watson
December 11th, 2007, 01:32 PM
How about TSSplitter v1.0 ?

It works for, I split into 4GB chunks and put them on a USB drive (FAT32) and play from my PS3. Never tried to put them back to tape though the blurb does say "The advantage compared to other similar tools is that you can later join the files and get a file that's 100% like the original source file".

David Tyler
December 11th, 2007, 05:13 PM
Mpeg Streamclip works! I was a bit thrown by the fact that I had to save the files as .ts files but once saved, I just re-name them as .m2t files and copy them to DVD-R (DL) and they play perfectly in the PS3.

The only thing I've noticed is that the extracted clips are a bit lighter (increased brightness) when compared side by side to the original. I don't know why this should be and if viewed in isolation its not really an issue.

Still, a real result. Thanks guys.

Thanks Claire for your help too. I might give that program a go too. The only thing is I want to create files bigger than 4Gb that I can copy to dual layer disks. Does it do that?

Thanks

Claire Watson
December 11th, 2007, 05:35 PM
Thanks Claire for your help too. I might give that program a go too. The only thing is I want to create files bigger than 4Gb that I can copy to dual layer disks. Does it do that?
Thanks

I believe so David, it's a while since I used it because now I have bought a Pioneer BDR202 burner and so no longer need to cling to m2t's to put on USB drives for PS3 but I recall it would even let me preview the beginning and end of the the pieces it was going to make to avoid cutting between mid sentence.

Lester Marston
January 2nd, 2008, 03:59 PM
Anyone know of any tools that I can take a very large M2T file (10GB+) and split it into chunks so that I could burn them seperatly onto a DVD-R? I've been trying to archive my M2T's since my HD is filling up, but most are too large to fit onto a single disc.

Let me say I'm not wanting a scene detection utility or anything like that, I just want something to split it so the files could then be placed back to back on the timeline and fit together just like they had been as one large file (i.e. no skips, drop outs, etc.).

Thanks,
mike

There's an excellent freeware file splitter called, "HJ Split", which I used as recently as yesterday as it happens (splitting a 12GB .m2t file into DVD-friendly chunks), which I recommend you try.

Unlike prog's which split a large M2T into smaller M2T files (invariably interfering with the integrity of the mpeg stream to one degree or other), "HJ Split" merely splits a file into smaller chunks of data, the size of which can be set by the user; all resultant parts will be of equal size with the exception of the final part which will be whatever the remainder of the file is (e.g a 12.6GB file split into 4GB chunks will result in 3 x 4GB files + 1 x .6GB file). The files can then be burned to disc.

If you ever need to reconstitute the file, copy the split files from disc to your hard drive and rejoin them as the original single file using HJ Split.

From experience, cutting a single M2T file into smaller M2T files can be problematic. Even though virtually all MPEG editors/splitters claim that they do not alter the stream in any way, they actually do and this can cause headaches later down the track (Avid Xpress users take special note). HJ Split will circumvent any such problem.

One word of advice, do a test: split the file using HJ split, burn the files to your DVD's or CD's, copy the files back to your hard drive, rejoin with HJ Split, play the joined file.

cheers.

Erich Reisenberger
January 3rd, 2008, 11:18 AM
"Split4DVD_ß.exe" is best. It splits every large file into portions of 4.4 GB (that you can adjust), and then you can burn it on dvd. You have to rename it from mpeg to mpg first. It is freeware.

cheers
Eric

Ervz Tia
January 17th, 2011, 08:20 PM
Ok, several years later and still a helpful solution.
Thanks David! I'm posting this to the Avid community.
---
Mpeg Streamclip works! I was a bit thrown by the fact that I had to save the files as .ts files but once saved, I just re-name them as .m2t files ...

Andrew Smith
February 5th, 2011, 02:16 AM
These days you might as well archive to an external drive for roughly the same storage cost as burning to DVDs. Saves having to mess around with splitting files down.

Andrew

Ian Firth
February 7th, 2011, 12:41 PM
Hi,

Mpg2cut2 (Mpeg2cut2) splits MT2 files on GOP. I use it for taking dross out of my HV30 files prior to archiving the result. I edit the cut files in PP4 with no problem. It only cuts on GOP and I only use the simplest of commands (set start - set end - write out the trimmed file) so I can't vouch for the ability to join two trimmed parts and things like that. But it really has helped me with a quick way of extracting the data I want without the necessity to re-render due to the file being split between GOPs.

Not sure this will fit your bill, but it may be worth a look for you. Best of all, it's freeware!

Cheers, Ian