How to split movies using Movica

Software requirements

You will need to have the following software with you.

• Movica
• .NET framework 1.1
• mpgtx - for editing MPEG movies (Installed as part of Movica)
• asfbin - for editing Windows Media movies (Installed as part of Movica) - You can only use this for non-commercial purposes
• flvtool - for editing Flash (.flv) movies (Installed as part of Movica)
• Optionally, if you want to edit RealMedia (.rm) movies, you should have Real Producer Basic installed on your computer. This is a free download from RealMedia's website.

Installation

Movica is a open source software that can be downloaded from either

• SourceForge
• Movica Homepage

There are a lot of other web sites that might mirror the installers but the ones listed above are the most current.

The installer should run without issues and might prompt you to install .NET framework 2.0 if you do not have it on your computer already. This will be very rare since the Windows Update utility would have installed it already.

You can now start Movica from the entry in your Start menu

Splitting Movies
Quite often we have to split files to make them fit on smaller discs, e-mail or even for hosting them on websites. This guide is meant to assist you in doing that for

• Windows media files - with extension .wmv / .asf
• MPEG 1 and 2 movies - with extension .mpg / .mpeg
• Flash video - with extension .flv
• RealMedia video - with extension .rm

1. Select the file you want to split
The first step is to select the file you want to split. On the File pull down you can find the option to Open a movie file. The movie will start playing however on switching to the tab called 'Split' the playback will stop and you will now be presented with the options to split the file.

Tip:You can drag the file on to the program from Windows Explorer as an alternative way of opening the file.

2. Select the method to split the file
Three methods are available in general viz

• By Duration - This method tries to get the duration of the pieces to be as similar as possible. The size can vary greatly.
• By Number of pieces - In this method the size is automatically adjusted to create that many pieces
• By Size of the pieces - In this case the pieces are kept as similar in size as possible. The play time of each piece may vary. This is currently not available for .wmv and .asf files since asfbin does not support it currently

Note: The actual sizes and durations may vary because the logical boundaries in the pieces might differ from what you intended.

In addition to the automated selection of parts, you can have better control of the split pieces by actually selecting the segments yourself. To do this, you make your selections just as you would for editing the movie. But then use the File-> Save as separate files (F6) option to save the selections as separate files. Movica will create numbered segments.

3. Split the file
The approximate size of each of the pieces will be displayed to act as a guide. As noted above, this is only a guide. The big 'Split the file' button will start the split. The result will be displayed in the Trace window.

4. Verify
This is an important step since the output files may not be created properly even if the report says that it was success. Also in some cases, inspite of a failure message, things may still have been fine.

Warning: Always make sure your splits were completed successfully. File sizes may not always be what you desire.

Movica a basic and simple editor. In case you would like to know more please use the SourceForge suggestion page. Or better still, feel free to contribute to the documentation on the SourceForge documentation page.

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