How can I split a .mp4 in two?

Question

I have a bunch of .mp4 files (DRM free). Each file comprises two episodes of a kids TV show. I would like to simply split the file in two without re-encoding. What's the best way to do this? Preferably with a GUI (as I need to skip to the correct part of each file to find the divider between the two episodes).

Thanks,

Solution

I recommend opening the video in a media player to find the time where you want to split it. Then you can use ffmpeg with the following script. It does not re-encode the video.

#!/bin/bash

# Split Video Script
# Usage: script_name file_name split-point
# Example: split_video_script bugs_bunny.mp4 31:23
# Instructions:     
# 1. Type the name of your script (if it is already added to ~/bin and marked as executable). 
# 2. Type the file name including path to it if necessary. 
# 3. Type the time where you want to split the video. It goes in minutes:seconds

# Get length in seconds
length=$(echo "$2" | awk -F: '{print ($1 * 60) + $2}')

# Get filename without extension
fname="${1%.*}"

# First half
ffmpeg -i "${fname}.mp4" -c copy -t "$length" "${fname}1.mp4"

# Second half
ffmpeg -i "${fname}.mp4" -c copy -ss "$length" "${fname}2.mp4"

Update: I recently needed to update this script because of an issue with the second half. So, now I have to process the second half of it. You would add in the parameters that are specific to your original video. You can use mediainfo, ffprobe or ffmpeg -i to find the needed information about your original video.

#!/bin/bash

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 file-name"
    exit 1
fi

read -p "Enter time to split video (hh:mm:ss.mmm) " split_time

ext="${1##*.}"
fname="${1%.*}"

# First half
ffmpeg -i "$1" -c copy -t "$split_time" -c:s copy "${fname}1.${ext}"

# Second half
ffmpeg -ss "$split_time" -i "$1" -c:v libx264 -crf 17 -preset veryfast -r 30 -s 1920x1080 -c:a aac -ac 2 -b:a 256k -ar 44100 -pix_fmt yuv420p -movflags faststart -c:s copy "${fname}2.${ext}"

Comments

[usmanayubsh]

Have you read the answers to this question? A few of them suggest GUI-based solutions too.

[Info-Screen]

Possible duplicate of Splitting an MP4 file

[Info-Screen]

You could simply find out the point where to split by watching it in a normal viewer (VLC, etc) and then use the terminal, as most things are command line based in ubuntu

[jbrock]

If they all split at exactly the same place, then I'd be glad to update the below script so it is a batch operation. That would save a lot of time.

[nbkhope]

The command generates two parts. The first part is fine. But the second video plays with a black screen for the first couple of seconds. Any idea how to fix that problem?

[jbrock]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I had updated my script recently due to the same issue. I have posted it above. Best of luck.