How do I split up a .MOV?

November 3, 2007 1:46 PM

Is there a free/cheap program for PC/Mac (preferably PC) that will split a .MOV into separate files?

I have several 30 minute long .MOV files that I need to split into 6 or 7 pieces. The resulting files also have to be their own independent .MOV files so I can't use zip or some other compression program. Anyone have suggestions?

posted by chason to Technology (9 answers total)

Best answer: Quicktime Pro is insanely easy and cost $30 for the registration code. I've only used it on a Mac, but it appears to be available for Windows as well.

You can use Quicktime to cut .mov files into as many chunks as you want. Just open the original file, select the amount you want, cut or copy and then paste into a new player file. Easy-peasy. Then you just save the new file, make sure you choose Self-contained so you can burn it, etc.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 2:00 PM on November 3, 2007

mov is a proprietary format of apple so there wont be any free splitters or in fact choice.Quicktime pro it is.
posted by browolf at 3:06 PM on November 3, 2007

On the Mac, there is an amazing set of commandline quicktime manipulation utilities called QTCoffee. I use it all the time to split up and deliver uncompressed, hour long Quicktime movies to clients on FAT32 formatted firewire drives. Works like a charm. You don't need Quicktime Pro.

The command you want is "splitmovie", the syntax of which (for your needs) would look like this:

splitmovie -o splitfile_basename.mov -self-contained -no-fast-start -duration 5:00 sourcefile.mov

this creates chunks in 5 minute increments

"splitfile_basename.mov" will create filenames called "splitfile_basename-1.mov", "splitfile_basename-2.mov" etc.
posted by melorama at 3:25 PM on November 3, 2007

I think VLC (on the PC) can do this for free, but not in an automated fashion (that I know of?). It can play and transcode into MOV, and you can easily have a partial capture using the wizard function.
posted by anaelith at 3:41 PM on November 3, 2007

FWIW, to follow up my QTCoffee suggestion, I just whipped up an ugly-but-functional Applescript that you can load into Script Editor, then save out as a .app, upon which you can drop your Quicktime movies onto to automatically split them into 5 minute increments (with a little more more hacking, you can probably add a dialog requester that will let you choose the split duration):


property type_list : {"MOV"}
property extension_list : {"mov"}

-- This droplet processes both files or folders of files dropped onto the applet
on open these_items
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
set this_item to (item i of these_items)
set the item_info to info for this_item
if folder of the item_info is true then
process_folder(this_item)
else if (alias of the item_info is false) and ¬
((the file type of the item_info is in the type_list) or ¬
the name extension of the item_info is in the extension_list) then
process_item(this_item)
end if
end repeat
end open

-- this sub-routine processes folders
on process_folder(this_folder)
set these_items to list folder this_folder without invisibles
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
set this_item to alias ((this_folder as text) & (item i of these_items))
set the item_info to info for this_item
if folder of the item_info is true then
process_folder(this_item)
else if (alias of the item_info is false) and ¬
((the file type of the item_info is in the type_list) or ¬
the name extension of the item_info is in the extension_list) then
process_item(this_item)
end if
end repeat
end process_folder

-- this sub-routine processes files
on process_item(this_item)
-- NOTE that the variable this_item is a file reference in alias format
do shell script ("/usr/local/bin/splitmovie -o '" & (POSIX path of this_item) & "_split.mov' -self-contained -no-fast-start -duration 5:00 '" & (POSIX path of this_item & "'"))
end process_item

posted by melorama at 4:09 PM on November 3, 2007

The problem with Quicktime Pro is that it's a pain in the ass to set up seamless splits, because mousing around and dragging those little triangles to the exact right frame is difficult (although this has become a little less difficult with Quicktime Player 7.2, since it will display the exact timecode and/or frame number).

Using a utility like QTCoffee will quickly and perfectly split your movies automatically.

browulf is incorrect, btw, there are a lot of free Quicktime manipulation utilities out there. QTCoffee is one of them. Another good one is QT_Tools
posted by melorama at 4:21 PM on November 3, 2007

You can use WinFF to convert the file to avi, and then use Windows Movie Maker to split up the avi files. I do it all the time with the mov files that come off my digital camera. I've only used WinFF on Linux, however it's cross platform so I imagine it works just as well on Windows.
posted by COD at 4:52 PM on November 3, 2007

off the top of my head, i recall a free program called mpegsplitter, will split (and/or re-encode) not only movs but loadsss of other formats.
posted by londongeezer at 6:02 PM on November 3, 2007

If you do decide to use QuickTime Pro, it works equally well on Mac and PC, much to Apple's credit.
posted by lhauser at 8:05 PM on November 3, 2007