Splitting a MP4 file in the middle position with Videopad

[Russ Croucher]

I'm trying to split a large MP4 file into 2 smaller pieces in the middle.  This sounds asked quite easy with the mouse with either videopad or prism.  However, doing it with a script without a mouse is rather difficult.  Is there any way to set the cursor in video to a percentage rather than in time?  I know how to split a file into pieces from the mouse but I don't know how to make the mouse go exactly to 50% the file.

Where can I go to get help on how you enter the time in the start time/end Time/cursor positions?  Is there any way to entered as a percentage of total?  Which is a better process to use Prism or Videopad?

For a little history of what I'm trying to do, I have USB flash drives larger than 64 GB that are always formatted exFAT.  However, some computers do not understand that format (chrome book).  I can't use NTFS because that is only read only on a Mac computer.  This is because the falling out between Windows and Apple years ago.  So Windows does not allow Mac to write NTFS.  However, using backdoors I can format all flash drives that I want to FAT32 format.  However, this has its own problems that you cannot have a file larger than 4 GB.  So my solution is to split all videos to be less than 4 GB.  That way I can have large USB flash drives and large files in two pieces.

I'm having trouble reading the length of a video file.  This is not the size of the file bytes.  Maybe you guys can give me some insight.

[borate]

May not help, but to place the cursor in the middle of a clip or the timeline divide the ending length by two, then input that number in the 'cursor' box.

   In this case that # is 18.404, to be typed into the same box <enter>.  Cursor jumps to the center of the clip or timeline.

[Russ Croucher]

Borate,

That's a simple solution visually. But how do you send that to a computer without a mouse? I do need to read the length of the video file. I prefer to not write software to do that solution. My script software will give me the size of the file but not the video length of the video file. So maybe I need to make a request for possible improvement that you could enter the cursor as a percentage not as in time. What you think? Thanks for your quick response. I love videopad and prefer not to write my own software since you have a good product.

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

Probably barking up the wrong tree so don't shout.   I use the usual method to cut a clip or calculate the split position as Borate describes. nevertheless......

The current length of a particular clip can be found in the autosaved.vpj file....  

User name/Appdata/Roaming/NCH Software/VideoPad/autosave.vpj

but it may require a bit of searching. Automatically doing this might require some string checking but manually, you can open the autosave .vpj file in notepad. Search for the line that has the clip name with its in and out points marked. The out value is the current length of the clip.

e.g. a clip called BLACK CIRCLE on the timeline with a duration of 10 seconds shows the following line...

.....name=BLACK%20CIRCLE.jpg&offset=0&in=0&out=10000......

You can change the out value to 5000 for a 5 second clip (or calculate a %.)  Save the notepad so as to overwrite the original autosave and then re-run the altered  autosave.vpj  file. After a check window noting a change was made, VP will open with the clip now half its length.

I am not certain whether this messes up other parameters however (like removing gaps etc.) but manually this seems to work on a single clip.

Whether or not you can achieve this using scripts I don't know but the process might be worth looking into.

Nat