2-channel video file splitter utility for Windows - New v2.1 splits entire folders!

Thanks @Gibson99
I admit to being clueless(to some degree) when it comes to video files, compression, etc... I can't figure this out either. I'll try the previous version and tinker with it a little more tomorrow.

I am using winRAR to decompress the files. Maybe I'll try 7zip...just in case something is not extracting correctly. SMH.
 
well at this point, ffmpeg isn't even coming into play, so it has zero to do with the video files. at this point in the operation, the only two factors are the vbscript (wscript.exe - windows script host) and mshta.exe (only being used for the file browse dialog).

i suppose it's possible (though EXTREMELY unlikely) that winrar somehow ate the vbscript during decompression... you could also try windows' own built-in zip file handler. i can't remember, but i might have actually used 7zip to create the zip of the script + readme. but even if i didn't, zip is such an established standard (remember the original PKZIP back in the msdos days?) that by now, all the various implementations ought to be pretty solid - especially in mature products like winrar, 7zip and windows itself.

just as an FYI, i prefer 7zip over winrar. i have yet to find an archive format it can't handle. arj, gzip, tga, tar, obviously zip, and also rar. it'll even open most self-extracting exe files, MSI, CAB and plain old EXE installers that AREN'T regular sfx files - i use it at work to rip the MSIs out of the itunes installer, so that when we deploy it, it doesn't include bonjour, icloud, or the auto-updater nag stuff.
 
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as for the video files/compression/etc... let me try to explain it this way.

think of a standard cassette tape. it has 2 sides, and each side has a stereo recording. so side A has 2 tracks - left and right. and side B has 2 more tracks - a different set of left and right. so a standard cassette has a total of 4 tracks. and yes, an 8-track tape does indeed have 8 tracks, since it had 4 "programs" of 2 tracks each (left+right). each time you press the program button on an 8-track player, it moves to the next pair of tracks.

sometimes there might only be music on one side of a tape, so 2 of those 4 tracks are empty. but side A will have (usually) completely different content than side B. and depending on the type of music, side A's left channel might have completely different content than side A's right channel.

the AVI file is similar. it's capable of containing multiple "tracks" of information in various formats. in the case of our dashcams, it has 3 "tracks". one is audio, one is front video, and another is rear video. there's also a 4th track of data for things like GPS and accelerometer (g-sensor) data, but we don't care about that in this instance, since it's not as easy to work with as the audio and video tracks. the problem with this multi-track setup is that a standard video player (like windows media player) doesn't know what to do with an AVI with more than one video track in it - most video files only have one audio track and one video track. VLC can kinda handle it, and of course the blacksys player can too, but it's still not ideal.

so here's how the script works. it looks inside the AVI and finds the first video track and first audio track. then it makes a copy of the first video track and first audio track and puts them into a NEW avi file called front+audio. then it does it again except it copies the second video track and makes another new AVI file with rear+audio (yes, the same exact audio track - since we only have one to work with). now you have two "standard" video files with only one video track inside, which normal video players (and editors) can handle normally. if you tell the script NOT to have audio, then it just copies the individual video tracks into their own file with no audio track. even simpler.

hopefully that makes sense without sounding too patronizing. :D
 
as for the video files/compression/etc... let me try to explain it this way.

think of a standard cassette tape. it has 2 sides, and each side has a stereo recording. so side A has 2 tracks - left and right. and side B has 2 more tracks - a different set of left and right. so a standard cassette has a total of 4 tracks. and yes, an 8-track tape does indeed have 8 tracks, since it had 4 "programs" of 2 tracks each (left+right). each time you press the program button on an 8-track player, it moves to the next pair of tracks.

sometimes there might only be music on one side of a tape, so 2 of those 4 tracks are empty. but side A will have (usually) completely different content than side B. and depending on the type of music, side A's left channel might have completely different content than side A's right channel.

the AVI file is similar. it's capable of containing multiple "tracks" of information in various formats. in the case of our dashcams, it has 3 "tracks". one is audio, one is front video, and another is rear video. there's also a 4th track of data for things like GPS and accelerometer (g-sensor) data, but we don't care about that in this instance, since it's not as easy to work with as the audio and video tracks. the problem with this multi-track setup is that a standard video player (like windows media player) doesn't know what to do with an AVI with more than one video track in it - most video files only have one audio track and one video track. VLC can kinda handle it, and of course the blacksys player can too, but it's still not ideal.

so here's how the script works. it looks inside the AVI and finds the first video track and first audio track. then it makes a copy of the first video track and first audio track and puts them into a NEW avi file called front+audio. then it does it again except it copies the second video track and makes another new AVI file with rear+audio (yes, the same exact audio track - since we only have one to work with). now you have two "standard" video files with only one video track inside, which normal video players (and editors) can handle normally. if you tell the script NOT to have audio, then it just copies the individual video tracks into their own file with no audio track. even simpler.

hopefully that makes sense without sounding too patronizing. :D
It makes perfect sense. And I appreciate the detailed response and, especially, your diligence to assist me.

I am still baffled that with the plethora of software options out there, this can't be done easier. You mentioned that the "zoom" capability of the Blacksys player was less than desirable. I agree. It would be nice if there were an option out there to do this easily. I'm sure professionals have this capability. I would pay a reasonable price if it would do what I wanted. If the Blacksys player could just zoom better, allow swapping the channels and save PiP...I'd be happy
 
this is really a rare edge case that doesn't happen very often, so the software would by definition be a one-off that someone made themselves (like my script) or if you're lucky, a plugin for a big expensive piece of software like adobe premiere.

in terms of actually manipulating video (rather than simply copying a track) isn't that easy at the code level. there's a lot more to it than just making the pixels bigger or overlaying or whatever... what you want to do can be done pretty easily in most video editing software - there's even some free ones out there like VSDC (it's what i use in windows). right now the only hangup is breaking apart the multitrack file into something a regular editor can handle.
 
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Manipulating the video is very rare. Actually, this is the first encounter I have had with this. I really just want a nice Player to do the viewing and zooming if ever necessary. I have no problem going through some additional steps to create something like what I am wanting right now. VLC can work, I guess...but it doesn't dynamically zoom or frame-by-frame both channels(unless I am doing something wrong). Each time I open a new file, I have to resize the 3d output window again, etc...
 
So, I have tried it with 7-zip and it does the exact same thing. This is odd...smho_O
 
Hi Gibson99, just to let you know that your script works with files from the Cowon Auto Capsule AN2. Thanks for writing the script!
 
Version 2.1 has been released! Now you can split an entire folder full of AVI or MP4 files all at once. You can still split individual files as well, but I expect the folder option may be a welcome addition for many users. Grab the new version and check the updated documentation on my site, below:

http://www.gibson99.com/2015/05/2-channel-video-file-splitter-utility.html

When I updated the article on my site, I also linked to @GTA Driver's post here for his bash script . That way if someone finds my article in some other way, but they're running *nix, they will still be able to split their files. In case you haven't seen it, here's his post: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/linux-bash-scripts-to-separate-channels.14351/
 
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Great, thank you.
I am thinking to something more difficult: encode both videos as PIP. Avisynth can create PIP and encode using X264 encoder.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
Great, thank you.
I am thinking to something more difficult: encode both videos as PIP. Avisynth can create PIP and encode using X264 encoder.

enjoy,
Mtz
when i create PIP in video editing software, i usually crop a large portion of the rear video and then mirror it to make it look like an actual rearview mirror. since everyone's camera aim is different, there's no way to automate that. plus there may be somethign in the front camera view that you don't want to cover up with the rear video, and a script can't know that. so i think it's still better to do PIP manually in an editor.

however, joining several files (my CF100 only makes 1 minute files) would be more believable/possible, but it's not something i'm interested in working on right now - i rarely if ever have to join more than one file from my cf100, and i'll usually be editing it too, so it's no big deal to do it in the editor.
 
This is great. Although my preference is to use my nix box at home, but I usually have my work issued windows laptop at both home and work. I don't want to be putting my script or do editing on my Samba servers at work.

There has been a few changes since posted on the nix script, but I started working on other things. I now have the nix script on a dropbox account as it getting to complicated to cut and paste.

This evening I will post the changes to the 'Nix script
 
Great, thank you.
I am thinking to something more difficult: encode both videos as PIP. Avisynth can create PIP and encode using X264 encoder.

enjoy,
Mtz
another thing i just thought of - not every cam has the same resolutions. so the script or whatever would need to figure out resolutions and then change them appropriately. yeah, too many variables for there to be a simple, plug n play script like this for making PIP videos.
 
the link to download the vbscript doesnt work, where else can i get my hands on this?
 
the link to download the vbscript doesnt work, where else can i get my hands on this?
sorry, i'm in the middle of moving to a new place, and while i'm staying with family, i can't have my normal download server running. it's too loud and power hungry.

i'm working on a new website though, and for now you can download the script here:

https://sites.google.com/site/gibson99/downloads

the rest of that site is very blank and obviously a work in progress. i'm not sure if i'll move everything over from blogger or not, but i might, since it's a lot more flexible than blogger.
 
Hi @Gibson99 - I was hoping your script would be the answer to my prayers but sadly the files that are being created wont play video, only audio. Occasionally an error pops up saying file cannot be played. Any suggestions on what to look for finding the reasons why?
 
Hi @Gibson99 - I was hoping your script would be the answer to my prayers but sadly the files that are being created wont play video, only audio. Occasionally an error pops up saying file cannot be played. Any suggestions on what to look for finding the reasons why?
What is your dash cam. My Iroad is a little wonky with ffmpeg at times.
 
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