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MPEG Scissors

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

MPEG Scissors is an easy-to-use graphics application, whichlets you cut large MPEG files into smaller ones. This is especially useful whenyou have a big MPEG file and you require only a small portion of it. It alsolets you combine two or more MPEG files into a single one. Although there arecertain limitations discussed later), the procedure for doing this is verysimple.

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So let’s pick up our scissors and start snipping someMPEGs.

First, let’s work on a single MPEG and see how we can cutit down to the required size. Then we’ll see how we can combine differentMPEGs into one.

To open an MPEG, click on the small Open Movie icon. Selectthe file you want to work on and press OK. You’ll see a small preview of thefile in the Preview window on the left-hand side. In the center you’ll seesome information about the file, such as file name, file size, length, framerate, current frame, and the last frame.

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Suppose the movie you want has 241 frames in it, while youwant the portion of the movie from frame 60 to frame 210. In the two fields–StartFrame and End Frame–below the Preview screen, you enter the desired frames.Now you can either preview this by pressing the Preview scenes button, or simplysave the selected frames as a separate MPEG file by pressing Start process.

Now let’s see how to combine two or more MPEGs. The initialprocedure is the same. Open the first MPEG file by pressing the Open movie icon.When you open the second MPEG file you might see an error box. This error isbecause you can only combine MPEGs having the same frame rates, same pictureheight, and the same picture width. If these criteria are met, the second willalso open up and in the Job List you’ll see both the file names.

You can now select different portions from each file in theJob List, as described above, and combine these selections into one single MPEGby clicking on Start process.

Sachin Makhija

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