MP4Box seems to be another great tool to do things like this.

To split an .mp4 file into files of a maximum desired file size, e.g. 4000 kb, enter:

MP4Box -splits 4000 original_file.mp4

This will generate files original_file_001.mp4 , original_file_002.mp4 and so on.

There are also options for maximum duration in seconds, or for start and end time in seconds.

MP4Box comes with the gpac package (in my case version 0.4.5-1.pm.3.1 under SuSE 11.3)
and worked for me on first attempt.

Have fun!

I have found this mail thread is quite help full for my current requirement. I tried some variation with given commands but did not get success.
Actually I wanted to convert a .VOB file into mp4 format but I wanted to convert it into small chunks.
Here as per the given example I can split a video file into same format like mpeg to mpeg but I want to split + convert at the same time. Please let me know if it is possible.

Commands that I have tried are below.
ffmpeg -i S.vob -vcodec copy -ss 00:01:00 -t 00:02:00 y.avi

Also when I am converting .VOB file into .AVI using below command, video quality is getting worst.
ffmpeg -i s.vob -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 800k -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128k z.avi

Use '-qscale' and 2 pass encoding to get better quality, see:
http://htexmexh.byethost13.com/linux/encoding.html

I would split it before encoding, it's just easier. That way you can run a for loop, and encode them all.

Thanks H_TeXMeX_H,
It helped, now I am getting same quality but facing a new problem now. Even though I am mentioning video and audio encoding formats as "-vcodec mpeg4" and "-acodec libmp3lame" but not able to play on IPAD. AFAIK, ipad supports mp4 then why it is not getting played? Do I need to set any other flag to make it IPAD compatible? The command that I am using is,
"ffmpeg -i S.vob -vcodec mpeg4 -vtag xvid -qscale 5 -s 640x272 -aspect 40:17 -r 23.976 -g 240 -bf 2 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 160k -ar 48000 -async 48000 -ac 2 test.avi "

Note: If I change the file name from test.avi to test.mp4 then it is giving error message. "[mp4 @ 01f8d010] Tag xvid/0x64697678 incompatible with output codec id '13'".

I actually need to convert vob files into a format which can be run on IPAD.

.mp4 is a format, so is .avi, so if it only plays .mp4, encode it to .mp4, not .avi.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

It looks like .avi is supported, but only with mjpeg video and PCM audio, so do encode to .mp4.

I don't see why you don't use x264 instead tho, it's a better encoder and it is supported, and use AAC with it, and .mp4 format. See the same link I posted for x264 encoding. I hope it still works because ffmpeg syntax has changed recently, and I will have to update the guide.

Try:

You can use a different preset if you like, any will work, like 'hq'. Make sure to put the right resolution, aspect, FPS, etc.