splitting files not working...
 

hi, i am trying to split a wmv file via the command prompt. i get to the dircetory, i split the movie, menace.wmv, which is 127 megabytes, like this

[root@localhost movies]# split -b50m menace.wmv new

so it splits and goes into the file were the movie is, but only the first file the splits (newa) works. for some reaspn linux reconizes it as 'ASF media' but its still plays. the other 2, newb and newc, are 'unknown.' i tried renaming the files to .wmv and .asf, but it doesnt work. can anyone help me out on this? thanks!

split is used to break a file up to allow for easier transport (e.g. if you didn't have FTP and needed to send it to someone via email but had a limit on how big attachments could be). The idea is that later you would rejoin the split pieces with the cat command to recreate the original file.

The reason the first piece works is that it has the header/control information needed by wmv. The other pieces wouldn't have that.

There may be a way to split up wmv files into smaller wmv files but this command isn't the one that will do it.

If you'd like to split a video file, try playing with mencoder (pay attention to -ss and -endpos parameters). It'll gonna be a RTFM ride, but it's worth it ;)

There may be a tool which can do it without having to re-encode the whole file, but adding the proper headers and wotnot to each file. For audio files (mp3 & ogg) there's mp3splt.

There's one for mpeg movie files: gopchop. Not sure about wmv format though.