NAME

       mpgtx, mpgsplit, mpgcat, mpgjoin, mpginfo, mpgdemux - manipulate mpeg files

SYNOPSIS

       mpgtx command [ options ] file [ range | file ] ...

DESCRIPTION

       mpgtx  can  split  and  join  MPEG files in various ways. Three file types are currently handled (more to
       come): MPEG 1 Video files, MPEG 1/2 Audio files (mp1, mp2, and mp3), MPEG 1 System files (audio and video
       files), MPEG 2 Program files (Experimental), MPEG 2 Transport files (demultiplex and  info  modes  only).
       mpgtx  is  a  GOP  (Group  of Pictures) based editor. This means that mpgtx cuts MPEG files on a Group Of
       Picture basis, not on a frame-by-frame basis. A typical  GOP  duration  is  about  0.5  sec  (approx.  15
       frames), limiting the maximum accuracy of mpgtx.

COMMANDS

       -i     prints information about files, such as duration, dimention, bitrate, etc.

       -j     joins files (ranges may be specified, see the RANGES section).

       -s     splits files according to the specified ranges (see the RANGES section).

       -d     demultiplexes composite mpeg file.

       -T     manipulates ID3v1 tags from mp3 files (see tagmp3(1)).

       -h     prints a (not so) short help message.

       -v     prints version and exit.

       -#     where # is a number, splits the given files in # parts.

       --force
              enables joining of incompatible files (some players are very robust)

       --no-parachute
              prevents mpgtx to try to catch SIGSEGV signal. This is usefull for debugging.

       In  addition,  when  invoked with the names mpgjoin, mpgcat, mpgsplit, mpgdemux, tagmp3 or mpginfo, mpgtx
       will modify its behaviour in the following ways:
       mpginfo behaves as mpgtx -i
       mpgsplit behaves as mpgtx -s
       mpgjoin behaves as mpgtx -j
       mpgcat behaves as mpgtx -j -o -
       mpgdemux behaves as mpgtx -d
       tagmp3 behaves as mpgtx -T

OPTIONS

       -f     force overwriting of files, never ask.

       -Ax    Change aspect ratio of mpeg. Valid are 1,2,3,4 for 1:1, 4:3, 16:9, 2.2:1

       -P     Keep junk or unusual headers in splits

       -X     Desperate mode, search the whole movie for a valid PACK. In addition  with  Option  -N  no  search
              infos will be displayed, only end summary.

       -N     Suppress  progress output to the console. Speeds up operation a little on most Systems and much on
              Macintosh OS9.
              Suppress time line check in mpginfo mode.

       -b NAME
              each output file will have the basename NAME

       -o FILE
              FILE will be used as the output file (used with the join command). if FILE is -,  standard  output
              will be used.

RANGES

       Each  range  must follow a filename or another range.  A range in an MPEG file can be specified using one
       of this three notations: Note for OSX Users: Ranges must be enclosed in single or double Quotes!

       [a-b]  from value a inclusive to value b inclusive. If you want half opened ranges, you may want  to  use
              ]a-b], [a-b[ or ]a-b[.

       [n/ntot]
              the n th part out of ntot.  [1/4] would result in the first quarter of the specified file.

       {a-b-...}
              with  a  ,  b , ...  in ascending order. Split specified file at given boundaries. {55M} therefore
              means from beginnig of file to 55Megs and from 55Megs to the end of file.

VALID VALUES

       Values of ranges can be specified in seconds or as a byte offset.

       Time Format
              HH:MM:SS.SS where the HH: part can be omited

       Offset Format
              a number optionally followed by M for Megabytes k for kilobytes

       Omitted Values
              An empty value is valid and is equivalent to the corresponding file boundary:
              [-10M] are the first 10 Megabytes of the file.
              [1:10:04-] from 1 hour 10 minutes 4 seconds to the end of file.

RETURN VALUE

       All programs return 0 upon successful completion and 1 on failure.

EXAMPLES

       mpgjoin movie1.mpg [-0:32] [45M-75M] movie2.mpg -o joined.mpg
              joined.mpg will contain the first 32 seconds of movie1.mpg  followed  by  30  Megs  of  movie1.mpg
              starting at 45 Megs followed by the whole file movie2.mpg

       mpgtx -124 myfile.mpg -b output
              will split myfile.mpg in 124 parts with names output-001.mpg to output-124.mpg

       mpgtx -i Wazzup.mp3
              will  print  infos about given file such as duration, bitrate, but also album, track, song name if
              this file has an ID3 tag.

       mpgcat myfile.mpg [2/2] | lpr
              will redirect the second half of myfile.mpg to your printer, emptying it from toner and paper  and
              make you be fired by your boss... Use carefully.

BUGS

       Plenty of them :)
       GOP  (Group  of  Picture)  based:  well  this  is  not  a  bug but it's a limitation. As explained in the
       DESCRIPTION section, this limits the accuracy of mpgtx on joins and splits to approximately 15 frames, or
       0.5 seconds.
       Some artifacts can be seen with bad MPEG players playing joined files.  These  players  don't  take  into
       account  the  broken  link flag used to discard the first B frames they encounter. This is a bug in their
       MPEG decoding engine, not mpgtx.

AUTHOR

       Laurent Alacoque <laureck@users.sourceforge.net> CopyLeft 2001.
       Modified by Chris Danis <danish@debian.org>, copyleft 2001.
       Philipp Biermann <philipp@biermann.org>, copyleft 2002.
       Erik Schanze <schanzi_@gmx.de>, copyleft 2004.
       Get new releases and information from, and send patches, bugs, girls, money etc. to:
       http://mpgtx.sourceforge.net/

THANKS

       for your attention. Have a good day.
       Godmar Back and Brent Phillips helped me to tune the command line interface.
       Volker Moell patiently teach me how to build rpms. Danke Volker.
       Jean Fransisco Sytem (alias Nicolas Schieli) helped me correct some nasty bugs.
       Thank you guys.

Linux                                             DECEMBER 2004                                         mpgtx(1)