I get an error splicing file on nautilus when trying to copy it (4.7GB) to a USB FAT32 memory stick

Question

I get an error splicing file (the message said nothing else) on Nautilus when trying to copy it (4.7GB mp4 file) to a USB FAT32 memory stick: I'm using FAT32 because my dumb tv demands it. I gather that there's a 4GB limit on a FAT32 file. What's the best method of separating it into say 2 files? PS avidemux 2.7qt won't play the file (though vlc can) or save the first half of the file: it gives muxer:cannot open popup.

Answer 1

One way to solve the problem is to use ffmpeg to create two files. Start by checking the total duration of the video, and then create one video clip for the first half and one video clip for the second half.

I tested with a small file with duration 19 seconds and split it at 10 seconds:

ffmpeg -t 10 -i 00007_720-50p.mp4 -c copy xaa.mp4
ffmpeg -ss 10 -i 00007_720-50p.mp4 -c copy xab.mp4

This can be played in Ubuntu by

vlc xaa.mp4 xab.mp4

and I hope also by your TV.

You can find explanations of the options in man ffmpeg

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An alternative is to let ffmpeg write a copy encoded with a slightly lower quality, so that the size will be small enough (slightly below 4 Gibibyte). But this process will be much slower than to let it simply copy the streams.

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If the TV can read from an exFAT file system you need not split the file.