Editing out commercials

[Roddy]

Anyone know of a good program to take out the commercials? Since BTV marks them, is there a way to take that info and delete those areas already marked?

[Chunk_Drywall]

I'm trying out Womble's Mpeg-VCR and www.drdsystems.com's Videoredo. So far, I find the Womble product easier to use.

[ticklemeozmo]

Really man.. someone needs to write a FAQ on the obscure function called "Search".

http://discuss2.snapstream.com/vb/sh...threadid=12421

And, if by chance you don't need WMV or do not use it, then a redefinition of your question seems to be in order.

[dvd_maniac]

Why can't I use showsqueeze after I cut out commercials with womble Mpeg-Vcr on my mpeg's? I record to mpeg-2 cut out commercials, showsqueeze stops about 10% into squeezing file, but says it's still running in web admin..,.

[ticklemeozmo]

Well, we are correct in assuming you aren't showsqueezing WHILE editing the file right?

[jmcclain]

I would also highly recommend Virtualdub MPEG2. This is an EXCELLENT video editing FREEWARE program, and it also can compress to DivX and many other formats with all sorts of filters and compressions so you won't need to run show squeeze. It has side by side output views of the video (original and filter/compressed). It has excellent scene transistion and key frame detection to quickly scan to the commercial events and then cut them out.

Regards,

-Jeff

[Roddy]

Thx dude, that is awesome.

I'd still like an automatic way, but this prog looks like one of the best manual ones.

[dvd_maniac]

I have been using Womble mpeg-vcr for a while now and have no problem with video captured from MMC using AIW. However, sometimes with the BTV captured mpegs using PVR-250, The whole file doesn't show up. When I am expecting a file around 1GB and the problem happens, it ends up less, sometimes a lot sometimes a little. When I watch the progress bar in womble, it jumps from like 34%-75% or 56%-100% instantly. It could happen anywhere in the file. It only happens occaisionally but when it happens to a file. It always happens to that file. All my shows are recorded in program stream for editing as well and MOST files are fine.
Anybody else getting this?

[Rich A]

Originally posted by dvd_maniac
I have been using Womble mpeg-vcr for a while now and have no problem with video captured from MMC using AIW. However, sometimes with the BTV captured mpegs using PVR-250, The whole file doesn't show up. When I am expecting a file around 1GB and the problem happens, it ends up less, sometimes a lot sometimes a little. When I watch the progress bar in womble, it jumps from like 34%-75% or 56%-100% instantly. It could happen anywhere in the file. It only happens occaisionally but when it happens to a file. It always happens to that file. All my shows are recorded in program stream for editing as well and MOST files are fine.
Anybody else getting this?

I've been using Womble for a few years now and although I've never had that kind of problem, it sounds familar .. like I read about it somewhere else. Which version of Womble are you using? MPEG2VCR version # or the newer Mpeg Wizard thing?

If using Mpeg2Vcr click on help and then about, and in the lower right hand corner of that window you should see a date. What date is that? There "were" some issues with some older versions.

[Rich A]

Someone mentioned he couldn't "squeeze" after editing. That's logical. The pointers for the start stop times are made after the show is recorded. Once they are set, and you edit the show, those points are no longer valid. (Kind of obvious, but still easy to over-look) <grin>

By the way. I've seen a lot of commercial skip things come around, (ReplayTV for one) and in my experience they are fine for causual viewing but FAR too inacurate or unreliable to use for "real post capture editing". I'm curious about those of you who are using the various 3rd party editors that use the show squeeze data to automatically cut (edit) the show. Don't you find it is often off several frames and sometimes even puts a commercial where there isn't one? Or skips one or two?

I've tried using the recorded mark points myself and usually ended up having to do a manual edit anyway. Of course I'm looking for "perfect" edits so I can burn the movie to a DVD and enjoy it. I'd be pretty upset to be watching a nice movie and see even a few frames of commercial flash by or where some wanted part of the video is cut.

So the question is, "how good is the Show Squeeze"? I tried it and found it not near accurate enough for real world editing. Casual viewing yes .. but not for a finished DVD project.

[dvd_maniac]

version 3.14

[jlonga]

I was able to edit commercials out easily using mpeg2vcr, and I'm able to view the edited mpg in BTV fine. But when I try to view it using WMP or even within mpeg2vcr, it's choppy and the audio is off synch. Is there something wrong with the new file?

[Rich A]

Originally posted by jlonga
I was able to edit commercials out easily using mpeg2vcr, and I'm able to view the edited mpg in BTV fine. But when I try to view it using WMP or even within mpeg2vcr, it's choppy and the audio is off synch. Is there something wrong with the new file?

There's a good chance nothing is wrong with the mpeg. Mpeg2VCR uses it's own mpeg encoding/decoding engine. I've seen where system environments were heavily taxed by having several things running at the same time, and if one of those were the Womble Editor, it's playback can become not smooth.

Also same goes for WMP. Just burn it normally and you see whether or not it is a problem. Like I said, "sometimes" it's simply the programs being used to play it back .. and the system resources available at that time.

[pretzelb]

I like using TmpGenc. If you buy the deluxe version you get the DVD Author program too. It's a good combination of minimal functionality mixed with power.