MPEG Cutter/Joiner (commercials)

[JeromeERome]

I am looking for a reliable tool that will allow me to take my captured mpeg files and cut the commercials out. Then join the pieces together in one smaller file. I have tried Easy Video Splitter but I get an error about the header or something being invalid when I try to open a file for editing in it. http://www.doeasier.org/splitter/ I have also used the products available on http://www.boilsoft.com which i like a lot but not enough to pay $20 for the splitter and another $20 for the joiner. TMPGENC is capable but is extremely slow. However it is free. Is there any other software out there that does this that I have not mentioned?

[RobertH]

TMPGEnc is not free, the mpeg2 plugins they use to play with the files expire after 14 days. Nothing dealing with mpeg2 (that does it leagally) will ever be free, there are licensing issues with mpeg2 that prevent this. Cut / join programs arent the best if they dont do it properly audio and video will go out of sync, I use tmpgenc pro to but do not use the cut/join feature in the options. It is better to use the wizard and the scene cutting filter (its called source range in the project settings) and re-render the entire file to insure that the output stays in sync. The only reason tmpgenc is slow is because it makes sure it does it right by re-rendering the entire file and making sure that it stays insync.

this thread is a good discussion, example, and has some other stuff if you want to go the next step and burn as dvd-video:
http://discuss2.snapstream.com/vb/sh...ighlight=vfapi

[Terminal]

You should try the MPEG editor Hauppauge has on their site. Since you have a PVR250 you can use it and it is quite fast. You can only use it on the system with the PVR250 installed, and its not the easiest app to use, but it works and its free.

[mdorion]

Originally posted by RobertH
It is better to use the wizard and the scene cutting filter (its called source range in the project settings) and re-render the entire file

Hello!

The way I understand it, Source Range allows you to select a single range and not a nymber of ranges.

So do you mean you use the wizard and create a distinct encoding job for each segment you want to keep and then join them later?

That really is a lot of work. Hope there is a better solution with Tmpgenc.

Mario

[RobertH]

you just pick the area for commercial one with the start and end frame buttons then hit the cut editing button and select cut currently selected area (this removes the commercial with out splitting the file), then move on to the next commercial and repeat works really well.

it takes my first system (see sig) about 15 min to run thru a 30min 6.4 Mb recording (roughtly 1.4 gig) and without commercials it is roughly 900meg then i can fit 4 30 min episodes comfortably on a dvd-r and still have room for a menu

I normally get the 4 of the episodes i want to burn recorded and then setup a batch job to do them over night then it takes about 20-30 min to author them with tmpgenc dvd author and another 40 to burn them as dvd-video (only have a 1x burner )

[mdorion]

Originally posted by RobertH
you just pick the area for commercial one with the start and end frame buttons then hit the cut editing button and select cut currently selected area

Oh! I see!

I was trying to do it the other way around: select a bunch of segments to keep instead of segments to delete.

Thanks.

[mdorion]

How about the NanoPeg editor (a version of which comes with PVR-250)?

Does it work at all?

It claims to edit sections out of a mpeg 2 file without re-encoding.

Mario

[RobertH]

Dunno never installed anything off the pvr cd

I only use tmpgenc pro, all the other mpeg editors ive tried cause sync errors or dont like the video that the pvr/ss creates

Ive never had an issue other than the problem with tmpg not supporting powerdvd5's decoder, and the mpeg decoder from the trial expiring without me knowing it, but once I found the VFApi plugin for mpeg2 everything works now

[emg178]

If you use mpeg1 or reencode to divx, virtualdub will do the editing w/o reencoding. I've used it reliably and quickly many times. All of the other editers I've tried pale in comparison. However, it won't do mpeg2 files or wmv file w/o setting up a video stream, which is more complicated and requires reencoding.

[Terminal]

Originally posted by mdorion
How about the NanoPeg editor (a version of which comes with PVR-250)?

Does it work at all?

It claims to edit sections out of a mpeg 2 file without re-encoding.

Mario

Yes it does work. As I said earlier in the thread it's not the easiest thing to use, but it's not to bad. I use it quite often. Mainly for movies just cutting the pad off the beginning and end.

[JeromeERome]

I have been able to successfully cut sections using the nanopeg program and merge them to one file. However when I demux the file into a seperate audio and video file for dvd authoring i run into problems. The file appears to demux fine, however, when i load the files into DVDMaestro I get an error about a third of the way into the video file loading. It states something along the lines of illegal GOP at sector xxxx. The audio loads fine. Has anyone else had problems like this. Maybe TMPGENC is screwing the file up when demuxing it.

[RobertH]

why do you have to demux the file to author it? can dvdmaestro not process the video with the audio intact? if not you might want to check into dvd author from the people that make tmpgenc.

When using mpegs for mastering you should also not use PCM for the audio format, it takes up almost 2 times as much disk space on a dvd-r than audio in mpeg2-audio format takes

[SHS]

First all if looking for best MPEG2 Editor you should be looking at Womble MPEG2VCR is the best and Frame-accurate and fastest there is and it can deal with mega big files where all other die.
TMPGenc is not and editor it is encoding.
Keep in mind JeromeERome that some DVD Authoring Software are outdate it just so happing that DVDMaestro is no longer being made after all Spruce Technologies was acquired by Apple Computer in July 2001.

[cgwaters]

Originally posted by mdorion
How about the NanoPeg editor (a version of which comes with PVR-250)?

Does it work at all?

It claims to edit sections out of a mpeg 2 file without re-encoding.

I tried it a few times--just enough to hate it. For a commercial application, I find it to be one of the most non-user-friendly applications I've ever encountered.

[emg178]

I tried nanopeg, and it didn't work for me. If I recall, it opened up, but couldn't open the dvdready mpeg2 file that I tried to open. I do have a pvr 250 card, but I didn't install any of the software that came w/ it. I just installed the driver and remote software.
The interface is a little like virtualdub. A semmingly awkward interface like vdub is eventually very lovable. Once you know the shortcut keys, you will be wishing most commercial software actually put these shortcuts in.