Wow, there are so many similar threads looking for 'decent' info on this, yet nothing ever seems to be definitive enough to actually answer the question. Can anyone with experience shed any light on this for me?
(1) I have a 1080p file of a movie that's about 3+hrs long.
(2) It's in a .mkv container.
(3) The codec used was: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)
(4) The Audio is: DTS 5.1
All is perfect with the file except - it has a long 'intermission' right in the middle of the file. (The movie is 15GB - I know!) I am looking for some front-end (gui) program to edit (frame accuracy or even key-frame accuracy) the intermission out of the movie (the intermission is like 6mins long)
I have tried VideoReDo, Yamb, avidemux, Solveig, and all the usuals suspects - but none of them work properly. (i.e. they are either not frame accurate (or even close to accurate) or in the case of VideoReDo - it somehow changes the framerate from 23.976023 to 23.980815 - don't ask?
The closest I can get is using mkvMerge. With this, I can split the file into two and luckily - the keyframes used to split the file is exactly in the right place. HOWEVER - when I have two 'edited' perfect .mkv files to merge back into one (after removing the intermission' - I keep getting a error from mkvMerge and the resulting file is not right? Audio slightly out of sync and/or pixelated picture close enough to the join?
Can anyone suggest/advise of the perfect tool to do this? If it doesn't exist and a developer just happens to be reading this post, can someone work on a proper Editor for H.264?
Thanks.
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Selur,
Thanks for the reply, but in essence - I have already done the ground work without the need for command lines. mkvmerge has other usage options available in other menus to enable users to split, join, etc without needing command lines. As I stated in my original post - whether I use the other menus (or now the command line as you suggested) I still get an error when trying to join two mkv files that mkvmerge just split. (See original post for what I'm trying to achieve.)
And if I really wanted to get into the complexity of command lines, I'd be better off with avisynth - but who the hell needs that headache?
Hence why I am asking all viewers of this forum for alternative solutions/programs to use, but the replies are a little slow in coming compared to years ago when you'd get loads of replies/options fairly quickly......
Ideas anyone?
Thanks. -
I'm not quite sure you get what I ment,... if you use the newest Version from:
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/win32/pre/
you can specify (in the GUI and in the CLI) a call that will allow you to remove part without having to create an intermediate step.
Only requirement would be to read the documentation to understand how the splitting option can be used for this,..
btw. What does the error message say?
running the files through Metrorite (http://meteorite.sourceforge.net/) might also help,..
other than that, the only tool that I know of that might have the ability to merge mkv file and that is non mkvtoolnix/libmatroska based is eac3to.
Cu Selur -
I don't know if it will be any good to you (only going by the comments left on the Tools page) but his seems to edit MKV files others wont touch. Note, I said edit, it wont split or join files, so you will have to run your original file through it and delete the section you want rid of.
Let me know if it works. If it does I'll add it to my toolbox. Doubt it's frame accurate though.
Free Video Dub -
The closest I can get is using mkvMerge. With this, I can split the file into two and luckily - the keyframes used to split the file is exactly in the right place. HOWEVER - when I have two 'edited' perfect .mkv files to merge back into one (after removing the intermission' - I keep getting a error from mkvMerge and the resulting file is not right? Audio slightly out of sync and/or pixelated picture close enough to the join?
http://avidemux.razorbyte.com.au/ -
OK, thanks for your comments everyone. Got a few things to work on and see if any will give the right result. But also gotta get back to the Champions League semi-final tonight - so will be tomorrow before I get to work on this.
Will post once I get an outcome. -
Well,
I've finally gotten around to this and I gave everything a go - here are the results....
Selur, I have the latest version, I've read the manual from cover to cover. It doesn't really matter whether you remove the intermediary step or not - it may save a fraction of time, but the amount of time you put into the intermediary commands means you're no better off in the end. I tried it your way just for the hell of it and I still get the same results. Pixelated at the join and the audio is totall out of sync afterwards.
transporterfan, Thanks, but I had already tried running the original file before I even posted any message on the forum. It's never my intention to waste other folks time by asking a question when I haven't even tried anything first myself. Surprisingly, it is frame accurate - but I still had the same pixelation and sync issues near the join - hence why I tried to split the files and manually join them afterwards. When that didn't work - I posted here.
It's clearly a personal thing here - but I can't stand avidemux and I've never had any 'joy' with it no matter what source file I'm using or what I'm trying to achieve. Thanks for the suggestion, but a definite 'no thanks' there.
If anyone else has any suggestions - I'd love to hear them. I still have two perfectly good .mp4 files (same frame rate, frame height, frame width, data rate etc.) that play perfectly on their own - but as soon as I join them together, I get sync issues and heavy pixelation? There has to be a program out there that can simply join these files together without giving the user major grief? I feel like I'm back in the 1970's here searching for a program that doesn't exist.
Thanks. -
I'm not much help to you.
But I just wanted to say that I too am running into the same problem.
As a side project, I just started to try to accurately edit mkv files using these same programs and I'm blown away as to how difficult this is to do, and anything I find and try is a huge disappointment, and very frustrating.
My goal is to extract multiple bits & pieces from 3 to 4 movies and recreate one piece of footage that recombines all those bits & pieces together in sequence. Even occasionally add the odd transition or swipe where needed.
My movies are also h264 1080p movies.
Can anyone help with this? -
There are only 2 products on the market that are frame accurate and do smart editing (not re-encoding, except within the GOP of the cutsite) - solveigmm video splitter and videoredo . You can't do transitions with them. You would have to encode a video with another program then use them to join the transition
If you don't mind re-encoding then you can use just about any video editor and you can do transitions as well, but you might have to remux or do some workaround (most don't support mkv container natively) -
The.King
You may not like avidemux, but, who knows? It may solve your problem.
I have been using it for ages and got used to its quirks but it worked.
I have had a similar situation which was fixed by avidemux.
Suggestions [ version 2.6 ]
Load your MKV file
Make the [A] cut at the [last (I) frame or the one before it] before the intermission begins
Make the [B] cut at the [first(I) frame or the one after it] after the intermission ends
Video=copy, Audio=copy and Format=mkv
Save your output as newfile.mkv
If this does not work:
Make your cuts as above
Video=copy, Audio=copy and Format=mp4
Save your output as newfile.mp4
Sometimes avidemux does not work properly with mkv files hence the change into mp4.
You may have some poorly coded or corrupted frames before and after the intermission and these frames may play normally but interfere with joining. -
Thanks for the advice poisondeathray.
I`ll give these a shot and see how it turns out. But... If I was to do some transitions between scenes, how do you suggest proceeding. -
Do it with another program, like a video editor e.g. vegas, premiere , or even avisynth if the transition was simple crossfade or dissolve
You cut both ends, do the transition, export the "transition" video so it will join the other main videos
If this is too much of a hassle just do it in an editor re-encode the whole thing -
Hey poisondeathray.
It's no hassle.
I do have Adobe Premiere Pro here. I have tried it a few weeks ago with Handbrake on my Mac but, when I did, I noticed that the audio went from 5.1 in the MKV file to Stereo (or so Premiere said) and the quality of the image was not as good. And because of that, I decided not to use it if the movie was being degraded. Could that have been a fluke or some wrong settings?
Should I try it again with this project & see what happens? What format should I convert the MKV files to and what software do recommend in this case? What are the best settings to make sure I get it right?Last edited by cbeausoleil; 1st Oct 2012 at 11:58.
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Hey poisondeathray.
Thanks so much for the advice. Here's what I have done so far. I tried this process, gathering about 3 short 5-minute films to see how it would turn out. And it seems pretty satisfactory, however, if there is a better process than this, I gladly welcome it:
1. VLC
- Play Original MKV movie in VLC and take notes in Media Information box. (recommend taking a snapshot & keep as reference)
2. MKVToolNix
- Import Original MKV movie into MKVToolNix an uncheck all unnecessary Audio Tracks and Subtitle Tracks, leaving only the video and English audio tracks. Create new, simpler MKV file.
3. VLC
- Test new MKV file in VLC to test video and audio quality and make sure there are no time delays with audio syncing. And that the Media Information is as close to the original.
4. iSkySoft Media Converter Deluxe
- Import the newly recreated MKV file into iSkySoft Media Converter Deluxe, try to match all the settings according to the settings info found in VLC. Export as a MOV file.
- NOTE: Surround sound gets converted into Stereo… Not sure how to fix (although the number 6 appears in the description below, which seems to describe the channels).
5. Adobe Premiere Pro
- Import MOV file into Premiere Pro & edit. Once completed, export project as:
Format: H.264 (HD 720p 23.976) – [.mp4 format]
Video: 1,280x720
Frame Rate 23.976
Field Order: Progressive
Aspect: Square Pixels (1.0)
TV Standard: NTSC
Profile: Main
Level: 3.2
Render at Maximum Depth: Yes
(the rest remains the same)
Audio: AAC
Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
Channels: 5.1
Audio Quality: High
Bitrate: 192 kbps
Advance Settings: Precedence: Bitrate
6. MKVtools
- Import final edited .mp4 file & export as FINAL FINAL MKV file.
Make sure to select both the video & audio tracks.
PROBLEM: When I tried to convert the longer movies of over an hour in step 4 with iSkySoft Media Converter Deluxe, the movies process all the way until the last second and Media Converter never completes the process. I tried this with 3 different movies and I let them process all night, hoping it would finally finish. What could cause this?
Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. -
Probably because iskysoft is the culprit. It might be junk software
You're probably going through too many lossy conversions, and losing quality each time as well . Ideally you want to use lossless workflow, or just re-wrap things so you keep original quality. Depending on the original encoding settings you might just be able to rewrap with ffmpeg or something like clipwrap . Unfortunately there arent as many options on a mac to do these types of things as a pc
To keep 5.1 you should convert to uncompressed wav or aiff will work ok since you're on a mac -
Hey plisondeathray.
Yes, you're right about the lack of options on a Mac VS a PC. Luckily, I have both here, even though I have way more experience on Macs. This way I can bounce back and forth between them and make things easier (or better) if needed.
I'll try that out & see how it turns out.
Thanks again for your advice, and the quick reply. Very much appreciated. -
What kind of editing are you doing? When you use premiere (PC or mac) it will re-encode AVC streams (unavoidable) - that's where you lose quality , with lossy re-encoding . It sounded like you were doing that with iskysoft as well (so you're losing quality at multiple stages). The type of editing discussed in the OP were simple joins and appending segments - that type of "editing" is lossless
Of course, if you're doing anything else, e.g. transitions, titles, overlays, effects, color corrections those sorts of things will require rendering and re-encoding
So if you're using PP , and you can't re-wrap it with one of those tools - I would convert to something lossless for import e.g. uncompressed, animation codec, or at least "visually lossless" like DNxHD . These require lots of HDD space (high bitrate) . ffmpeg can do these types of conversion (it's crossplatform), if you need a GUI, try something like iffmpeg . -
Hey poisondeathray.
My 7-year-old son is a HUGE Scrat (character) fanatic.
So a few years ago, I took the DVDs of the 3 Ice Age movies, as well as the 4 5-minute shorts, and made a 45-minute long video of all the Scrat scenes back to back. Unfortunately, I lost the edited DVD. So, this time, I thought of redoing the same thing with HD movies using MKV files instead and attempt to make a better version with good transitions. It's more of a project just to learn the techniques. At first, I thought this sounds pretty simple to do, only to discover that there's not much out there that's user friendly. I was shocked and disappointed, but not discouraged. So now... Here we are.
I used ffmpeg years ago for DVDs but never though to try it with these files. As a matter of fact, I forgot about it. I'll start over and give it a shot.
My apologies if I'm a noobee at this. This level of editing is not my profession. Just a hobby.
Personally, I would love to compile a movie of all the best car scenes together too... Like in Death Proof. But maybe in the near future, once I nail down a good process.
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