MPEG2 VBR Cutting

[Ejoc]

I'm having trouble cutting MPEG-2s that I encoded using VBR. Nothing seems to let me preview it, except for MPEG2CUT, which is messing up the video and I cannont burn the mpegs as they are no longer complient.

Basicly nothing seems to let me preview these VBR MPEG-2s, CBRs work just fine. I've tried all the cutters in the Tools section, and none of the free/trial ones work.

Does anyone know of a free/trial MPEG2 cutter that will preview VBR MPEG-2s? And I'll slap you with a dead fish if you say MPEG2VCR or TMPGEnc as those were my first choices.

[jolo]

If the SVCD is VBR, the best choice I know of is TMPGenc Pls MPEG Tools.
I have tried several of them.

If I am looking to make a .avi a SVCD, I will do my cutting in Virtualdub, then encode pre-cut SVCDs.

If I know that I will be wanting to edit, cut, paste my SVCD I will try to use CBR first. Then there are several choices.

But, what I try to do the most is simply use Main Concept 1.4 encoder.
Even if I and encoding MPEG to MPEG. because I can have it split the video by a given number of bytes.

Jon

[DVWannaB]

No way too long and convoluted. You are going to have to slap me with a fish because Womble is the best, fastest and file compliant standard at that price. I have tried many many many cutters and they all drove me crazy with frustration. Or you could go the long way and take 2 days instead of 5 minutes with Womble. If time and frustration is non-issue for you then there are a number of ways to achieve that.

[Ejoc]

*SLAP*

You have been slapped with a dead fish



I've tried they're demo, it wont open the file.

[DVWannaB]

I forgot to mention in previous post. TMPGEnc is very squirelly when comes to cutting and is not always accurate. It sometimes hangs, sometimes crashes and sometimes give this silly message about packet or buffer underflow. TMPG is great, but cutting is not its strong point. Joining is much better.

[FOO]

I think you have a screwed up file. You haven't been encoding
with IVTC have you ?
What encoder ?


How about windows media player ?
How about Vdubmpeg
for viewing that is.

Drop it on MF2 and see what video info says about it
See what Vobedit says

[Ejoc]

I use TMPGEnc Plus. WMP will play the clips, but I cannot seek the video. Basicly thats a more accurate description of my problems, most previewers wont seek the clip, so I cannot get to the points I want to cut out and mark them.

I havent encoded with IVTC.

The only previewers that have let me seek are: PowerDVD(but the time index will be off) DVD2AVI(but output isnt MPEG), and MPEG2CUT everything complains about the video it produces, I think its saves it out a a vob reguardless of the extension.

[Ejoc]

I tried out that VirtualDub Mpeg mod, and it lets me open and preview the mpeg, along with letting me mark what I want to cut/keep BUT it wants to save it out as an avi, and not leave it as an mpeg, I think I might try using it to establish where I want to cut it, and feed those times to the super slow TMPGEnc merg&cut. Its progress, just not an all-in-one solution.

[DVWannaB]

*SLAP*

You have been slapped with a dead fish



I've tried they're demo, it wont open the file.

Are you sure you downloaded the MPEG-2 version?

[Ejoc]

Probably not, but it was the only one I could find.

[FOO]

Before I found Womble. The Vdub / TMPGenc was THE method.
I run Vdub and TMPG at the same time...
pick wth Vdub and type the time into TMP merge&cut.
works good. gets within 1 GOP

If you are ambitious you could try VS7. If you are very careful
about insuring that the encode settings match your source, it
will allow edits and spit out the result without encoding the whole thing.
The advantage there is that it is frame accurate (rather than GOP accurate)

I have tried it and it works if there are no pulldown flags.

[jolo]

So, it still appears that there is not a "great" way to cut SVCD, VBR.
On the TMPGenc Plus MPEG tools, I always see where I am cutting so I do not understand that comment, but that is the best and maybe only way that I know to cut VBR SVCDs. Not great, inconsistent, sometimes perfect, sometimes freezes, but it usually works. When I cut, I always overlap a few frames. I could handle a second or two being repeated, but I dearly don't want missing frames.

As a general rule, if you are encoding, and I am trying to split by media, I will use the file size per split parameter in Main Concept 1.4. Works very well. Also for DVD2SVCD, cutting it via media size works very well.

Bottom line is trying NOT to have to do any cutting while in VBR SVCD format. Do it ahead of time if at all possible.

Jon

[Ejoc]

MPEG2VCR was what I needed, got that, it works perfectly.

I normally encode only what I want, it just happens that Gundam Wing intros vary in length, and I had forgotten to update the source positions, so I had like 20 seconds of intro and like 5 seconds of the end credits on 5 episodes. It was a liveable mistake, but I wanted to trim off those few extra seconds so they would be like all the other Gundam Wing CVDs.

The VDubMpeg + TMPGEnc worked fine, but meant running 2 programs.

Not getting the MPEG2 Version of MPEG-VCR was my problem with MPEG-VCR, so I guess I need to slap myself. But in my defense they dont really say how to get the MPEG2 version, they just link the MPEG1 version.

*SLAP*

[jolo]

Ejoc,

I'm glad things worked out for you.

I never heard of MPEG2VCR, but .... if they are like most splitters/editors they don't have a MPEG-2 version because they will not be able to handle VBR, MPEG-1 has to be CBR to meet the MPEG-1 standard.

Jon

[RabidDog]

were they kwag encoded cvds ??

[Ejoc]

It is an MPEG2 editor, works on VBRs perfectly.

No it was not kwag encode CVDs, I have my own Templates.

[lordsmurf]

TMPGEnc MPEG cutting is experimental at best. It works, but has hiccups on different files, often in the MPEG2 flavor. Typically in all VBR files, and on files recorded with PowerVCRII and neoDVD4.

The MPEG2Dec was a flop. Experimental (as stated by author).

Womble MPEG VCR (the MPEG2VCR version) is what is needed for excellent MPEG2 editing. It, along with TMPGENC PLUS, appears in my Removing Commercials guide.

The VirtualDub MPEG2 mod is again, experimental at best.

[energy80s]

The way I cut VBR MPEG2 (actually DVB broadcasts) is to author the MPEG file up as a DVD onto my hard drive and load it into DVD Shrink and use the cropping feature in that to give accurate (to a GOP) cuts. It also keeps the sound in sync which is the biggest problem of MPEG2 editing.

[FOO]

I think the Shrink method works even on soft Telecined
NTSC Film which even confuses Womble.

It is very tedious since you can only cut off ends

[energy80s]

It is very tedious since you can only cut off ends

Tel me about it!! However it does work, and it is free.

[RocketJet4]

The old version 1.x of Mpeg2Cut has a lot of compatibility problems.

Try version 2 - Mpg2Cut2 - which resolves a number of issues from Version 1, and adds a number of new features.

Download the latest version of Mpg2Cut2 at
http://www.geocities.com/rocketjet4/

If you are having problems with Version 1,
then give Version 2 a try.

For cutting VOBs, I recommend the following::
- "menu - Output - Preamble - MAXIMUM"
- Also use "PVAStrumento" from Offerynto fix timecodes..