Any tips for cutting/joining MPEG2 files

[Jon Weaver]

With AVIs, it seems that you can make a seemless cut and join, such that no-one would ever know that it had been joined.

I had a requirement to do something similar AFTER I had used TMPGenc to convert the files to MPEG2.

Using the Merge/Cut (I think thats what it is) I cut a bit of the front of one of the files and joined it to the other.

The result was exactly what I wanted.. BUT, where the join is, you get no sound for a fraction of second and a few frames of 'blocks'.

Is there any way to 'seemlessly' joint MPEG2 files?

[Darkbird]

Yes, but you need an editor that can do "Frame Accurate" cuts and splicing. At the transition point, the next few frames have to be re-encoded as new I/B/P frames as appropriate. Frame accurate cutting is a feature not often found in a consumer level product, it's usually a distiguishing feature of professional tools.

With the prices so high for full featured tools, it's no wonder that they are so often w a r e z'd.

M2-Edit can do it.

Vitec also makes a pro level Video Clip tool for this. It has some annoying bugs/limitations, but is able to handle ac3 audio.