Editing problems with PowerVCR

[Jerzybo]

My system: AMD Thunderbird 900Mhz, ASUS Mainboard KT133 chipset, 256MB RAM, ATI TV Wonder VE PCI Video Capture Card, ATI RAGE Pro 16MB PCI Video Card.

Before I start, I just want to say that I realize there are many different ways to capture and edit video. I have an ATI TV Wonder card, and I have captured using MMC and Virtualdub. I've edited and encoded with TMPGEnc. Based on a post in the capturing section, My TV Capture to SVCD Setup and Recommendations , I started using PowerVCR.

For my purposes this capture software is perfect, but I'm having problems with the editing feature.

I'm hoping there are some other PowerVCR users out there who may have run into this problem and found a way to solve it.

Here's what happens:

I open the file cutter/merger in PowerVCR. I open the uncut MPEG2 I just recorded. I place my start tab, then I place the E tab at a point in the movie just before the commercials start. I'll preview it by hitting the play button, and it previews fine, just how I want it. Then I'll hit the trim button, name the file, and when I check the file in the File Player I notice 2-3 seconds of video is missing from the beginning, and 2-3 seconds of unwanted video is left on the end of the file. I'll go back into the file trimmer and set the E tab about 3 seconds farther in, so it appears that I'm going to lose some of the show I'm trying to record, and it turns out fine.

I've noticed the first trim I do usually turns out fine, but then as I add more segments to merge, the extra video problem gets progressively worse. By the time I get to the "third act" of any show I've recorded there's up to 6 seconds missing from the beginning and another 6 seconds of unwanted video at the end of the trimmed piece.

I searched the forum here and at other sites, and no one seems to be talking about this. This makes it seem to me either no one else has experienced this problem or the solution is so simple and obvious it doesn't bear discussion. I'm hoping it's the latter.

I also wrote to Cyberlink support hoping to fix this. Here was the reply:

>>* Kindly free download the patch file from out web site. http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/download/download.jsp Thanks!!

I downloaded and installed the patch but nothing changed. I'm still having the same problem.

Has anyone else run into this? I'd sure appreciate some insight!

Thanks in advance!

-Jerzy Drozd

[tomreedtoon]

I've had the same problem. The edits are inaccurate. They get worse the further you get into a file.

I've been trying to look for a video editing program that would do the job better. If I was working with huge AVI files, TMPgenc would be the choice. But I'm using the same stuff you are - in fact, I recommend that article by modeler_us for anyone with a TV Wonder card.

I almost got a program from a gent on the web site http://www.jummpa.com, which claims to edit MPEG2 files. But he wouldn't answer my question straight. He said "It works the same as TMPgenc." That tells me it converts the MPEG2 file to AVI for editing, then re-converts it into MPEG2 afterwards. That double-encoding is bound to result in crappy video. He didn't say this, but he didn't NOT say this, and that makes me uncertain enough not to buy.

If anyone has any suggestions for this, please let both of us know!

[Jerzybo]

I noticed you use Windows 98. That rules out an OS problem. I've been searching every site I can find, but no one seems to be dealing with this.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software, but no luck there, either.

I'll keep looking, and post here as soon as I find out anything!

-Jerzybo