Is there anything that will top and tail H264 TS files?

[Emanef]

I've just got a Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 which captures the HD output from Sky HD. It captures to m2ts and ts. I intend converting these to smaller MKV files, but need to top and tail them to take off the ads at the start and end of movies without re-encoding.

Is there anything that will do this, and without re-encoding? I understand that working with AVC's are not ideal, but there must be something that does basic trimming.

Many thanks

[Baldrick]

read https://forum.videohelp.com/topic360852.html

[syncro]

What about video redo tv suite? It can handle .ts files and does a very good job. (quick and accurate)

[poisondeathray]

What about video redo tv suite? It can handle .ts files and does a very good job. (quick and accurate)

VideoRedo doesn't support h.264 (yet), only MPEG2

[Ventolin]

I've just got a Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 which captures the HD output from Sky HD. It captures to m2ts and ts. I intend converting these to smaller MKV files, but need to top and tail them to take off the ads at the start and end of movies without re-encoding.

Is there anything that will do this, and without re-encoding? I understand that working with AVC's are not ideal, but there must be something that does basic trimming.

Many thanks

Hi,

You can use TSPE (forum topic: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic362216.html) (shareware) to edit your .m2ts file natively (without re-encoding), scan for errors, strip streams, demux, analyse and a whole host of other features too. TSPE will edit to P frame accuracy at an end point which is usually within 2 frames of target. All other non-destructive editors are I frame only editors as far as I know which can be upto 4 seconds off with the HD PVR 1212.

If you are making an MKV, it's probably possible to do the edit frame accurately at encode stage rather than preparation stage.

It is possible to capture SkyHD directly using a PC sat card however with appropriate sky card and some other bits and pieces, but I don't know exactly how to do that. You can edit the output to much better accuracy with TSPE this way and have higher (original) quality too.

Hope that helps,

Regards,

Vent

[syncro]

Sorry. I apologize for misleading. I guess I have to do some reading on this format. Thanks for correcting me!

[Emanef]

Cheers guys. I tried Video Redo as well but it didn't work.

Ventolin, are you linked to whoever wrote TSPE?! Not a gripe, just wondered! I've seen it mentioned on another board so I'll give it a go. I'm not keen on paying 30 squids on a program that'll top and tail though to be honest, but I'll see how I get on with it.

[Emanef]

Just trying TSPE. Which versions of Haali Splitter and FFDShow should I be using, and where can I get those versions?

[Ventolin]

Just trying TSPE. Which versions of Haali Splitter and FFDShow should I be using, and where can I get those versions?

Hi,

You can get the latest Haali from:
http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/

and the latest FFDShow from:
http://www.ffdshow.info/

I've spent a great deal of time (3 years now) and money developing TSPE; it does considerably more than top and tail! There is a freeware version (0.301) also which does just that though, but the fully functional shareware version has a 45 day trial period. Hope you find it useful!

Regards,

Vent

[Emanef]

Cheers Vent. I wasn't being funny, I just wondered! Good on you, and good to be around to help people as well! Hope you do well with it!

Now then, I've installed Haali and ffdshow and it's working now. Followed the guide on your site for trimming and it's worked a treat, and very quickly. It just look a very useful program, but for now I just need to top and tail recordings, but it's the only thing I've found that comfortably handles these HD streams. I'll have a look into this version in more depth when I get the chance.

Do you have a link for the older freeware version, just for the trimming?

Many thanks

[DigitalDelboy]

Ventolin, I capture direct from Sky with a FireDTV box, will P-frames work with those HD files ? As with the H264_TSCutter software I get a "IDR message", I can change it to I or B frames and it seems to work fine, but if your editor is an even closer frame match with P-frames then I will give it a go.

[Emanef]

If you can upload a small example file I can see if it'll open ok

[Ventolin]

Ventolin, I capture direct from Sky with a FireDTV box, will P-frames work with those HD files ? As with the H264_TSCutter software I get a "IDR message", I can change it to I or B frames and it seems to work fine, but if your editor is an even closer frame match with P-frames then I will give it a go.

Hi,

There are 3 main types of frame in a Video Stream:

I or IDR frames (H.264 can have both I and IDR frames)
P Frames
B Frames

I or IDR frames are complete frames that can be used for edit points.
P frames are Predicted Frames which use information from previous frames to create the frame.
B frames are Bi-Directional Frames which use information from both previous and future frames.

Frames are typically stored as GOPs (Group Of Pictures) which are the frames between each I frame. A Typical GOP sequence would be:

IBBPBBPBBPBBI

Here, you can see that I frames are repeated every 12 frames and P frames occur every 3 frames.

For start points, an I frame or IDR frame is required, but for the end point a P frame can be used.

TSPE is the only non-destructive editor I know of that can edit to P frame accuracy for H.264 files. All the other editors work at I frame accuacy (and are called GOP level editors).

I have plenty of material from SkyHD which I use for testing and development, so I'm sure you'll find TSPE will work fine with your captures!

Regards,

Vent

[Emanef]

When capturing with a Hauppauge HD PVR where I intend to use TSPE to trim and then convert to a smaller x264 is it best to use TS or M2TS? I've just tried Repoman to a TS and the sync is out slightly. Would the M2TS be more acurate?

Edit:
Hmmm, actually, it's the broadcast that's out of sync! Can't get TSPE to make any difference when I change the sync value

[Emanef]

There is a freeware version (0.301) also which does just that though, but the fully functional shareware version has a 45 day trial period. Hope you find it useful!

Regards,

Vent

Does anyone know where the freeware version of TSPE is available from? I only need it to top and tail so don't need the full version.

Thanks

Edit: Duh, it's linked on the TSPE page now.... wasn't a while back!