Superb MPEG1/2 Editor

[davidb0000]

What is a good MPEG1/2 editor? All of those listed on the site here suck(in other words: are not perfect). I need one that can do MPEG 1 **AND** MPEG2.

Commercial version are acceptable too, I have a large budget for this.

[banjazzer]

Well, if you find one, let me know. The best one I have used (and it is no way perfect) is TMPG. I have also used Womble, M2-Edit and Power VCR, but found them all wanting, despite their higher price.

What I would like is something that cuts mpeg-2 with the ease that Nandub cuts DivX. 8)

[Macros746]

I am partial to flix myself...but mostly I try to avoid cutting (unless it's cutting in half) of movies while they are in MPEG form. In fact I hate working with MPEGs so much that I refuse to cap straight to MPEG or MPEG2 because it is SO much easier to cut commercials and the like in VirtualDub with and .avi

Macros

[adam]

If all you want to do is cut mpeg2 files than simply use bbmpeg. It doesnt get much more perfect than that as far as I'm concerned.

Editing mpeg2 is messy and I don't think there is any program which really does it perfectly. The best one I have ever used was M2-Edit. I try to avoid editing mpeg2 as much as possible besides cutting, which is no problem.

[BJ_M]

there are many hardware editors for mpeg2 from avid and incite and others ... but all really I frame only editors ,, anything else requires either full or partial interpolation of the P and B frames to a I frame(s) at the cut , merge or wipe.

At the lower end you can use vegas video to even edit and add effects to mpeg2 clips of any type (but it will re-encode the entire thing to your choice of format including mpeg2 if you want) ..
it works very well.

as for true non re-encoding w/ min or non interpolation -- yes mpeg2 pro is one of the few that sorta work sometimes .. i think version 3 is much better than version 4 because version 3 did not require all clips in a merge to be the same aspect ot type exactly .. but the output is not always correct (needs to fixed often) and it would often just crap out on you ... i used for multiple clip cutting and didint bother to use for merges where i think it didint work all that well .. tmpgenc works ok for cuts - but its not frame accurite.
as others said here mpeg editing is messy and unless you are will to spend about 20,000 min for a hardware/software solution (and a lot more) its all a crap shoot ... or be willing for a whole re-render. which since mpeg is lossy format is not my first choice (all I frame top of the line editors use Non-Destructive editing on very high bit rate mpeg)

now maybe there is something out there i am not aware of in the sub 1000$ to 3000$ range -- if there is AND it works -- please share also ..

on a note -- i understand final cutpro 2 on a mac supposed to do this -- but im not a mac addict so maybe someone can confirm this -- i suspect it also re-renders,.

[tedbrownasc]

You said you used PowerVCR.

I use PowerDirector to edit MPEG 2 files, and it works great. It's extremly easy to use, doesn't freeze up, and edits perfectly. It also has transition effects and the like if you want to use those.

Then, once your done, it encodes it for you, to mpeg2, mpeg1, and avi, and if your encoding to the same type of format you started with, it doesnt encode the whole movie, just edits out the parts you told it to, and encodes very fast.

It may just be me, but this program works really well at editing mpeg2.

[banjazzer]

PowerVCR ended up with some abnormal program termination each time I tried to use it. Apart from that, it looked OK. 8)

[kitty]

Try the trial versions of Ulead VideoStudio 6 or MediaStudio Pro 6.5 at www.ulead.com - do they work for you?

[banjazzer]

Thanks. I've not tried them, but I've got them somewhere knocking around. I just like the idea of a cutting program that only weighs in at a few MB. I'm old-fashioned that way. 8)

[wadebbie]

I use Adobe Premier then Avisynth to TMPGE to encode. I have edited and re-edited over 300 training videos (& clips) that way with no (noticeable) degredation. However, I started by capturing in Native DV (AVI). All of my sources were good <--- that is the key.

M2 edit pro- Perfect cuting/editing every time. VBR....CBR.....nonstandard mpeg files no problem + very simple to use.




The only negative is the price.

cheers

[banjazzer]

I found the price right. However, when I cut mpeg-2 I found I lost sync. I suppose I got what I paid for. 8)

[AceYu]

I use Adobe Premier then Avisynth to TMPGE to encode. I have edited and re-edited over 300 training videos (& clips) that way with no (noticeable) degredation. However, I started by capturing in Native DV (AVI). All of my sources were good <--- that is the key.

How did you get Premier to open mpg1/2 files the version I'm using
keep saying unsupported file type (prem 6.02). I have lsx lite installed
so I can export, but you'd think that the codex would allow opening the file as well.

Later BRETT

[wadebbie]

AceYu,

I dunno but I have version 6.0 and it will open all of my mpeg 1 videos. All of them were encoded with TMPGE. Perhaps it has to do with the "Load Project Settings" that you select when Premiere opens. I select " NTSC 720 X 480 Video for Windows" and then I proceed to load a 352 x 240 mpeg 1 video in the timeline & edit. I do it both on my laptop (W2K) and my desktop (XP). I don't have a lot special codecs loaded or anything else special that I am doing to get them to load. I do have a couple of divx codecs installed..... That's all I can think of. Hope it helps.

[banjazzer]

mpeg-1 cutting is not generally a problem. It is mpeg-2 which gives problems. Can Premiere cut mpeg-2?

[wadebbie]

I dunno. I have made very few mpeg2 cause mpeg1 is smaller and I needed smaller so I can have all of my videos on my laptop for presentations. Mine are very high quality (for mpeg1) so I lost the desire to make them mpeg2 a long time ago. I seem to remember that I had loaded a few mpeg2 vids in Premiere before but I had to make sure I had a DVD player program loaded to get the codec. I have PowerDVD on one machine and WinDVD on another. I think it is possible.

[adam]

Literally speaking, no I do not think Adobe Premiere can cut anything because everytime you do a project it simply re-renders everything so besides taking a really really long time, you may lose quality. Adobe Premiere will import mpeg2 files as long as you have an mpeg2 codec installed.

Like I said earlier, for mpeg2 cutting use bbmpeg. I honestly do not think that there is a single mpeg2 cutter that can even come close to matching its capabilities and best of all, bbmpeg is free.

[jolo]

I use the latest version of Tmpgenc to cut MPEG-2 files.

I also carry over about 2 seconds because sometimes, the last second or two gets weird.

I might give bbmpeg a try, although when I saw that I have to seperate the audio from the video I thought Uggh.

Sounds like M2-Edit is not as perfect as it is advertised. Has anyone use My-Flix XE which does MPEG-2 cutting ?

[thxkid]

for just cutting MPEG1/2 I always you TMPGE Beta 12a, never have a problem with anything I cut, for transition effects there is nothing like Ulead media Pro 6.0 with HollywoodFX Gold plug in for very professional effects, wipes, dissolves and morphs. I always use AVI because these programs do render your files, Ulead or Adobe. I have the plug-in for Ulead so in will do MPEG2 or DV, their 6.5 version is much better in doing this also.

[wadebbie]

Adam,

Although I am re-rendering I lose no quality because of frame serving to TMPGE. I am just re-encoding. I rencoded a 26 min training vid the other day after making some changes and I cannot tell that I lost any qualiT. Keep in mind that I am talking about mpeg1. If I were just needing to cut I would use TMPGE and add a blank 1-2 second buffer at the end. That has seemed to fix that "beep" that TMPGE is famous for. I have re-edited some videos 3 times this way and noticed no loss of quality. BBMPEG is probably better than TMPGE, given the imprecise nature of it's tools, but I have learned to compensate. However, for editing, it surely can be done in Premiere and if you fremeserve it doesn't have to be an extremely long process. The good news is that Adobe has or will soon release a beta with some major upgrades (ver 6.5).

[AceYu]

6.5 aparently has intergrated mpg2 support and more robust DV support
than 6.0 /6.01/6.02 Havn't seen much more about it than that

Later BRETT

[SatStorm]

Latest mpeg2vcr works much better that the previus 3.11 (which with tha patch downgrades to 3.10 just to support svcd)

It is buggy because it has a certain way to cut or merge. If you don't follow some "rules" of the program, you have lypsync etc...
New version has no problems with athlons anymore. So it is fast, like working it with durons...
A good and not that much price alternative, but as I said, very certain for the way you work with it

[davidb0000]

Nevermind.

I found a good program: Vegas Video 3.0.

It seems to be the only professional program in existence.

EOT.