Video Editor suggestions?

[Opportunist]

So I've been using Pegasys TMPGEnc software for many years now but I'm sure there must be something better out there, or at least something else because I'm sure there must be something. So I'm wondering whether any of you have any suggestions for me?

First of all VirtualDub is out, I don't remember why but that ship sailed a long time ago and I'm not going back. (Trying to recall now it may been the size of the MPEG2 files or something odd it started doing on operating systems after XP at least on mine)

My needs are basically thus:
I need to import MPEG2 files mainly.
Then I need a quick and easy interface to cut out all the ads from my recording. I also need to be able to boost audio, or delay/speed it up and also have the ability to join multiple files.
Then I want to be able to quickly select a video and audio codec (I make use of the K-Lite Mega codec pack so I have a few options) and tune the bit-rate/other quality settings for both again in a fairly simple interface. I'd also like to be able to save that configuration so I can quickly slot in it to another video file. And it would be really great if it could predict file size, at least for some codecs (like TMPGEnc can for the built-in codec profiles) but it's not a requirement since through trial and error I'd eventually find a setting that would do the job most of the time and then save that.
I also want to be able to save the job should it require a couple of trial and error runs till I get the file-size to quality compromise I want without having to redo everything.
Output would be mainly as AVIs encoded with h264/x264, XVid and DivX to either AVI or .divx (since .divx is the only format my current DVD player understands).
And to be able to batch jobs would also be great but it's not the end of the world if I can't.


I don't need the ability to add titles and chapters and all sorts of other fancy effects and DVD authoring features.


I've already tried Sony Vegas Studio or whatever it's called again, and Cyberlink Power Director but both are complicated to the point that I actually can't find some of the things I have in TMPGenc Video Mastering Works, like the codec flexibility/easy of use, so I don't think they're the way to go.


So do any of you have any suggestions? I don't care whether free or commercial, I just need something new and maybe more efficient/that makes better or at least equal use of my resources and I have no clue what else is actually out there.

[smrpix]

Honestly, I think TMPGenc Video Mastering works is an excellent choice for what you're doing. My next suggestion would be Vegas Movie Studio which you've already described as too complicated. Do you have a specific gripe with TMPGenc?

[Opportunist]

It just feels a bit slow I guess. Would be nice to make use of more advanced tech. But that may be down to my codec choice, I don't know. That and I've been staring at just about the same screen for the last couple of years now and would like a fresh new UI. I just thought that surely TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works would have a few direct competitors I could try out if I wanted a change. And it's had a permanent mark against it cuz back on my Vista system it would always kill Aero and reset my video renderer killing any ongoing recordings, though that's no longer a problem but it made TMPGEnc feel inferior. Just couldn't think of an alternative at the time and never thought to come here.

But if there's no quick and easy alternative I guess I'll stick to it, just thought I'd try and see.

[LMotlow]

TMPGenc is slow likely because what you're doing causes a complete re-encode of your original lossy video. For what you do you'll have to re-encode anyway, but you should be working with lossless intermediate files before the final re-encode.

h264 is a codec. x264 is an h264 encoder. Don't use AVI as an h264 container. There are many better alternatives, including mp4, mkv, AVCHD, etc. Even standard definition BluRay would be good, and there's nothing with wrong with DVD. Xvid and DivX are inferior and passe. I don't know why people still use them.

K-Lite is garbage and can easily corrupt everything in your system. Get rid of it and install only the codecs you need.

[newpball]

Honestly, I think TMPGenc Video Mastering works is an excellent choice for what you're doing.

I second that.

[Opportunist]

K-Lite is garbage and can easily corrupt everything in your system. Get rid of it and install only the codecs you need.

I don't know which codecs I'll need so I want a pack that's as complete as possible just in case this or that obscure fansub and/or AMV uses something out of the ordinary and K-Lite is the only one still in the game. And I've never experienced anything remotely like that in the 10 years I've been a K-Lite user. Sure I've had system issues, but never ones that would give any indication they were caused by K-Lite.
And yes it's a blunt shotgun approach to playback that's probably less sophisticated and efficient than it should be (or than purists will ever accept) but not willing to hunt for mysterious missing codecs trumps the will to do this professionally.

The only issues I've ever had with the pack is with Freelancer wanting a specific MP3 codec whereas I'd chosen to install a different one which caused glitchy sound, and when one of my friends wrote their own media library software which included playback but it used FDshow whereas I'd configured my system to use all the individual codecs instead. In other words both were user created.

but you should be working with lossless intermediate files before the final re-encode.

I know that's the professional way to do it but I highly doubt I'm losing much seeing as the source is SD PAL TV. And it's not worth the effort to take up all the HDD space for a raw recording of such a low res source which is only for my personal use anyways and it sometimes takes me a while to get to the re-encode so that would would be terrabytes worth of HDD space needed . And it's not like my Winfast DTV2000H TV tuner was the best in it's heyday anyways so that's already causing loss of quality.

And I didn't just mean slow, but slower than it perhaps should be. For instance maybe something out there makes more use of CUDA, or 64bit or some other new tech to speed things up and I have the tech so I'd like to be able to use it and get my encodes done even faster. Back when I started VirtualDub would take almost 3 hours to do the encode and used up all my system resources preventing me from doing much of anything so getting an encode done in under 30 minutes whilst still being able to use the system is already a huge improvement and what I'd call fast. But as I said it just feels like another program making full use of all the latest innovations might be even faster.

[LMotlow]

Most of the codecs discussed around here are standard issue stuff. Yes, you run into some weirdos and I don't know all your sources. I'd say if you're tied to KLite, use at your own risk. We see too many complaints about it. User-designed codecs, well, that's a different story. I don't know why people have to re-design the wheel when so many ready-made wheels work OK as it is. ffdshow is pretty much a standard everywhere, but it can't handle the whole world. But neither can KLite. What folks usually do with inconsistent sources is recompress to a common format (usually lossless).

If you have low-quality, low-res source, you're definitely getting a quality hit with lossy processing. Most users compress losslessly with something like Lagarith or UTcodec, which makes much smaller files and can tolerate several generations without damage. If the source is already a mess, why make it worse? But that's a matter of personal preference.

[MaverickTse]

If you want a free alternative to virtualdub, try AviUtl. It is an NLE so learning curve applies.

I have been using K-lite for 3+ years, 3 different machines and don't have any problem nor slowdown (I am using the MEGA pack, lots of stuff)