Frame-accurate trimmer with subtitle support

[Schmengland]

I am looking for a solution to the following problem. I'll try to keep this brief, but it might end up being long regardless.

I have a video library compromised mostly of dual-audio anime releases, and I regularly rip these onto my HTPC. The current project is One Piece, which is available on DVD. The regular process is as follows:

1. Losslessly rip content with MakeMKV.
2. Open in MPC-HC and use its superb navigation features to find keyframe-accurate timecodes or frame numbers.
3. Copy and paste these timecodes/frame numbers into MKVToolNix GUI, using the "Split into parts..." options.
4. Run resulting parts through Meteorite to fix corruption and judder around the trim points, for greater watchability.

I do this to accomplish two things:

• Split the relevant DVD titles into episodes.
• Cut out filler and unneeded fluff (openings, last-episode reviews, mid-title cards, endings, next-episode previews, etc).
• Save on disk space via the removal of said fluff, as a way to partially compensate for the relatively immense size of lossless rips.

Unfortunately, I've run into an issue: Come episode 207 of One Piece, everything from the aspect ratio to the codecs involved (I think) changed. The source is now of higher quality (as DVD's go), and in 16:9. The above process still works well enough, until I get to step 4. It appears that Meteorite 0.11 is not up to snuff for the newer material:

• It introduces egregious judder in the output.
• Oddly enough, it removes almost two thirds of the actual video content while retaining a similar space footprint.

Given Meteorite's status as a dead project, I'm not really surprised. I should mention that similar oddities became apparent when running content ripped from Blu-ray discs through Meteorite--namely, the judder. MKVToolNix doesn't seem to introduce any judder at the trim points when dealing with HD content, so for those cases, I simply didn't perform step 4 and everything worked out fine.

But this leaves me in a tough spot because MKVToolNix does cause that problem with these higher-quality DVD rips. To be more specific, what happens is that the video immediately following the trim points accelerates for a split second, ahead of the audio, and then slows down for another few so that it can resync. This happens regardless of renderer; I've tried playback via both LAV and madVR.

Because Meteorite doesn't handle these files correctly, the entire above process is effectively nil, unless I am willing to accept some very awkward playback (and I'm not). So, I began to search for another solution.

I found something very, very close in VideoReDo, given that it is a frame-accurate (as in, more accurate than mere keyframes) video editor with chapter support and the ability to re-encode trim regions immaculately. Its trims are of the highest quality and accuracy I've thus far seen, without leading to any of the judder problems mentioned above. There's just one issue:

VideoReDo, along with its contemporaries, does not support subtitles--or at least, it doesn't support vobsub or PGS passthrough or re-encoding. Thus, all output files are stripped of their subtitle tracks, and there is nothing I can do about this.

I tried the following:

1. Create batches of trim operations in VideoReDo.
2. Copy and paste the timecodes from VideoReDo to MKVToolNix's "Split by parts..." field.
3. Deselect all streams in the matroska container except for the vobsubs (resulting in MKS output).
4. Run both.
5. Add resulting video files and corresponding sub files to MKVToolNix and mux them back together.

This almost works, but the subs become mistimed, and I'm assuming that it's because MKVToolNix is not frame-accurate: Even though the same timecodes are being used, it's still cutting at keyframes, whereas VideoReDo is not.

Normally, I wouldn't mind having to retime these subs with Subtitle Edit or something for a shorter series, but One Piece is huge and breaking and fixing subtitle timings for such a massive project is simply too much overhead.

Meteorite has apparently been picked up, forked, and updated to version 0.30 by someone else on GitHub, and I imagine that it works better, but the developer hasn't released a proper executable, instead affirming that it requires building with wxWidgets. They don't offer any instruction on how to do this, and I do not have the knowledge offhand.

Does anybody have any advice or alternative solutions that I haven't discovered yet?

[sneaker]

This almost works, but the subs become mistimed, and I'm assuming that it's because MKVToolNix is not frame-accurate: Even though the same timecodes are being used, it's still cutting at keyframes, whereas VideoReDo is not.

That should not be the case if you de-select everything but the subtitle track. But subtitle format cutting in mkvmerge can indeed be troublesome. E.g. in PGS one subtitle line is actually 2 packets. One with the line and start time and another empty line that marks the end. If you cut in-between: problems.
I believe Selur encountered these problems as well and wrote a separate tool for idx/sub and pgs/sup cutting.

Of course this is still complicated. For a solution similar to VideoReDo try SolveigMM Video Splitter.

[Schmengland]

I did try Solveig. Same issues, except that it also strips chapters.

Also, Selur's program doesn't do anything. Launching it produces a command line window that disappears after a split second. Am I doing something wrong? What is it supposed to do?

[sneaker]

You have to run it with the appropriate parameters from the command-line.

[Schmengland]

Right. I gathered that after another look at that thread.

So, does it work somewhat like MKVToolNix? Can I have a timecode listing like this...

-00:02:48.02,+00:02:53.24-00:03:51.06,+00:03:54.20-00:10:55.29,+00:11:10.20-00:21:55.03,00:26:12.01-00:34:30.04,+00:34:44.23-00:45:32.07,00:49:05.13-00:59:53.12,+01:00:07.29-01:09:09.12,01:13:01.17-01:21:03.12,+01:21:18.01-01:32:46.14,01:37:00.03-01:46:31.19,+01:46:46.06-01:56:23.19

...and expect it to output five separate subtitle files?

[sneaker]

It will output to a single file. But sorry, I just tested it and it works differently than I though it would. Maybe someone else has a better tip for you.

[Schmengland]

Okay. I appreciate it.

[Schmengland]

Anybody have any advice on how to build Meteorite 0.30 with wxWidgets, as mentioned in the OP? I want to try it out.

[netmask56]

Have you looked at this program - don't know if it supports PGS

http://www.cypheros.de/tsdoctor2_spec_e.html

[Schmengland]

Went ahead and tried it. Strips subtitles and chapters and introduces artefacts at the trim points. Interesting--if odd--methodology, but yeah--not what I'm looking for.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[Schmengland]

Still looking for this, if anyone else has any suggestions.

[Horelink]

I was thinking about whether there was a problem with audio and video

[Schmengland]

How do you mean?

[Horelink]

You can try to change the encoding of audio and video and the channel of audio

[Schmengland]

That's not the issue.

[Schmengland]

Does anybody know of a vobsub/PGS trimmer besides VobSub? In other words, a program that does for picture subtitles what VideoReDo does for video?

[poisondeathray]

If you were happy with the first method of mkvtoolnix splits (not frame accurate) , then what about dvd shrink (in non recompression mode) to strip out parts and edit segments? I bet at least some of your issues were probably because of mpeg2 in mkv - which has been documented to cause problems in some situations.

[Schmengland]

Does DVD Shrink allow splitting by timecodes, or...?

[poisondeathray]

Does DVD Shrink allow splitting by timecodes, or...?

not entering a list like mkvmerge, you would use it to replace mpchc for the preview (you use the preview inside dvd shrink, you do everything inside dvd shrink)

[Selur]

No clue how to cut pgs subtitle (sadly SECut doesn't work and I don't have the time and motivation to try to look into .Net to fix it myself).
For idx/sub cutting I wrote a small command line tool (https://github.com/Selur/IdxSubCutter) a few years ago, which is used in MKV Cutter that does the job.
-> if there is a small command line tool out there capable to cut pgs subtitles (accurately) please let me know too.

Cu Selur

[evile1690]

Looking for the exact time codes using mpc-hc and then trimming seems like a daunting task for each episode!
For a frame accurate trim, why not use FameRing's Smart Cutter instead? The UI is a little outdated but very easy to follow. You can link the cuts into 1 output file too.
They do not currently support mkv input so you would need to either rip the dvd into maybe a mp4 file (or import the native vob file directly. I'm not sure what codecs you are using in your mkvs.)
Bitmap subs are a pain to deal with so I highly suggest ripping them into SRT first and then mass shift the timing of the subs using Aegisub. You would only probably need to just shift the times twice if you cut the middle cards too. Just use the source as a guide for the proper start time code/frame.
Lastly you can either keep it as an mp4+subs file or mux everything into an mkv. That's the only way I can think of without sacrificing any quality loss.