Popular free program to edit H264 movies in Mp4 container

[Digmen1]

Hi Guys

I have just been getting started on Handbrake and have encoded some vobs into H264 files in Mp4 containers. (loving Handrbake!)

Now I would like to edit and join them

What is a good free popular program that most of you on here use to do this ?

Thanks

[aedipuss]

join the vobs before re-encoding to mp4. programs like vob2mpg can do it.

[Digmen1]

OK thanks for that, I'd never heard of it.

But then I still need a program to cut or edit the mp4.

(Not only that but the reviews on vob2mpg do not look that positiive.)

[Baldrick]

We don't edit mp4,mkv...

But you can try avidemux, mymp4boxgui(very basic cutting), solveigmm video splitter.


And if you are converting a complete dvd in handbrake be sure to use open dvd and select the video_Ts folder. You shouldn't open separate vobs....if you aren't converting from different dvds then.

[Digmen1]

That's a good plan Baldrick !

So you are saying open the whole DVD and convert it to one mp4 ?

I have used avidemux but I get confused with all the versions and none of them that I have seem to do mp4's.

I am trying to stay away from avidemux as I know it has problems with audio synch (with avi only ?)

[Baldrick]

Yep, select Open folder in Handbrake and choose the VIDEO_TS folder.

[Digmen1]

OK But then what do you recommend to cut bits that I want from the mp4 file I create ?

[Baldrick]

avidemux. All the versions I have tried works with mp4. But it crashes now and then....

Or you could also try video to video converter, see https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/354976-How-to-cut-any-video-with-the-free-Video-to-...ideo-Converter

But you can only cut at keyframes if you don't want to reconvert.

[Digmen1]

I'll take another look at avidemuv, but earlier today it did not list mp4's as a file type to open.

Where do you get your version from ? is it being updated ?

With the amount of people using h264 and mp4 I cannot believe there are not more good free cutting programs out there, sureley its a basic thing that everyone wants to do ?

[Baldrick]

I use https://www.videohelp.com/download/avidemux_2.6.4_win32.exe

[Digmen1]

Sorry Baldrick I was getting Avidemux confused with virtual dub.

I had only one version of Avidemux but several of virtual dub and of course avidemux opens mp4 files!

[DarrellS]

Speaking of Virtualdub, you could open your VOB/MPEG2 in Virtualdub, do all your cutting and save as MP4 with the external encoder feature.

Virtualdub opens MP4 also if you have ffdshow (for h264) and fcchandler's mp4 plugin. If you are a Virtualdub user, you should have the latest version (stable or BETA, it's up to you though I prefer using BETA since it has the lastest fixes) and all of the input plugins. To use the external encoder you'll need all the command line encoders listed in the guide and either build your own encoder sets from the guide or download a pre-made vdprof file and import it.

[Digmen1]

@Darrells
Thanks for that, that is good to know.

[redwudz]

With the amount of people using h264 and mp4 I cannot believe there are not more good free cutting programs out there, sureley its a basic thing that everyone wants to do ?

We would all love to have a simple editor that could make frame accurate cuts anywhere we want with highly compressed formats like H.264, but they don't exist. It's not a editor problem, it's a format problem. Highly compressed formats use widely spaced keyframes and that makes frame accurate editing all but impossible as they have to cut on a keyframe or re-encode at the cut area. And some formats like Divx may have keyframe spacing of 300 frames. Not easy to edit.

If you need to do extensive editing, use a different format or convert to a lossless format with huge file sizes like HuffyUV or Lagarith.

[sanlyn]

http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tmsr4_smartrendering.html
Not free, but finding a free one that works well isn't easy. Try the free trial download. Otherwise as redwuz suggests, work with lossless AVI if you have a lot of changes to make.

[deadrats]

Hi Guys

I have just been getting started on Handbrake and have encoded some vobs into H264 files in Mp4 containers. (loving Handrbake!)

Now I would like to edit and join them

What is a good free popular program that most of you on here use to do this ?

Thanks

in case no one has mentioned it yet (i haven't read all the responses) you shouldn't be encoding to h264 in mp4 and then editing and/or joining, all editing should be done on the source files, in your case the vobs and after you are happy with your edits the final step is to encode. all major editing apps support this workflow, including the already mentioned avidemux, tmpg video mastering works, avs, sony's software, the list goes on.

[sanlyn]

@deadrats, that's generally true and is preferable to editing lossy encodes, but I linked to SmartRenderer, not MasteringWorks. MW doesn't have smart rendering, as it's basically an encoder with editing capability that is designed to work optimally with lossless input. SmartRenderer was not designed to convert formats, but it will change containers. Advising most users to use proper methods for restoring/editing/re-encoding VOB's to other encodes is usually ignored by users, who think that video encoding is the same thing as putting a file through WinZIP. Your suggestion is the best way to handle it.

[DarrellS]

I've also found that putting an mp4 in an mkv container makes editing a little easier in Virtualdub but trying to seek forward and backwards is still a nightmare. I believe the aac audio complicates things also.

MP4 crashes Avidemux almost every time I try to use it so I don't even bother and VideoReDo, which IMO is the best program there is for doing frame accurate editing of H264 crashes with MP4 if you try and seek too aggressively when making your cuts.

[hello_hello]

Editing before/while re-encoding it still the best option.

I've not used it myself, but Handbrake has an option to set the start and end points when setting up an encode.... by chapter, time or frame number. Maybe rather than encode the whole file then try to edit out bits, you could use the above feature to encode just the bits you want.

Unfortunately I don't think Handbrake can set multiple start and end points for a single encode, but you could encode the same vob file twice, the first time encoding a specific frame range, the second time encode another frame range, then encode another vob and join the three encodes together as a single file. That sort of thing. It might produce less tears than trying to edit MP4s after encoding.

Video To Video Converter might be a good choice for joining MP4 files together (no re-encoding). Just make sure you use the same encoder settings and resolution etc each time when setting up the encodes with Handbrake.