Cutting a PVR-250 stream - problems

[Bizuser]

I recently purchased and got working Hauppauge's WinTV PVR250.

I just tried to 'cut' out a commercial, using the included nanoPEG Editor (downloaded latest version - 2.3.1). Once you get used to it, it's pretty simple - you mark the 'in/out' points, add to a cutlist, and then say go.

The problem is, it's 'off' by about 2-4 seconds. That is - it cuts the data BEFORE the end of the real show, and then, leaves a small amount ot the commercial intact.

I did several tests, and relied only on the 'double-arrow' (left/right) editor tools, assuming they would correctly find the right edit points. I know that with MPEG, there are only certain 'frames' you can safely cut on, since only certain frames are 'full' frames, and I assumed that this editor would only allow you to pick such frames in it's editor window.

I checked on SHS's WinTV help pages, did not see anything about this.

Any tips for getting this to work properly? Anyone else seen this behavior?

[PumpkinKing]

Firstly, I don't think NanoPEG editor is worth using at all!

I've got the PVR250 as well and I export all my captured MPEGS through DVD2AVI and then into TMPEG to do my editing and stuff..

NanoPEG Editor is really buggy (at least my version was, and the editing features are nowhere near as good as TMPEG).

[Bizuser]

I'm familiar with dvd2avi, and tmpg, using avisynth to frameserve; I do this to copy/convert DVDs to VCD/SVCD.

For this particular request, I simply want to cut a commercial from a quick recording I made, and was hoping to achieve it within a few minutes before burning the show to CD for watching on a TV.

But since you mention it ... are you able to do this without having TMPG re-encode the video? I just tried using a dvd2avi project file as input to TMPG, but there seems to be no way to avoid having the stream re-encoded. Is there a way to do this? It's one thing to re-encode a very high-quality DVD; another to re-encode an already marginal mpg file from the PVR-250.

Thanks, Chris

[jarroyo]

Go to the http://www.shspvr.com/ site and select the tools option on the left navigation bar. In that section there is a little utility called Nanofix that might help you with that problem. It was specifically written to deal with the audiosync problem after nanopeg editing out of commercials. I have not used it, but there is some of information in that site about it (in their PVR forum).

[David302]

... used the MPEG tools within TMPEGEnc to cut out the commercials. It works better than the nanoPEG editor.
With long files try to cut it into smaller parts first and then reassemble it.
The MPEG tools do not reencode, just remultiplex.
(If only VirtualDub could work on MPEG...)

[Bizuser]

I tried the mpeg tools aspect of TMPG, but I encounter the dreaded 'lock up' in this tool, as do many people. I've tried the 'play/pause' trick, to no avail. When I hit play, the 'counter' counts, but the video does not change. I can click 'play/pause' several times, but as soon as I try to drag the slider, or do just about anything, the app locks up and I have to kill the task (I'm using win2k, and the very latest TMPG version).

I'll try the various tools others have mentioned.

I noticed in nanoPEG that the 'offset' is not consistent; sometimes it cuts where you think it will, other times, it cuts several seconds away from your selection. Could this be due to it looking for an I frame? The scene that had problems was certainly 'low activity'. But still - I moved the slider well past a major scene change and still had a problem.

[magicmycote]

Womble is what I use for editing my pvr250 caps, it is frame accurate and does not introduce synch problems.

[Bizuser]

I've heard good things about womble, but it's $250 for the mpeg2 version, and I only need a simple tool to cut commercials, so I guess I'll have to keep searching for something else.

I think I'm resigned to capturing at maximum bitrate/resolution, then using TMPG to both cut, and also resize down to SVCD resolution. I know this will work, and the quality will probably be good/OK, but it will take a long time even on my 2.4 GHz system!