pause in virtualdub capture

[whitedawg]

if i want to capture a tv show...how do i pause the capturinf for commercials so that i can unpause itt when they are over and still record on the same file?

[greengate69]

Don't think that's possible with virtualdub, however its very simple (and easier) to edit out the advertisements after the capture is complete. This can be done with virtualdub very easily, and you won't have to sit watching the PC while it captures.

[Craig Tucker]

No you cannot pause, only stop and restart another capture. As mentioned though it is very easy to chop the ads out after.

[MCalca1706]

I don't know if anyone here can help me with this but, here goes.

I have an ATI AIW 800XL PCI Card in a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz running Windows XP Home SP3.
I am using old ATI Catalyst6.02 drivers with Multimedia Center 9.08 because all the later versions of ATI MMC after 9.08 have removed the very useful Pause Button so editing is no longer possible.

I have searched for many years and tried many different capture programs but most don't have a Pause option, others just don't work with the card or there are sound or other problems.
So I am stuck using stone age software and drivers.
I looked at your thread here on ATI Card Software but it is too old to help. Is there a forum here or elsewhere that can help me find some compatible software for this card with a pause option?

I now have a newer computer but still have the same problem finding software to work with the Capture Card and again no pause option.

Dell XPS 8300 Intel Core i7-2600 CPU 3.04Ghz
Hauppauge Win TV HVR-1250 Model 79 Capture Card
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card
AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series


Thank You and Happy Holidays
M. Calcagno

[Nelson37]

Been there, done that. Total waste of time and effort.

Simply capture the entire program and edit later. Much easier, much less chance of screw-up. Far less time-consuming.

[MCalca1706]

Nelson 37
Thank you for the reply and suggestion. If I had an easy and fast editing program to use I would most likely do as you suggest but I would still like to have the option of editing in real time as well. Right now I'm using the editor in Freemakes Video Converter. It's easy enough to use but then the file has to be converted after the edits. I often have some very large files so it'a a real pain in the neck. I have tried a few others but found them complicated, cumbersome and time consuming.

I would welcome any suggestions for programs (Freeware if possible) for easy editing of AVI, MPG, MP4, VOB and FLI files for those who are new or inexperienced in editing video. I would still appreciate any help or suggestions, from anyone, on any good and simple to use Video Capture Programs that allow real time editing (with a pause button).

Thank You
M Calcagno
Happy Holidays

[nic2k4]

If I had an easy and fast editing program to use I would most likely do as you suggest...

But you do, it's called Virtualdub. It's so easy no one bothered to make a tutorial for it. So, here's a youtube clip that almost explains it; just do all the steps shown to select the commercials, but instead of saving hit the delete key on your keyboard. Follow the instructions for saving; the direct stream copy thing...

One more tip, use the key icons to move to the correct position before you select the in and out marks; you can only trim to keyframes, Vdub will do it automatically, but it's nice to know what you're getting.

Get to know your program here.

[Nelson37]

Vdub won't work for ATI mpg2 captures. A very good prog which works well is mpg2cut2. Maintains synch, cuts ac3, easy, fast, free.

Some MMC captured files will benefit from a demux /remux. Cuttermaran would work with the seperate files.

Do NOT evaluate synch thru the ATI player. In fact, do not trust a synch test thru ANY software unless the clip has been either trimmed, or demuxed/remuxed.

An alternate useful audio synch tip is to author the file into DVD structure, and test playback on that file.

Basically, you want to make sure you alter the file with software that takes the padding stream into account. Some do, some don't.

[MCalca1706]

Thanks again for the reply and helpful suggestions.
I will try editing some video files with Virtual Dub and also mpg2cut2.

Sorry but most of this is basically Greek to me and complicated. I have a lot of video files to deal with so I need speed and simplicity.

>>Some MMC captured files will benefit from a demux /remux. Cuttermaran would work with the separate files.

Do NOT evaluate synch thru the ATI player. In fact, do not trust a synch test thru ANY software unless the clip has been either trimmed, or demuxed/remuxed.

An alternate useful audio synch tip is to author the file into DVD structure, and test playback on that file.

Basically, you want to make sure you alter the file with software that takes the padding stream into account. Some do, some don't. <<

Thanks Again & Happy Holidays
M Calcagno

[Nelson37]

Record in MPG with MMC. Cut with MPG2Cut2. NO RE-ENCODING REQUIRED. Cut commercials from a 2-hour movie in less than 5 minutes. Process the file in 2 or 3.Then you're all done. DVD-Ready, if you want it to be.

Trying to cut commercials with the Pause button just does not work. You have no way of knowing when the show starts again.

Some editors and players will indicate a dramatic loss of audio and video synch when playing back MMC-captured files. This can happen because the capture may contain a "padding stream" which is used to maintain the synch. Some progs use this, some don't. MPG2Cut2 apparently does.

There are some automated commercial cutters, like ComSkip. Takes some tuning, but it will automate the process. Played with it, had some success, went back to manual editing because I wanted to save subtitles, long story.

[PuzZLeR]

@whitedawg and, of course, MCalca1706:

I too will continue the chant about not wasting your time with pause buttons on capture software (whether they exist or not - don't care anyways). Been there, done that too - since the days of VHS recording (ughhh!). A total pain and total waste of time. It's often times inaccurate anyway and you STILL end up redoing it later after the capture. It's manual labor and for the rudimentary editor.


We are not being unkind to you. We really believe we are doing you a favor when we know you will hate your life having to do that pause stuff all day, in real-time, when today there is lots of wonderful software that takes care of it for you - after the capture - with a only a few points and clicks required from you.


For AVI captures just use VirtualDub (or better yet VirtualDubMod with Job Control enabled) with Video->Direct Stream on to save all the quality and processing time. Very easy and very quick once you learn it. Also, any commercial editor worth its weight can easily handle most capture AVI formats.


For all MPEG captures, such as those from TV, I would recommend Womble, VideoReDo, TMPGEnc MPEG Editor, all for different types of edits, all not free however all excellent software. (They work with VOB too.)


As for MP4/FLV(what I think you meant) this is a bit different. I personally don't work with these in the aquisition stage, but I heard the latest VideoReDo with H.264 editing is helpful, though I haven't tried it myself. (You may have to remux the FLV into an MP4 - also lossless and quick).


As for automated ad-zoning functions, I personally don't use them. They can take a while with high accuracy settings and are sometimes inaccurate. However this is just me, my nit-pick ways, and my lack of trust for them. Nevertheless, doing it manually is still very quick for me anyway.

[PuzZLeR]

Some editors and players will indicate a dramatic loss of audio and video synch when playing back MMC-captured files. This can happen because the capture may contain a "padding stream" which is used to maintain the synch. Some progs use this, some don't. MPG2Cut2 apparently does.

Another recommendation, one pass with VideoReDo with Tools -> QuickStream Fix should be able to handle this as well. I don't work with MMC, but VideoReDo has handled similar problems, such as those muxed in a transport stream, and other such phenomena.

[Nelson37]

As long as the cutter recognizes the padding, no problem and MPG2CUT2 is free. MMC Mpg files are a bit unique. Prone to a few unusual problems but all can be easily handled. A simple demux/remux solves most of them.

Editing is FASTER than real-time as you do not have to watch the show to edit. Record, less than 5 minutes to edit and process, done.

MP4 is not a good capture format for that card and you really should not be editing VOB files. AVI not worth the hassle, IMO. If you really want smaller filesize, cap in hi bitrate, I-frame only (if your system will handle it) and re-encode that.

I rarely used the time-shifting feature in MMC, did not notice when they removed it. I DO remember you have to enable it in most versions. It is basically a record buffer but has some quality problems, I did not care for it.

WinTV7 for Hauppage cards has something similar, also never used it.

Once you have used a separate cutter that does not re-encode, you'll never look back. I think your current dislike is because your cutter has to encode the entire file which takes a long time and is not really necessary.

[MCalca1706]

To Nelson37 and PuzZLeR

Thank You so much for all the helpful advice. I can see your point about what a pain in the neck it is to edit in real time. If I can use one of the suggested programs and easily cut out commercials and other unwanted parts it would be more practical. I totally agree that the Freemake Converter having to re-encode the video is a real pain. I really don't like Win TV because it's very limited in options. You can't even choose the resolution of the recorded video (the options are Fair, Good, Better and Best).
Some of the options are Greek to me not explained (anywhere that I could find). also it will not record in AVI just MPEG.

I usually use AVI so I can watch the videos on my DivX compatible DVD Players without having to burn them to DVD format. As I said I have tons of files to deal with and I am obviously not very experienced in this area, so ease of use is very important to me.

On Window XP Using the ATI AIW Card using MMC 9.08 I record to AVI. With Windows 7 I use a Hauppage Card with Win TV7 and I have to record in MPEG. It actually records in some format I have never heard of and is set to automatically convert to MPEG2. You can't even rename the files during recording so you end up with a bunch of files called SVIDEO a number and Date.

As I said, I'm using these programs because of problems with many other video capture programs. Very few programs seem to work well with these Capture Cards.

I will definitely try some of the programs mentioned and try to find a more efficient way to edit files.
I know that I still have a lot to learn about dealing with video files. A lot of it is still like Greek to me.

Thank you so much for all the helpful suggestions and advice.
Happy Holidays
M Calcagno

[PuzZLeR]

Glad you see it that way. You have a computer, just use it to make your life easier.

Just to share, this is from experience as well on my end, with the VHS era.

I would record a program, then pause it for ads, or unwanted stuff, etc. Never perfect and always a pain. Could never really enjoy a program that way.

This also proved cumbersome in editting (VHS to VHS) as well. Even though I was one of those freaks with a chain of two displays and three VCRs (one with a tape playing all-black video to alleviate the timing of gaps/joins/intermissions/etc) it was still very time consuming and painful, and any error would make me redo the entire piece. And it was very lossy too.

I remember, for a couple of months, I would spend alot of my free time doing this. Then one day, after being fed up, I said, let me just record the content in whole and hang on to it. Yes, the tapes may mount up but I had faith there would be a technological solution one day. I really did believe this seeing how digital formats were evolving.

It was funny going through some of this stuff much later. I didn't even need the notes I kept of the content, even years after - it was a breeze with VirtualDub after it was captured onto a hard drive - just like a dream.

It was worth the decade(s) of waiting. It was either the option of waiting patiently, or spending those years ruining my life (like you may have been about to do) doing it manually.

[Nelson37]

I am a little unclear on parts of your process.

You cap using MMC, and AVI? What compression, "AVI" is a very generic term.

The ATI mpg2 captures from an S-Video port should be equal or better than the Hauppage card, you also have far more control over the image.

How do you currently view the Hauppage mpg files? Essentially you can handle the mpgs from both cards in pretty much the same way. Never tested the Hauppage mpgs as a DVD, but the MMC files can be ready to author, or play from USB in most players.

How exactly are you using the "AVI" files in your Divx player? USB? Disk?

[MCalca1706]

To PuzZLeR and Nelson 37

Again, thank you so much for the helpful suggestions and insights.

Thanks for sharing the VHS experiences. I remember very well all my numerous experiences with VHS and editing VHS. I remember the VHS VS Beta battle. Maybe that's where I got addicted to and very used to editing in real time.

I still have about 4 VCR's that I use occasionally (I still have tons of stuff on VHS Tapes). Some movies are never put on DVD's and there are high light videos and such.
I still have these dinosaurs (still working) Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and Amiga 500.

One of my fears is, as one of you mentioned, ending up with a lot of video files that need editing. The files done in real time, at least are done with. I still wish that the user had the choice in doing it it real time or after recording. There are some programs that I would like to record in real time and some that I would like to edit afterwards.

The ATI AIW Card AVi Captured Files are either Divx or XVid. The software, Multimedia Center 9.08 lets you select resolution, bitrate etc. and for video and also for audio. As old as it is, I still prefer it to the Win TV (Hauppage Card), which forces many settings on you. They both record on SVideo. The Picture quality seems comparable although the Hauppage Card is in a much faster more modern computer using Windows7 Ult 64Bit The ATI AIW Card is in a 10 year old Pentium 4 3Ghz PC using Windows XP Home . The Hauppage Card does not record in AVI just MPEG and a few other formats. Either the card or software has a problem with audio synch while watching DVR Video. The audio lags behind the video but it doesn't affect the actual recordings. I agree with this statement "ATI mpg2 captures from an S-Video port should be equal or better than the Hauppage card, you also have far more control over the image".

I usually capture video from one of two HD/SD compatible DVR's (Samsung & Cisco), from a VCR or from a DVD Player.
I watch the MPEG Files captured with the Hauppage Card using Power DVD 9.5, DivX Player or VLC Media Player.

I use either of two DivX compatible Pioneer DVD Players. The files are either burned to disc with Nero 7 Or 10 (Data Format) or played from a Flash drive through USB. As far as I know, only Divx compatible DVD players can play non DVD formatted files.
One Pioneer plays AVI And MPEG files and the other plays AVI and WMV. Files will only play if certain compatible settings are used when created. I also still have a very old Phillips Divx DVD Player.

All the MP4 or FLV files or other types of video files are downloads from web video sites using several free web downloaders.

Thanks Again & Happy Holidays
M Calcagno