Cutting MPEG's before burning.

[barneystorm]

At which stage is it best to cut out unwanted bits of footage?

For instance..I've recorded a music concert onto my hard drive using virtualdub/Mjpeg compression, and I'd like to cut out about 20 seconds right at the end (The bit before I could stop the recording).

I've converted it to mpeg 1 to burn to CD, and then I've tried using MyFlix 1.5 on the mpeg to cut the bit off the end, but can't understand how to just cut the bit out I don't want.

I've followed the instructions (Both with the program and on this site), and I finish up with a newly created mpeg of just that last 20 seconds while the original remains the same.

Any ideas?

[mijman]

Instead of cutting off the last 20 sec, you'll probably have to save a new file of the whole show, minus those seconds. Instead of selecting the last bit, select the first bit, and let it go.

[vitualis]

barneystorm,

If your cutting is as simple as that (that is, cutting off either the beginning or the end), you don't have to do any cutting at all. Rather, most of the common MPEG-1 encoders (e.g., TMPGEnc, Panasonic) will allow you to set the range of the AVI that you want to encode. By simply setting the range to the appropriate start and end points, you should be able to accomplish what you want without cutting at all.

Regards.