A simple way to remove commercials from recorded DVD's????

[RabidDog]

Actually I dont think the I frame cutting is any problem to 80/90% of people especially for cutting out commercials, however TDA's very simplistic menus are very limiting and allow very little creativity in menu creation. Other than that tho ..no encoding means nice and quick...

TRIBULUS you misread .. the opposite is true..

[Tiribulus]

TRIBULUS you misread .. the opposite is true..

I'm not sure which you're referring to.
>>>--Tiribulus->

[lordsmurf]

I'm not knocking recorders with drives, but for me it wouldn't be an attractive solution especially since my recorder cost me 98 bux.
>>>--Tiribulus->

Hard drives are overrated. If you are not able to take time to clean off the drive, it will fill up, and it'll be a real waste. It's so much easier to just record onto DVD-RW or DVD-R and stack them in cases or on a spindle until you're able to get around to editing.

From my point of view, hard drives are just good for TIVO-like use, and the occasional marathon, high quality sports games recordings, or long movies.

For the price of adding a hard drive, you could buy two non-HDD recorders. That may be more handy in the long run, and if you do not mind juggling, that takes care of the long recordings issue just fine (you can splice it all together in editing).

[mike1061]

For the price of adding a hard drive, you could buy two non-HDD recorders. That may be more handy in the long run, and if you do not mind juggling, that takes care of the long recordings issue just fine (you can splice it all together in editing).

That's an intresting look at things. Just when I thought I had it all figured too.
Thanks Mike

[Beavis]

I do understand the advantages of a drive enabled recorder, but for me personally I'd rather just let the recording go and edit it on a computer. It gives me unlimited time and grace if I screw up, lets me record without having to worry about if a commercial is coming up and I'm just used to doing things on a computer.

Just for the record, you have unlimited time and grace on a stand-alone... any good one has non-destructive editing / preview all you want. Also, why would you have to worry about whether or not a commercial is coming up? You don't even have to be there when it's recording. You edit the commercials out later.

[Beavis]

For the price of adding a hard drive, you could buy two non-HDD recorders. That may be more handy in the long run, and if you do not mind juggling, that takes care of the long recordings issue just fine (you can splice it all together in editing).

You're arguing that having two DVD recorders, having to program them every single time for staggered recordings, dumping two discs to the computer, removing all commercials and splicing them together in such a way as to create a seamless splice point, then authoring and burning is more handy than recording the whole thing in one go to the hard drive and spending 5-10 minutes with the remote control to remove commercials before burning?

Also, some of the HDD recorders (such as Pioneer) allow recording at very high bitrates and then will do a 2nd pass-re-encode after editing to fit perfectly on a CD-R. Works great for fitting each half of a game, etc. on a single disc exactly. Not possible to do on a standard disc-only recorder.

[lordsmurf]

You're arguing that having two DVD recorders, having to program them every single time for staggered recordings, dumping two discs to the computer, removing all commercials and splicing them together in such a way as to create a seamless splice point, then authoring and burning is more handy than recording the whole thing in one go to the hard drive and spending 5-10 minutes with the remote control to remove commercials before burning??

It's more than 5-10 minutes.

If you wanted to record a 7-hour marathon, you'd spend at least an hour or more with a remote, and it gets frustrating after a while. It's not as convenient as on a computer, where you can see the entire timeline and zip back and forth to find commercials.

And then you have to wait on burn time.

I do not always have 2-3 hours to sit in front of a DVD recorder with a remote and edit and burn. That's a huge pain in the ass. Not to mention, 7 hours of the drive is now unavailable for further use. HDD's fill up faster than most people think, if you intend to keep it all.

On the other hand, I can pop a disc into each recorder, set it to record a little over 3½ hours each (which results in good quality on the JVC), with a little overlap so nothing is missed (splice it later) and then put the discs in a case, and set onto a shelf for later.

Even if you wanted to be anal about it, and do 2 hours (SP mode) only, all you have to do is set each one staggered, you'll end up with 4 discs, write #1, #2, #3, #4 on each disc. Then same as last time, set on shelf until later, merge the overlaps, edit out commercials, done deal.

Also, some of the HDD recorders (such as Pioneer) allow recording at very high bitrates and then will do a 2nd pass-re-encode after editing to fit perfectly

Tests by various people have shown this is wholly inferior to simply doing it at the proper speed to begin with. It's a nice feature, a nifty cheat, but it's really not something I would recommend be done on a regular basis.

[Beavis]

Also, some of the HDD recorders (such as Pioneer) allow recording at very high bitrates and then will do a 2nd pass-re-encode after editing to fit perfectly

Tests by various people have shown this is wholly inferior to simply doing it at the proper speed to begin with. It's a nice feature, a nifty cheat, but it's really not something I would recommend be done on a regular basis.

If you're dealing with sports and other such live events, there is no such thing as the "proper" speed if you want to perfectly fill your final discs.

I know about the tests. Some people don't agree with them in their experiences. In any case, there are certainly many who find this method to be completely acceptable for their needs and tastes... which is really the most important thing. Obviously, there isn't any right or wrong way to do a lot of this stuff... and people (especially in the Newbie forum) might be interested in reading about some alternatives to think about for their own needs, which was the whole point of mentioning the HDD recorders in the first place.

[Tiribulus]

Like anything else it probably just comes down to whichever way you personally prefer. I can't imagine editing with a remote control being as easy for me as editing with a program like VideoReDo. Especially being an IT professional that works on computers constantly. Like Lordsmurf was saying you can see everything at once and just slide back and forth to where you want. The arrow keys make it really convenient and fast for precise cuts. Also if the quality is set high enough to actually require a drive then you either have re-encode anyway or span over multiple discs. For hockey games for instance, I just record one period at a time pull the disc and put in another for the next. While that ones recording, I'm working on the previous one which takes all of 5 minutes of actual work, maybe. When the games over, I do the third period, add it to the TDA project which is 2/3 done already, process and burn. I actually did buy a second one for the other room so my wife can record her stuff while I'm working on another Red Wings victory, except last night :-[ Again, speaking only for myself, even if I had a recorder with a drive I don't see myself using the drive that much. BTW, do recorders with drives have a way to interface directly with a computer to pull the files off or do you have to record tham to disc first. Probably depends on the model huh?
>>>--Tiribulus->

[Beavis]

Like Lordsmurf was saying you can see everything at once and just slide back and forth to where you want. The arrow keys make it really convenient and fast for precise cuts.

For what it's worth, this description of editing on the stand-alone implies something about the stand-alone recorders that isn't exactly correct. The editing screen on a Pioneer (and others) has a video window along with full graphical timeline of the particular recording that you're editing. You can scan forward or reverse along the timeline, including at high speed. Once you get it close to the edit point- you can advance / reverse single frames at a time (or single I-frames, depending on what mode you're in), just like in a PC mpeg editor. The timeline is also used for inserting / removing chapter points, and other basic functions of editing / DVD authoring.

BTW, do recorders with drives have a way to interface directly with a computer to pull the files off or do you have to record tham to disc first. Probably depends on the model huh? >>>--Tiribulus->

For most of them, yes- You'd have to transfer the video to the PC via discs if you wanted to. But the whole point is that if you use the stand-alone recorder, you don't have to deal with transferring the stuff to the PC anymore- you do all your authoring and burning on the stand-alone. The only thing they can't do is make fancy, custom menus... You have to choose from the simple templates on the machine. If you're going to be making fancy menus for everything you do and transferring the video to the PC every time anyway, then the value of the HDD stand-alone is less. Plus, if I was going to be doing lots of PC editing and authoring, I'd much rather do my initial capturing on the PC using my MPEG-2 encoder card than having to deal with the limits of a single-disc stand-alone recorder and then transferring all the video over disc-by-disc. Again... back to needs / tastes of the particular person.

[RabidDog]

I dont know of ANY HDD recorder that will allow easy xfr to PC. (let me know of ANY that do), without the std burn to disc, insert on PC. Actually there is one the Kiss DP588 ? but thats hardly a raging success. The newer DL recorders may be better but then they dont make DL RW's yet' LORDsmufs suggestions imply having to be there when recording.. a major drawback. HDD in consumer devices tend to add a lot to the price, far more than the cost of the drive. Look at the price and capacity of any of the music jukeboxes or even Modix 3510.

Tribulus

TMPGEnc DVD Author is NOT frame accurate editing.

With VideoRedo and MPEG-VCR you can edit at ANY point.

Also I bet many IT people are sick of the computer screen and avoid it like the plague when @ home (myself included) .

[Tiribulus]

Also I bet many IT people are sick of the computer screen and avoid it like the plague when @ home (myself included) .

I actually do love computers and play on my toys all the time after work, I just hate Ford's computers which I support all day. It would be kinda like working in a woman's mental ward all day and coming home to your wife ;-] Nuthin wrong with women, I'll just take mine over theirs.
>>--Tiribulus->

[davideck]

I agree with Beavis.
My Toshiba HDD DVD Recorder is a versatile workstation that has streamlined the process of capturing, basic editing, authoring and burning for me. It doesn't provide all of the flexibility of the PC way, but it's quicker and more convenient for much of what I am doing now. The HDD makes all the difference.

Burning a DVD on a non-HDD unit to be transferred to a PC to be edited and authored and then burned again to a DVD sounds like a lot of effort if all you want to do is something basic.

[Tiribulus]

Plus, if I was going to be doing lots of PC editing and authoring, I'd much rather do my initial capturing on the PC using my MPEG-2 encoder card than having to deal with the limits of a single-disc stand-alone recorder and then transferring all the video over disc-by-disc. Again... back to needs / tastes of the particular person.

I've been doing that for awhile, but again, unless you want to span multiple discs for a project, you're still at the mercy of the disc limit, which means re-encoding unless you use dualies which are still several times more expensive than single layer discs. Like I said at the beginning of this thread, this is my first console recorder and it was bought on a whim when I saw it at Walmart, so all this is education for me. I wasn't even slightly intersted in one before I saw I could get one for 100 clams. I've been happy with the MPEG-2 capture card I threw in one of my machines a few years back, which also was bought on a whim. Having heard more about recorders with drives they do seem more utilitarian than I first thought. It's one of those deals where if I could get one cheap enough I probably would, but I wasn't even in the market when I bought these. I like working on my computers, so the solutions presented here are working out, actually much better than I originally thought.
>>>--Tiribulus->