Cut and Merge Vs Source Range (TMPGEnc)

[Colonel_Starr]

I have never used cut/merge as I always 'source range', i was wondering if it is pretty much the same thing.

Does it actually cut the Mpeg you have or make a 2 part copy (needing more space on HD). Are there any issues with it as every time i tried in the past cutting my vcd i had synch problems all over the place.

Finally how long should the process take as my TMPGEnc doesn't let you know when it's finished it appears to just carry on when you mux or cut/merge, weird.

I ask as I don't want to use cut/merge, but I think I have to as I am muxxing instead of encoding the Mpeg.

Thanks for any info

[aguillon]

I find cutting more user-friendly that source range. It is easy to use, you define the entry and exit points of your video, give the output a name and press the OK button. Nothing to it.

Does not take that long, from 5 to 10 minutes for cutting a 60min segment on my P4 1.7 ghz, and I normally do that while at the same time burning CDs, encoding videos and downloading from the internet.

Cheers

[Zogg]

I find cutting to be easy and a lot quicker as aguillon said, but the precision is horrible. If I cut a file based on what it shows me, the timing is off by at least 30 seconds. I have to keep cutting based on trial and error to get it right, and it can take 10 tries to get the cut the way I want.
But doing it the other way, TMPGenc re-encodes the file and takes forever for each iteration, and the audio is quite frequently out of sync.

I am looking for alternatives. Someone in another post mentioned MyFlix as a decent MPEG1 editor. I downloaded MyFlixXE Demo that cuts MPEG2 and it seemed to work pretty well. I hate to pay $130 for it but I can't find a good alternative, and my time is valuable.

I'm open to suggestions on editing MPEG2 if anyone has one.