Alternatives for VideoReDo TV Suite with Test Results

[codemaster]

LosslessCut and Shutter Encoder use ffmpeg to cut. FFmpeg cannot cut between keyframes. "Smart cut" is a feature of LosslessCut, not of ffmpeg. The "Smart cut" feature is experimental or beta software, which means it might not work, and it's safer to not use it.

[Bridgy]

I have cut many files between keyframes using LosslessCut during my testing, you can see it on page 1 where i have made cuts and my file exported perfectly, depending on the format of that file.

With my 4k/60p HEVC files i must cut the start of all retained segments on a keyframe and the end Cuts can be made between keyframes, and my exported file will playback fine, and import into VRD if i need to.

My cutting test results are right here, but these are tests with my own video files, others might get different results than mine, but even if i need to cut on a keyframe it is no big deal, with my 4k/60p files every keyframe is at 1 second, or 60 frame intervals, i can live with that.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/416487-Alternatives-for-VideoReDo-TV-Suite-with-Te...ts#post2756634

Any files that have playback glitches in Media Player Classic, VRD Pro will not open them.

[Bridgy]

But you both seem to be indicating that that whole gallery of functions shown under "More Tools" is indeed included within this single Tipard program ?

I can confirm that all of the conversion Tools listed in the "More Tools" setting are indeed included in the Tipard Ultimate software, i just tested the Video Reverser and it seems like we only get 5 attempts to test each feature in the Trial Version.


[Attachment 84402 - Click to enlarge]

My testing of the Video Reverse feature will be posted below.

[Bridgy]

OK here are my Video Reversal results, source file is a 30 second 4k/60p HEVC @ 40Mbps recorded on my camera.

Most of these additional editing features offered by Tipard will result in your files being fully recoded, maybe except for the Cutting Tool, which may export to the Lossless Conversion or "Same as Source" format if you buy the software and Enable the 120x Faster Conversion option.

Open Tipard Ultimate, select the More Tools option (i disable Hardware Acceleration in my editing software)


[Attachment 84423 - Click to enlarge]

Select the Video Reverser option.


[Attachment 84418 - Click to enlarge]

Import your Source File.


[Attachment 84419 - Click to enlarge]

You can Cut/Trim your file, select your File name and destination, BUT there is no Audio support, and there is NO option to select an Export Profile, so i have no idea how Tipard are doing this, so i just continued with the Export process to see what happens.


[Attachment 84420 - Click to enlarge]

I currently have 2 more test before this one, after this i get 1 more chance to test this feature.


[Attachment 84421 - Click to enlarge]

All completed, BUT this is not good news, my 4k/60p HEVC file (40Mbps) was exported to 4k/60p AVC @ a massive 135Mbps, and it took 4 minutes to recode the file, however i always disable all Hardware Acceleration when i edit or process video files, so this may explain the slow recoding time, as well as the Laptop CPU might also have a lot to do with this too.


[Attachment 84422 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 84424 - Click to enlarge]

So, in a nutshell, without having any option to select an Export Format profile, then i see this Reverse feature being totally hopeless, and pointless.

[codemaster]

Probably the "Smart cut" feature in LosslessCut doesn't have proper support for HEVC yet.

[Seeker47]

@Bridgy,

Thanks for your reply. I'd be very surprised if -- for example -- that extra tool for dealing with watermarks actually works. The last I heard (not at all recently though), that was said to be a very complicated procedure, with questionable results and a dubious success rate. Perhaps the advent of AI tech can significantly improve on that, at some point.

[Bridgy]

I have just tested the Video Reversal feature as well, will publish the results soon, and this is where things get interesting, al least there is an option to select an Export Format (profile) but the options are limited, especially the video Bitrate, but i can live with it, so far seems to work perfectly, can rotate 90 to left, 90 ro right, and flip horizontally.

Probably the "Smart cut" feature in LosslessCut doesn't have proper support for HEVC yet, like Tipard has. To test Tipard trial more, you could use the snapshot feature in VirtualBox.

Yeah i figured that LosslessCut may not have full HEVC support either, just like my VRD Pro, at least LosslessCut plays and seeks my 4k/60p HEVC files without lag, unlike VRD.

I did test 1080/60p HEVC files too, and those had the exact same results as the 4k/60p HEVC files, depending where the cuts are made on each segment.

As for the Reversal tool in Tipard, i don't need to test that feature any more, i see no point in this tool as i would never want to use it myself, and even if they supported Audio, it would also be reversed too.

I may have a need for the Reversal Tool though because i have accidentally recorded video on my phone and had the phone rotate, so i can use this tool to fix it.

[Bridgy]

@Bridgy, Thanks for your reply. I'd be very surprised if -- for example -- that extra tool for dealing with watermarks actually works. The last I heard (not at all recently though), that was said to be a very complicated procedure, with questionable results and a dubious success rate. Perhaps the advent of AI tech can significantly improve on that, at some point.

I just tested the Watermark feature and it seems really good, and it was so easy a child can do it, i just added a jpeg image rather than text, i set the watermark size, and kept it for the first 10 seconds of my video, and you can select an output Export profile and customize it just as i could in the Video Rotate feature.

Remember, this Watermark feature is only for adding a Watermark to your video, not for removal.

I will review this feature after i add my review of the Rotation feature.

[Bridgy]

Ok everyone, before i publish my results for the Rotation Tool, i want to remind you that the so called Lossless Conversion using the 120x Faster Conversion option that is only available in the paid for Version can only apply to video files that you import for Cutting/trimming/merging purposes (what i call Smart Render) and any other editing feature offered in this Software has to be re-encoded for obvious reasons, so you would need to select one of the built in export presets, or create your own custom profile.

Back to my summary of the Tipard Video Rotation Tool.



[Attachment 84443 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 84444 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 84445 - Click to enlarge]

Make your appropriate Settings here, noting that the maximum video Bitrate is 20Mbps.


[Attachment 84444 - Click to enlarge]

Select your Rotation Mode, and you cannot cut/trim your video file here.


[Attachment 84447 - Click to enlarge]

Continue to Export.


[Attachment 84448 - Click to enlarge]

Exported Video results via MediaInfo.


[Attachment 84449 - Click to enlarge]

This Tool seems to work very well with a decent set of Export settings too.

[Bridgy]

My summary of the Tipard Video Watermark Tool


[Attachment 84450 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 84451 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 84452 - Click to enlarge]

Select Text or Image for the Watermark.


[Attachment 84453 - Click to enlarge]

Create Settings for Watermark.


[Attachment 84454 - Click to enlarge]

You can change between Text and Image Watermark here.


[Attachment 84455 - Click to enlarge]

Create your Export Settings here.


[Attachment 84456 - Click to enlarge]

Start the Export.


[Attachment 84457 - Click to enlarge]

Exported File results from MediaInfo.


[Attachment 84458 - Click to enlarge]

Very easy to use, with the same Export Settings available as per the Rotation Tool.

[Bridgy]

I just tested the Tipard Speed Control Tool

There was no point in posting up Screenshots, it is a basic tool and i got exactly the same results as per the previous tests, seems to work very easily and very fast output, just don't use it if you have Audio in your video file, the Audio is sped up as well.


[Attachment 84459 - Click to enlarge]

I also just tested the Tipard Color CorrectionTool as well

As per above results, very basic correction tool, easy to use, and may suit those who require it.


[Attachment 84460 - Click to enlarge]

[Bridgy]

Just a Heads up about the Export Settings that i used for these Extra Tools in Tipard that i am currently testing.

My Exports were done using the Custom setting where i can choose my own Audio and Video settings as well as a custom video Bitrate, the Audio is fixed on AAC, no choice, and the maximum video Bitrate is limited to 20Mbps.

The High Quality and Standard Export profiles you can change Audio and some other settings, but you cannot set a custom Bitrate, they are preset by the software, so i have posted the Export video Bitrate for them below.

high Quality preset: the exported video Bitrate is 133Mbps.

Standard Quality preset: the exported video Bitrate is 81Mbps.

These export video Bitrates would only apply for my own 4k/60p HEVC files which are recorded at 40Mbps, BUT these Bitrates above are absolutely far too high for me, so i would be restricted to using the Custom profile where i can set my own Bitrate, which is only 20Mbps, and i really want my exported file to be at least 40Mbps to maintain the source file quality.

I have also just completed a Rotation test on a 3 minute 720/60p AVC video using the High Quality preset, the source file was only 2Mbps, the exported file was 18Mbps, 9 times higher bitrate than the original, yet to the eyes, you cannot see any difference because there can't be, so why would they offer an export preset that is always going to be far too high and where you cannot change it yourself.

So the video Bitrates in High and Standard Quality settings are too high, but the Custom setting only offers a maximum of 20Mbps.


A progress Summary so far.

Apart from not being able to test their Lossless Conversion (Same as Source) using the 120x Faster Conversion tool for Cutting files, this Tipard Ultimate seems to be a very decent Almost "All in One" editing suite for those who only need the basics.

It imports almost all format files, it Cuts, Merges, Export to other Formats, it has a vast array of other editing features not available in other similar priced or even more expensive software.

Would i pay US$59 for it as an Alternative to VRD (should VRD ever go down) well yes i would, as long as i can Cut my files and Export them back to the original format (as in Smart Render) without having to create my own Export profile and have to set my own video Bitrate.

Unfortunately for me i cannot test the Lossless Conversion via the 120x Faster Conversion tool because Tipard lock it out in the Trial Mode, so i have to buy Tipard to try it, and i am in 2 minds about this right now.

Cheers


I just found out that the Screen Recorder that is listed in the More Tools option is not part of the Tipard Ultimate Software, you need to buy it.

[Seeker47]

I still have a few more Tools to test, and i will post up the results soon.


I just found out that the Screen Recorder that is listed in the More Tools option is not part of the Tipard Ultimate Software, you need to buy it.

Please continue on with that, but so far the general tenor in favor of this Tipard program seems to be leaning favorable. I strongly suspect that far more users would be interested in removing watermarks than in adding them. For screen recorders -- including free ones -- there seem to be plenty of other options around. Some of the programs I already had threw in a screen recorder module as an Extra. I've very seldom needed to use one.

[Bridgy]

As for Tipard Ultimate, i could go on testing it for a very long time if i was to test each tool using more of the built in and customizable Export Format profiles, but i will run out of the 5 attempts we get with the Trial for testing all of the other tools on offer.

My focus now is to find out if i can just do my cuts in Tipard and export using their so called Lossless Conversion via the 120x Faster Conversion option, which is locked out in the trial mode, and if Tipard does not allow me to test it out in Trial mode then i probably won't buy it just to test it, given that right now VRD is still doing everything that i need it to do, except for not being able to cut my 4k/60p HEVC recorded video files on the timeline because it is far too laggy, so i either record in 4k/60p AVC or i use LosslessCut to do my cutting and Smart Rendering, and use VRD to do titles and export to other formats when needed.

I strongly suspect that far more users would be interested in removing watermarks than in adding them. For screen recorders -- including free ones -- there seem to be plenty of other options around. Some of the programs I already had threw in a screen recorder module as an Extra. I've very seldom needed to use one.

I use Bandicam a lot, but i bought a license for that ($35 per 1 year) because it was the best of the ones (free or paid) that i tried, but i never tried them all, Bandicam just seemed to do what i needed it to do at the time.

[codemaster]

I tested the lossless cut feature in Tipard (the full version, not the trial one), and the smart cut feature in LosslessCut, using as input a mp4 file recorded with my phone. The input mp4 file is 4K, 30 fps, HEVC, 28 Mb/s. This mp4 file is a 30 second recording of a stopwatch app.

In Tipard, the output file had an accurate in point, meaning the first frame is exactly the frame I selected as the in point. The out point was almost accurate. The out point was the frame after the frame that i selected as the out point. So only one frame off.

In LosslessCut, after exporting with "smart cut" enabled, the output file is unplayable. PotPlayer could not playback this file without artifacts. After exporting with "smart cut" disabled, the output file is a proper one that can be viewed without artifacts, but with inacurate in and out points caused by ffmpeg selecting closest keyframes.

Then I checked if Tipard can open VOB and VRO files from an old standard definition camera. It recognizes both formats, and it detects the DVD video titles. But it doesn't detect chapters, and it can't remux. It can only transcode an entire title (VTS) to ProRes. But with MPEG Video Wizard DVD, I can split a title by chapters, one VOB file per chapter, without transcoding.

[Bridgy]

I tested the lossless cut feature in Tipard (the full version, not the trial one)

So you have a license for Tipard Ultimate ?

When you say you tested the Lossless Cut feature, was your export file the Same as your source file after cutting, in other words, did it Smart Render it.

If the Export file was Smart Rendered, or exported in the Lossless Conversion mode, what setting did you select.

The Tipard lady (Irene) told me that to get Lossless Conversion i need to Enable the 120x Faster Conversion switch that is found on the GUI main screen after a file is imported for cutting.

The 120X Faster Conversion switch is not available in any of the other additional editing features, because doing other edits outside of just cutting bit out requires a full recode.

[codemaster]

I have Tipard Ultimate full, not trial. It doesn't have "120x Faster Conversion" anywhere, but it has a switch called "Ultrafast Conversion" which is turned on and which says it "converts video formats fast and losslessly". I don't know if this means stream copy or transcoding, they don't specify this anywhere. I set the in and out points. I select HEVC MP4 as format. I leave hardware encoding disabled. And while it exports, I look in Task Manager at CPU and GPU utilization. Export duration was 2 minutes for a 26 second clip. CPU at 100% and GPU below 20% during export. Output file has 36 Mb/s bitrate, input file has 28 Mb/s.

I leave 4K HEVC camera footage in it's original state, and I trim and rotate only a copy of it in a video editor, then export and upload to streaming platforms. Rotating can also be done without transcoding, using ffmpeg or the photo gallery app on the phone.

Tipard doesn't tell you what it's doing, and it transcodes audio. LosslessCut shows what it's doing, and doesn't transcode audio. Tipard lacks advanced features that I need, and it's only advantage is that it's made to be easy to use by non-advanced users.

[Bridgy]

What version of Tipard are you using, is it the Video Converter Ultimate like what i am testing ?


[Attachment 84477 - Click to enlarge]

The support lady told me that if i wanted the export files to be the Same as Source file, i need to enable that 120x Faster Conversion button (in the full version)

They claim to do Lossless Conversion with AI, but i have no idea what that means.

As far as Video Editing goes, it seems like you and i are working in a very similar environment, we both record video on camera in 4k HEVC and it seems like we are both doing very similar Editing as well.

I record in 4k/60p HEVC or AVC in some cases, my camera records AVC at 72Mbps, HEVC at 40Mbps, i have a 4k camera that records 4k/60p HEVC at 61Mbps and 80Mbps in AVC.

I use VRD Pro for everything i need, except i use LpsslessCut to trim out and smart render my 4k/60p HEVC files because VRD is far too laggy on the frame based timeline for me to cut in a reasonable time, and LosslessCut is fine for this.

All of my camera files are thrown away once i have done my Cuts and Smart Rendered them to Same as Source, these files are then retained as my Archive File and stored away for use later on.

In some cases i like to add titles and/or credits, so i do this in VRD Pro and export the new file to Same as Source using the Intelligent Recode option, where only the frames of the Title/Credit are recoded.

In some cases, i need to export files to lower formats for others to watch on their TV etc, i use VRD Pro for this too.

As far as Cutting my camera files goes, i don't get all fussed about the cuts being deadly accurate, with 60p files (60fps) missing a few frames here or there is no big deal, but i do like my exported files to have a very similar Bitrate to each other.

As for Tipard Ultimate i could live with some of it's sloppiness once i get used to working out the settings etc, but i like it more for the other supported editing features that VRD does not have, but nothing in this world will replace VRD Professional for me, and i am only doing all this testing with other software just in case the VRD Pro activation server is discontinued by the family of the owner Dan Rosen, who passed away in 2022.

I think i have now done enough testing of Tipard Ultimate to draw a final conclusion, which has been made more easy for me after just completing more Cutting tests.

Results and conclusion to follow.

[codemaster]

I have Tipard Video Converter Ultimate, version 10.3.30 from 2023. Not the trial version. In this version, the toggle "120x Faster Conversion" was named "Ultrafast Conversion". With "Ultrafast Conversion" enabled, cut points are very accurate, but nowhere they confirm to me that this "Ultrafast Conversion" does not transcode everything. All they tell me is "it converts losslessly", and MediaInfo shows that this "lossless conversion" increased the bitrate by 8 Mb/s.

[Bridgy]

So after making your cuts, your file should be exported in super fast time, with no recoding except a few frames either side of your cuts, this is how Smart Render works in VRD, and is supposed to be how it works in LosslessCut too.

In VRD and LosslessCut i do get a small discrepancy (up to 1.5Mbps) in my Exported file but that is due to the minor recoding of those frames, but it should never be 8Mbps, and if it is 8Mbps then the exported file is being recoded, or Tipard is being very sloppy.

After what you have just told me, and if this info is indeed correct, then it now makes me more doubtful about Tipard being a viable option to do my Cuts and Losslessly exporting them for use later on.

I think i rather use LosslessCut for my Trimming out and Smart Render work, and retain those files for Archiving.

I would use Tipard Ultimate for it's other editing tools, but i would retain those edited files as my files to watch, and archive them separately.

Regarding Export speeds with Tipard, i tested a 30 second 4k/60p HEVC file with 5 minor cuts, i exported using the Custom, Standard, and High Quality profiles, and in all 3 cases, if i had the Hardware Acceleration turned OFF my exports were being done by the CPU and took around 4 minutes to run.

When Hardware is turned ON, my exports were done inside 1 minute.

With my 6 core Metabox laptop with 32gb ram, i have Intel HD630 graphics on the CPU, and i have an nVIDIA GTX1050 dedicated graphics, so when i turn hardware acceleration off, it uses CPU, when turned on it is using the nVIDIA graphics, personally i prefer Intel QuickSync over nVIDIA, which i can select in VRD, i can't select it in Tipard because IT decides which graphics it should use.

[codemaster]

So I am 100% sure that VideoReDo copies 99% of the frames, and transcodes 1% of the frames. But when Tipard says "ultrafast conversion", "lossless video output", and "convert fast and losslessly", that could mean "transcoding 100% of the frames after automatically allocating a bitrate equal or higher than the bitrate of the input file". So the camera encoded the frames with HEVC, and Tipard encodes them all again with HEVC super fast lowering their visual quality? If yes, then keeping the original camera footage is the only way to preserve the original visual quality.

[Bridgy]

Dammit i had written a whole lot of stuff as a reply to your post, and i stupidly refreshed the page and i lost everything that i wrote, so i will try to cover it again soon.

However, just after reading your Post i was reminded of a topic that was posted in this forum 10 years ago, and believe it or not, i just found the link in my video editing bookmarks to that very same thread, so i have posted it below, it has bought back so many memories from those days, but a lot of the information in this Thread, especially on page 2, has made me have a good re-think about video editing, and the software that i am currently using, and it has made me feel a bit deflated to be honest.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/363703-h264-encoding-%28single-or-double-pass%29

Based on what was detailed in that Thread (on page 2) it reminded me that Tipard may well be using the Mainconcept encoder and not the x.264 or x.265 encoders for rendering AVC and HEVC files, and if that is the case, i will not be using it for any of it's editing features, and nor will i be using Hardware based encoders either.

Tipard is cheap to buy, and so too was VRD, and looking back thru it all, and also from what i read in that old Thread, i do now recall that the late Dan Rosen (owner of VRD) told me that they use the Mainconcept encoder (for software based encoding) because the licensing fee for the x.264 and x.265 encoders was too expensive, and the would have had to charge 5 times the price if they used the x.264 and x.265 encoders.

I recall Dan telling me something like Mainconcept is used in a lot of commercial paid for software, mainly because when used in free open source programs they don't pay a licensing fee, where as if used in a commercial tool they need to pay for it, and the cost of the license would force the price of the software to be a lot more expensive, and i believe that some higher end editing suites also use Mainconcept as well.

I am not sure if VRD ever moved over to the x.264 and x.265 encoders, but my guess would be that they never did so.

If what i am thinking right now is correct, then i can still use VRD for Cutting, adding Titles if needed, and Smart Render back to the original Source file, as there is very little recoding done anyway, so there will be no loss of video quality, i can then use Handbrake, or another free encoder that does use the x.264 and x.265 encoders to export to other formats if/when the case arises, just so that i am still retaining better quality from those than using a tool that uses Mainconcept.

If VRD ever fails in the future, i will just use LosslessCut to Cut and Smart Render my files for Archiving, and then use another free encoder that uses x.264 and x.265 to export to another format.

[Bridgy]

Just got another reply from Tipard Support, this was what she had to say.


[Attachment 84481 - Click to enlarge]

Got another email with screenshots of what is and is not available in the Trial Mode.


[Attachment 84485 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 84483 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 84484 - Click to enlarge]

[codemaster]

VideoReDo showed me in real time while exporting, exactly what is doing: fast frame copy or encoding. Tipard shows me nothing, so I don't know what it is doing. Most of the time VideoReDo was doing fast frame copy, so it didn't matter what encoder it was using to encode 0.5% of the frames. But for most projects, I kept the original, edited it in Premiere Pro and encoded it with x264, so that I can add titles, transitions, fix white balance, fix audio issues, blur faces, without noticeable loss in visual quality.

Then I switched from a real camera to a phone camera, and that meant I had to switch from Premiere Pro and x264 to Movavi Video Editor and AVC hardware encoding, because I needed compatibility with variable frame rate files, and because using software encoding for high resolutions like 4K and 1080p takes too many hours, or even days. And I import 28 Mb/s 4K HEVC variable frame rate clips in Movavi, it creates 480p proxy files that are super fast to decode, and I export 56 Mb/s 4K AVC with "medium" preset selected, and with hardware encoding enabled, so that it takes several hours instead of several days.

[Bridgy]

I do software encoding, so i always know when my editor is doing a Smart Render or a full encode because my CPU tells me, and Smart Render is almost instant, encoding can take whatever time it will take depending on the duration of the file, and my CPU/Ram.

Tipard runs Hardware encoding at around 4 times faster than Software encoding, but i don't like using graphics hardware for encoding, even if it is 10 times faster, software encoding (x.264/x.265) is just better overall, but a lot slower, especially with 4k/60p HEVC.

HEVC is around 30 to 35% more efficient than AVC, and when Dan Rosen set up Intelligent Recode in VRD to force a recode from say HEVC to AVC, he set VRD up to use a video Bitrate of 33% higher than the HEVC source file so it was supposed to match the quality of the HEVC file, and the same going from AVC to HEVC, but in reverse.

Others might tell you the difference is more or less than 30/35% but i will always trust Dan for what he always told me in our many conversations in Skype.

Anyway, i am not doing any more testing with Tipard, i'm done with it, especially for recoding now that i know it most likely uses the Mainconcept encoder for Software encoding.

While ever i still have VRD Pro i will continue to use it for my Cutting and adding Titles when needed, and Smart Render back to original, no need for me to keep my original camera file taking up valuable space and never be used again.

The adding of text or graphical Titles in VRD is done differently than most other editing tool that do titles, so only the frames of the Title are recoded along with a few frames at each cut.

I will probably just use Handbrake or a similar free tool that uses the x.264 and x.265 encoders to export my VRD processed file to other formats, if my export is not that critical then i will just use VRD.

[codemaster]

I tested Tipard again, not the trial version, and I can confirm that it is not an alternative for VideoReDo, because it encodes everything.

I added a mkv file, with a HEVC stream that has the duration 1 h 52 min. I enabled "Ultrafast Conversion" and "Hardware Acceleration". For the output I selected "HEVC MP4" and "Same as source". I added in and out points to trim it to 1 h 33 min. I started the conversion and stopped it after 5 min. During these 5 min, it encoded 28 min of video, and the GPU utilization in Task Manager never dropped below 100%. I repeated this test with hardware acceleration turned off, and it encoded 2 min of video in 5 min, while CPU never dropped below 100%.

[Bridgy]

Ok well in an email that i think i posted above, they claim to do Lossless Conversion (no recoding) by using that 120x Faster Conversion option, so i don't know what is going on here.

Why don't you move to the latest version rather than stick to a 2 year old version, maybe their Lossless Conversion system has changed from hat you have (Ultrafast Conversion)

If it did do Lossless, or as we call it Smart Render, then you should not have to click on the export profiles menu and select an export profile as you did, we don't need to do it in VRD, and nor with LosslessCut i don't think.

It should, by default, just lock out any previously used Export presets made and Smart Render it to your selected destination folder, this is how i thought it might work.

Anyway, it doesn't matter now, Tipard in their wisdom has locked out this feature in Trial mode so i can't test it anyway.

Given that i only need to do Cuts, add Title/Credit sometimes, and Smart Render, i would probably buy TMPGEnc Smart Renderer 6, but their Titles feature actually overlays my text over the top of the actual video frames so it needs to recode the file, or at least that segment of my file, and i hate Text Titles overlaid onto my Video.

VRD uses Frame based text boxes, and it will add the required number of text frames to the start of my video, so if i want 10 seconds of Title, it adds 600 text frames to the start, or i can add an image instead, and only those frames get recoded, and i can even add fade in and out as well.

TMPGEnc also uses the Mainconcept software encoder and can do hardware encoding too, neither of which i want to use.

[codemaster]

If I had 4K camera footage that I didn't want to keep, I would do keyframe-based cutting and trimming using a ffmpeg-based app like LosslessCut or Shutter Encoder. Then, for each clip I want titles, I would open it in Subtitle Edit and add each title as a subtitle, then save it as a SubRip external subtitle text file, with the same file name as the clip. Later, if I need to edit this footage in Premiere Pro or other NLE, I can edit the original instead of a copy with burned-in titles in it, and when I export I can use any encoder, and any encoding parameters, and without the need for large ProRes or UT Video intermediary files.

[Bridgy]

If I had 4K camera footage that I didn't want to keep, I would do keyframe-based cutting and trimming using a ffmpeg-based app like LosslessCut or Shutter Encoder.

Never heard of Shutter Encoder, downloading it now and will see what it can do.

EDIT: Man o Man, just when it was looking like a promising tool, i loaded up a 4k/60p HEVC and a 4k/60p AVC file and the HEVC one has a terrible glitch in the Audio when playing it in the preview pane, and the video stutter, just like it does in the VRD player, the AVC file plays ok.

I set the software to cut with no recoding, but the seek buttons only moves to each Keyframe (every 1 second) not between keyframes, so it must only work on keyframes, BUT when i try to move forward to the next fame it just doesn't move, and then you have to work out how to set your cuts, it is not the same method as it is in VRD and LosslessCut, the cutting tool in those are so easy to use.

For me it all just seems very clunky, and also, if i hover my mouse over a button it does not open a small dialog to tell me what function it does.

The GUI is just too cluttered and confusing for me, but it certainly looked nice when i first opened it.

I will give it a few more goes but i really won't hold my breathe too much, and i still have not even worked out what other functions it has, just tested the cutting tool so far.

LosslessCut is still looking like the best overall stand alone single feature Cutting and Smart Render tool i have used outside of VRD.

I also tested XMedia Recode again after many years, mainly to see if it had changed much, compared to Handbrake, but not much has changed, it is still a bit clunky for me, and can't compete with Handbrake in my opinion.

I just wish Handbrake would stop using an RF factor in their Constant Quality setting, i would rather input my own video quality Bitrate, the RF method does not tell me what the bitrate will be prior to export.

[Seeker47]

But with MPEG Video Wizard DVD, I can split a title by chapters, one VOB file per chapter, without transcoding.

I believe that was one of the Womble products ? Likely discontinued for some time, but their products used to be covered in the Software section here on VH. However, I'm not finding any trace of them here now.