mpeg2 cut and join utility

[dmz]

Hi,
Does anyone know of any free software that can cut bits out of mpeg files and join mpeg files? The cutting would be someone thing the A-B erase function that currently exists on many dvd hard drive recorders where you end up with a smaller mpeg with the bits cut out.

thanks

[Ken Berry]

Well, it's not free, but if you are posting here, you probably already have it. It's called Video Studio. And the process you are describing is called video editing. And that is what Video Studio does... Haven't you been here long enough to know that???

[dmz]

Well yes I do have videostudio, and I think I may have misunderstood how videostudio works. Mpeg is a lossy format so I thought that if i created a project with bits cut out of a source mpeg or bits joined together from multiple source mpegs and then I created an Mpeg from that (i.e. create video file from project), that it would rerender and therefore lose quality. Am I mistaken?

[Ken Berry]

Yes, it's a lossy format, but it is lossy regardless of which program you use. Nothing can make it un-lossy... And in fact, in recent versions of VS, the editing and re-rendering are better than in most other programs because if you maintain the same properties, then you can, in your re-encode/re-render use SmartRender, which only in fact renders those parts which have been edited. The rest is untouched so the quality is maintained.

If you start with high quality mpeg-2, moreover, you can probably re-render it 3 or 4 times without any noticeable degradation of quality. But beyond that, you will start to notice some artifacts creeping in. In fact each re-render of an mpeg-2 will involve some loss of quality, but if you start out with high quality, the incremental loss is probably not noticeable until after 3 or 4 times... Some would say even more, up to 5 or 6 times, but I have never gotten that far up the scale...

[HerronScott]

David,

Although I use VideoStudio 11 to create and burn my projects, I use VideoRedo to cut commercials out. VideoRedo only edts the frames around the cut and the rest of the MPEG file is copied as is so there is no change in quality other than the frames around the edit. Smartrender sounds similar but I had issues with audio sync back in VS 7/8 which lead me to VideoRedo and for me I find that I can edit commercials out much faster and more accurately with VideoRedo due to its interface and keyboard/mouse setttings even though it's now a 2-step process.

Scott

[sjj1805]

I think DMZ is asking about a dedicated MPEG Editor.
VideoStudio in my opinion is more geared towards editing DV from a digital camcorder - yes it can and does edit MPEG, Quicktime, Microsoft AVI, SWF and various other formats.

For MPEG Editing I tend to use Womble for cutting things out. I then render from Womble a fresh MEPG2 file which I then import into VideoStudio or even DVD Workshop 2 to create the DVD Menus. I found Womble to be much easier than VideoRedo. Whilst Womble DVD can create DVD Menus they are very basic and vastly inferior to those provided with VideoStudio.

I have often said that there is no need to stick rigidly to one piece of software and that you can and should use the best bits of whatever is available. Another example is editing audio. Here again VideoStudio can edit audio - but not to the extent as the free audio editor audacity, so I export some or all of the audio track, edit it with audacity and then import it back into Videostudio.

[Sektionschef]

Hi
A free tool that can cut/join mpeg2 clips is cuttermaran!
Only downside is that it requires the source video already split(demux) into video(mpv) and audio(mpa) files. This can be done with another freeware pvastrumento.
Although cuttermaran works well I prefer to use Videoredo because I don't need to do the demux task. However, Videoredo is not freeware.

By the way, I don't recommend to use Videostudio for editing mpeg2 files because Videostudio's Smartrenderer is VERY buggy an produces distorted results!!!

Regards
Sektionschef