Tools and other software edit TV recordings, Avidemux (2 Viewers)

[VdR]

I regularly want to save TV recodings for the kids. For this I like to cut the pre- and post-recording and for some channels do some cropping.

I found Avidemux excellent to do exactly this, it is also one of the few packages that can read the .TS format from MP recordings. The new .TS file created by Avidemux plays fine in MP.

BUT:

Avidemux doesn't handle the A/V synchronization very well. I can't get it right. Not even the A/V shift function, since the delay is not constant.

So, I found ProjectX to clean up the .TS files first. It can be used to do a rough cut and then demux the .TS into .m2v and .mp2 files for use with Avidemux.

Then Avidemux can be used to do final cutting and cropping and to create a new .TS file. This .TS file then plays fine with Avidemux with perfect A/V synchronization.

BUT:

The new .TS file now won't play in MP.

Anybody using Avidemux to edit .TS files recorded with MP?
What format (container) do you code the recording into?
What video and audio codes do you select in Avidemux to do so?
What codecs are required in MP to play this file?

VdR

 

[VdR]

I meanwhile managed to get MP play the .ts file cleaned with ProjectX and cut and cropped with Avidemux. I had to change to using the ffdshow codecs in MP. This means I now have a workable solution.

Step 1:
I clean up the recorded TV .ts file with ProjectX. To do so I have to 'demux' it. To save time I also do the pre- and post recording cutting with ProjectX. This give me a .m2v video file and a .mp2 audio file.

Step 2:
I rebuild the .ts file with Avidemux. To do so I open the .m2v file and add the .mp2 as audio. Then I chose the DVD (lavc) codec for video, copy for audio and the MPEG TS (A+V) output format. I add a video filter to do the cropping.


Notes:

I found a self installing version of ProjectX 0.90.400b29 CVS 2009-02-13 here:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ProjectX

Look for:
More information and other downloads:
Requires Java or download Projectx compiled with Java included here (20MB) or ProjectX Portable (9MB).

While demuxing ProjectX shows the A/V shift, it runs up to more than 2 seconds towards the end of a movie.

If you don't need to crop you should be able to just use ProjectX, but when I wrote a .ts file with it the A/V shift was still there. Maybe some more experimenting is required.

I use Avidemux 2.4.3.

To add the audio stream goto 'Audio' then 'Main track' then select 'External MP3' under 'Audio source' and browse to the .mp2 file created by ProjectX under 'External file'.

I create a new .ts file, but of course you can also create a much smaller .avi file. However the quality suffers and coding takes a lot longer. I'm not worried about HDD space.

VdR

 

[VdR]

UPDATE

I have had trouble with a .TS file created with Avidemux. Halfway into the movie the image quality became very poor and sound was gone. That is soooo anoying!

First I made an .MKV file instead but I can't get MP to play it.

Then I made an .AVI file (x264 video and MP3 audio) I also managed to add subtitles from an .SRT file to it. This worked fine, but the encoding time is terrible and image quality is not as good.

VdR

 

[VdR]

UPDATE

The trouble with the .TS file seems to be structural.

I did a search and it was already reported on the avidemux forum in 2008, but appearently never fixed. Only the first 2GB of the result file work, after that the problem as described occurs. So I'm coding into AVI for now. Pity.

VdR

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

That's one reason I like mcebuddy, using the h.264 option, agreed, all h.264 encoding takes a while, but worth it, as the resulting file looks as good as the original (in my eyes), just set it to run at night, set memcoder as a exception in powerscheduler, uses comskip as well.

 

[VdR]

UPDATE

I'm still experimenting and also tried MCEBuddy now.

First of all I'm coming to the same conclusion as Paranoid Delusion, probably h.264 (MPEG-4) is the way to go.

AVIdemux is the most versatile editor but it has two important shortcomings; it can't properly read a .TS file (will cause a A/V shift) and it can't create an output file larger than 2 GB.

The workaround for the first shortcoming is to use a demuxer to split the .TS file into a video and audio stream first. This can be done with ProjectX, but also MPEG Streamclip does this job. The latter is easier to install and has a better user interface.

The workaround for the second shortcoming is to go to MPEG-4 encoding, then even a full length movie is less than 2 GB.

AVIdemux has some very interesting options including adding sub-titles. But MPEG Streamclip can trim (pre- and post-recording), cut (commercials), crop, and do the MPEG-4 encoding, so for most jobs there is no need for AVIdemux at all.

VdR

 

[jsimo01]

PVAStrumento will output an MPEG-2 Program Stream comaptible with a number of editors, I use Womble MPEG2VCR or MPEG2CUT and then queue jobs for encoding in AutoGK. For H.264 I use H264Cutter and tsMuxer in combination with MeGUI for encoding.

I've never played with Comskip though and wonder if anyone else has any experience?

-J

 

[kszabo]

Why not use mpeg2cut2? here: Mpg2Cut2

Works perfect for me. You can cut at keyframes, cut your recording "intro" and "outro" relult is still .ts (playable in MP always untill now). It can keep all your audiotracks. The result can be loaded in XMedia Recode XMedia Recode
(freeware) and transcoded into whatever you want (mkv with several audio tracks with aac, AC3 etc, divX, Xvid, iPod compatible stuff etc.).

This is my way, trying a lot of stuff (ProjectX, PVAStrumento, DVRPro, NeroRecode, TSRemux....) Simplest and best.

I use h.264 as video codec (2pass variable bitrate, with B-Frames) and AAC as audiocodec, mkv as container. It can keep pixel aspect ratio (like anamprh 16:9 movies), crop black bars (you can even decode cinamescope movies to 21:9 cutting bars and keeping anamprphic pixels) Superb quality!

 

[VdR]

UPDATE:

I have been experimenting quite a bit more and ended up with the following:

For recorded TV I now use 'SolveigMM Video Splitter' to cut pre- and post-recording and commercials. It does not re-encode so I keep a .TS file. Very easy to work with and quick. I'm still on the 21 day trail, but since it is the only decent program that easily cuts MPs .TS files I will probably buy it.

For DVDs I use DVDshrink.

For both the recorded TV and DVDs I use HandBreak to encode into .AVI

I gave up on messing with ProjextX and AVIdemux, you just never know if it is going to work. I also tried AVS video converter 6, which did work fine for all the trials on a short sample but consistently crashed on any full size movie.

VdR

 

[kszabo]

UPDATE:
... 'SolveigMM Video Splitter' to cut pre- and post-recording and commercials. ... it is the only decent program that easily cuts MPs .TS files

MPG2CUT2 freeware, decent. Load file, set in and out frame, got to "save clip as" and you have your cropped .TS. I never had problems with it.

edit: OK, OK, commercial in the middle is a problem.