cuttermaran for manual cuts

[mian]

Anyone ever tried to use cuttermaran manually? I have no complaints about the program when used with a cuttermaran project generated by the greatest prgram ever, comskip, but when I went in to do some manual cuts, I'm having some issues. Their forum being in German, I thought maybe someone here could help.

I'm tried both 1.66 and 1.65, on both my laptop and desktop and I find the same issue. After loading the file, it will play fine while I look for places to put cut points, but as soon as I try to back it up or move it forward for more precise placement, the video in the editing window resets to the first frame. The audio stays at the appropriate place, but you cannot see where putting the cuts. The same thing happens if, instead of just playing thru, you move the cursor ahead with the mouse from the beginning, and every time you pause and restart.

Anyone ever try this, or know why it might be doing that? It's certainly possible that I'm doing something simple wrong. I appreciate any tips or advice, and would be happy to provide more info should it be needed. Thanks.

Alternatively, does anyone know of an video viewer that tells you what frame you are on, so I can generate my own cuttermaran project file?

vitals:
bbdmux
cuttermaran 1.66 and 1.65
cuttyenc

Desktop
XP home, Athlon 2000+, 1 gig ram, onboard video with 32 or so megs

Laptop,
XP pro, Intel M Dothan 715, 512mb, mobility Radeon 9600 with 64meg

[mian]

I have made cuts on several shows based on the audio. It comes out mostly allright, but I cannot make cuts exactly on black frames, leading to some ugly breaks. Also the very first frame of the video frequently appears during those cuts in the final product, no doubt related to the effect I described in the editing process.

I just discovered that Cuttermaran actually does have an English forum, so I'll take this over there.

[mian]

How come you don't use comclean with comskip?

comclean 1 and mpgtx sometimes turn out video files that my re-encoding software can't read. I do sometimes use comskip-generated cuttermaran projects for automated cutting, but I haven't tuned it properly and so even when it gets most of the commercials, there's still some leftover and some breaks are only partially cut. For the couple of sitcoms that I'm collecting, I want very precise cuts.

[kayleigh]

I have made cuts on several shows based on the audio. It comes out mostly allright, but I cannot make cuts exactly on black frames, leading to some ugly breaks. Also the very first frame of the video frequently appears during those cuts in the final product, no doubt related to the effect I described in the editing process.

The only way Cuttermaran will cut on non-I Frames is if you use TMPGEnc 2.5. The free version is available here. Just configure the app to encode using TMPGEnc

• Actions Menu->Settings->Encoding

• Select "Use Encoding", select TMPGEnc 2.5 from the drop-down menu

• Click the Configure button and browse to the TMPGEnc program

• Select "Create DVD Compliant Stream" for the best results, especially if you want to convert the MPEG to a DVD.

The new 1.66 version gives me an error on open that the GOP stream is bad... I've never had a problem.

I've used Cuttermaran for the last year or so and I love it. The cuts are clean and the DVDs look really good (especially if I record on GB-PVRs "High" setting). Hope that helps!

[mian]

tipstir: TMPEGEng is a little expense considering how little I intend to use it. 40 for just the editor, 60+ for DVD author version. I'll look into womble, but I'm not sure I care enough about this project to invest that much in it. I may download one of the trials and change my mind about whether they are worth it or not, but I doubt it. Cuttermaran is perfect, other than the editing window.

Kay: Do you use cuttermaran manually (as opposed to with comclean2/comskip)? It sounds like you do since you know it doesn't normally cut on just any frame by default.

I already have cuttyenc installed and can cut on any frame--as I have done several times now using just the audio track as a cue. But do you think that which encoder you have setup affects the function of the editing window, specifically that it might cause the window to restart the video from the beginning each time I change the positions manually? I'm pretty new at this, so I've got a lot to learn. I downloaded the free version you linked, and I'll use it next time to see if there's any change.

Thank you both for the suggestions. Someone at the cuttermaran english forum has responded to my request, and perhaps they can eventually explain the strange behaviour.

[kayleigh]

Kay: Do you use cuttermaran manually (as opposed to with comclean2/comskip)? It sounds like you do since you know it doesn't normally cut on just any frame by default.

I already have cuttyenc installed and can cut on any frame--as I have done several times now using just the audio track as a cue. But do you think that which encoder you have setup affects the function of the editing window, specifically that it might cause the window to restart the video from the beginning each time I change the positions manually? I'm pretty new at this, so I've got a lot to learn. I downloaded the free version you linked, and I'll use it next time to see if there's any change.

I use cuttermaran manually. Comclean works very well for me, don't get me wrong, and I love it for watching shows in GB-PVR (auto-skipping commercials is awsome ), but I'm picky about clean edits in my DVDs, so I'd rather do it manually.

I haven't used cuttyenc, so I can't say what the encoding performance or output quality is using that, but people in http://www.videohelp.com report that they can do frame-accurate editing using that with Cuttermaran 1.58 and later.

[mian]

I've tried both 1.66 and 1.65, on both my laptop and desktop and I find the same issue. After loading the file, it will play fine while I look for places to put cut points, but as soon as I try to back it up or move it forward for more precise placement, the video in the editing window resets to the first frame.

Just in case anyone else has the problem in the future, cuttermaran's author helped me solve it by referring me to ProjectX--under the video presettings it has an option to 'ensure each GOP has a sequence header' when demuxing. My manual editing woes are gone.