Free alternative for Videoredo or Womble

[erik]

There is a free alternative for Videoredo and Womble MPEG-VCR.
Its called mpeg2cut2.
It is a GOB cutter so don't expect frame accurate edits but it is supposed to have a very robust MPEG decoder allowing also the cutting of DVB-T recordings.

It features a new cutlist format that is currently not generated by comskip or SA.
But I may consider adding it to Comskip (if I understand the format, a lot of redundant info in there)

I am not sure if mpeg2cut2 fixes the PTS at the cutpoint so there is not jump in the timeline at the cut point causing some mpeg players to crash or otherwise fail.

google for mpeg2cut2, the first entry.

[herbs]

You can also try mpegschnitt and cutterman I believe both are free. Whether they are better or worse than mpeg2cut I don't know.

[erik]

Both mpegschnitt and cutterman require you to demux first which makes them slower to use however they both deliver execellent results.

I should have stated "There is an additional free alternative to....."

[landru22]

I have been playing around alot with Mpeg2Cut2 and have found that the mpeg files that it creates without the commercials have problems if converted to DVD. It works great if you are working with a file that you just want to trim the beginning and end (such as a movie on HBO).

I think it would be best to try to add a cutlist for Cutterman with comskip. There are plenty of freeware demuxing programs (I actually use Mpeg2Cut2 to demux, then edit out the ads with Cutterman).

I have also heard of people having problems with files edited with Mpeg2Cut2 played with GBPVR (that it freezes at the cut points).

One thing I noticed with Cutterman though is that the cutlist should be comprised of video you want to keep (if you add the commercials to the cutlist, you end up with a file of commercials). So basically it cuts out the "good" video.

I will look at the cutlist for Cutterman and see if I can be of any help but I am no video expert.

[landru22]

I compared the Comskip .txt and Cutterman project (.cpf) files and I believe that it may not be too difficult to create the .cpf file in comskip.

Comskip (Version 77) .txt File:

FILE PROCESSING COMPLETE 61036 FRAMES
-------------------
1 3651
6822 12905
26203 33439
51172 56028
57496 57660

Cutterman .cpf file

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<StateData xmlns="http://cuttermaran.kickme.to/StateData.xsd">
<usedVideoFiles FileID="0" FileName="C:\Movies\KOQ-full.M2V" />
<usedAudioFiles FileID="4" FileName="C:\Movies\KOQ-full.m2a" StartDelay="0" />
<CutElements refVideoFile="0" StartPosition="3652" EndPosition="6821">
<cutAudioFiles refAudioFile="4" />
</CutElements>
<CutElements refVideoFile="0" StartPosition="12906" EndPosition="26202">
<cutAudioFiles refAudioFile="4" />
</CutElements>
<CutElements refVideoFile="0" StartPosition="33440" EndPosition="51171">
<cutAudioFiles refAudioFile="4" />
</CutElements>
<CutElements refVideoFile="0" StartPosition="56029" EndPosition="57495">
<cutAudioFiles refAudioFile="4" />
</CutElements>
<CurrentFiles refVideoFiles="0">
<currentAudioFiles refAudioFiles="4" />
</CurrentFiles>
</StateData>


Since Cutterman cuts out the video you want to keep (should really be called the keep list instead of the cut list), the start position of the first cut (3652) is one greater than the end position of the first cut in the txt file (3651). The end position of the first cut (6821) is one less than the start position of the second cut in the txt file (6822) and so on.

Even if comskip can't generate the Cutterman cutlist, It looks like this will be fairly easy to manually create a Cutterman project file.

Hope this helps.

[erik]

I added support for the cuttermaran .cpf project file format to Comskip 0.77 build 66.
Download comskip77.zip from http://mk.kaashoek.com/gbpvr/

[ww4397]

I added support for the cuttermaran .cpf project file format to Comskip 0.77 build 66.
Download comskip77.zip from http://mk.kaashoek.com/gbpvr/

Hi erik,

I tried 0.77 build 66 and set:

output_cuttermaran=1

But no .cpf file was generated.

Is there something else I need to do?

Thanks.

[erik]

Apologies,

Something went wrong with the upload to the web server.
Please download again.

[ww4397]

Hi erik,

Thanks for the reply. I re-downloaded and the .cpf file is now generted. When I attemp to use it I receive the following two errors:

The project file is not valid.
Error while reading project file.

Any ideas?

[erik]

Did you demux the mpeg file first?
Cuttermaran expects separate video and audio files according the names specified in the .cpf file, the names I chose are the defaults when you demux using mpeg2cut2.

Or could you post the generated .cpf file?