Nix Commercials from MPEG2?
October 19, 2005 2:08 PM Subscribe
What's a good (and free!) way to remove commercials from mpeg2 files?
Specifically, I have recorded some live TV with a PVR-150 Hauppauge card and want to make a DVD from the data files. Creating the DVD is easy enough, but I'd like to remove the commercials from the files, then use the snipped files as the source from which the DVD will be created. What software is available for the Windows platoform? Bonus karma if the software is open source, but free will also do.
Specifically, I have recorded some live TV with a PVR-150 Hauppauge card and want to make a DVD from the data files. Creating the DVD is easy enough, but I'd like to remove the commercials from the files, then use the snipped files as the source from which the DVD will be created. What software is available for the Windows platoform? Bonus karma if the software is open source, but free will also do.
For all of my video editing needs on Windows, I use VirtualDubMod, which meets your requirements for free and open-source. It works on the concept of taking a video file and applying "filters" to produce an output file. There should be one that will let you "skip over" certain times or sections when building the output, but I don't know for sure off the top of my head.
As an aside, for Macs, I use ffmpegX.
posted by chota at 2:25 PM on October 19, 2005
As an aside, for Macs, I use ffmpegX.
posted by chota at 2:25 PM on October 19, 2005
Slightly-less-than-legal?!?! Hmm... didn't know about that. But I suppose... it DOES let you manipulate MPEG2 streams without a license, so yeah, it probably is a bit of a boo-boo.
Since the poster says "creating the DVD is easy enough" I'm going to assume he has properly-licensed MPEG2 encoding software. So, to get around VDubMod's legal problem, grab the video from TV in something other than MPEG2, produce output with VDubMod in something other than MPEG2, then use your properly-licensed MPEG2 encoder to write DVDs.
IANAL, but I think that might be above-board. :)
posted by chota at 2:29 PM on October 19, 2005
Since the poster says "creating the DVD is easy enough" I'm going to assume he has properly-licensed MPEG2 encoding software. So, to get around VDubMod's legal problem, grab the video from TV in something other than MPEG2, produce output with VDubMod in something other than MPEG2, then use your properly-licensed MPEG2 encoder to write DVDs.
IANAL, but I think that might be above-board. :)
posted by chota at 2:29 PM on October 19, 2005
mpeg2cut might be up your alley. I used it for DVB streams, worked ok on players that were smart (VLC, PowerDVD, mplayer). Stupid players would blow up all the time (anything else).
Your biggest problem is the timecodes will be completely screwed up, along with the A/V offset factors (leaving you without lipsynch). You'll also have a corrupted MPEG-2 preamble or whatever it is called. Players that are smart enough not to trust these values (or smart enough to trust them only when they look right) are good.
You could, after cutting it, run it through a transcoder to fix it all back up, though. :-) Or leave it alone and don't care.
posted by shepd at 2:46 PM on October 19, 2005
Your biggest problem is the timecodes will be completely screwed up, along with the A/V offset factors (leaving you without lipsynch). You'll also have a corrupted MPEG-2 preamble or whatever it is called. Players that are smart enough not to trust these values (or smart enough to trust them only when they look right) are good.
You could, after cutting it, run it through a transcoder to fix it all back up, though. :-) Or leave it alone and don't care.
posted by shepd at 2:46 PM on October 19, 2005
Response by poster: I'll examine VirtualDubMod. To clarify, (1)my Hauppauge card captures and encodes directly to mpeg2. Capturing into another format isn't an option. (2)The software I'm using to burn the DVD is Sonic My DVD (hey, it was included with my burner -- don't knock it).
posted by kc0dxh at 2:51 PM on October 19, 2005
posted by kc0dxh at 2:51 PM on October 19, 2005
i use "projectX", which is a java program and thus (theoretically) cross-platform.
i have never had any kind of timecode/audio sync problems. i use it regularly to cut up MPEG2 TS (transport stream( (ATSC aka american digital television). i assume it can handle PS (program stream) as well.
doom9 guide to projectX
posted by joeblough at 3:27 PM on October 19, 2005
i have never had any kind of timecode/audio sync problems. i use it regularly to cut up MPEG2 TS (transport stream( (ATSC aka american digital television). i assume it can handle PS (program stream) as well.
doom9 guide to projectX
posted by joeblough at 3:27 PM on October 19, 2005
The best program I have found for this is VideoReDo. A fully-functional free trial is available, so if you have a limited number of videos to chop, it may be what you are looking for.
posted by Otis at 4:40 PM on October 19, 2005
posted by Otis at 4:40 PM on October 19, 2005
I'll second mpeg2cut. shepd is correct that some players freak out with it, but if your DVD software is good, you'll have few issues. I did this exact same thing all summer with Nero Vision Express as my authoring program. Not sure if some software will complain, but Nero didn't.
YMMV, but I rarely had the A/V unsync on me either. There are some options given in the help file that really reduce this. The only problem I had is that mpeg2cut has a pretty crappy GUI. But once you figure it out, it's a snap, and worked great for me.
posted by SuperNova at 5:51 PM on October 19, 2005
YMMV, but I rarely had the A/V unsync on me either. There are some options given in the help file that really reduce this. The only problem I had is that mpeg2cut has a pretty crappy GUI. But once you figure it out, it's a snap, and worked great for me.
posted by SuperNova at 5:51 PM on October 19, 2005
VideoReDo is the best programme for this (I've tried them all!). It costs, but there's a free trial, and it is worth the money. As you may or may not know, the most important thing is to avoid reencoding the video - VideoReDo does this. There's also a programme called MPEGVideoEditor (I think) by a company called Womble (I think) which does a similar job, and has a very generous free trial.
posted by ascullion at 12:40 AM on October 20, 2005
posted by ascullion at 12:40 AM on October 20, 2005
ProjectX (to demux to video + audio), & Cuttermaran for the ad-chopping.
ProjectX, by itself, will only cut on a GOP boundary - leaving you to either cut off the beginning/end of program, or leave a few frames of ad, at the edit point. But Cuttermaran, with the CuttyEnc plugin/provider using the open-source MPEG2Enc encoder, will give frame-accurate cutting and re-encode just that GOP to maintain integrity.
I don't think Virtualdub MPEG2 will allow you to save as an MPEG2 file, which is what you want if you're burning to DVD...
posted by Pinback at 6:40 AM on October 20, 2005
ProjectX, by itself, will only cut on a GOP boundary - leaving you to either cut off the beginning/end of program, or leave a few frames of ad, at the edit point. But Cuttermaran, with the CuttyEnc plugin/provider using the open-source MPEG2Enc encoder, will give frame-accurate cutting and re-encode just that GOP to maintain integrity.
I don't think Virtualdub MPEG2 will allow you to save as an MPEG2 file, which is what you want if you're burning to DVD...
posted by Pinback at 6:40 AM on October 20, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:25 PM on October 19, 2005