Creating DVDs.

[freewheeling]

This isn't really a question about SageTV, but thought you might have some good advice. I've tried creating a few DVDs from recordings created via my Hauppauge HD-PVR in Arcsoft's Total Media Extreme, but I noticed that the cutting room edits are off by about three seconds. That is, if I make a cut just before a commercial starts, and again just after it ends, I get about three seconds at the beginning of the commercial and lose about 3 seconds of the program. Is there other software that works better for this sort of thing, or are they all this inaccurate when creating DVDs and editing out commercials?

[Menehune]

VideoReDo TV Suite (ver 3.1.5) is supposed to be able to create DVDs. I haven't used the DVD creation feature, but the video editing feature is spot on and does not have delays.

[freewheeling]

I've been using the Arcsoft product to edit out the commercials from my recorded TV programs and then burn them to a DVD but the Arcsoft software "cuts" are only approximate, and sometimes off by 10 or 20 seconds. Is there a better solution for editing out commercials prior to burning a DVD, something a little less clunky than Arcsoft? I assume that I can't edit the files using SageTV because it's not made for that.

I'm using Windows 7 professional 64-bit.

* merged *

[evilpenguin]

VideoRedo does a pretty good job of cutting and DVD creation.

[gplasky]

Agreed VideoRedo TV Suite v4.

Gerry

[freewheeling]

I noticed that I'd already asked that question awhile ago, and got the same answer. This time I downloaded the free trial.

[davephan]

I've tried about a dozen different video editing packages, and VideoReDo is the best so far. I've never tried the high dollar Adobe Premiere Pro. It costs a $1000 or more, and has a very steep learning curve. The edits are pretty accurate with VideoReDo. If your edits are off by more than a small fraction of a second, then the editing software isn't very useful. A lot of the other video editing packages priced under or around $100, are just buggy and lock up. Most of the other video editing software is designed to edit small camcorder clips with a storyboard, not edit out commercials from recorded television. VideoReDo doesn't lockup and gives you pretty good results for the money. I also recommend VideoReDo Suite 4.

Dave

[wrems]

VRD agreed.

What I do is have SA create the VPRJ files and drop them in on a VRD project. This gets it close enough without waiting for VRD to process the file. Then quickly look at each of the points to see if they really match up and adjust as necessary. Probably takes less than 2 minutes to zip through a file and fix any wrong commercial slots.

It's not something I do often but works well.

[Oats]

I used MKVMerge for h.264 files a few times but found the same thing, cuts were frequently off a second or two and sometimes more. I haven't tried the new videoredo with h.264 support since I rarely need to edit h.264 files. Videoredo works excellent on my OTA mpeg files though.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by wrems

VRD agreed.

What I do is have SA create the VPRJ files and drop them in on a VRD project. This gets it close enough without waiting for VRD to process the file. Then quickly look at each of the points to see if they really match up and adjust as necessary. Probably takes less than 2 minutes to zip through a file and fix any wrong commercial slots.

It's not something I do often but works well.

SA? VPRJ?

Assume VRD is the Video Redo software?

[wrems]

SA = ShowAnalyzer
VPRJ = videoredo project file. I think, something like that. It's basically an edl file but VRD uses it to mark the commercial cut points.
VRD = Videoredo

[freewheeling]

Makes sense.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by wrems

VRD agreed.

What I do is have SA create the VPRJ files and drop them in on a VRD project. This gets it close enough without waiting for VRD to process the file. Then quickly look at each of the points to see if they really match up and adjust as necessary. Probably takes less than 2 minutes to zip through a file and fix any wrong commercial slots.

It's not something I do often but works well.

I'm getting a message that Video Redo "H.264/AVC video streams are not yet supported". Doesn't support AVI either. Not clear what it does support, but so far I haven't found a format that works. I haven't purchased the license yet, and am still in the 21 day trial period, but I thought someone said that it had H264 support? If not, what's the best thing to covert it to using the SageTV converter? MPEG4 AVI? I tried the HDTV, but the file is even larger than the H264 and there's no sense creating an 1080p output file when the input file is only 1080i. So, should I also ignore the "deinterlaced" option? I've heard critical things about the deinterlacing algorithm.

Update: Should add that the "parent" file format is: MPEG2-TS[H.264 1080i, AC3/384Kbs@48kHz Stereo] File Size: 3.84GB

[gplasky]

Make sure you're tesing the VideRedo TV Suite version 4 that supports h.264 and not the regular TV Suite or Plus version.

Gerry

[freewheeling]

I don't understand what they're doing. I downloaded what I assumed was their latest version, but it turns out it's version 3! Why would they be touting an older version, and having people download that as the test case, when it doesn't even do what was expected? Kind of a strange business model??

Update: Oops, looks like it's one of those Beta things. Version 4 is still in pre-release.

[freewheeling]

I got AnyDVD on the recommendation of some folks on this forum, but after reading the AnyDVD forum it appears that they recommend using it primarily in conjunction with CloneDVD. If I'd known that I could've bought them together as a suite and saved some money. Do I really need all three of these programs? I mean, assuming I get a license from the Video Redo folks and they condescend to upgrade me to their latest software, do I really need CloneDVD2? I mean, maybe there's CloneDVD3 and they just haven't let us in on it yet?

What's up with this stuff??

[gplasky]

What exactly are you trying to do? If you are taking SageTV recordings that are comskipped and using VRD TV Suite 4 to edit and remove the commercials and burn it to a DVD you only need VRD TV Suite 4. AnyDVD removes store-bought DVD/BR encryption on the fly and also let's you rip the whole DVD/BR to your hard drive.. CloneDVD takes a DVD that doesn't have any encryption and allows you to remove menus and features or just get the main movie and rip it to a hard drive and I believe compress and burn to a single-sided DVD.
VideoRedo TV Suite 4 doesn't require or rely on AnyDVD at all and let's you edit and burn your own videos.

Gerry