Really, what I am looking for is to take the files from KnoppMyth box (recorded from the PVR-250's without transcoding) and pull them over to Windows box for commercial removal and burn to DVD or CD.

I can pull the files over the network and play them as is on the windows box and even burn the MPEG2 files to DVD but I would like to get a simple program to just cut out the commercials and NOT require transcoding or recalculating the MPEG2 files.

Easy CD 5 includes a program called DVD Builder that sort of works and I did build a DVD of the Lost 2 hour pilot. Darn thing though is larger than a DVD since all of the commercials take up so much space. Cut out the commercials and it only takes 80 minutes of video.

I tried everything I could at DVDRHELP.com in the tools section but they either didn't work or required intermediate steps to demux, edit, remux, recode, etc. Basically, the whole process was way too complicated.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Your help is appreciated!

Andrew Lynch

I thought you could "transcode" using mythtv to the same format and all it would do is drop the frames that you cut out and only reencode any small section from a cutpoint to the next keyframe (if you made any cuts that were not on keyframes).

gregfrost is right.. just transcode the tvshow and then copy it to a m$ box to burn to dvd.. or checkout mythburn..

I'd kinda like to do this too, only my MPEG2 file comes from an HDTV stream and it's native format is either 1920x1080i or 1280x720p. I think I have to scale it to 720x480 first and edit the commercials before I can burn it to a DVD. It would be nice if the 16:9 format could be preserved and the DVD be made as "enhanced for widescreen" (anamorphic). But I barely know what I'm talking about, so I'm not sure if Myth can be coaxed into doing this.

I thought that MPEG2 to MPEG2 transcoding is the one thing Myth doesn't support directly. Only MPEG2 to and from other formats like XVID.

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I don't believe the auto transcoding will do mpeg2 to mpeg2, but the dvdburn scripts should, however I do not think they are setup to change the resolution/bitrate, but may be able to be tweaked to do so.

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Xsecrets

I'm pretty sure Liv2Cod is right. The only way I know of to do cuts-only MPEG2 editing via MythTV is with the most recent version of nuvexport, and only then with the addition of various utilities (avidemux, etc.) that give me a bunch of conflicts when I try to install via apt-get.

To answer the original poster's question, it's not free, but I use TMPGEnc DVD Author.

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda.html

If you just want the editing features, they sell that separately for $48USD.

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tme.html

Both work great, better than anything else I tried (including Sonic) and are worth the few bucks.

Try VirtualDub or TMPEGEncoder.

My PVR-350 was bundled with Ulead's Movie Factory. This software has all the features you're looking for and is very intuitive to use. Not sure if it's bundled with PVR-250's too.

The PVR-250/350 also comes with a very simple Mpeg editor specifically meant for simple cut type editing, without re-encoding. It's called nanoPEG.

There is a newer version than probably came on your CD available for download at the Hauppauge site. (Ver 2.2.0). That should let your do the edit on your Windows box.

To answer Willem's quiery, Ulead's Movie Factory was also bundled with the PVR-250 I bought last week. Though the version on the CD is version 2, and the current version is 3. V2 needed to have a patch applied, and it was a little difficult to find on the Ulead site. (Hint: On the Hauppauge 250/350 support page, about 3/4 of the way down, there is a link to the Movie Factory 3 support page . Scroll to the very top of the page that link takes you to (the Updates and Patches page). Click on "DVD MovieFactory 2" link. Download and install the patches on that page.

I tried the software bundled with the 250 on my windows box. It didnt like the fact that there was no 250 in the system (obviously in my myth box) Maybe it needs the hardware encoder.

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I used NanoPEG about a year ago when I got my 250 and was doing all my PVR stuff via Windows. Trimming commercials with it consistently resulted in out-of-sync audio. It might be better now, but it was pretty broken back then.

Thanks folks for all the help.

I had tossed all those PVR-250 CD's in the scrap box and went and found them. I read the notes above and thought, "duh, I never even looked at the hauppauge software!". KnoppMyth is just too cool with PVR-250's!

I tried the ULead DVD MovieFactory 2 and it works like what I want.

Its not *free* software but at least it didn't cost any extra.

I am saving the pilot from Lost to a DVD and it worked pretty good. More experimenting tonight!

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

I'm doing exactly what you want using the Womble (http://www.womble.com/vcr-text.htm) MPEG2 editor and it works well. It's very fast if you don't change any of the video/audio settings while editing it doesn't do any re-coding. There's instructions on the web somewhere for using it. It takes me a few minutes to edit out the commercials of a 2 hour movie. The slowest part is 100mb ethernet copying/reading/saving the file back and forth to the Myth box as I use MythTVBurn to burn to DVD. I'm now planning to move to gigabit ethernet to speed this. I just wish MythTVBurn would edit out commercials as I like using it better than anything I've seen on Windows (not much) for creating DVDs. The Womble software is not free, but there is a free trial.


Steve