The best way to edit Hauppauge HD PVR captures

[rikai]

I would be curious to see if anyone has found an alternative to editing HD PVR captures that is more effective. For me, I use Smart Cutter to edit the commercials out of the show and then add each segment to the record list. Once it has finished processing I will either join all the .ts files together w/ TSmuxer, then turn around and demux the joined file into it's separate video/audio tracks, followed by muxing w/MKVmerge into an mkv file, or, I demux each of the .ts files individually and then mux each individually w/ mkvmerge, then join the mkv's together w/ mkv merge. I only wish that Smart Cutter would allow me to link the cuts together and keep them in ts format rather than switching them to mpg.

[admin]

"I only wish that smart cutter would allow me to link the cuts together and keep them in ts format rather than switching them to mpg."

Dear rikai,
The Smart Cutter does have the 'link' function you need. There is a 'link' button beneath the record list, this can merge all the cuts together into one single .ts file.

The typical procedure I suggest will be:
first open movie file.
after setting cut points, press button 'addlist'; repeat such operation to add other cuts;
when all segments set, press button 'Record List'. Now, each segment will be transcoded into a new file. If MERGE needed, lighten the button 'link'(this is what you need) before pressing the button 'Record List'.

I think this will answer your demand. If you have any further question, feel free to contact me.

[rikai]

Yes, I have used this option in the past but unfortunately Smart Cutter often crashes when I use the link feature, and, when it does complete the process the audio is out of sync (and not just generally out of sync for the whole track, but out of sync in varying levels during the joined segment.) Hence, the only consistent method I've found to join HDTV captures after editing is to do each segment separately, then check the audio on each segment and either continually recut the segments where audio is out of sync until one yields a correct segment (which it doesn't always do), or more often, simply remux the out of sync mkv with the correct amount of delay to make it on target. Then I join all the mkv's by appending one to another in mkvmerge. Unfortunately the resulting product often has jerky transitions from segment to segment. Don't get me wrong, I love smart cutter because it is a far better way than using programs like TSPE or x264 cutter, but I was sincerely hoping to be able to achieve smooth transitions as well as do away with the audio sync issues often associated with the aforementioned programs.

[admin]

Looks you are using a pretty old version of Smart Cutter. The crash due to operating system incompatibility did happened in the version before November. It was fixed in the new version. May be you can try the most updated version.

And what is your operating system? Perhaps you can send us a small sample file(larger than 3MB) for a test on the a/v sync issue.

You can contact us by support@fame-ring.com or famering@gmail.com

Thank you.

Best Regards.

[rikai]

Great, I will try updating my version and see if that helps, if not, I'll package up a couple examples of shows with the problems and send you links to check out. Thanks!

[admin]

The most updated version will always be published first in the portable version

Smart Cutter for Ps/Ts

which is easy for a test without installation. Just decompress and run.

It has the same functionality as Smart Cutter for DV and DVB, while it has a simplifed help document, and is smaller in size.

[rikai]

OK thanks. I actually redownloaded the 'regular' smart cutter (http://www.fame-ring.com/smart_cutter.html) and then just re-applied my license. My question now is:

1. what is the difference between the portable version and the 'regular' version?
2. How long after updates are made are they included in the 'regular' version?


I have not had the crashes I was experiencing anymore and the joined files seem to be OK. However, when I demux the joined files w/ eac3to it gives a bunch of errors, including:

' The video bitstream framerate field doesn't seem to match the timestamps',
'The source file seems to be damaged (discontinuity)',
'This track is not clean',
'Audio has a gap of xxms at playtime xx:xx:xx'
'Video has a gap of xxms at playtime xx:xx:xx'

However, when I mux them w/ mkvmerge, the resulting file seems ok. I have however found that if instead of joining the files in smart cutter, if I simply process them into separate parts and demux them individually w/ eac3to (while including the -fix switch), then mux them individually into mkv's followed by appending all the mkv's into a single mkv, I don't get any of those errors, though each part does report that it "fixed the first xxxxxxx bytes of damaged source file...'

At this point, I've done a couple tests using both methods and can't really see a difference in the resulting files regardless of which approach I take. The transitions are smooth now however and I haven't yet experienced my previous audio sync issues (which I'm beginning to suspect may have due to TSmuxer since I'm using eac3to instead now). I would normally be prone to just ignore the errors that result from the 1st method but I am concerned that there might be underlying problems that I am missing (such as seek problems on standalone players, etc.).

[admin]

Dear rikai:

Actually there is no substantial difference between the portable and the 'regular' version. The only difference is that the portable version has a simpler help document, that is all. We will publish a new portable version as soon as we have any update. Every about one month, we will take all the updates into a new 'regular' version.

About the 'error message from eac3to', these messages may be caused by such reason:
The transport stream(.ts files) uses packets to carry video/audio data, each package has a number as an id. In your source movie, the id could be continous, like 1 2 3 ...; but after edited, some packages may be cutted away, some new packages may be inserted, there could be then id number 'discontinuity'. This is a common issue while video editing. The resulting stream is still correct. And, there is actually no ideal way to keep that 'continuity' when we only re-encode the cut points while remaining the middle part untouched.

This could also be conclued by the fact that you got two identical results from two different methods. Although the id numbers 'not continous', the result movies are all correct. 'eac3to' may have been trying to fix this 'discontinuity' after generating those 'error' messages, that's why you see 'fixed the first xxxxxxx bytes of damaged source file...'. We do not think this fix is necessary since the movie is correct already.

Thanks for your reading. Please feel free to contact us any time.

support@fame-ring.com or famering@gmail.com

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[rikai]

Ok, great, thanks for all your help. I've ran a couple more tests and get the same results so I am very happy to be able to consistently produce great results from my hauppauge captures now. In the past I have had to sacrifice some quality in order to have the convenience of real time encoding from a hardware device but now that I am able to edit these captures in a frame accurate manner I no longer need to sacrifice that quality. Hauppauge should think about including smart cutter with the HD PVR because I have seen many people confused about editing x264 streams. Smart cutter demystifies the process and makes easy work of creating good looking, commercial free backups of my DVR. Thanks again for helping me get this sorted out. I am going to put together a step by step guide with pictures to help out other people as well.

[admin]

Dear rikai, I am glad to know that everything is okay now.

If you have any further advice, please contact me any time.

support@fame-ring.com or famering@gmail.com

Thank you.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team