video editing help please

[glitch13]

I have mpegs that I want to be able to clip portions out of. I've tried avidemux, but it apparently from the name (and not that the error messages give you any clue) doesn't handle mpegs (sidenote: i cant event get an avi to load, it just sits with the "working" window open forever).

I've heard of kino (which I only think handle dv out of cameras) and cinelerra (which I know nothing about). I've emeged mjpegtools, but jebus, is that some obfuscated, confusing crap there.

Could someone tell me what I need, explain to me what I need to do with what I have, or point me to a tutorial that explains this? ANY help would be appreciated!

[drakonite]

You could use mencoder (or mplayer) to crop a video if you know the start time and end time of the part you wanted.

IIRC you would just need to have mencoder use the original as the source with the start time and end time specified, and just using copy for both audio and video encoding codecs.

[drakonite]

I forgot to mention...

[mean]

Avidemux can read mpeg but the 0.9 was afflicted with a bug that hit specifically gentoo user (combinaison of gcc/tuned gcc options)

This bug has been fixed (workarounded to be accurate), but in the unstable branch

Giv avidemux2 a try
(form source, the portage version is very outdated)

[mastergara]

avidemux2 is a definite must for video editing. This program is my choice for creating clips from mpegs. It is also pretty simple to figure out, as the icons at the bottom are pretty self-explanatory.

If you are editing DVD clips, make sure to note the "File -> Export as mpeg video -> DVD" as this saves the file in the high-quality format. Bonehead here (me) posting missed that option, and spend days tearing his hair out.

If you are creating clips for use in editing in another video editing program, I would suggest cinelerra, as it has some powerful features. Unfortunately, it also seems to have this bad habit of quite possibly being the most unstable linux app I have ever encountered (hardlock, random closures, etc, and I am running 1.1.6).

Good luck, use avidemux2, and have fun understanding all the joys of video

-M
_________________
Actual Quote from Security Study Guide:

"To Spoof is to Deceive"

Ya think?

[mta]

Cinelarra? it's in portage...

[zypher]

Can't believe I never mentioned it...
The avidemux2-ebuilds are available here:
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20182

I finally managed t osubmit the latest today

I'm still not so pleased with them but they are better then "conf/make/make inst" IMO.

Cheers,
zypher
_________________
linux user 65882

[blueworm]

I could'nt get avidemux to work either, and it did exactly the same.
Downloaded the source from the home page and compilled it works perfectly now.

check out the homepage http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/

cinelerra is also an outstanding choice but maybe a little like killing mosquitos with cannonballs in this context.

[glitch13]

First off, thanks for the info, I emerged the masked avidemux2 and on the surface, it seems to be just what I need.

The one complaint I have (and I realize you guys didn't write it) is this: coming from the world of windows using TMPGEnc , Im used to the very easy "define your section then save an mpeg" kinda routine. In avidemux, it would seem to be that easy seeming as they have a menu option "Export to mpeg -> Video CD" (which is the format I'm ultimately aiming for). But apparently this only does the video. Reading the help on their site (which looks to only cover the first version) you need to do sound and (raw) video seperately, then "multiplex" them together with mjpegtools. I have yet to get this to work 100% ( i get errors like "**ERROR: [mplex] MUX STATUS: Frame data under-runs detected!", how informative). And if this is the case, why is the video cd export option even on there?

This may seem arrogant, and I may be wrong about what I said above so I appologize in advance, but I'm not really interested in learning the finer nuances of the mpeg format, I just want a tool that takes care of this tedious stuff for me.

Am I doing something wrong (besides whining)?

[mean]

How did you do the audio file ?
Normally it is impossible to have muxing problem with video part for VCD.

(it may bve a good idea to use latest zypher ebuild https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20182 )

[glitch13]

I stand corrected. I kept following the clipping tutorial on their site that said to output the video as raw. If I output the video to Video CD, then it seems mplex merges the sound and audio fine.

I still wonder why it doesn't just do the multiplexing itself, seeming as it already passes the task of clipping the video off to mpeg2enc, why can't it just pass the task of joining them to mplex instead of relying on the user to do that? Is this in the project's scope or do the authors want, as it would seem, a more down and dirty approach?

[mean]

Tell me if i understood correcly.
If you use export -> vcd you get a mpeg1 video elementary stream
Then do audio and mplex them. The result is ok

If you do file->save raw you got problem.

Is that correct ?

[glitch13]

That's it. Here's how Im having to do it right now:

-Open Mpeg
-It says "This looks like and Mpeg, would you like to index it?"
-I choose yes.
-It then makes me choose between Mpeg audio, AC3 audio, or LPCM. I choose Mpeg audio. (there is also a dropdown box that goes from 0 to 7, but it doesn't explain what it is for, so I just leave it alone.)
-Define section to use ( with the <A and B> buttons)
-File->Save Audio (i choose filename vcd.audio)
-File->Export as mpeg video->Video CD (i choose filename vcd.mpg)
-Go to console and type:

[mean]

Ok, will try to reproduce it.
When you selected the part, the A marker was always a keyframe ?
It is important for mpeg as there is no smart copy engine.

[glitch13]

Please allow me to remove my foot from my mouth.

Three points:

1) While browsing the avidemux site today, I came to the realization that you are actually the author of this project. I reiterate my appology above for whining about the lack of automatic multiplexing.

2) I said I got it to work with the "Save Audio", "Export->VCD", mplex them together steps. I'm not really sure what you were trying to reproduce.

3) I touched on this earlier: Is there a way to "join" two vcd mpegs (either in avidemux or with mjpegtools)?

About the 3rd point, I may have noticed a bug: I created two mpegs with the steps I described in point 2. I noticed that in the file menu there was an "append video" option, so I was going to load one video, then "append" the other one to see if I could join the two this way (which I have no idea if I can). When I loaded up the first vcd mpeg I created, It prompted me to index it, so I said yes, chose mpeg sound and hit ok. It worked through the progress bar, but then sat there at 100% frozen. It didn't respond to the cancel button or anything.

[mean]

The thing is if you export them, you re-encode them. If the source is already
mpeg you should be able just to cut (using file->save raw) without re-encoding.

Yes append should work but you may run into a bit of troubles :

- the stuck at 100% thing is a bug somewhere (maybe compiler bug), it has been workaround'ed in avidemux2 tree

- You can append video, but it is not fully debugged in the avidemux2 tree.
It should work 100% ok on video, but audio may be a problem. I've heard some people use bother avidemux1 &2 to do this (video with avidemux2 and audio with avidemux1)

[mean]

I almost forgot.
Since you cut the video, it is better to use tcmplex from transcode rather than mplex for mjepgtools.

It is probably what is causing the problem.