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Re: Free lossless non-linear video editor for DV and mpeg

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James Harris

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Jan 5, 2010, 11:59:46 AM1/5/10
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On 10 Dec 2009, 22:44, James Harris <james.harri...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a lossless video editor program which will work
> with DV, mpeg-2 and mpeg-4? Ideally it would be freeware. If two
> programs are needed - one for DV and another for mpegs - that would be
> OK but just one program would be better.
>
> I have mpeg-2 files and DV tapes that I'd like to edit. Windows Movie
> Maker turned out to be very disappointing as it lost picture quality
> so I'm looking for something that works losslessly. That said, I
> recognise that for mpegs some alteration of the GOP structure around
> the edit would be necessary but it should revert to the original GOP
> data as soon as possible.
>
> Software for Windows or Linux would be OK. Windows would possibly be
> more convenient.
>
> Any suggestions?

Widening the net a little....

James

James Harris

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Feb 6, 2010, 5:26:03 AM2/6/10
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On 5 Jan, 16:59, James Harris <james.harri...@googlemail.com> wrote:

...

> > Can anyone recommend a lossless video editor program which will work
> > with DV, mpeg-2 and mpeg-4? Ideally it would be freeware. If two
> > programs are needed - one for DV and another for mpegs - that would be
> > OK but just one program would be better.
>
> > I have mpeg-2 files and DV tapes that I'd like to edit. Windows Movie
> > Maker turned out to be very disappointing as it lost picture quality
> > so I'm looking for something that works losslessly. That said, I
> > recognise that for mpegs some alteration of the GOP structure around
> > the edit would be necessary but it should revert to the original GOP
> > data as soon as possible.
>
> > Software for Windows or Linux would be OK. Windows would possibly be
> > more convenient.

I cannot find either free or to-pay-for video editing software that
makes a virtue of being lossless. Of course, only DV can be fully
lossless. Mpeg can be almost lossless. Some 'stitching' would normally
be required to maintain the GOP round edits but the effect would be
minor and localised.

In the absence of suggestions for a pre-built lossless editor I'm
turning to the programming newsgroups.

Anyone know of DV and Mpeg libraries that can be used for lossless
frame-accurate processing?

James

Richard Crowley

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Feb 6, 2010, 12:38:41 PM2/6/10
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"James Harris" wrote ...

> I cannot find either free or to-pay-for video editing software that
> makes a virtue of being lossless. Of course, only DV can be fully
> lossless. Mpeg can be almost lossless. Some 'stitching' would normally
> be required to maintain the GOP round edits but the effect would be
> minor and localised.
>
> In the absence of suggestions for a pre-built lossless editor I'm
> turning to the programming newsgroups.
>
> Anyone know of DV and Mpeg libraries that can be used for lossless
> frame-accurate processing?

Not clear what you are asking for? Are you an end-user looking for
a video editing application? Are you a computer programmer
looking for software libraries for video datastream handling?

As was mentioned, "lossless frame-accurate" editing is not really
possible in any temporally-compressed codec (which means virtually
all MPEG flavors). DV, of course, is NOT temporally-compressed.

James Harris

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Feb 6, 2010, 7:01:42 PM2/6/10
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On 6 Feb, 17:38, "Richard Crowley" <rcrow...@xp7rt.net> wrote:
> "James Harris" wrote ...
>
> > I cannot find either free or to-pay-for video editing software that
> > makes a virtue of being lossless. Of course, only DV can be fully
> > lossless. Mpeg can be almost lossless. Some 'stitching' would normally
> > be required to maintain the GOP round edits but the effect would be
> > minor and localised.
>
> > In the absence of suggestions for a pre-built lossless editor I'm
> > turning to the programming newsgroups.
>
> > Anyone know of DV and Mpeg libraries that can be used for lossless
> > frame-accurate processing?
>
> Not clear what you are asking for?  Are you an end-user looking for
> a video editing application?  Are you a computer programmer
> looking for software libraries for video datastream handling?

Yes and, er, yes. I'd rather hear of an existing app which does what I
want but that doesn't seem to exist so I'd have to fall back to
writing something myself. How easy that is would depend on the quality
of the library if it exists.


> As was mentioned, "lossless frame-accurate" editing is not really
> possible in any temporally-compressed codec (which means virtually
> all MPEG flavors).  DV, of course, is NOT temporally-compressed.

I think I said that. Frame-accurate is possible. Lossless is possible
for DV and for most of an Mpeg stream. It's only the few frames round
the edit that would need some processing.

James

Mike S.

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Feb 12, 2010, 5:21:39 PM2/12/10
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In article <3b612eb2-c793-4a9e...@g28g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>,

James Harris <james.h...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>On 5 Jan, 16:59, James Harris <james.harri...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>...
>
>> > Can anyone recommend a lossless video editor program which will work
>> > with DV, mpeg-2 and mpeg-4? Ideally it would be freeware. If two
>> > programs are needed - one for DV and another for mpegs - that would be
>> > OK but just one program would be better.
>>
>> > I have mpeg-2 files and DV tapes that I'd like to edit. Windows Movie
>> > Maker turned out to be very disappointing as it lost picture quality
>> > so I'm looking for something that works losslessly. That said, I
>> > recognise that for mpegs some alteration of the GOP structure around
>> > the edit would be necessary but it should revert to the original GOP
>> > data as soon as possible.
>>
>> > Software for Windows or Linux would be OK. Windows would possibly be
>> > more convenient.
>
>I cannot find either free or to-pay-for video editing software that
>makes a virtue of being lossless. Of course, only DV can be fully
>lossless. Mpeg can be almost lossless. Some 'stitching' would normally
>be required to maintain the GOP round edits but the effect would be
>minor and localised.

AFAIK the payware VideoReDo packages can do frame-accurate lossless
editing of MPEG2. VideoReDo TV Suite is specifically targeted to editing
for eventual authoring on DVD.


paul van den berg

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Feb 13, 2010, 11:14:05 AM2/13/10
to

Not libs, but GUI-programs that use existing mpeg libs:
http://dvbcut.sourceforge.net/ or http://gopchop.sourceforge.net/

Regards, Paul

James Harris

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Mar 6, 2010, 4:19:33 PM3/6/10
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On 12 Feb, 22:21, retsu...@xinap.moc (Mike S.) wrote:
> In article <3b612eb2-c793-4a9e-8f97-79e652737...@g28g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>,

Thanks for the recommendation. I've taken a look at VideoReDo and you
are right. It does do what I asked for with respect to editing - at
least on MPEG. It seems to lack other editing functions which is a
pity. I was expecting a broader range of features. Lossless editing
was just the hardest to find. I'll keep VideoReDo in mind in case I
can't find any other way.

James

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