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AVR2

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 16, 2006
446
15
I want to be able to edit MPEG2 files natively with an Avid- or FCP-style timeline-based approach, so that I can have the video on one track, the audio on another, and be able to edit both of them either independently or together, with full split/trim/copy/paste, and then export to a new MPEG2 file without having to re-encode. Are there any freeware or shareware apps for OS X that will do this?

I have MPEG Streamclip and QT Pro, neither of which have the degree of editing control I want. I'm currently using the MPEG Video Wizard by Womble, but it's a Windows app so I have to reboot my MBP into XP to use it, and while it's OK in a clunky non-intuitive Windows kind of way, it's not as slick as I know an OS X equivalent would be!
 
That Wombie thing looks really slick. I don't believe anything like this exists for the Mac. I wish it did. MPEG-2 is tricky to edit because of the interframe compression. I believe most developers of video editor software don't even try to get this working because it's so hard. Until I came across your post, I didn't even know it was possible to do anything with MPEG-2 besides trim it (without decompressing/recompressing).

I use VideoReDo in Parallels for simple trimming of muxed MPEG-2/AC3 streams. It's like a better version of MPEG Streamclip. But there is no timeline etc. Works fairly well other than having to open Parallels to use it.
 
I have also use Womble. It is amazing! But I haven't found anything for OS X yet. So sad....

However, I have been in talks with the designer to do an OS X port.

More interest = more probability of bringing Womble to OS X!
 
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