Recommend a frame-accurate smart video cutter/trimmer

[jameshenderson]

Hi,

I want to cut/trim the commercials out of .ts and .mp4 files that I have DVR'd. It needs to be smart (only re-encoding the frames between the cut-point and the next key-frame).

The closest that I can find that meets this criteria is:

• SmartCutter - but it crashes (costs £ 50 but has not really been updated since 2013)
• VidCutter - not been updated to fix a saving issue

Can anyone recommend anything?

 

[bogdanw]

Try with Avidemux http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/download.html

 

[jameshenderson]

Thanks!

Do you know that it smart-cuts in copy mode though?

In the help section it says (The bolding is mine):

Where frames jkl are broken, because they specify changes relative to an I-frame that no longer exists. There are two ways of dealing with that:
- Make sure the B marker is an I-frame. In that case no problem.

There is no 2nd way shown - the 2nd way would be to talk about smart-cutting.

Thanks,
J.

[edit:]
Just read another page on the docs and it doesn't smart-cut in copy mode (isn't frame accurate). Thanks, anyway.

 

[bogdanw]

The documentation hasn't been updated since 2016, while Avidemux has improved considerable in the mean time.

 

[jameshenderson]

Yes, I quite like it - I have been using it the last couple of hours. I appreciate the recommendation.

...but It doesn't smart cut in copy mode.

 

[jameshenderson]

bogdanw - this is really great. I have cut/trimmed out a lot of commercials now and realise that I donlt really need a frame accurate app anyway - thanks!

One question though, when saving the edited files, I can save some space by muxing it to .mkv. However, when I do this, I lose the aspect ratio. Loading and then re-muxing back to .ts brings the correct aspect ratio back (so I haven't lost anything) but I was wondering if you knew of a way of mixing to .mkv without losing the aspect ratio?

 

[bogdanw]

Output format - Configure - Force Aspect Ratio

 

[jameshenderson]

agh - so there is no option to "keep" aspect ratio?

cheers!

 

[bogdanw]

My understanding is that, by "forcing" an aspect ratio, you bypass the apps's automatic detection, thus keeping your desired aspect ratio.