dailyTink

There are a couple of apps out there that will allow editing of mpeg2, mpeg 4, h.264 etc... footage without the quality loss of re-encoding.  MPEG Video Wizard (MPVW) is what I have been using for 6-8 months and it has been fantastic.  Adobe Premiere fails to render ANY long form projects (I doubt I will be able to hold myself back from a rant in this blog about Premiere's flaws for long, but I will try...), so I am forced to render into segments.  We have timelines full of Quicktimes or tiff sequences and break them up into 5-10 mpeg2 (DVD) files.  I simply import them into MPVW, drop them on the timeline and render out a perfect resulting dvd file for Adobe Encore for DVD Authoring.

I had tried simple joining programs but the results were non-standard so unaccepted by authoring programs, where as this process is flawless... to this point.

Now comes the next step.  Blu Ray joining and editing cannot be done in MPVW unfortunately so I have been on the hunt for another alternative.  So far I have found 2 promising apps.

Smart Cutter http://www.fame-ring.com/products.html ($40)
AVS Video Remaker http://www.avs4you.com/AVS-Video-ReMaker.aspx (for all their apps: $199 unlimited, or $70 for a yearly subscription).

Both products are similar for DVD and Blu-Ray but AVS does more than just authoring formats (also AVI, Quicktime, WMV, Flash ...) so the clear winner there.  AVS also has a better interface and clearer workflow.  i.e. you can fire up the app and do what you need to do with little or no help, unlike Smart Cutter, which is a great app but I needed the help file to do joining of multiple files.  AVS also will create simple menus and will burn.  What I do love about Smart Cutter though, is it has a portable version.  I LOVE portable apps!  Any chance I get to use a portable version of an app I will.  Smart Cutter can also fix the streams, which gives more more confidence that it will produce a compliant output.

If you don't need the extra avi, mov etc editing then the portable Smart Cutter would be great, else AVS seems like the go.

I had better mention I have not done much testing with these apps yet to say whether they remain format compliant (i.e. will be accepted, or even work once burnt, by authoring apps).  I will update once I have.

Of course there are more higher end programs that probably provide similar functionality, but I am only looking for the quickest and most efficient way.

Another 2 that are available are
Elecard AVC HD Editor http://www.elecard.com/products/products-pc/consumer/avchd-editor/ ($49.95)
TSPE Transport Stream Packet Editor http://www.bitstreamtools.com/ (shareware, yay)

Both do only DVD and Blu-Ray with not much else.  I prefer the portable or extra features of AVS and Smart Cutter, although shareware and the claim that it does wide compatibility makes TSPE well worth looking into.

Sony Vegas and Nero can edit without re-encoding under certain conditions as well, but find more hit and miss results.  Plus I would never use Nero, period!  I hear great things about Vegas though and appears to be a great product.  Even some professionals have gotten decent results out of it, but in regard to non-re-encoding, it is overkill and not designed specifically for this.

The End