[FredThompson]

I generally use AVI Trimmer+ for GOP-level cutting of existing x264 source (mkv, mp4.)

A huge plus of this software is the active timeline and audio graph which makes it easy to find hard breaks in the source.

For broadcast recordings, I'll mark the sections which are to be removed then save a single mkv/mp4 as output.

Two downsides:

1) GOP-level editing only which limits accurate cutting - either keep junk or lose desired source.

2) It looks like it's built on a web browser as it will flicker and sometimes fail to completely load a source file when complex pages are being viewed in a browser (FF, Iron...take your pick.) Clearing caches, MRUs, and its associated registry items doesn't always clear this up.

So...would anyone know of a frame-accurate cut editor which will re-encode only the "chopped" GOPs, has a responsive timeline and audio graph?

As a way of reference, TyTool was the best freeware MPEG2 editor. That was many moons ago. The author dug deep into GOPs and put a lot of work into ensuring high quality...uh...stitching between the two adjacent original GOPs. The interface isn't up to today's standards but the resultant files were fantastic.