Joining VBR Mpeg2?

[crimazine]

Hi guys, I need to join several variable bitrate mpeg2 files together and chop out some of the beginings and endings to make it 1 seamless movie again. Can anyone tell me what program(s) would be best for doing this? Ive found that alot of mpeg2 editors dont handle VBR very well.

- crimazine

[Zeppeliner]

I believe that the merge & cut part of TMPGEnc's mpeg tools should do the trick...

[crimazine]

Hi Zeppeliner, I havent had much luck with TMPGEnc up to v2.56.39.143, while it splits and joins Constant Bitrate mpegs, it doesnt seem handle Variable Bitrate mpeg2 files very well. I will check to see if their website mentions anything about support for variable bitrate but I think last I checked they stated that TMPGEnc was not capable of cutting and joining VBR.

- crimazine

[WarpEnterprises]

Thats not true because mpeg2 is the typical VBR type. TMPG definitly cuts it, maybe there is a need for a mpeg2-codec because of the preview (for cutting) and I've heard of slightly inaccurate cutting points (of course TMPG mpeg tools isn't a frame-accurate editor)
What exactly are your problems? You describe it only as "not good".

[htc10825]

@crimazine

Try M2-Edit Pro 4.0, whitch can cut and join mpeg2-streams very quickly without recompress. But that is a professional software, you have to pay for it to get a usable version. Or search very, very hard in the chinese warez site.

Of cause you can´t join mpeg2 streame with diff. res. or frame rate or tv-system.

[crimazine]

It was M2-Edit Pro that stated on their page that they do not yet support VBR. This also is from the TMPGEnc site regarding its MPEG2 VBR abilities.

"There are at least 2 type of bitrate allocation, one is CBR, the other is VBR, however, Microsoft DirectShow is able to seek MPEG file encoded in CBR only, thus TMPGEnc can not do "Cut editing" which need accurate seek of file if the MPEG file is VBR. For example, if the file was encoded in VBR, audit or video may be stopped for a while at the point you cut."

I was most impressed with Womble MPEG-VCR but it too didnt seem to cut handle mpeg2 vbr very well.

WarpEnterpries, the first half of the movie would be prestine but the 2nd half (when I split 1 vbr mpeg2 into 2 peices) would start playing very roughly as if it were missing a header or something of that sort. My specific problems with TMPG were similar in that the 1st half of the 2 played fine while the audio would drop in the 2nd half before the video finished.

- crimazine

[htc10825]

I´ve not seen the statements in the web page...
when it is really so, sorry for my suggestion.

But up to today I´ve only used the M2-Edit to cut & join the commercial VCD & SVCD files, especially the MPEG2 files created by my DVBs(Digital TV via Satlite). It give me very good resaults. No exceptions.

Or try to do so: demux the source files, cut the video and audio files seperately, than join then seperately, finally mux the audio and video(this step with TMPEG or BBmpeg)

[htc10825]

@crimazine

I've tried M2-Edit Pro with VBR Mpeg2 files recently. It worked almost as usual. It's true that the M2-Edit Pro is not designed for VBR(the in file seek were not very accurate), but you can DO cut the vgr mpg2 file at I-frames(begin) or P-Frame(end). The resulted mpg2 files will have a signature "CBR" instead of "VBR" in the mpg file head. But I could mux and author them normally. Edit without recompression.