Cut Commercials from DVR-MS File

[Eagle117]

I've been using Windows Media Center to capture various shows. I'm looking for an easy (and cheap) way to cut the commercials out before I burn them to DVD. I've been using Nero Vision Express which can open the .dvr-ms files but it is a bit clunky with these files. It can't play them back smoothly in the preview window which makes it hard to find the right place to cut. I've been recommended the TMPGEnc Express program but this costs almost as much as I paid for Nero all together.

I would really like a way to do a direct stream copy rather than re-encode it every time. Are there any freeware applications that are good for cutting out commercials from these files easily?

[bond]

isnt dvr-ms plain .mpg? not sure :confused:

[Guest]

It's MPEG2 in an ASF wrapper. There are tools available to demux the MPEG2.

[Eagle117]

It's MPEG2 in an ASF wrapper. There are tools available to demux the MPEG2.

But what tools can I use to do plain cutting without re-encoding?

[Guest]

After you demux the MPEG2 you can use any MPEG2 editor.

[Delphin]

But what tools can I use to do plain cutting without re-encoding?

If you do succeed in demuxing the BS Microsoft proprietary format into something resembling a standard MPEG2 video stream then one of these should work . . .

Cuttermaran 1.65 - is a frame accurate MPEG2 editor tailored for the kind of editing you described.

MPEG2Schnitt 0.71 - another easy to use tool to cut out commercials from MPEG-2 streams.

(links are on the Doom9 full software page)

Both programs support English (though only the Cutterman program has a English language support page).


P. S.

Soapbox mode on . . .
Sorry if I don’t seem very enthusiastic about Billy Gates latest clever gambit of supplying a bunch of Fisher-Price level video ‘toys’ in XP which just happen to use a proprietary format. The world was stupid enough to let them push their BS DirectX proprietary standard on everyone (even though there was a perfectly good generic OpenGL standard available) until the ONLY way to run video games on a PC became to invest in a Microsoft OS. Now they figure that if they can play the same games with video, they can monopolize that market as well.

NO ONE should use a proprietary MS format if they can possibly help it, or sooner or latter we will wake up in a world where Microsoft OWNS all the technology to do video on PC’s like they do for PC gaming.

Soapbox mode off . . .

[Eagle117]

Thanks. I know I looked at MPEG2Schnitt in the past but couldn't figure it out. I'll have another go at it.

While I usually don't care for proprietary formats, I think this one bugs me the least. NeroVision Express and TMPEGEnc already support the format so it isn't like Microsoft is holding all of the cards when it comes to this format, they are sharing some. Also, it is nice to be able to look at the file days later and see the program name, description, first airing date and other information about the program that MPEG-2 and other formats just don't support. Something had to be done.

[Delphin]

Thanks. I know I looked at MPEG2Schnitt in the past but couldn't figure it out. I'll have another go at it.

While I usually don't care for proprietary formats, I think this one bugs me the least. NeroVision Express and TMPEGEnc already support the format so it isn't like Microsoft is holding all of the cards . . .

NeroVision Express and TMPEGEnc don't directly read the MS format, they just use a MS supplied CODEC or Direct Show filter to read it.

If Microsoft decides to make the format unavailable, they will just provide a 'helpful' upgrade that disables your ability to use it and that will be that.

Don't think that they would do that?

They already have.

The whole reason DivX came about was because Microsoft started to play sleazy games with their own low bandwidth "MPEG4" codec.

One day a few years back I loaded a new video-editing program from Ulead and suddenly I couldn't encode MS MPEG4 v2 anymore. Microsoft had provided a codec pack 'upgrade' which had quietly overwritten my codec and destroyed the capability to encode MPEG4 video.

You could still play MPEG4v2, but not write to it, and when they found out that folks were using that capability to convert their format into something less proprietary, they pulled the MPEG4 codec from their standard installation altogether, and substituted ASF and WMV MPEG4 formats.

Then they made sure that you couldn't 'bail out' on them after encoding in these formats (by later converting them into something else), by threatening to sue the author of Virtual Dub or any other tools to keep them from being used to re-encode their proprietary format into something else.

So it's risky to EVER trust Microsoft.

[Pookie]

I like MPEG2CUT2 . http://www.geocities.com/rocketjet4/

[nexx]

DVREdit
http://www.thegreenbutton.com/downloads.aspx

DVRtoMPG
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=117011