Removing commercials from TV recordings

[jfacker]

Hola guys and gals,

This is my first post, so forgive me if this has been covered ad nauseum elsewhere, but I looked around and couldn't find anything that directly addresses this topic.

I have a Panasonic standalone recorder I use to record TV shows like a VCR. I'd love to find a program by which I could edit those recordings (ie, remove commercials) and save the edited files for burning as commercial-free DVDs. I know how to use the start/stop feature in DVD Shrink, but I believe this will store all the segments as new titles, rather than as chapters within a title, which I'd prefer.

I'd like to keep this as non-technical as possible, as terms like "VOB" and "demuxing" strike terror into my feeble brain. Any suggestions? Preferably some freeware? Obviously I have no need for capturing software; just something that will let me open and edit video TS or iso files. I tried downloading VirtualDub, but it won't let me open those files. Do I have to go through the tedium of converting everything to AVI? Sounds like a pain in the butt, plus I don't want to lose quality or introduce artifacts with unneccesary conversion. I'm not interested in doing any equalizing, rescaling, star wipes or other cheeseball special effects, just chopping out the commericals.

HELP!

Thanks a bunch,

Jeff

[ekarbakar]

You might want to check out this link to a guide for dealing with transport streams. Since you don't need to capture, you can omit the CAPDVHS section. The process noted works. It will at least get you started. You can use one of the tools noted in the guide(HDTV2MPEG2) for cutting commercials.
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html

[jfacker]

Thanks Ekarbakar,

I downloaded the HDTV2MPEG2 application, but it won't open any of my files because they are not .ts files. I have video and audio ts folders on my hard drive, but the actual files in them are .vob, .ifo and .bup files. I couldn't get it to open anything off a physical DVD either. Suggestions?

I did read in the threat to which you referred me about the Womble products...if worse comes to worse, it appears I could cough up a hefty sum and purchase their software. I downloaded the trial version but I haven't tried it out yet.

Thanks again,

Jeff

[niann]

You can try this... http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Vobtools/Vobedit06.zip

Vobedit seems like it can do what you need it to. You will need to copy the DVD structure to your HDD first, then chop the VOBs up with Vobedit.

Also check out this guide http://www.doom9.org/dvd-basics.htm it is quick reading and then you will understand what all those files on your DVD are for, and how to better work with them.

Cheers!

[CWR03]

I still use Vidomi for editing and encoding TV caps - unfortunately it won't work with the newest Xvid so the quality isn't as good as it could be, but it's free, it's super fast and easy to edit, and it works.

[jfacker]

Hi all,

Thanks for your helpful posts. I think I have come up with a solution that will be sufficiently non-technical for one of my ilk. I am buying a LG DVD-R/RW drive to replace my craptacular old CD drive...my other DVD drive is a Liteon which seems fine, but it can't read DVD-RAM, which the LG can, and my Panasonic standalone can edit chapters, titles etc with DVD-RAM discs. So I figure, "tape" a couple shows on a disc, edit them on the machine, then rip it to my hard drive for burning onto DVD-R with my usual slew of non-techy applications. Sounds good, at least in theory, huh? If anybody's interested, I'll post the results of how it turns out in REALITY, ha ha.

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers,

Jeff

[zacoz]

Sounds like your recorder is producing a real DVD layout, therefore copy it over to your hard drive, then use VobBlanker (http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/vobblanker.htm). It is designed to blank out parts of DVD's, including cutting parts of cells - just what you're looking for. Couldn't be simpler.

Check out the VobBlanker Guides (http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/guides.htm) to help you get started.

If you need any further help post in the IFO/VOB Editors (http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?f=50) section of the Doom9 forum - plenty of people, including the author to help you out.