World's first frame accurate H.264 AVCHD cutter without re-encoding!

Multiple consecutive cuts

The How To EDIT H.264/AVCHD/MPEG2 without re-encoding page, after clearly explaining how to frame-accurate navigate the input file, says:

• ...
• 5. set start point by 'New Start Point'
• 6. set end point by 'New End Point'
• 7.A blue segment will be shown between the long slider and the short slider, you can review the segment by clicking on it
• Press 'Clear' to reset everything, 'Delete' to remove current segment, define multiple segments as previous steps if needed

All my tries to "define multiple segments" failed. I had a 2,316,852,672-Byte, 1h04m59s .m2ts file recorded from TV; I wanted to extract a 0h42m04s part, and to divide it into ~20 segments for easier navigating (e.g. using "Previous-" and "Next- Media in Playlist" buttons in VLC). I finally did it easily by transcoding all 20 files one by one, but this required I first wrote down an accurate list of cut points.

So I think Fame-Ring should detail a little more precisely the explanation "define multiple segments as previous steps if needed". Meanwhile, TIA to anyone who would explain me how to do it.

Versailles, Fri 21 Dec 2012 09:51:20 +0100

Dear Michel Merlin:
Thanks for your message.

'divide it into ~20 segments'
You could achieve this by so:
1.define a new start point and a new end point
2.click 'add batch' so add it as a new batch item
3.click 'Delete'(on the bottom of the UI) to reset the time line
4.repeat 1~3 so there will be multiple items in the batch list as you needed
5.make sure the 'link' button is disabled(black)
6.click 'Start Batch', then each batch item will be transcoded into a single output file

Please feel free to send us your further advice and suggestion.
Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

Replace Start and End points with Split pts, Batch with Render

Thanks admin 22 Dec, sorry for not replying earlier.

I just started trying this, on another TV record, relatively big (Arte.TV_2013-0621.20h40.m2ts, 7.49GB, 3h49mn, AVC, 1440×1080, info and downloads 2min sample and 3h23min total on ARTE's COSÌ FAN TUTTE page), of which I want to save Cosi fan tutte (3h23min) and its trailer (25sec), with dividing the whole in 86-87 parts according to the DME Score Table of Contents (of course I will reduce these 87 parts to 15-20 but only after a lot of try-and-seek-and-error-and-back-and-forth, while watching, listening, and following the score, which involves a similar amount of work). Unfortunately the method above is impracticable with file sizes current today:

A - In Smart Cutter, seeking and finding the right point is too hard: in a 3-hour file, on the long slider in the SC interface, the smallest mouse move goes too far left or right; I have to 1st narrow, then many times alternatively, click "forward one frame", and move the short slider to its right end (fwd, right end, fwd, right end, fwd, right end, fwd, etc), then fine-tune using "fwd" and "back" (by one frame). Smart Cutter lacks (or has not visible enough) a way to fast-and-fine navigating along a long input file. Just one example, when the part between Start and End points is short compared to the input file (e.g. 5min in a 3h input), Smart Cutter CANNOT show that 3-min part as the "blue segment" announced in How To EDIT §7 (Now this is not the worse nor the most urgent to fix).

B - The steps above should (IMO) be completed with a "2bis" as follows:

1. Define a NEW START POINT and a NEW END POINT
2. Click 'add batch' so to add it as a new batch item
2bis. Click "JUMP TO END POINT" (the 180×135 image at bottom right of SC interface)
3. Click 'Delete'(on the bottom of the UI) to reset the time line
4. Repeat 1~3 ........

(Of course this method, once completed and re-read and eventually corrected, should be properly integrated into the How To EDIT page).

This is because when dividing your input file into multiple tracks (e.g. for future use in m3u Playlists for VLC or MPC-HC or WMP), you need to accurately place the beginning of a track exactly on the end of the previous one; and SC not always remains on the End point after "add batch". So, short of the "2bis", you have to write down each exact End point, at the millisecond and/or frame number, which is tedious, time-consuming and error-prone.

Even then, even with this eventual "2bis", it is very tedious and difficult to work. For instance today after pre-batching my first 5 tracks I get this (click to enlarge):



where you can see that those 5 tracks (under "Result Point" top right in the image) have their Start and End points apparently counted from the start of the eventual output file, while the current point (10:58:06:044 at left middle of the image) is apparently counted from an unknown origin somewhere around 10 hours ahead of the input file debut. Such details, that are countless in SC, make this program very hard if not nearly impossible to use, while its great qualities (Smart Seek, Smart Cut, accurate and easy to follow audio track histogram, etc) should oppositely make it very efficient.

C - Better would be (if you have the time, that is) to use "Split points" as Sony Vegas calls them (SONY Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Suite TRIAL 12.0 64b b896). In Vegas, User just hits "S" on his keyboard which creates a Split point, and repeats as necessary down to end of the input file, which divides it in a number of parts; then clicks an unwanted part, hits "Del" to remove it, and repeats as necessary; finally clicks "Render" to apply.

Smart Cutter should use the same way, which is much more relaxing and time-saving: when discovering that a Split point is misplaced (which you often can't know before careful watching your output and its audio histogram while listening to it), you simply move that Split point and re-Render.

Versailles, Tue 25 Jun 2013 07:06:00 +0200