Movies cut with SmartCutter freeze in VLC

[dip]

I use SmartCutter to cut the commercials from movies (ts files) recorded with my Dreambox DM8000. While the cut movies can be played on my Dreambox without problems, in many (but not all) cases the cut movies are not correctly playable in VLC. These cut movies can be played in VLC only until the first cut point and then video and audio playback stops (although the slider still moves on to the end of the movie). The same problem happens when I try to fast forward with VLC (by moving the slider). Before the cut point this works fine but jumping to a point after the cut point is not possible (video and audio freeze but the sliders moves on).

The original (uncut) movie can be played in VLC without problems, so it seems that the cutting by SmartCutter generates something on the cut point within the ts stream that messes up VLC.

I am not sure if this is a problem of SmartCutter or of VLC since the cut movie can be correctly played with my Dreambox (and even with Windows Media Player on Windows XP). Could you please so kind to check a sample file which I will send you to support@fame-ring.com. I hope you will be able to receive the file since it has about 37MB.

The problem exists with SmartCutter 1.2.6.a, 1.2.6 and 1.2.7.

Thanks for your help.

[admin]

Dear Dip:
Thanks for your help.
The sample was received correctly.

We will have it examined to identify the reason. Furthermore, what is the version number of the VLC you are using now?

We will keep you posted about the progress.
Thank you.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[dip]

I use the present version 1.1.0 of VLC on Windows XP.
Thanks for your help.

[dip]

Could you reproduce the problem? And will it be possible to fix this in SmartCutter?

I meanwhile read in other forums that people have not only problems with VLC but also with other players to play movies cut with SmartCutter.

[admin]

Dear dip:
Thanks for your message.

We did not re-produce the problem yet.

We have tested it on various platforms, but the result is a bit strange. The orginal and the cutted(by version 1.2.7) movie showed us no difference. For example,
on Intel Core2 Duo T5450/ATI HD2400/2GB/Vista, both of them froze the VLC110.
on Intel Core2 Duo T8300/NVIDIA QUADRO NVS 140M/2GB/Xp Sp2, both of them play backed without problem in the VLC110.

So we are curious to know what actually caused this.

Could you please tell us the system configuration of your computer?
Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[dip]

I think there is a misunderstanding.

I sent you only one sample which was already cut (by version 1.2.7) about in the middle of the sample. So the sample constists in fact of a short sample from a movie shortly before a commercial part and a short sample after the commercial part. I did NOT send you an uncut original version of the movie, so how could you compare a cut and an original version?

If you thought the sent sample was an uncut original and therefore and cut it again than it was twice cut. And then it is clear that both versions freeze VLC (as in your Vista test).

My system configuration is:

Windows XP Home Edition with SP3
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz
Nvidia GForce 8500 GT
4GB RAM

Thanks for your help.

[admin]

Dear dip:
Although we can not re-produce the problem on VLC, we did find something which looks related to this problem. We may need your help for a further test.

We found that a cut point(till now, only this single one cut point) will lead to stuttering in Mpc Hc. It looks very similar to the problem you mentioned. And we have already known how to resolve this in Mpc Hc.

http://www.fame-ring.com/test/skate.short.ts

http://www.fame-ring.com/test/skate.long.ts

http://www.fame-ring.com/test/vlc.long.ts

Could you please playback these 3 samples by VLC on your computer, and tell us the result? See whether they freeze the VLC, or cause stuttering.
Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[dip]

I tried the three samples. skate.short.ts and skate.long.ts are playing without problems but vlc.long.ts freezes shortly after start.
Does this help you to find the problem?

[admin]

Dear dip:
Thanks for your help!

As this problem only happens in the versions after 1.2.5, we might have a comparing test.

We took back the version 1.2.5
http://www.fame-ring.com/smart.cutter.125.rar

We have both 1.2.5 and 1.2.8f to cut the same video sample with the same cut points setting. Here is the result:
cutted by 1.2.5
http://www.fame-ring.com/test/125lnk.ts
cutted by 1.2.8f
http://www.fame-ring.com/test/128lnk.ts

Could you please test the two results on your VLC version and tell us the result?
Thank you so much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[dip]

I tried both samples but have to say that both play perfectly in vlc.
What does this mean?