TMPGEnc MPEG Editor
The best, fastest,
cheapest MPEG editor available.
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This is one
program that has paid for itself over and over and over.
It’s an easy
editor that creates an MPEG file quickly. The slowest process is
copying the file to your hard dive.
You can copy
directly from your DVD drive (an unprotected DVD) using three
different formats:
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a regular
DVD (either one you’ve made or a professional DVD)
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a DVD-VR
(video recording)
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DVD-RAM.
You can find
any MPEG video on your drive and also edit that. You can plug your
video camera into your computer and capture that, plus you can
import any Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition video recorder
file.
I use this to
record programs from the TV, cut out the commercials, and then make
a DVD. I do this on a DVD-RAM disk and use that disk over and over
and over.
Do not record
your movies in the EP mode. Why? I’ve not found a software program
that actually can write an EP mode DVD. When you record of the TV in
the EP mode, you can record up to 6 hours of material. I’ve not
found any software that can produce a six hour DVD. The most I’ve
gotten, and at a resolution that is not all that good, is 4 hours.
So, if you’re
going to use this program keep in mind that it wants to create the
highest quality MPEG file possible. It’s up to your DVD creating
software (it creates a DVD with multiple videos and a menu) to
create a smaller file so that you can put it onto a DVD with 4 hours
of video (or 2 hours if you want a higher quality DVD).
Keep in mind that TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2.0 Premium
will also work with the HD format. You will get the highest quality
video possible using this program to edit your HD recordings.
However, you will need the Blue Ray disk drive to read and write
them to Blue Ray DVDs.
So, now you’ve
copied the videos to your hard drive (TMPGEnc places them into a
temporary folder, and you have to delete them later). The first
screen you’ll see will be the Source screen. Your programs will be
listed, with pertinent information such as the length (in minutes)
of the video, quality, the audio quality, etc. You can edit them or
delete them. Editing them helps you to view the video to make sure
it’s what you want. Let’s face it, some of you have tons of stuff on
those DVDs. If you want to send Grandma movies of the new arrival,
you’re probably going to have to copy the entire DVD to your disk,
then go in and find the specific videos.
Below is the result of using the Source Wizard to find and copy
4 movies from a DVD-RAM disk. They came from a Panasonic DVD
recorder. The Panasonic has the best format, it appears, for this
program if you want to use a DVD disk that you can use over and over
and over.
Now, editing in
TMPGEnc is very VERY simple.
If you have the
PREMIUM version, you
have the fastest one possible. You can breeze through the video with
hardly a slow down.
Let’s take a
look at the video editing screen.
The red arrow
on the left is pointing at the video controls. You can play, rewind,
or fast forward the video. And you can adjust the playback audio
too. However, you can’t adjust it for the output w/o going to the
audio filters. I’ve not had to use them. They’re best for a video
that has very bad audio (like some home movies).
The white arrow
on the right pointing at the black square is actually pointing at
the main video screen. The red arrow on the left points to the I
Pictures. An I picture represents many frames (you can set this up
or use the default). To the immediate right of the
Blue Circle
with the Scissors (we'll call this the Clip Button) in the middle,
you'll see a two arrow button. That moves the pointer to the next I
Picture. On the left, you can move to a previous I Picture.
The white arrow
on the left at the top points to those clips you’ve cut out.
The white arrow
at the bottom left is pointing to the slide/pointer. Click and drag
it to the right to move forward through the movie; click and drag to
the left to go in reverse.
Ok, so you’re
looking for the commercials. Simply click and drag it to the right
slowly looking for the commercials. You’ll soon learn that the first
commercial in a video is much further from the beginning than the
second one is from the first; and as you get near the end of the
movie, they’re closer together and longer. Play with the slide.
Once
you’ve found the commercial you want
to cut out, go back to the first I Picture before the commercial,
and this time click on the button to the right of the double arrow
(it’s an arrow with two vertical lines behind it). This moves one
frame at a time. Move it to where you want to set the beginning of
your “cut.” You set the beginning with the bracket button to the
left of the Clip Button (on the bottom row). Then drag the slide
forward to the end of the commercial break, use the buttons to move
forward or backwards one frame at a time to where you want
it, and set the “right” or “ending” position of your cut with
the bracket to the right (bottom row) of the Clip Button. Then,
click the Clip Button.
That’s it. To
test, go back a few I Pictures and play through the cut. If you make
a mistake, you can always undo it. You can undo all your actions and
start over. The bottom end buttons (with arrows) will go to the end
or beginning of the video. When done, click OK and you’ll get ready
to create the format for output (or edit your next video in the
list).
One last thing. My TIVO recorded a program in
which the sound was not synched to the video. This little program
(it's quite inexpensive) allows you to adjust the soundtrack to make
it sync. The switch is just to the left of all the arrows in the
group with the Clip Button. I've played with it. It works like a
charm.
If you have a
group of videos and you want them to be output as one file, that’s
one of the options in the format section. But before you output
them, you can also add transitions between them.
You also have
the option to output each video by clip. In my project, I have 4
videos. I can output them to the folder of my choice as four
different files.
Most of the
options are already chosen for you. If you have an HD TV you’ll want
to change the aspect ratio. However, your regular box TV is a 4:3
ratio. Choose the VBR (constant quality) rate; it’s the best. You
can change the picture quality if you want. You won’t get any
smaller video if you choose a lower picture quality. I basically
choose most of the defaults, and go.
Next you get to
output the video. You chose the folder, the program will give them
names, and go. This is VERY fast. You’re getting the highest quality
lossless video possible. And that’s it.
There are two
versions of this program. You have the regular and the premium. The
regular does everything the premium does, except it doesn’t handle
HD video. The premium is just plain fast. However, to run the
premium, you have to have a fast computer with a powerful video card
and all sorts of windows programs up to date. The really great thing
is you can download the program and use it for a little while to
make sure it runs on your system. I love this try before you buy
option.

FOR YOU MAC OWNERS
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Sonic redefines Mac burning yet again with the
introduction of ToastB. 9 Titanium.
Toast 9 is packed with new features and enhancements
that set the standard for burning, watching,
listening and sharing digital content on the Mac and
beyond.
Toast 9 Highlights:
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Blu-ray Disc Support - Store as
many as 12,500 music tracks, 50,000 photos, and
hours of high-definition video on a single 50 GB
Blu-ray Disc.
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Mac & PC Data Spanning - Span
large files across multiple discs, including Blu-ray
Discs, for easy retrieval on any Mac or PC.
Watch
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Life in High-Def - Enabled by a
HD/BD plug-in, consumers can burn HD video
content to Blu-ray Disc and watch it on their
HDTV using any BD player. For consumers who do
not own a BD burner or media, the plug-in allows
burning high-definition content to standard
DVDs. Users can also create HD video projects
using footage from AVCHD camcorders or recorded
TV shows or movies.
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Video Editing - Easy removal of
unwanted video segments from TiVo, Elgato’s
EyeTV, and QuickTimeB. video files before
burning the final project to disc or exporting
it to a portable player.
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Time Savers - Toast 9 includes
a variety of innovative features designed to
simplify and accelerate the otherwise time
consuming and CPU intensive video conversion
process. These include Batch DVD-Video
conversion to enable consumers to queue multiple
video files for use with Roxio’s Fit-to-DVD™
compression technology.
The Fit-to-DVD compression technology enables
consumers to compress large files to fit on a single
layer 4.7 GB disc. Pause and Resume buttons enable
users to suspend and later resume a video conversion
project, and a Video Quality Preview enables users
to review a snippet of converted video to verify
video quality prior to initiating a complete file
conversion.
Listen
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Library Extension - Build an
extensive audio library by capturing any audio
playing through the Mac, including Internet
audio.
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Audio Fingerprinting -
Automatically identify untagged music files and
add song titles, artists and genres, eliminating
the mystery of “Track_01″.
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Perfect Mixes - Create perfect
mixes with DJ-style crossfades and transitions,
output level adjustments, and enhancement
filters.
Share
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On-the-go Entertainment - A new
application called Roxio Streamer enables on -
the-go consumers to access video recordings
stored on a home Mac and stream it to a Wi-Fi
connected iPhone or iPod Touch or any internet
connected Mac or PC.
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High Quality Photo Discs -
Toast Photo Discs store thousands of
full-resolution photos as well as
automatically-generated slideshows viewable on
Mac and PC.
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iLife and Aperture - Access
iLifeB. 08 and Aperture™ libraries directly from
Toast 9’s Media Browser.
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Personalized Disc Artwork -
Personalize discs with labels, cover art, and
inserts.
Includes drawing and text editing tools, as well as
over 600 clip art images and built-in Google image
search. Supports LightScribe and Labelflash™ drives
and media to allow users to burn artwork and labels
directly to discs.
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