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:

1. a regular DVD (either one you’ve made or a professional DVD)

2. a DVD-VR (video recording)

3. 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

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: 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. Mac & PC Data Spanning - Span large files across multiple discs, including Blu-ray Discs, for easy retrieval on any Mac or PC. Watch 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. 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. 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 Library Extension - Build an extensive audio library by capturing any audio playing through the Mac, including Internet audio. Audio Fingerprinting - Automatically identify untagged music files and add song titles, artists and genres, eliminating the mystery of “Track_01″. Perfect Mixes - Create perfect mixes with DJ-style crossfades and transitions, output level adjustments, and enhancement filters. Share 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. High Quality Photo Discs - Toast Photo Discs store thousands of full-resolution photos as well as automatically-generated slideshows viewable on Mac and PC. iLife and Aperture - Access iLifeB. 08 and Aperture™ libraries directly from Toast 9’s Media Browser. 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.