Editing recordings to archive

[PStepanas]

One reason we love our Beyonwiz DVRs is that they let us keep recordings of all sorts of TV that simply isn't available to buy or download.

The trouble is, I now have over 20 years of Beyonwiz recordings that I've never edited down and recompressed -- and I've totally run out of hard drive space. New storage may be cheap, but I already have over 12 TB. Where does it stop?

What I'd like to do is edit down all those hundreds of transport stream files, cleanly cut out the ads, bumpers, and even just the start and end (all frame-accurate, of course), deinterlace with a world-class deinterlacer (unlike the one SBS used to use for South Park), and recompress using MPEG-4 (while maintaining frame alignment, so I don't compress B frames as I frames). It sounds like a lot to ask, but basically it's just good quality, digital video editing.

Following a tip, I downloaded DaVinci Resolve. I quickly understood that it's not designed for video editing, but rather for video composing: it assumes you're assembling a video from lots of smaller clips, and that you're working at so high a quality level that you don't care about tweaking compression settings. And then I discovered that it can't even import a .TS file. What the... ?!

Okay, so what does everyone else use to edit their Beyonwiz recordings on a PC? What do they like and dislike about each option? And do any options come close to what I've described above?

(Also, is it even possible to make DaVinci Resolve work for me?)

[Blot]

TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 is what I use. There is probably a newer one.

I did about 20 movies years ago off my toppy. It is a complete waste of time though and ad skip makes it pretty pointless. I just did some for fun.

If you were paying yourself and for the electricity and software then an AppleTV is cheaper, although you have to wait for the $4.99 specials.

You can also buy and sell blu rays on ebay and buy from op shops for $2 a dvd or $4 a blu ray. Although dvds are only worth it if they a rare like mission cleopatra.



It has two dvds one french and one English. The french soundtrack with just the songs is great to play while you potter about the house, I don’t think you can buy it on iTunes although you can get the soundtrack off the more dodgy mp3 sites like mp3va for a few bucks, I still prefer to pay rather than eMule. This all makes the dvd a valuable find at an op shop, although it does appear on ebay for sub $15 sometimes.

[Blot]

Oh and I pretty much delete almost everything I watch even Harry Potter which I just record each time I want to watch it. I used to have the blu rays, but next time I want to watch it I will probably buy it on AppleTV even though it is on free to air 2 or more times a year.

I bet if you lost your 12 tb of files you would not care after a few months.

[paullings]

I use VideoReDo TV Suite to edit Beyonwiz recordings that I want to keep. The Ad-Detective works quite well but you need to tweak it a bit to get the cuts exactly right. You can also remux into other formats such as MKV.

[IanL-S]

I use VideoReDo TV Suite to edit Beyonwiz recordings that I want to keep. The Ad-Detective works quite well but you need to tweak it a bit to get the cuts exactly right. You can also remux into other formats such as MKV.

I use VideoReDo TV Suite 6, and have a similar experience with Ad-Detective. It has most problems with SBS, but an hour long program only has three add breaks and half hour has two. It does not take long to work out how to deal with that minor issue. One thing I really like it that you can run multiple instances: on my Ryzen 5 5950X with a dedicated M.2 SSD and 32GB of RAM I can run Ad-Detective on 10 H.264 recordings at the same time, and twice the number of MPEG2 recordings. Also, the VideoReDo TV Suite 6 licence allows installation on multiple machines.

Ian

[Grumpy_Geoff]

TS-Doctor is another transport stream editor. It can output a .ts file and create the associated .ap and .sc index files.
http://www.cypheros.de/eng/tsdoc3.html

I think there's a few users of it on this forum.

[raymondjpg]

I use VideoReDo TV Suite to edit Beyonwiz recordings that I want to keep. The Ad-Detective works quite well but you need to tweak it a bit to get the cuts exactly right. You can also remux into other formats such as MKV.

I use VideoReDo TV Suite 6, and have a similar experience with Ad-Detective. It has most problems with SBS, but an hour long program only has three add breaks and half hour has two. It does not take long to work out how to deal with that minor issue. One thing I really like it that you can run multiple instances: on my Ryzen 5 5950X with a dedicated M.2 SSD and 32GB of RAM I can run Ad-Detective on 10 H.264 recordings at the same time, and twice the number of MPEG2 recordings. Also, the VideoReDo TV Suite 6 licence allows installation on multiple machines.

Ian

I would agree that the best option for editing out ads, as well as topping and tailing, is VideoReDo TV Suite.

The reason it has most problems with SBS is because it relies on marking junctions of program and non-program material by detecting black frames. SBS very often runs its program material into non-program material without a black frame or two break. The problem is less pronounced with SBS programs when running from non-program material into program material.

With a little T&E and experience one can get reasonably proficient in its use quite quickly.

[raymondjpg]

TS-Doctor is another transport stream editor. It can output a .ts file and create the associated .ap and .sc index files.
http://www.cypheros.de/eng/tsdoc3.html

I think there's a few users of it on this forum.

I'd suggest fewer users than VideoReDo, for good reason.

I've observed before that ad detection in this application could well be more sophisticated, and powerful than VideoReDo, but editing out ad breaks is nowhere near as simple and convenient as with VideoReDo.

I have a license, but rarely use the application other than to clear up errors in broadcast transport stream files, which in my experience occur less and less frequently than in the past.

[peteru]

Avidemux, HandBrake, and MKVToolNix are all very useful and simple tools. Combined, they form a very effective pipeline. It's what I use for simple manipulation of Beyonwiz recordings.

Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve (Free or Studio) is a high end professional tool. It does everything you need to produce entire Hollywood movies. You need 120 frames per second or 32k resolution in HDR with 22.2 channel 3D surround? You've got it. Unless you are familiar with the user interface, it's probably overkill for simple "chop the ads out and transcode" jobs. Then again, if you are comfortable with the user interface, it's easy enough to get those things (and more) done. Take a look at the Edit and Cut pages. The manual for the latest release is just a few pages short of 4,000. The paid (studio) version has loads more codecs and out of the Linux, Mac and Windows versions, the Windows version has probably the widest codec support. The Linux version is what I use for anything more involved than a simple transcode/remux. I liked the product so much, I got myself a job there and am now working on the product.

As far as choosing the best archive format, MKV wins hands down. In particular, don't be suckered into choosing MP4, it will not handle the full spectrum of metadata you may want, such as advanced subtitles.

[vader1111]

Add me to the list of VideoReDo TVSuite users. I run pretty much every single FTA recording through it - advertisements, what are they?

It's quick and easy to use, and does an excellent job of removing ads.