Support: Hauppauge's MPEG Editor

The WinTV MPEG cuts only editor is an MPEG-1/MPEG-2 cut and join editor. You can cut out segments from videos, or combine videos (of the same MPEG format) together.

The MPEG editor makes its cuts on what are called "MPEG I-frames". These types of cuts do not require a re-encode, and therefore preserves the quality of the original video. The Hauppauge MPEG editor supports MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files created with any of the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR's.

Version 2.1 of the WinTV Editor offers the following features:

  • Edit (cut) MPEG1 and MPEG2 files
  • Join MPEG files of the same resolution and bit rate
  • Remultiplex Video CD compatible files so they can be "burnt" into VCD's
  • Remultiplex S Video CD compatible files so they can be "burnt" into SVCD's
  • Split large files into pieces, so that these can be burned onto CD-ROM
  • Supports Hauppauge WinTV PVR's plus WinTV DVB tuners

Menu Functions

File menu
Add source file: Specify the file you want to edit.
Select Output file: Specify location of destination file.
Generate Output: After defining your cuts, use this button to create the output file. The sequence of cuts on your cutlist is reassembled into an MPEG video file. This operation will take awhile.

Edit menu
(has no function yet)

Options menu

General Options
Temporary files: Specify location of temporary files

Use SOURCE directory for SOURCE temp files: Temporary files for the source file will be stored in the same directory as the source file.

Use destination directory for destination temp files: Temporary files for the output file will be stored in the same directory as the output file.

Split Options

Split output file: The output file will be split into pieces.

Size of each part (in bytes): Size of the pieces in bytes. You can select a given entry (1.4 MB, 650 MB or 750 MB), or you can enter a number in bytes. For example in order to split into 50 MB pieces, enter 52428800 (=50*1024*1024) here.

Overlapping: Number of frames, for which the start and end of the sections will overlap. If you enter the GOP (Group Of Pictures) length, no pictures will be missed (12 = typical GOP length).

Also write unsplit file: In addition to splitting the output file, also write the complete file unsplit.

Remultiplex File for VCD
Note: If you have an VCD file open, when you click on Generate Movie, the file will be saved as a "burnable" VCD file. But if you have a VCD file on you PC and would like to simply make it burnable, use this option.
You will be prompted for a File name. Enter the name of a file which has VCD characteristics (MPEG-1, datarate not exceeding 1.1Mbits/sec, etc.). Next, enter the name of the "burnable" VCD file to be written. The file will be remultiplexed into a "burnable" VCD format.
Note: If you enter the name of a file which is not VCD compliant, an error message will pop up.

Remultiplex File for SVCD
Note: If you have an SVCD file open, when you click on Generate Movie, the file will be saved as a "burnable" SVCD file. But if you have a SVCD file on you PC and would like to simply make it burnable, use this option.
You will be prompted for a File name. Enter the name of a file which has SVCD characteristics (MPEG-2 with 2.2Mbits/sec datarate, 44.1KHz audio and 480x480 image sizes for NTSC video sources). Next, enter the name of the "burnable" SVCD file to be written. The file will be remultiplexed into a "burnable" SVCD format.
Note: If you enter the name of a file which is not SVCD compliant, an error message will pop up.

How to use the editor:

  • Click on the Add source button or click on File / Add source to bring the file you want to edit into the MPEG editor. The WinTV-PVR uses the C:/DocumentsandSettings/default/MyDocuments/MyVideo directory as the default directory to save video files created by the PVR. When the selected file is opened, it will start playing back in the video window. Click the Stop button to stop playback.
  • Grab the video position slider, and move it to the beginning of the video segment you want to keep. The video frame will be shown in the video window. You can also use the controls under the video window (play, pause, stop and the frame control buttons).
  • When you have correctly positioned to the video frame you want, click the In button. This will define the starting point of the video interval.
  • Grab the video position slider and move it to the end position of the clip you want to keep, then click the Out button.
  • Click Add Interval to add the defined clip to the cut list.
  • Repeat until you have put all the desired video clips in the "cut list".
  • When you have finished with your cut list, click the Generate Movie button. All intervals in the cut list will appear in the final video. The Generate Movie step normally takes awhile.
  • Your cut MPEG video has the name nanoEDIT.mpg. Be sure to rename this before cutting another video, otherwise the file will be rewritten!

To cut away an advertisement, click the In button at the beginning of the video sequence, then click the Out button just before the advertisement starts. Click Add Interval. Then click the In button at the end of the advertisement, and click the OUT button at the end of the video sequence you want to keep. Then click Add interval.

To cut away advertisements from a movie, you must define all pieces BETWEEN the advertisement (everything which belongs to the movie) and add them to the cut list.

Notes:

The arrows in the editor (<< < > >>) provide more precise navigation through the video:
<< steps back 10 frames
< steps back 1 frame
>> skips 10 frames
> skips 1 frame

With the "UP" and "Down" buttons you can change the order of the intervals in the cutlist.

You can set the desired options under Options / General Options and Option / SplitOptions.

In order to join clips from different MPEG files:
After you are finished with the adding intervals to the cut list from the first file, click on "ADD SOURCE" again to load the next mpeg into the editor.
When finished, click on "Generate Movie". Note: The bit rate and resolution of all MPEG files must be the same.

To split a large MPEG file into several pieces:

  • Enable "Split Output File" under Options / Split Options.
  • Load the video into the editor using "ADD SOURCE".
  • Move the video position slider to the very left position and click on "In".
  • Move the video position slider to the very right position and click on "Out".
  • Click on "ADD interval" and then on "Generate Movie".

The parts of the output file are numbered starting with 0 (first file).
If the given name of the output file is "nanoEdit.mpg", then the first part will be named "nanoEdit.0.mpg", the second part "nanoEdit.1.mpg" etc...

The amount of free harddisk space for editing MPEG files should be approximately three times as much as the original MPEG file. For example if the source file is 1 gigabyte, you should have at least 3 gigabytes free disk space.

When editing MPEG1-VCD files recorded with WinTV-PVR, you can load them into the editor without converting them with VCDConvert beforehand. But, the output file must be converted afterwards using VCDConvert in order to achieve lip sync and full VCD compatibility.

Known issues:

  • Temporary files are not erased automatically.
  • Various settings (e.g. 'options') are not saved.
  • You should terminate WinTV2000 before you start the MPEG editor. If both programs run at the same time, WinTV2000 responds very slowly.
  • If a WinTV-PVR recording spans over several files (because of the 4 GB file size limitation), only the first file can be edited. The following files are numbered #1, #2 etc. These files cannot be edited.