Frame-accurate editing for WMV-files

Hello kim,

Thank you for your post.
Yes all the enumerated things are neccesary and were dicussed a few times. Currently the main proble is if to implement them the Splitter will left its easy-to-use advantage.

Probably we should re-make it completely or just make a new program like SolveigMM Media Editor. Anyway thanks for your hins we are taking that in to consideration.

Dear Dmitry,

Thanks for your prompt reply, which sounds very encouraging.

Regarding preview of the timeline, it would probably make good sense to have three separate windows. One for input, one for the timeline itself, and one for preview of the joint segments currently in the timeline.

In the input window, you may open and playback any number of source files (one at a time) and select any number of segments with frame accuracy and drag them to the timeline window.

In the timeline window, you should be able to rearrange the sequence of segments chosen so far, and perhaps also split them further and trim away parts, if the preview shows that this is desirable. For each segment, it should be possible to view its location and duration in the corresponding source file and also in the joined output.
Things like being able to set fading of video and/or audio, volume control, as well as display of source file name and size, type of encoding, bitrates, bitmap size etc. for each segment is also very useful.

Finally, in the preview window, you should be able to playback the current timeline exactly the way it will appear in the final joined output.

If you are not already familiar with the Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD program, I think it would be worthwile to download it and explore the way it works. It may not seem to be the most intuitive interface at first, but once you get used to it, it really works very well. It may give you new ideas.

Congratulations to a very promising product.

Best regards,
-- Kim

Dear Kim,

Thank you for so detailed feedback.

# You have said in a recent post that frame-accurate editing is planned to be included also for WMV-files. Is there a planned date for such a version of the splitter?

Yes it is still planed, but the date is is not fixed as a lot of different features are implemented. So I really hope it gets ready in nearest three months.

# I don't know exactly how this is obtained, but I imagine that you would need to change the first GOP in every segment that begins with a delta-frame, so that this frame is replaced by a new I-frame constructed by finding the nearest I-frame to the left and then apply all the delta-frames up to and including the segment start. That would of course mean some more processing, but only a low percentage of the whole job. Therefore, a decrease in speed would only be noticeable if you have zillions of very short segments, each beginning on a delta-frame, which is probably not very common.

You are totally right. Good knowledge  The splitter does that with MPEG-2 files already, AVI, WMV and AVC are forthcoming.

# If I buy the current version, will I be able to upgrade for free, once the WMV frame-accurate editing becomes available?

If the major version remains the same the upgrade is free. If you help us with beta testing we can upgrade you even to next major version 

# One thing I really miss (which the Womble program has) is a second preview window, where you can play back the result of the join of all your included segments at any time, so you can see and listen to the result before you do the actual trimming. If you are re-cutting a film scene you need to be able to see the resulting transitions from each segment to the next without having to go through the whole trimming process over and over until it looks right. Have you thought about such a feature?

Yes it is of course a reasonable feature and we are thinging about preview of timeline, especially after we made joining mode. So it is a must improvement.

Hello Dmitry!
I have used the Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD to edit VOB-files and mpg-files with frame accuracy and perfect what-you-see-is-what-you-get-preview for several years, and find it very productive. It can join any number of selected segments from one or several mpeg-files and produce a result very fast with no quality loss.

However, it does not work well with AVI- and WMV-files, since it reencodes the result, which lowers the quality substantially and also takes a looong time to complete.

Therefore, I have spent the last couple of days looking for a corresponding tool to use with WMV-files. Much to my surprise, the only tool I have found that can cut any number of segments from an WMV-file and produce a lossless result (and do it fast, which is only possible if you do not need to reencode) is the SolveigMM Video Splitter, which I am currently evaluating.

I have a few questions:

• You have said in a recent post that frame-accurate editing is planned to be included also for WMV-files. Is there a planned date for such a version of the splitter?
  
• I don't know exactly how this is obtained, but I imagine that you would need to change the first GOP in every segment that begins with a delta-frame, so that this frame is replaced by a new I-frame constructed by finding the nearest I-frame to the left and then apply all the delta-frames up to and including the segment start. That would of course mean some more processing, but only a low percentage of the whole job. Therefore, a decrease in speed would only be noticeable if you have zillions of very short segments, each beginning on a delta-frame, which is probably not very common.
  
• If I buy the current version, will I be able to upgrade for free, once the WMV frame-accurate editing becomes available?
  
• One thing I really miss (which the Womble program has) is a second preview window, where you can play back the result of the join of all your included segments at any time, so you can see and listen to the result before you do the actual trimming. If you are re-cutting a film scene you need to be able to see the resulting transitions from each segment to the next without having to go through the whole trimming process over and over until it looks right. Have you thought about such a feature?
  

Best regards,
Kim