Can't DELETE Videos properly using Avidemux ....

I am trying to delete UNWANTED scenes from Movies.I selected one particular scene and deleted it using Avidemux.I simply selected that LETTER A and dragged the slip to the end of the scene (where i wanted the scene to end) & then i clicked Letter B.

Then after that , i selected the Output format (Which in this case was mkv).After clicking save , it gave me this error.


What am i doing worng....

Movies are not a series of images, there are I frames - as in image (about every second or so) and the frames inbetween are calculated on the fly.

In Avidemux, if the edits/cuts are made on I frames you can simply save the output with audio + video on copy and it does just that ie copies very fast. If the cuts are not on I frames, a recode is required which takes longer (and slightly degrades the movie quality). The audio and video then have to be set according eg x264 and faac.

If you look at the bottom of the GUI, it tells you what type of frame the position indicator is on ( I, P or B frames). If you navigate thru the movie when editing using up/down arrow keys, you are always on an I frame. Using L/R arrows is one frame at a time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_..._picture_types

wasnotwas said:

Movies are not a series of images, there are I frames - as in image (about every second or so) and the frames inbetween are calculated on the fly.

In Avidemux, if the edits/cuts are made on I frames you can simply save the output with audio + video on copy and it does just that ie copies very fast. If the cuts are not on I frames, a recode is required which takes longer (and slightly degrades the movie quality). The audio and video then have to be set according eg x264 and faac.

If you look at the bottom of the GUI, it tells you what type of frame the position indicator is on ( I, P or B frames). If you navigate thru the movie when editing using up/down arrow keys, you are always on an I frame. Using L/R arrows is one frame at a time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_..._picture_types

I initially couldn't understand this I Frame thing.So,i dropped this idea of deleting Unwanted scenes from movies.But this morning,i noticed in your reply something about setting the Audio to faac and Video to x264.I tried selecting those options after deleting a specific scene and IT WORKED.

I basically did 3 things after deleting the scene,

1.Firstly , i changed the file extension by clicking the "Output Format" & selecting "Mkv Muxer"
2.Then I clicked the "Video Output" & selected "Mpeg4 AVC (X264)"
3.Then i clicked the "Audio Output" and selected "AAC (faac)"

Then after saving , the Encoding processes started and it took about roughly 30 minutes or so to complete.The result was PERFECT.The timing was precise , just as i selected for the scene to start and end.

My question now is that , does this process decreases the Video Quality of the final Output file?

In general, any recoding of video will degrade the quality, but if you set the bitrate to a suitable value the difference will probably be not noticeable. If the filesize after encoding is about the same as the original, then the bitrate is OK. In Avidemux, click configure under Video Output to get to bitrate, 1 pass/2pass settings etc.

The business with I frames is worth getting the hang of, because if you cut on I frames the output is just a 1:1 copy of the remaining scenes, with no loss of quality (and is fast). The distance between I frames is different for each movie (it's set by the person who encoded it), but is usually about 1 sec or 30 frames approx. Obviously the cut points for your edit will probably not fall conveniently on I frames, but if you can live with that, it's the best method for editing.

My approach - say you wanted to save just one scene from a movie -

load the movie in Avidemux

press up and down arrow keys to get to the scene start
click B, then del to remove highlighted 1st part

press up and down arrow keys to get to the scene end
click A, then del to remove unwanted highlighted last part

if you only moved the position using up/down arrow keys, the cuts will be on I frames and the settings can be left on copy (it shows I, P or B frame at the bottom of the interface). Click to save, and it takes about 3 secs.

If cutting on I frames is not accurate enough, use L-R arrows for 1 frame at a time and encode the result (longer).

I often use a mixture of copy + encode eg if a movie has low audio volume, I leave the video on copy, click audio Filters and set the gain to (say) manual +12 dB. When I save, the audio is boosted (recoded) and the video isn't touched so is identical quality. You can even shift the audio in millisecs to fix out of sync movies.

Sorry for long reply.

Alrite.I have decided to delete scenes from a Movie that i have.I am not going to use the I Frame , rather i will be deleting scenes from my own choice.The encoding process will take 6 to 7 hours.So be it :) At least , i will have the thing i want (I hope).I am skeptical about the final file size.But let's see.

I have a laptop and i have my own Desktop as well.So,i will just put this Encoding process in my Laptop at night & will see the result afterwards....

Before i say anything, i must say that it feels to see the only my own comments here, for the past few days :)
Anyways,i finally found a solution...
The process i mentioned in my previous reply took roughly 12 hours.
And later i tried using "I" Frames but used "mpeg X264" as "Video Out" & using "AAC (faac)" as Audio Output which was taking slightly less time,perhaps 6 hours or so. ..
So i decided to use "Copy" for both "Audio Output" & "Video Output".
It took ONLY 6 or so minutes.THAT's IT :)
Even though, "I" FRAMES cutting is not 100% accurate but it is like closer to 85% in my opinion.Which is working great for me.
Thank you all for your replies...

Not ignoring your posts - didn't have much else to add from my previous messages.

Avidemux works as you have described - cut on I frames + copy is fast with no loss of quality. Anything else is a recode and longer. I still think it's a good app (for free) - has many uses.

If you don't already use it, you might want to also checkout Handbrake, which is a fast, free convertor that can resize and/or trim black letterbox bars automatically. Accepts virtually any video file and converts to mp4 or mkv. Jobs can be queued and run in a batch eg overnight.

https://handbrake.fr/

wasnotwas said:

Not ignoring your posts - didn't have much else to add from my previous messages.

Avidemux works as you have described - cut on I frames + copy is fast with no loss of quality. Anything else is a recode and longer. I still think it's a good app (for free) - has many uses.

If you don't already use it, you might want to also checkout Handbrake, which is a fast, free convertor that can resize and/or trim black letterbox bars automatically. Accepts virtually any video file and converts to mp4 or mkv. Jobs can be queued and run in a batch eg overnight.

https://handbrake.fr/

There is one small thing,that has come about.That is: after editing a movie via Avidemux,i decided to add subtitles to it using "DivX Media Subtitler".Since,the regular SRT (Subtitles) file that came with movie is not going to be accurate now.As i have deleted some scenes from the movie.

Anyways,i used 3 lines of dialogues and applied them on the movie as an SRT file.When i played the movie to check the result,the scene/frame lagged for a second as soon as the subtitle appeared.Which was odd.

I was watching the movie with Power Plan set to Balanced Mode on my Laptop.But when i turned to High Performance , the scenes with my subtitles weren't lagging.

I have watched plenty movies with Balanced mode and subtitles.This didn't happened before.

Any thoughts ?

Can't help with that one - I never use subs.