Segregated files rule!

[keithm]

I know that the 2/4gb avi file limit has always seemed a right pain, but like many things in life, you don't realize how good it is until its gone! Why?

Well most new capture cards use directshow and wdm drivers and if you are running XP or windows 2000 you can capture an avi of unlimited length, which on the face of it is the holy grail of video capture. But, have you ever tried looking for an advert to cut out in a 20gb 90 minute clip? Not only does it take up more resources to load into a video editor, it takes absolutley ages to scroll through a timeline looking for bits to edit out.

By comparision: a 2gb file loads quickly and is easier to scroll through. I also find that most segmented files (being short) don't have an advert break in them at all, making it very quick to edit the footage.

Progress or what!

[Brian Ellis]

Happily, I don't have that problem, but aren't the ads inserted at more-or-less regular intervals? For example, the 45 minute BBC World programmes, like Earth Report or Voyager, always cut for ads at about 20 to 23 mins into the proggy, so it should be relatively easy to find them. Similarly, World Business Report, starting at 23.33 local time, cut in ads at about 23.40-42 and 23.50-52, pretty well as regular as clockwork. Even the 30 min newscasts are usually regular at 15-17 min past the hour, but breaking news can upset the timing. Certainly, I wouldn't have thought it necessary to trawl the 90 minutes.

[landrover]

I am happy not having to capture into segments anymore. Nonetheless, I found out that one of my video editing apps, Magix VideodeLuxe, will not handle >4GB AVI´s correctly. So if I want to work with large AVI´s I have to split up the original file into segments in VirtualDub, which is a piece of cake of course.
I´ve got the impression that native DV video apps can handle >4GB with the most ease.

[wkulecz]

I've no trouble cutting the comercials out of 3+ hours of DV captures as a single file with MSP6.5

I set the timeline to "fit" scrub thru and find a block of comercials then make a cut and repeat until I've found all interruptions.
Then just jump to the edit points using the next/previous edit point ontrols and trim the ends. Using F9 to toggle two timeline zoom views is another time saver.

I usually do this on a PIII-800 BX based MB with 1GB of RAM so it doesn't require anything special in terms of resources by todays standards.

I've recently been recording direct to disk using AVI_IO to be my "VCR" This saves some time but I find it much easier to edit the single DV file as above than the 15-30 pieces AVI_IO creates. YMMV.

--wally.

[Flying dutchman]

VirtualDub handles this problem most beautifully. Load the clip, scrub through it at light speed. Mark the beginning and end of the commercials and delete them.

Then go into frameserver mode and compress the whole bunch using tMpeg- you'll get one single mpeg file. No audio sync issues either.