Found New MPEG-4 Editor

[Galactus]

I've had my OSD for about a week now, and I've spent most of this time trying to find a PC program that would do simple edits, mainly to remove commercials. Frankly, the suggestions I've found in these forums have not been very useful, and searches on various shareware sites did not yield a good solution. Now, I've been successfully using a program called FreeVideoDub, from DVDVideoSoftware, for avi. files, but feeding it the OSD's Mpeg-4 files caused it to crash, despite the fact that FreeVideoDub claimed to be able to handle Mpeg-4's. Well, since DVDVideoSoftware.com is really a promotional site for the AVS Video line of retail software, I decided to go to their site to see if the software they were selling might do the trick.  While researching, I discovered that they had posted a new version of FreeVideoDub. I had been using v.1.2.1.1, and they were now offering v.1.3.1.1. I downloaded the new version and found that it now worked!  This seems to be the perfect PC companion to the OSD. I record in iPod mode, using the Default settings, and here's what it does:
1) Directly edits the Mpeg-4 files produced by the OSD, without conversion.
2) Works on the native file, Lossless and fast (about 2 minutes to process a 45 minute, 500 mb file)
3) Has an intuitive, easy to use interface. Scanning your recording and and removing selected segments could not be quicker.
4) It's Free, Unlimited, and No-nag.
It's possible that it may not handle other recording modes, or non-default settings, perfectly. I'd be interested in other user's experiences, particularly the moderators and expert members. I think I'm going to love my OSD, and I'm really looking forward to having the Online Program Guide implemented.

[bigshew]

Appreciate the tip on the editor. Like you, I've had my OSD for a week. I haven't done much recording with it, but will probably do more if the editor is as nice as you say. Mostly I've been using the OSD to play videos from my desktop. It does a pretty good job, even with VOB files. I'd watch more Youtube, but it locks up the OSD a lot. 

[anderbeck]

http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/products/dvd/Free-Video-Dub.htm is the link.

I haven't tried it yet but will let you know.

[holtjunior]

I read this post and downloaded it yesterday as I have also been looking for a simple video editing program that is free.   My verdict after using it for a day...awsome!
It is so easy to use and very user friendly, just remember that you should not overwrite the file you are editing, it does not like this!

[H ello]

Registered today so I could list this MP4 editor.  I didn't know it was already found.  It has worked like a charm for me.  It's intuitive, easy, and clips out unwanted segments fairly quickly.  I think it is worth the time to try it out.  I found it to be nice freeware with only a brief invitation of  "want to see our other products" pop up at startup.

[Galactus]

I don't get the promo at start-up, unless "Hello" means the What's New or Continue box that comes up before the actual program starts.
I'll mention here that my ZoneAlarm intercepted an attempt to access the web at the end of FreeVideoDub's install, which I denied. The installer was probably trying to do some sort of auto-registration. The other free programs that I've installed from this group of audio/video programs all seemed to try to execute this access, and all seem to work despite my decision to block  the access. Stopping the access, however, seems to leave the installation program in an incomplete status that prevents you from deleting the desktop icon it creates. After rebooting, however, the hangup is cleared, and the icon can be deleted.
==
Can I assume that after hundreds of views, no one has found a problem with the way FreeVideoDub handles Mpeg-4 files from the OSD? I've seen two positives, and no negatives. I only record in iPod mode, and was hoping that those of us who use other recording modes would confirm that this editor works for them. And, I hope everyone tries the PageUp and PageDown keys when scanning their recordings. This is an incredibly easy way to find commercials to delete.

[bigshew]

I just edited an OSD TV mode .mp4 and it seems okay. However, my first attempt used a network drive for source & destination and produced an unplayable file. Using a local drive works okay.

[anderbeck]

I am using Free Video Dub with TV mode MP4 files recorded by the OSD, and (unlike when I used Ulead Video Studio) the edited file works fine.