I am looking for an easy way to edit out the commercials from TV shows
that I have recorded using an ATI 9700 All In Wonder Pro.  The card
will capture in MPEG1 and MPEG2.  I am currently recording using MPEG2
so that I maintain the highest quality.  I would like a process that
is as simple as possible and does not require me to view the recording
before the edit.  I would also like to know the best software for the
process.  I will using a Pentium 4 2.5, Windows XP Pro, 1Gig RAM, and
300Gig of storage.

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Request for Question Clarification by mrbuzz-ga on 06 Feb 2003 20:49 PST

Hi dhenss-ga,

What did you mean by "I would like a process that does not require me
to view the recording before the edit"?

Normally, if I wanted to cut out certain parts of MPEG files, I would
use TMPGEnc ( http://www.tmpgenc.net/ ) and use the Merge & Cut
option.  It's simple enough for cutting out portions of files.

Let me know if that is what you were looking for.

Regards,
mrbuzz-ga

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Clarification of Question by dhenss-ga on 07 Feb 2003 06:27 PST

mrbuzz-ga,

Thanks for getting back with me so fast.  

I guess what I am looking for is a program that will let me load up
the MPEG file and then let me click a button that then will scan the
file for any type of breaks or scene changes and mark them for me. 
Once that is done all I should have to do is go to each area that has
been marked and then decide if that is a good place to cut.

While you respond to this I will explore TMPGEnc.

Thanks agian.

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Request for Question Clarification by mrbuzz-ga on 07 Feb 2003 09:41 PST

Ah I see.  I've just gone now to search around a bit for it and
haven't had much luck.  I'm guessing the reason for it is maybe that
even if such software existed, it would be hard to detect which are
commercials and which are just pauses in the show or even pauses
between commercials.

Anyway, the instructions for use with TMPGEnc can be found at (
http://www.vidomi.com/viewtopic.php?topic=1323&forum=4 ), it's the
second post on that page.

Good luck,
mrbuzz-ga

You will probably find that in standard television shows the breaks
are generally in about the same places.

Generally speaking (it differs from network to network and program to
program), a commercial hour of television is 44 minutes. Half an hour
is 22 minutes.

The ad spacing is generally like this:
- Half Hour: 11min - 11min  or  2min - 9min - 9min - 2min
- Hour: 11min - 11min - 11min - 11min

With this basic pattern in mind, it's generally pretty easy to find
the ads by hand, and remove them.

Hope that helps.