Hi guys, I am brand new and I am trying to stack files for a TV show. I read on another forum, dated over 7 years ago that someone else was trying to do the same thing and that the feature would be added in eventually but it doesn't seem to be possible. Let me give you the why so no one asks why I am trying to stack video files for TV episodes. I am using a recorder and trying to edit commercials out of a broadcast for my own use. If I try to just cut the commercial part out, I end up in a no win situation. When the file is encoded (using mp4 just for the sake of being able to quickly check it on my computer) I face an impossible question of either poor quality from a low bit rate or a huge file size from a high bit rate. However, trimming the video into parts allows me to keep the high quality of the original recording and small file size. I tried using a, b, c, d... and "part 1" "part 2" etc. it always came up as separate episodes. I have the option checked for combining separate files in settings. So, is it possible to stack TV episode files? and if so, what I missing?
No I do not think it is possible to use stacking in TV episodes. You stacking is only needed for movies because people used to cut their pirated movies into lengths taht were suitable for their storage medium like CD's. Not really relevant now, so why extend the functionality?
Why not stitch your parts back together with mkvmerge, which will not change the encoding, merely stitch them one after the other into an mkv file.
Another approach is to use cutfiles, which simply mark the portions to be skipped, leaving the original file intact.
However I have found that the effort in watching a file over and over to find the cut points ruins any ability to enjoy the episode and setting the right click button to skip the number of minutes that our TV stations usually devote to commercials is good enough.
(2017-11-04, 05:30)nickr Wrote: [ -> ]No I do not think it is possible to use stacking in TV episodes. You stacking is only needed for movies because people used to cut their pirated movies into lengths taht were suitable for their storage medium like CD's. Not really relevant now, so why extend the functionality?
Why not stitch your parts back together with mkvmerge, which will not change the encoding, merely stitch them one after the other into an mkv file.
Another approach is to use cutfiles, which simply mark the portions to be skipped, leaving the original file intact.
However I have found that the effort in watching a file over and over to find the cut points ruins any ability to enjoy the episode and setting the right click button to skip the number of minutes that our TV stations usually devote to commercials is good enough.
I tried stitching, I ended up with the same problem. I tried using video editors like Final Cut Pro (I have a Mac) to get more exact cuts and ended up with the same problems of either huge file size or losing quality (typically in the fast moving parts that would need a higher frame rate)
I am curious about cut files though, I haven't tried that approach. It seems like a realistically good idea actually, keeping the original file completely intact, with a desirable quality and file size. I think I may try to explore that idea. I am not sure how to do it, but that is what research is for.
Thank you for the idea
(2017-11-04, 22:09)nickr Wrote: [ -> ]http://kodi.wiki/view/Edit_decision_list
Thanks nickr, this seems like it will work. big question is do I actually need a program to write the edl or can I just effectively write a txt file (I believe com skip said it used a txt file) with the frame numbers manually? Or even just write a txt file and save it as .edl? never done anything like that before...
Yes it is simply a text file.
(2017-11-05, 21:49)nickr Wrote: [ -> ]Yes it is simply a text file.
Just wanted to let you know that it is working ALMOST perfectly. I am not quite sure how to fine tune it further. The documentation on the wiki says the mplayer edl format can be accurate up to 3 decimal places when using HH:MM:SS but I can't seem to get that level of accuracy. I am thinking of changing to just using the count in seconds to two decimal places. I tried frame numbers for the most accuracy possible, but that didn't seem to work at all, it was way off and the least accurate. Thanks again for the idea, it is perfect for what I want to do, just need to tweak a bit and it will be perfect.