What MPEG recordings usually need
MPG and MPEG files mostly come from devices that recorded television or home video: DVD recorders, TV boxes with a USB recording function, capture cards and older camcorders. The recordings are complete, but rarely ready to watch:
- a TV recording starts several minutes early and ends late, with the end of the previous programme and the start of the next one;
- advert breaks interrupt a film or a match;
- a DVD stores one film in several VOB parts;
- old 4:3 programmes or widescreen films in a 4:3 frame have black bars.
Cutting a TV recording
Move the playhead to the exact start of the programme. The left and right arrow keys step one frame at a time, so you can find the cut precisely. Press S and delete the part before it. Do the same at the end. For each advert break, split at its start and at its end, select the advert and use ripple delete, so the programme joins up without a gap. If you want a calmer change at a cut, add a short fade through black.
Joining DVD parts and fixing the frame
Home-made DVDs from camcorders and DVD recorders split the content into VOB files of up to 1 GB. Add all parts of a title, put them in order on the timeline and export one continuous video. Copy-protected commercial DVDs can't be opened.
To remove black borders, select the clip and crop the top and bottom, or the sides, until only the picture remains. Then choose the canvas shape that matches: 16:9 for a widescreen film that was letterboxed, 4:3 for an old programme. Many old recordings also look a little dull. Raise contrast or saturation slightly for a fresher picture.
How MPEG files are handled
Browsers can't decode MPEG-1 or MPEG-2. When you add a file, the editor prepares a preview copy with its built-in converter engine, and you edit with that copy. The export reads the original recording again. A long recording takes a while to prepare, and the project is saved in the browser while you work. Recordings over 1 GB have to be added again after a reload.
Which format to export
The export is preselected as MPEG with MPEG-2 video and MP2 sound, the combination DVD players with a USB port and older TVs expect. PAL recordings run at 25 fps, so set the project to 25 fps to keep motion smooth. For watching on a computer, phone or modern smart TV, MP4 is far smaller at the same quality. To change the format without editing, use MPEG to MP4, and to reduce the size of a finished file, the MPEG compressor. If you only need the sound of a concert or radio recording, MPEG to MP3 extracts it. Recordings stay on your computer the whole time.