Editing Tivo Files For Conversion?

[epstewart]

In Toast 9 Titanium, I tried editing a TiVo file that I was about to convert for Apple TV. That involved clicking on Edit ... in the Convert: Video Files pane, which took me to Toast Video Player to do the editing. I thought I successfully snipped off the extraneous material at the start and end of the program, and yet when I exported the file it still had the snipped material. Anyone know how to get the export to honor the edits?

[amiesue_tivo]

I am having the same issue - I set the markers and returned to the export area but when I do the preview the marked areas are still there - and I can't find anything in the Help files about this, either.

[MacGoddess]

I too would like some documentation on this feature. Shouldn't we be able to select frames below the main video to delete? I am multiplexing a video transferred from my TiVo right now and will see if the extra stuff at the beginning sticks or not.

[amiesue_tivo]

Ok, this is working for me now. I was attempting to use the Preview option in the first dialog box and that did not reflect my edits, but when I went through the full thing, the exported m4v file was edited as I intended. Here are the steps I took:

 

• Went to the Convert Tab and selected Video Files
• Dragged in a .TiVo file that I had transferred using TiVo transfer within Toast (tested both one transferred with v8 and with v9 both worked)
• Clicked the Edit button
• When the Dialog box comes up Clicked the Edit button
• In the video player used the markers to highlight the content that I wanted trimmed (these sections were green in color)
• Clicked Save to keep the markers
• Clicked OK
• Clicked that lovely big red Convert Video button
• Clicked Convert on the final dialog box presented

 

The exported video (using AppleTV as the device and Automatic as the quality) then finished and the sections I had selected were trimmed and I was able to add them to iTunes and access them via AppleTV (although I used vID Infiltr8 to ensure they went to the TV show areas first)

[LORDH]

I have also been having problems with editing tivo files.. I had hoped I would be able to save an edited (trimmed) version of a tivo file. Looks like we can only trim a tivo file prior to conversion. Is that what other users have concluded? Also I have not been able to step thru on the frame track or figure out a way to make the "fine" mode work or find a keyboard "left" key that works. Wouldn't it be helpful if the product had a complete user manual - not an unreasonable request, eh !!!!!!!

[epstewart]

In the video player used the markers to highlight the content that I wanted trimmed (these sections were green in color)

 

Do you mean that the sections you wanted to be removed were green in color? Or that the sections you wanted left in were green in color?

 

In my attempts at editing, I have found that the default behavior seems to be that the section between two markers is originally green. My assumption is that that indicates it is to be left in the edited output, while the other parts will be left out. Am I right about that?

 

You can flip that original relationship by using Invert Markers from the pop-up menu whose button is at lower right in Toast Video Player. That turns the other parts light blue and the formerly green part returns to dark gray, which I interpret as meaning the other parts are now going to be in the final output and the formerly green part(s) won't. Correct?

[d_Rox]

I got the editing to work thanks to the instructions posted here by epstewart, but I am not happy with the results.

There is what I will describe as 'Video Noise" at the top of the converted video window which is not in the source.

This is unacceptable. The ability to edit my Tivo files on the Mac was my main reason for upgrading to Toast 9.

I assumed the editing would leave a clean video. Is anyone else seeing this?

 

[amiesue_tivo]

It is the green sections between the markers that will be removed - I know that seems backward since green would make you think Go or Keep, but it is backward. If you save and then open it back up in the viewer then you see the sections you are going to cut highlighted in blue instead of green with other parts being dark grey as you mentioned and all that blue will be removed when you let it complete the conversion.

 

I also noticed that even with fine checked (I assumed this would give me greater granularity for frame control) that I don't have the same level of frame control as with QuickTime, but I have found it has been sufficient so far - the real question is with regard to the quality comparisons... I am doing some side by sides with the way I used to convert videos to see if there is a big loss in quality. I also wish there was an ability to deinterlace, but I haven't found that yet, either.

[amiesue_tivo]

I got the editing to work thanks to the instructions posted here by epstewart, but I am not happy with the results.

There is what I will describe as 'Video Noise" at the top of the converted video window which is not in the source.

This is unacceptable. The ability to edit my Tivo files on the Mac was my main reason for upgrading to Toast 9.

I assumed the editing would leave a clean video. Is anyone else seeing this?

 

I see the same thing depending on where I source it - I have noticed that I have this with my Series 2 Dual Tuner, but not on the content from my HD (not actual HD content just using that box). I used to then run these through Visual Hub and trim 4 pixels from all sides but I have found that I am not able to do that currently because the audio ends up out of synch on anything that I send from the HD box... frustrating all around right now. I am going to look into the possibility of trimming it with QuickTime but I am not sure that is going to be possible.

 

I can say that the streaming is nice, as I can convert it for Streamer and then watch it from my iPhone anywhere there is wifi - so it is nice to be able to take it with me, without having to eat up my space or synch all the time.

[epstewart]

It is the green sections between the markers that will be removed - I know that seems backward since green would make you think Go or Keep, but it is backward. If you save and then open it back up in the viewer then you see the sections you are going to cut highlighted in blue instead of green with other parts being dark grey as you mentioned and all that blue will be removed when you let it complete the conversion.

 

I also noticed that even with fine checked (I assumed this would give me greater granularity for frame control) that I don't have the same level of frame control as with QuickTime, but I have found it has been sufficient so far - the real question is with regard to the quality comparisons... I am doing some side by sides with the way I used to convert videos to see if there is a big loss in quality. I also wish there was an ability to deinterlace, but I haven't found that yet, either.

 

Amiesue: OK, I'm still having trouble editing TiVo videos, and what you said about the "green" sections between the markers being the parts to be removed, and not the parts to remain in the exported video, could well explain it. That is indeed counterintuitive. You would think that "green" means "go" and that the parts to be snipped away would be (say) red.

 

But it looks like what you said is indeed right! I took a 15-minute test TiVo video and made just the first few few seconds of it "green," then exported it for Apple TV. The result seems to be that the "green" part of it was snipped off, and the rest was exported: exactly the opposite of what I had in mind!

 

So, given that, it might well be that the best way to do it would be to set markers around what you want to keep, then use the Invert Markers command such that the other stuff becomes what will be snipped off or out.

 

To what you said in your earlier post #4 in this thread, giving the steps for editing, I would like to add these clarifications:

 

• After using the video player to make the edits, Save can be chosen immediately from the Toast Video Player File menu (or via keyboard shortcut).
• Or, if you simply quit the video player, you will get a dialog box indicating you have made changes to the markers for the video file, and then you must click Save in that dialog.
• Then you have to switch back to the Toast window itself (if it is not now on top). If the video player has not been quit, chances are you will have to make the Toast window active.
• That window should still be displaying the drop-down dialog from which you originally invoked the video player's editing function. It is in that drop-down dialog that you click OK.
• The drop-down dialog disappears, and then you click the lovely big red Convert Video button.
• After that you click Convert on that one last dialog box.
• In that last dialog you can accept the Apple TV device, at Automatic (or High or Fastest) quality, and you can select a Save To destination.

 

To comment on your other comments: I have yet to figure out exactly what the Fine button does. If it gives greater granularity for frame control, I haven't any idea how to take advantage of it. In general, I find the control I have over the exact edits points to be hard to pinpoint, and sometimes using the right arrow key to jump forward actually makes it jump backward!

 

I also would like a deinterlace capability very much. In general, I would like the ability to fine tune various options for the exported video, a la QuickTime.

[epstewart]

I got the editing to work thanks to the instructions posted here by epstewart, but I am not happy with the results.

There is what I will describe as 'Video Noise" at the top of the converted video window which is not in the source.

This is unacceptable. The ability to edit my Tivo files on the Mac was my main reason for upgrading to Toast 9.

I assumed the editing would leave a clean video. Is anyone else seeing this?

 

Yes, I see the video "garbage" too, on some programs but not others.

 

I think it has to do with information that is normally hidden in the vertical blanking intervals. That information is showing up in the exported video.

 

In standard-definition NTSC broadcasts, cable, etc., each video frame (or, actually, each of the two fields making up each frame) is separated from the next by a vertical blanking interval which contains sync signals, closed captioning, and other information. In bygone days, TV pictures would sometimes roll up and down the screen, and you could see the black vertical blanking stripes carrying white sync inside them.

 

Nowadays there is more than just sync in vertical blanking, and so the white stuff flickers. If you can see it, that is. You usually never see it, since TVs hold sync perfectly now.

 

When NTSC is digitized, as happens for non-digital channels in the TiVo unit, maybe the vertical blanking stuff gets digitized too.

 

Then, when the transfered .tivo file is exported by Toast, maybe the conversion to H.264 or whatever is picking up the vertical blanking stuff.

 

A lot of time, it doesn't matter, since the display device typically has "overscan": some number of pixels at the top, bottom, and sides of the screen are cropped off, such that the garbage at the top is hidden.

 

But for devices that don't overscan, it would be nice if Toast's conversion/export capability would allow you to specify your own cropping.