I have mpeg2 files that I'm trying to edit into a short piece I'm making for the intro of my company's dvd show reel. I know you can do some editing of mpeg2s in the actual dvd studio pro 2 program, but I've got a lot of effects, titles, and quick cuts, so it's really much better suited for final cut pro, which I've been using. I dropped the mpeg2s in my final cut timeline, which is set to DV and it rendered them into some sort of watchable format, I'm assuming mpeg4. Then I re-exported the final cut movie to mpeg2. However, when I burn the DVD, there seems to be some sort of frame loss, or dropping, occurring on the video clips. I'm assuming that this is because of the mpeg2 to mpeg4 conversion. Is there a proper way to convert these formats? Has anyone ever encountered a problem like this before??

-- David Isser (dave@publicinterestprods.org), March 16, 2004

Answers

Since your source is MPEG2 and so is DVD, you should not be converting these clips to DV. My favorite editor is MPEG2VCR which is available at http://www.womble.com. MPEG2VCR has limited effects, but it is without a doubt the best MPEG editor on the planet. Your problems are most likely caused by the MPEG-2 -> DV -> MPEG-2 conversion. If want to use DVD Studio 2, which I know nothing about, make your cut timeline MPEG-2.

I almost forgot, but http://www.pcphotovideo.com has some suggestions on using MPEG2VCR under the "Womble" part of the web site. It's a little counter intuitive because what you have to do is cut the video you want to keep out, put it on a clipboard, and then join those pieces together. Using MPEG2VCR to edit from a clip sometimes causes sync problems, but if you join cuts together, you don't have sync problems.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), March 17, 2004.