Simple cutter to remove segments of H.264 video without any re-encoding ?
 

Hello lordsmurf,

We've spoken a bit in the past, although not for quite some time. Quite a few years ago I tapped you for some advice with VHS restoration, and I remembered your name immediately when I saw it today. I've been mostly off the scene for a while, but do make the occasional appearance.

Anyway, if you have a moment, I'd appreciate your $.02. For some time now, I've been poking around and looking for a simple cutter that will allow me to remove segments of H.264 (GoPro) video without any re-encoding. Yeah, there do seem to be a couple heavily advertised "solutions" out there and I've read up a bit on smart rendering as well, but I'm not persuaded that any of what I'm seeing is really lossless.

For my purposes here only, I'd prefer a very quick and dirty cutting tool, kinda like Virtual Dub's direct stream copy. And I'd also obviously like to preserve original file format and change as little as possible overall. From what I've read, you've spent some time hunting for this same thing. Do you have any preferences or recommendations for one using a Windows machine?

Regards,
Dave

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I'm slower to respond, but I'm still here. :D

The problem is that H.264 is a long GOP distribution format. The nature of the format somewhat negates the possibility to seemlessly cut edit like you can do even with MPEG. To date, I've not come across a tool that does not either (A) re-encode, or (B) completely butcher the video, when attempting to edit H.264. If you find one that actually works, let me know!

A few tools from VideoReDo and Womble have claimed MPEG-4/H.264 editing abilities, but none seem to work well. I've not looked in probably 4-6 months now, for an editor like this. I'd like to be wrong, and just be unaware of some great cutter utility.

That would not only be your preference, but my preference and most people's preference. Simple editing, like VirtualDub or Womble.

Wish I had more for you.

Moving forward, always remember to find me here.

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