Installing and Configuring Cuttermaran

MPEG-2 video is easily the most common digital video₁. It's used for DVD, both ATSC and DVB television (DTV) signals, and even some Blu-ray releases. It uses a GOP₂ structure with a combination of keyframes (I frames) and delta frames (P and B frames) in order to achieve enough compression to fit a standard definition movie on DVD or a reasonably high quality DTV signal into a practical amount of bandwidth. However, this same characteristic makes editing MPEG video somewhat complicated.

If you want to ensure the ability to cut a MPEG-2 file at any frame you'll need to use a frame accurate MPEG-2 editor. Although there are some good commercial editors available, there are also free tools which are quite capable of doing the job. Cuttermaran, a free MPEG-2 editor, is such a program. Combined with the (also free) QuEnc MPEG-2 encoder and ImagoMPEG-Muxer, Cuttermaran is capable of handling most basic MPEG editing jobs, including removing commercials from DTV captures.

Required Software

	Cuttermaran A free MPEG-2 editor
	.NET Framework 1.1 SP1 Libraries required by a number of Windows programs including Cuttermaran

Optional Software

	QuEnc A free MPEG-2 encoder which gives Cuttermaran frame accurate editing capabilities
	ImagoMPEG Muxer A free MPEG muxer which allows you to create muxed (.MPG file) output with Cuttermaran

Next: Installing Cuttermaran with QuEnc and ImagoMpeg Muxer

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1Additional Information About MPEG-2 Video While it's not necessary for this guide, Afterdawn has more detailed information about MPEG-2 video. You can start with our guide on MPEG-2 encoding. (return to guide) 2 Group of Pictures In order to allow high Compression rates for digital video it may be encoded into GOPs, or Groups of Pictures, which consist of keyframes and delta frames. Keyframes are normal frames with a complete picture, similar to a still image file format like JPEG. Keyframes may be followed by delta frames, which only include changes from the previous keyframe or even a previous delta Frame.... (Read More) return to guide