Difference between revisions of "Editing Recordings"

Latest revision as of 19:34, 23 April 2014

Editing a recording allows you to specify a cut list, which will cause MythTV to automatically skip over some areas of the recording during playback. This allows you to edit out the areas before, after, and within the recorded program. Common areas to remove are parts of an unrelated earlier or later programme, and news or advertising breaks. Once you have created a cut list, you may also choose to transcode the recording to remove the cut areas from the recording file.

Entering and Exiting Edit Mode

• Enter edit mode by pressing EDIT (by default, E) while watching a recording.
• Save the cut list and return to playback by pressing EDIT (by default, E).
• Press ESCAPE (by default, Esc) to show the Exit Cut List Editor dialog, with options:
  • Save Cut List and Exit to save the cut list and return to playback
  • Exit Without Saving to return to playback without saving changes to the cut list
  • Save Cut List to save the cut list and return to editing
  • Undo Changes to cancel changes made to the cut list since entering edit mode

Navigating Within the Recording

• Move one time unit backward in the recording using LEFT (by default, Left arrow) and move one time unit forward in the recording using RIGHT (by default, Right arrow).
• Use UP (by default, Up arrow) and DOWN (by default, Down arrow) to change the time unit - values are 1 cutpoint, 1 keyframe, 1 frame, 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 5 seconds, 20 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes.
• Move 10 units back in the recording using BIGJUMPREW (by default, , or <) and move 10 units forward in the recording using BIGJUMPFWD (by default, . or >).
• Skip directly to the previous or next cut point using PREVCUT (by default, PgUp) and NEXTCUT (by default, PgDown).

Adding Cuts

• If commercial detection is enabled (and is completed), pressing LOADCOMMSKIP (by default, Z or End) will load the detected commercials.
• To manually add a cut:
  • Locate the start (or end) of a commercial break, press SELECT (by default, Return, Enter, or Space).
  • Locate the other end of the commercial break, press SELECT (by default, Return, Enter, or Space), again.
• To cut to the beginning or end of a recording, select the desired frame, then press MENU (by default, M), and select Cut to Beginning or Cut to End.
• Locate the first/last frame to keep, e.g. by jumping to a key frame, then press SELECT.

Modifying Individual Cuts

• To delete an existing cut, select a frame within the cut region and press MENU (by default, M), and select Delete This Cut. Also available directly using the DELETE key binding (by default, D).
• To move the start of a cut, select the desired start frame, and press MENU (by default, M), and select Move Start of Cut Here (if the current frame is within the cut area) or Move Next Cut Start Here (if the current frame is not within the cut area).
• To move the end of a cut, select the desired end frame, and press MENU (by default, M), and select Move End of Cut Here (if the current frame is within the cut area) or Move Previous Cut End Here (if the current frame is not within the cut area).

Modifying the Cut List

• To modify the the cut list, press MENU (by default, M), and select Cut List Options, then:
  • To clear the cut list, select Clear Cut List. Also available directly using the CLEARMAP key binding (by default, C, Q, or Home).
  • To invert the cut list, select Invert Cut List. Also available directly using the INVERTMAP key binding (by default, I).
  • To cancel changes made to the cut list since entering edit mode, select Undo Changes.
  • To exit the editor, without saving changes, select Exit Without Saving.
  • To save the cut list without exiting the editor, select Save Cut List. Also available directly using the SAVEMAP key binding (unmapped by default).
  • To save the cut list and exit to playback, select Save Cut List and Exit. Also available directly using the EDIT key binding (by default, E).

Advanced Editing

• To extend a cut area to include additional frames (this may be used to merge multiple cut areas into one by spanning existing cut areas):
  • Select the desired start or end frame within the un-cut region.
  • Press SELECT (by default, Return, Enter, or Space) to start a new cut.
  • Select any frame within the cut region you are extending.
  • Press SELECT (by default, Return, Enter, or Space) to extend the cut.

• If you have a cut area that does not extend all the way to the beginning of a recording, and you would like to extend it to cut all frames from the beginning of the recording:
  • Select the end frame of the existing cut (for example, by using PREVCUT (by default, PgUp) and/or NEXTCUT (by default, PgDown)).
  • Delete the existing cut using the DELETE key binding (by default, D).
  • Cut to the beginning by pressing MENU (by default, M), and select Cut to Beginning.

• If you have a cut area that does not extend all the way to the end of a recording, and you would like to extend it to cut all frames to the end of the recording:
  • Select the start frame of the existing cut (for example, by using PREVCUT (by default, PgUp) and/or NEXTCUT (by default, PgDown)).
  • Delete the existing cut using the DELETE key binding (by default, D).
  • Cut to the end of the recording by pressing MENU (by default, M), and select Cut to End.

Editing without the MENU key

The above instructions show how to use the editor through the MENU key (by default, M), an approach that allows anyone to easily find the desired actions, even without spending time learning the editor interface. However, if you frequently edit recordings, you will find that nearly all actions can be performed more easily without using the MENU key.

• To delete an existing cut:
  • Using SELECT:
    • Move to any frame within the cut (for example, by using PREVCUT (by default, PgUp) and/or NEXTCUT (by default, PgDown)).
    • Press SELECT (by default, Return, Enter, or Space) to bring up a menu.
    • Select Delete This Cut
  • Using DELETE:
    • Move to any frame within the cut (for example, by using PREVCUT (by default, PgUp) and/or NEXTCUT (by default, PgDown)).
    • Press DELETE (by default, D).
• To move the start or end of a cut:
  • Extending a cut:
    • Move to the frame where the cut start or end should be.
    • Press SELECT (by default, Return, Enter, or Space) to add a new cut marker.
    • Move to any frame within the cut (for example, by using PREVCUT (by default, PgUp) and/or NEXTCUT (by default, PgDown)).
    • Press SELECT (by default, Return, Enter, or Space) to extend the cut from the previously-placed marker.
  • Shortening a cut:
    • Move to the frame where the cut start or end should be.
    • Press SELECT (by default, Return, Enter, or Space) to bring up a menu.
    • Select Move Start of Cut Here or Move End of Cut Here.
• To join two adjacent cuts:
  • Move to any frame between the cuts (for example, by using PREVCUT (by default, PgUp) and/or NEXTCUT (by default, PgDown)), then LEFT (by default, Left arrow) or RIGHT (by default, Right arrow) to move off the marker and into the space between the cuts.
  • Press DELETE (by default, D).
• The editor makes adding new cuts extremely easy. Therefore, it's often easier to remove "wrong" cuts than to move the ends of the cuts (see "To delete an existing cut", at the top of this section).