[mythtv-users] Edit cutlist problems after upgrade

[Raymond Wagner]

On 1/13/2011 22:19, Rodd Clarkson wrote:
>> I 'pgdn' to hit the end of the first cut, find it is too far, move back to
>> the proper location, hit 'enter', then 'Move End of Cut Here'.
> This isn't working for me.  If I go back 3 frames then hitting enter
> doesn't prompt for a move to the cut point, but instead starts a new
> cut.  How much of a threshold is there for cutting near a cut.  I
> would have thought that 3 frames wouldn't have been excessive. ;-]

If you are inside an existing cut, it will pop up a dialog asking what 
you want to do.  If you are not inside an existing cut, it will assume 
you want to create a new one.

>> I move to the next cut, find it has not cut enough, so I move back to the
>> proper location and hit 'enter' to start a new cut.
> Don't you mean forward.

If the beginning of the next cut has not cut enough, that means the cut 
doesn't begin until well into the commercial, so I move backward.

>> I 'pgdn' to the
>> original cut start, 'pgdn' again to the original cut end, and then back up a
>> bit into the cut for the proper location.  A second 'enter' merges the two
>> cuts, and a third 'enter' with a 'Move End of Cut Here' fixes it.
> Hmmm, now I'm confused.

When you press enter outside a cut, it creates a new cut.  If you then 
terminate the new cut inside an existing cut, it merges the two.  You 
thus have one long cut spanning from the beginning of the new cut to the 
end of the old cut.  Since you are now within an existing cut, hitting 
enter will pop up a dialog asking what you want to do, and allows you to 
move the end of the cut to the current location.

> To be honest, while it's nice to be able to move the cut points when
> you're close, it appears there is some room for work here.
>
> 1. For starters the threshold for being near a cut needs to be
> increased.  Up to 5 seconds seems reasonable.

There currently is no threshhold.  You're either inside a cut or you're not.

> 2. Along with this the move cut dialog could use some modification to
> improve usability.
>     * You should only be able to move start or move end depending of
> whether a start or end is nearby.  for example, of you're at the start
> of a cut, it's very unlikely that you'd need to move the end before
> the start.
>     * Finally, some sort of indication of which cut you are changing
> would be good.  The cut in question should be highlighted.  This would
> also aid situations where a cut is made near the start and end of
> existing cuts and both the move start and move end are reasonable
> options.

If you are inside a cut, those controls work against the existing cut.  
If you are not in a cut, they work off the end point of the previous and 
the start point of the next.  If there is no previous cut, you have the 
option to 'cut to beginning', likewise with 'cut to end'.

>     * You shouldn't be able to move the start or end if you're already
> cutting.  I don't know if this is possible, but it shouldn't be.
>     * If you start a cut outside of an existing cut, and end it inside
> an existing cut, all the intersecting cuts should be merged.

If you are producing a new cut, the next press of 'enter' will terminate 
a cut.  If any existing cuts are partially or completely enclosed in the 
new cut, they are automatically merged into a single cut spanning the 
entire length.  Thus no overlapping cuts will ever be written to the 
database.

> While I can see that the new edit model is quite nice, I hope these
> suggestions are helpful.  At the moment I'm finding it easier to just
> start with no cuts and work through the show (without loading the
> existing cuts) and being able to use the existing cuts in a meaningful
> way would really speed deleting adds (and the stuff before and after
> the show).

Don't think of the loaded commercial detection as valid cuts.  Think of 
them more as 'signposts' to skip between with pgup/pgdn to get you 
approximately where you need to be.  It's much easier to just overwrite 
them with new cuts, and have the editor automatically merge them, rather 
than try to edit them directly.