1. enable me to manipulate individual codecs (in particular the keyframe intervals) aspect ratio, frame rate, etc.
2. a program that accepts nearly any videos I put into.
I used to use SUPER. It nearly took in anything I threw at it. Except I can't manipulate keyframes with it.
Then I moved onto Virtual Dub. Had to download so many different codecs just to get it to receive a video and even then there are so many errors it's not worth it.
avidemux looks great, but half of the videos I threw into had errors.
There isn't one single program that will do everything, I use many for different files.
I found EM total video converter will convert almost every file I throw at it, it's what I use on problem files, it's especially good with mkv files. I use this program only as a converter, once I convert the file to avi, i edit it with other software.
Avidemux is my favorite program for avi's. For editing/joining/cutting it is the best. It works better with xvid files, but can handle divx/h264. It won't reencode in most editing. It can also edit outside of the kframes. It won't join clips that aren't of the same framerate/aspect ratio.
womble mpeg video wizard dvd is what I use when I have different type of clips (avi/mpegs with differest aspects/framerates) I want to join. I can also add transitions/titles and a seperate audio track. It works great with mpegs/mp4/mov files.
When I need to edit dvd's (remove scenes etc) I use videoredotvsuite. This is more of a luxury, womble can do the same thing but videoredo does it much quicker.
I found out if I install the latest klite codecpack everything works better, womble requires it so that it can encode to avi.
