I have some recordings that need both beginning and ending clipping, and commercial removal as well. Can this be done with a single pass? At the moment, I have to run show analyzer, which works perfectly in my case, convert, then go into custom cuts, and run another conversion through, a second time, to get what I want. What appears to be the obvious solution to me, is to create the cut file, and apply it while doing the commercial hunt, and MP4 conversion. Also, the video beginning and ending clip times vary. So I can’t use the automatic cut option for these points. Any solution is appreciated. Thanks!
Are you using CustomCuts with a profile that does no transcoding at all - just applies the cuts?
I think that would do the trick. However, I don’t think there is a way to use CustomCuts with MCEBuddy processing the file without it selecting the same original profile (e.g. based on the “.mp4” filename extension).
I have the same problem in that I need to always record 1 minute before the show starts and 1 minute after to make sure that I don’t clip intros and outros, and due to variances in network timing. So I end up with lots of shows with intros and outros that are either partial commercials or aren’t detected as such. The shows on PBS and PBS Create are particularly prone to this problem with the “bridge” clips between shows that are not really ads.
So I also need to cut varying begin/end clips. It would be nice to figure out how to setup/leverage CustomCuts to do just that - process the cuts - without performing any transcoding, metadata lookup/injection, or file renaming processing that MCEBuddy normally does.
The only way I could think of would be to setup a special profile that disables all of that but then the trick is how to have CustomCuts force that profile with MCEBuddy?
Thanks for that. I’m definitely not alone. What about running just Show Analyzer, and Custom Cuts if needed, and some how ending up with the correct EDL or XML file to do the job? I tried that in Windows 7 Pro, and it would start processing, but couldn’t make it through to the end. Since Show Analyzer is an old program, maybe it would work on my XP Pro desktop, but I haven’t tried that. In my case, I am only worried about some recordings I currently have, and it wouldn’t be a continuous ongoing problem.
When custom cuts sends a file to MCEBuddy to be processed it’s tagged as a Manual file, you can create a profile and link it today the Manual/CLI monitor location in the conversion task settings.
In that task advanced settings you can also set the Start trim and End trim settings to the start and end of the video (before the commercials are cut out).
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I figured @Goose would have already put it into MCEBuddy. 
LOL.
The main challenge, for me, is that the intro varies so a fixed “cut X seconds from the start” setting won’t help me.
I could not find the location of this: “Manual/CLI monitor task in the conversion task settings.” I did find a selection box called “Skip Reconversion.” Could this some how be applied to what I’m trying to do? Like I said, in this case, it’s a one time deal. I’m working with recordings, and not streaming on a weekly basis. BTW, I’m amazed at just how small the MP4 file size is after conversion. In my case, it works out to about 20mb per minute. For watcheable quality, this is great.