Hey,

I am new to video editing, only having used a few minor tools in a few freeware video editors for some small problems here and there. I have a small problem that seems simple to fix, but I cannot find a way to fix it, so far.

I have a copy of Young Frankenstein, on my hard drive (off of a DVD, although I did not copy it myself). In the middle of the movie, there is a glitch in the coding. The movie image 'freezes', but the movie does not stop playing. For 6 frames in one place, and also 5 or 6 frames a few seconds past that, the audio and movie keep playing, but the image 'freezes'. No frames are lost, it is like hitting pause for the video while the audio keeps playing. There is also some video corruption, but it is minor, and not an issue I am worried about. This 'freezing' throws the audio/video sync out, and puts the image behind the audio, so the people move their mouths (or make noise, etc) after the lines (or actions) are heard.

If I leave the movie alone, and it plays through the glitch and on past, the audio stays delayed. If, however, I stop the movie after the glitch (even 1 frame after), and then hit play again, the audio and video are in sync again.

I have found out the length of the glitch area, which is 104 frames. In a few freeware editor I have found (VirtualDub), I tried to crop the frames out, and it plays ok, but there is a 2 or 3 second pause while the deleted area is 'played' through. The frame before the deleted area is 'frozen' on the screen, and stays there for the 2 or 3 seconds of 'playing', then the movie starts again, in sync. The glitch area has no importance, so is ok to cut out without affecting the quality of the movie.

I haven't been able to complete the editing successfully. When I delete the 104 frames, and go to save the edited movie, my 16 gigs of free space on my hard drive is completely filled up with only 20 minutes or so of the edited movie. VirtualDub plays the edited movie in real-time, and saves it as it plays.

In video cutters I have tried (I have yet to find one with good tools for detail work, like frame editing), the same issue with file size and saving happens. It occured to me I can cut the movie into three clips. Beginning to frame 51,339, then the bad frames 51,320 to 51,423, then frame 51,424 to the end, then resplice the beginning and end clips. The shareware programs I found only have slider bars for marking clips-to-make, which move in increments of 15 or more seconds (I need 3 seconds or so total). One I tried recorded 6 seconds of edited film for each clip, unless I bought it, then it would do the whole file. After cutting out ~15 seconds of film and saving, the new file size (12 seconds of video) was 2 gigs!

How can I use a cheap (freeware or full-function-trial-period shareware) editor to remove 104 frames half way through the movie and resave it so it is still 659 megs in size? Is it possible to remove it so the film 'skips', and does not have the 2 or 3 second pause I get from deleting the frames? I am not overly familiar with editing tools, but if someone who would help uses enough details (where to click, and why) I won't have any problems.

Also, I have VirtualDub, which is a very comprehensive freeware program. I have found a few other editors that are waaaay to simple for this, and are not helpful. Does anyone know a better application to use for this? I just don't see spending money on something I don't use a lot.

Thanks in advance,

Eddie