MPEG is the standard used in digital TV and satellite broadcasts, along with the beginner friendly DVD camcorders. VideoRedo takes those MPEG streams and lets you make edits without losing the quality of your final output. And because it's a native MPEG editor, VideoRedo is frame accurate, meaning you can easily move from one frame to the next. Now the obvious application for VideoRedo is cutting out the adverts of a TV broadcast, but there's so much more it can do.

VideoRedo's intentions are clearly labeled as soon as installation starts (a free trial is available from the website), with a wizard interface asking 5 simple questions to avoid any potential problems after install - they've clearly listened to end users and provide fixes for those using Ulead MovieFactory and DigiTV for example. Once you've configured VideoRedo during install, it's time to look at the user interface.

VideoRedo supports MPEG streams, which is where the audio and video has been multiplexed (combined) into one file. The good news here is that VOB files from your DVD camera fit into this category! Open up your MPEG or VOB file by selecting File > Open Video File. During the wizard install, one of the steps is to decide on either "cut mode" or "scene mode" editing. The default here is cut mode - ideal for taking chunks of video such as adverts out of your MPEG. Simply scroll along your video to the start of the advert(s), click "sel. start" under the scroll bar, then scroll along to the end of the adverts and click "sel. end". Now click "Cut Selection" and the highlighted area will turn red and added to the cut list. You can then repeat this for each chunk of video you want cut, and selecting "save as" will create a new MPEG without the ads! Scene Mode works in the opposite way and is ideal for editing a home movie. Rather than highlight the areas you want to cut, you select the areas you want to keep. You can change the edit mode after install in Tools > Options > General Parameters. You may also want to change the default opening MPEGs to play the video here.

You can review your selections in the cut list area. Simply select the cuts you want deleted, then select remove cuts (invert all cuts underneath will switch things around and will just keep your selected chunks - essentially switching to scene mode above!). Overlapping cuts are also dealt with in a user friendly way and you'll be prompted to either combine the two cuts into one, replace the new cut with the existing one or cancel to abort. You can set VideoRedo to automatically choose automatically replace cuts or scenes in the General Parameters. Finally, to modify a previous selection, simply double click the selection in the list and you'll jump to the selected cut or scene, which you can adjust as normal.

If you've got a few MPEGs you want to join, VideoRedo can do this for you too. Simply select Joiner > Add current project to joiner list. You can then build up a list of files to be joined from various projects, which can be reviewed by selecting Joiner > Edit Joiner List. Finally, create your new MPEG from your various projects by selecting Joiner > Create Video from Joiner List. Unfortunately there are certain restrictions on what videos you can join, but this shouldn't be a problem if all your videos come from the same source such as a DVD camcorder or PVR.

Occasionally your recorded MPEG may have video and audio that are frustratingly out of synch. You can adjust the audio and video synchronization using Tools > Adjust Audio Synchronization. The tools menu has a few other useful tools such as video information and quick stream fix, which ensures your MPEG2 stream is compliant.

VideoRedo is one of those rare pieces of software where the maker's claim are true: it's a breeze to cut video from MPEG/VOB files. This isn't an editor and certainly isn't a solution to creating home movies from DVD camcorders. But if you want to make a few cuts, this is the perfect solution.