How do I delete frames from a movie?

You've probably gathered by now that I'm quite fond of Virtual Dub. Unsurprisingly this is the program I'm going to recommend you use here too. Run the program and open the movie you wish to edit. Use the tracking slider bar to locate the start of the scenes or frames you would like to delete, click on the 'edit' menu and choose the 'set selection start' option to place a marker on the slider bar.

Now repeat the process to find the end of the scene or frames you would like to delete, but this time select the 'set selection end' command from the 'edit' menu to place a second marker on the slider bar. The segment of the movie you intend to delete will become highlighted on the slider bar - this can now be cut out using the delete key on your keyboard or by selecting 'delete selection' from the 'edit' menu.

All that remains to be done now is to save the movie as a new file. In order to do this you first have to decide which video and audio codecs you would like to use to encode the movie (if you do not choose to compress it you will end up with a file so cumbersome that it becomes useless). Codec selections can be made by choosing the 'compression' option from the 'video' and 'audio' menus. If you select 'direct stream copy' from the 'video' and 'audio' menus before commencing you can save a lot of time. The final step is to select 'save AVI' from the 'file' menu, choose a filename and location to store the file and press OK.

Note that we saved the edited version of the movie as a new file just in case our changes didn't go according to plan and we needed to revert back to the original copy. Also, it is very likely that trying to overwrite the original file while it is being accessed by Virtual Dub will fail, or worse still, result in file corruption.

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It's a pirate eat pirate world

Subsequent to Sharman Network's recent Google-bullying exploits, the company responsible for developing the only file sharing client your granny can put a name to, have been moralising once again on the subject of copyright infringement. This time round they've succeeded in having the hacked client removed from the most eminent peer to peer sites and hammered the final nail in the coffin by blocking its further development by lodging a complaint with the DMCA.

Download sources across the globe vanished overnight and the official-unofficial home of Kazaa Lite has been replaced with an off-the-peg 'no-one's home message'. Though it will still be possible to distribute the client via peer to peer networks, K-Lite fans will be flogging a dead horse (while they possibly should be riding a donkey) as Sharman only have to make minor changes to their protocol in order to lock them out of the network.

Now that pilfering pest, Random Nut, has been taken out of the equation, Sharman Networks will be free to sell their $29.95 piracy licenses to decent, upstanding members of the file sharing community, and quite rightly so. At least for the time being, non-licensed Kazaa users can download the ad-and-heaven-only-knows-what-else-ware version of the client and decontaminate it using Diet Kazaa, though I wouldn't be at all surprised if the architects of this gem have already been tattooed with Sharman's infra-red crosshairs.

More adventurous file seekers may like to jump ship whilst sailing on the same ocean, if you catch my drift.

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