Video editing in Linux: a look at PiTiVi and Kdenlive
By Joe Brockmeier | Last updated January 31, 2010 11:30 PM
Video editing on Linux has long gotten a bad rap. A few years ago, the only real options for video editing were either deeply limited in features and polish, or incredibly complex to set up and use.
While Linux still lacks a direct competitor to tools like Apple's iMovie or Final Cut Pro, the current crop of video editing tools are much more capable and easy to use. Two tools in particular stand out: PiTiVi and Kdenlive. Both suites are under active development and look promising. In this article, we'll take a look at what both of these tools can and can't do.
From: leonsk [#2] 1 Feb 18:38 To: Cagey (KGWAGNER) [#1] 1 Feb 18:40
I will be looking at those. Video processing on Linux is definitely improving. Kino is OK, Cinelerra looks like the (much) earlier versions of some of the Windows 3d party software eg. good, many features but rough. Getting there is half the fun <grin>.
From: Cagey (KGWAGNER) [#3] 1 Feb 18:52 To: leonsk [#2] 1 Feb 19:31
I don't understand why they're not moving faster than they are. It's all open source. All the code is not only available for review but up for grabs if given accreditation, so there's not only no mystery about how different things are done, the methods are already written.
From: IMNOTDRPHIL [#4] 2 Feb 17:56 To: Cagey (KGWAGNER) [#1] 2 Feb 18:03
I am currently in the middle of a relatively big video editing project. I am converting a bunch of old VHS tapes my folks have into DVDs. There is a lot of editing that needs done and I have some experience with some of the Linux video editing software.
1. Kino. Kino is great...as long as you are only doing SD stuff as it only works with DV files. DV (NTSC) is limited to 720x480 resolution. I am using this for the VHS video editing as that's all low-res stuff, but you would not want to use Kino for any HD editing.
2. Kdenlive. It's a nice, slick program and handles HD video. But, it has never once failed to crash on me when exporting a video. I have tried it on multiple machines and I always get a segfault in MLT that kills the export encode. I'll file this one under "it will be nice to use when it's stable."
From: leonsk [#5] 2 Feb 20:24 To: IMNOTDRPHIL [#4] 5 Feb 7:54
I was converting my old VHS tapes about four-five years ago. Huge stack of them, mostly commercial opera and similar. I confess to using WinXP with Pinnacle 8 and 9; there really was no viable Linux alternative then. The best thing I stumbled upon was the Canopus ADVC-100 box. If you are not familiar with it I very much suggest you check it out. Can probably get one on eBay, they are simple and never heard a bad word about them. Greatly simplifies the conversion hookup and and speeds processing.