Simple video cutter/editor for Linux

[rmcellig]

I have been a Mac user since 1988. I have recently switched over more and more to using Linux. At the moment, I have Linux Mint 14 xfce dual booting on my iMac. On the Mac side I use the excellent MPEG Streamclip to grab snippets of video and save them as seperate files. This app does not exist in Linux so I have to find something else.

So far, I came up with Avidemux but the current version does not support some of the video file formats I use. The latest version of Avidemux is 2.6.1 but you have to compile it to get it to work. I have no idea how to do this.

http://avidemux.org/admWiki/doku.php?id=build:install_2.6

The compile instructions are at the bottom of the page from the link above.

Are there any other apps I can use in Linux that will allow me to capture snippets quickly like MPEG Streamclip does?

My needs are simple.

1. Put a marker at the beginning and end of the snippet I want to capture.

2. Save the file

That's it.

Thanks!! I really hope I can resolve this issue soon!!

[Baldrick]

I guess you don't want a command line tools like ffmpeg, mencoder...no video preview then.

But you should really learn how to install deb packages or compile stuff if you want to continue use linux. I see that you have asked in several forums like linux mint and avidemux.

Maybe start with http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=97158 , then download the deb packages for avidemux, http://www.avidemux.org/nightly/precise32/ and try install those.

[Hoser Rob]

Have you looked at "linux video tools" in the tools sidebar? I don't think openshot is listed there but it's pretty popular.

AFAIK your needs are simple only if the parts you want to cut begin and end on key frames. Otherwise the video has to be re encoded by the editor before saving. Many noobs here are surprised just how complex their simple questions here are ...

I use ubuntu but I'm not 100% up on which linux editors will do frame accurate h.264 editing. Maybe avidemux 2.6 will, I'm not sure. 2.5 or whatever it is I have installed will only do non key frame cuts with xvid stuff.

I'm assuming you're talking about h.264 codec video. Apple .m4v containers are basically .mp4s with some added features, like chapter breaks. Any decent software player and it puts the chapter markers in the reencoded video.

I've never compiled avidemux 2.6 in linux either. Or anything else ... I've never had to, and I prefer to wait until 2.6 is in the repos. I.e. when it's properly beta tested.

I'm no expert in linux video editors, but I've looked at a number of them. There are some very good ones ... kdenlive and openshot e.g. ... but they're not particularly simple, especially kdenlive. I'm not really sure if they'll do h.264 video cutting on any frame.

Actually, I don't believe there are any good simple free video editors. Linux isn't any different. But maybe someone else knows better. Have you tried linux forums? There aren't that many linux geeks here. BTW I have Mint on one machine, but their forum isn't that great. The ubuntu, fedora and opensuse forums are much better.

[rmcellig]

I guess you don't want a command line tools like ffmpeg, mencoder...no video preview then.

But you should really learn how to install deb packages or compile stuff if you want to continue use linux. I see that you have asked in several forums like linux mint and avidemux.

Maybe start with http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=97158 , then download the deb packages for avidemux, http://www.avidemux.org/nightly/precise32/ and try install those.

Thanks for the advice. Compiling is my weak point so far in my Linux journey. I will check out the links you mention. For me MPEG Streamclip is so easy to use. No hassles at all with it. I know I can probably install it in Wine so that I can use the PC version in Linux but I'm not sure how this will work out. For now I will stay with the Mac side of doing my video cutting.

ffmpeg sounds interesting. I'll check out youtube for any videos.

[Steve Stepoway]

Take a look at DVBcut. It's fine for cutting chunks out of MPEGs.

[rmcellig]

Thanks for the tip. The files I work with are mostly mp4, avi and mkv.

It's the mp4 files I have problems with with the current version of Avidemux. If I converted those files to something else using Handbrake or something similar, would they open up in Avidemux for me to edit? I'm just throwing around options that I can look into.

[rmcellig]

I am looking at an ffmpeg video on Youtube and I have to say that this looks very interesting. Keep in mind that I use arecord to record my weekly radio shows. Works great.

If I am not mistaken I can just plug in the parameters I use to save my snippets in, into ffmpeg and voila? Would that be basically all there is to it?

Any videos I should look at showing examples of using ffmpeg to save snippets of video?

If it is of any value, I can post the settings I use to save my snippets.

I think that ffmpeg would be more flexible than avidemux? Sounds like I may be finally on to something.

[poisondeathray]

I am looking at an ffmpeg video on Youtube and I have to say that this looks very interesting. Keep in mind that I use arecord to record my weekly radio shows. Works great.

If I am not mistaken I can just plug in the parameters I use to save my snippets in, into ffmpeg and voila? Would that be basically all there is to it?

Any videos I should look at showing examples of using ffmpeg to save snippets of video?

If it is of any value, I can post the settings I use to save my snippets.

I think that ffmpeg would be more flexible than avidemux? Sounds like I may be finally on to something.

use -ss for start time and -t for duration


eg. copy a segment from 1 minute 10 seconds, to 2 minute 30 seconds

ffmpeg -i input.ext -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss 00:01:10 -t 00:01:20 output.ext


Note, depending on the input format, the mark in/mark out points will not necessarily be precise ; they might be a second or so off. For long GOP formats (temporal compression) you can only make cuts on the closet keyfrme

[rmcellig]

eg. copy a segment from 1 minute 10 seconds, to 2 minute 30 seconds

ffmpeg -i input.ext -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss 00:01:10 -t 00:01:20 output.ext



I just tried your example above with a file I have and it worked great, and super fast! Do I always have to manually calculate the -t value or is there a way to set the start time and end time of the snippet instead?

This is pretty cool. If the above code is all I need to do, I'm laughing and it's not hard at all!!

[poisondeathray]

It's "fast" because it's stream copy, not re-encoding

But you don't have to use "-vcodec copy" , it can be used to encode that segment to different formats as well



I don't know think there is a switch for "end time" in ffmpeg, I think you have to do the math

[rmcellig]

I just tried creating a couple of snippets. Works great but I have a couple of questions.

Where is there a five second delay before the video starts?

What is the best app for me to use while editing the videos so that I can scrub quickly. Something similar to the way you do it in Avidemux by pressing the up and down arrow keys. I'm using VMLC player. Can't find a way to quickly scrub. Maybe I'm using the wrong app? The mp4 files I use won't open in Avidemux so I have to find something else that works better when it comes to scrubbing.

[poisondeathray]

I just tried creating a couple of snippets. Works great but I have a couple of questions.

Where is there a five second delay before the video starts?

What is the best app for me to use while editing the videos so that I can scrub quickly. Something similar to the way you do it in Avidemux by pressing the up and down arrow keys. I'm using VMLC player. Can't find a way to quickly scrub. Maybe I'm using the wrong app? The mp4 files I use won't open in Avidemux so I have to find something else that works better when it comes to scrubbing.

Do all "cut" clips have a 5 second delay before playing in VLC ? What happens in another player like Mplayer ? FFplay ?

What kind of MP4? use mediainfo (view=>text)

[poisondeathray]

Also, have you looked for precompiled avidemux 2.6.1 linux builds ?

I think these might be
http://avidemux.org/smuf/index.php?topic=11707.0

[rmcellig]

I haven't seen any pre compiled versions of Avidemux 2.6.1

The five second delay problem is happening in VLC Player. When I try Movie Player, the app crashes jsut by trying to open the app. Not sure what is going on here.

[poisondeathray]

Please answer all the questions

Again, what kind of mp4 ?

Try another player like mpchc, smplayer, ffplay. Movie player is not a good test player

Try the avidemux builds in the link above

[rmcellig]

Also, have you looked for precompiled avidemux 2.6.1 linux builds ?

I think these might be
http://avidemux.org/smuf/index.php?topic=11707.0

I can't use these because I am running 32bit

[poisondeathray]

32bit linux builds 2.6.1
http://avidemux.org/nightly/precise32/


again, what kind of mp4 ??????? (mediainfo => view text)
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

[rmcellig]

Is this the info you need?

Thanks for the 32bit link!

[poisondeathray]

Is this the info you need?

It's only part of the information

Follow the instructions.

1) Download mediainfo from http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

2) Open the file in mediainfo, view=>text, copy & paste the information back here



When recording screencasts using a 4:2:0 format, use recording dimensions that are evenly divisible by 4, 8 or better yet 16

I suspect that 406 height is causing some applications to crash

[rmcellig]

Here you go.

[rmcellig]

32bit linux builds 2.6.1
http://avidemux.org/nightly/precise32/


again, what kind of mp4 ??????? (mediainfo => view text)
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

I installed all the deb files from the Avidemux link you mentioned above. When I went to my Menu/Multimedia, I don't see Avidemux listed. I'm running Linux Mint 14 xfce.