Recommendations for Video Editing software?

[oldcpu]

Does anyone monitoring this forum have any preferences in video editing software that they care to expound upon?

I want to edit two types of files:
a. music videos (.avi or .mpg format), and
b. .avi movie videos from my Canon digital (still camera) [not to be confused with a digital camcorder].

Packages that I am curious about are listed below. Please, any reviews, comments, comparisons, or recommendations on the software listed below (or on linux packages that I missed)?

avidemux - http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
[a great video editor, but not designed to support fade/in/out transitions between clips].

Cinelerra - http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3/
[This program looks massive - does one need a cray or a cluster to handle the processing load ?? ]

Jahshaka - http://www.jahshaka.org/
[possibly more for special effects ?? ].

KDEnlive - http://kdenlive.sourceforge.net/

kino - http://kino.schirmacher.de/ and http://www.kinodv.org/
[I believe kino is limited in the input format's it accepts. For example, it won't accept the .avi movie files from my Canon digital (still) camera].

LiVES - http://www.xs4all.nl/~salsaman/lives/
[I've read it has some difficulty in sound and video synchronisation. But perhaps no worse than the other packages ?? ].

LVE - http://lvempeg.sourceforge.net/

MainActor - http://www.mainconcept.com/index_flash.shtml
[commericial - but a free version comes with SuSE].

modesto - http://sourceforge.net/projects/modesto/

Open VIP
http://openvip.sourceforge.net/ and http://sourceforge.net/projects/openvip

piave - http://modesto.sourceforge.net/piave/
[ is a render and effect engine for GNU/Linux. PIAVE has no GUI. It is used by KDEnlive and modesto]

PiTiVi - PiTiVi is a non-linear audio/video editor for GNU/Linux using the GStreamer multimedia framework. http://www.pitivi.org/ and http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=100591

Zwei Stein- [a nonlinear video editor
http://www.zs4.net/
http://www.thugsatbay.com/tab/?q=


Please, any comments, views, reviews, comparisons, etc ... of the above?

[Edit - 4-Oct-05 - added PiTiVi]
[Edit - 5-Oct-05 - added Zwei Stein]

[oldcpu]

While doing some google searches, I found the following URLs, that I believe are worth sharing:

A good wikibook on Linux in Film production
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Linux_in_film_production

Another linux wiki book
http://www.brickfilms.com/wiki/index.php?title=Proposed:_Software_-_Linux

Another short article from a linux forum:
http://www.linuxforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53452

Any comments/reviews and especially comparisons on these linux video multi-media packages would be appreciated.

[oldcpu]

A couple more URLs with links to Non Linear Editors.

Source Forge video non-linear editor page:
http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=256

Fresh Meat video non-linear editor page:
http://freshmeat.net/browse/256/

Does anyone have any experience with any packages posted on these sites that they care to share?

[EwanG]

I'd be interested in recommendations as well. I've been using AVIDemux for my files where I just have to convert the audio track from AC3 to MP2 to play back on my TiVO. In that case, it works just fine. Once I start to edit the video, however, I get bad A/V sync issues, and from reading on the project forum for the tool, the current recommendation is to first use projectX to "fix" the files and then play with the audio offset.

I know I was spoiled by TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress on Windows, but I'd really like to find something similar for working with and generating MPEG-2 files on Linux.

TIA,
Ewan

[oldcpu]

Once I start to edit the video, however, I get bad A/V sync issues, and from reading on the project forum for the tool, the current recommendation is to first use projectX to "fix" the files and then play with the audio offset.

I encountered the same difficulty when using avidemux. I will be curious as to how ProjectX works out. If you learn any tidbits from trying to use it, please pass them on. Thanks!

[oldcpu]

Does anyone have any experience with any packages posted on these sites that they care to share?

I've decided a quicker way to learn about some of these packages (than installing these packages) is to run them from a live CD. Hence, as noted in the thread below, I am looking at dyna:bolic live cd, and the distribution "pho".
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=281383

[oldcpu]

I've decided a quicker way to learn about some of these packages (than installing these packages) is to run them from a live CD. Hence, as noted in the thread below, I am looking at dyna:bolic live cd, and the distribution "pho".
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=281383

In addition to dyana:bolic and pho, another multimedia live cd is mediain linux - It can be found on http://www.mediainlinux.org/

In terms of being optimised for multimedia, I prefer the live cds dyna:bolic and pho over mediain linux live cd.

[VinnySem]

I just started using Kino to grab DV from my Panasonic dig camcorder. Kino has an option to export to MPEG2 and simultaneously output an XML file that is readible by dvdauthor, which in one command line will do the authoring. From there, burning with K3B. So far, it works very well, quality and speed are reasonable.

[EwanG]

I just started using Kino to grab DV from my Panasonic dig camcorder.

I love Kino myself for that sort of thing. The problem is that not all of my video is in DV format to begin with, and Kino only accepts DV even though it can output to MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

Maybe we just need someone to write an import utility for Kino

[oldcpu]

Maybe we just need someone to write an import utility for Kino

Indeed. I searched a fair amount for such a beast, but I did not succeed in finding such.

There is mention of an AVI2DV Converter on http://pingwing.xs4all.nl/view.php/page/KommanderApps.
Description from that site follows: "Another very useful utility, as this will convert any video file to Sony DV Video format. Well, at least any video that mplayer can play".

But when I try to connect to the link for that app, I get asked for a user-name/password, which makes me think the author either is still developing the package and not ready to release it to the general public, or the author does not intend to release it as a free package to the general public.

[oldcpu]

Just a short note, that the latest version of KDEnlive (v.0.5) is a significant improvement over the older v.0.4. It is significantly more stable, with many more features. It is the first Linux Video NLE that I can say has a reasonably friendly user interface, is stable, has reasonable features, and after 2 years, there is finally a Linux application that is comparable in terms of ease of use with some of the Windoze Video NLE applications.

I am by no means affiliated with the kdenlive project. I'm just a happy user with the latest v.0.5.

kdenlive web site: http://kdenlive.sourceforge.net/