Avidemux Top10 Tips

[butterw]

Avidemux is a simple (open-source cross-platform) video editor which supports many formats (ex: mp4/x264). Current release is v2.7.8 (64bit).

1) Installation
On Win10, I use the Win64 build with .zip archive. For portable mode, rename avidemux.exe to avidemux_portable.exe. In this mode, config files are kept in the settings subfolder. This allows multiple versions to be installed concurrently. You can run different version of avidemux at the same provided they have separate settings files.

Dev versions are available and are not different from stable versions.
2.7.9 Dev builds:[/B] http://www.avidemux.org/nightly/

Changelog

[butterw]

2) Use Copy mode for lossless (no-reencode) cutting/editing. Video saved in this mode will always start on a keyframe.
Resizing, Cropping, and Filters are not available in this mode.

3) The default settings file (settings/defaultSettings.py) is loaded when you start Avidemux. It sets output container settings, and Copy mode or codec settings.
Independently, the video encoders settings can be saved as profiles (x264 has some predefined ones).

[butterw]

4) There is an Avidemux forum: https://avidemux.org/smif/index.php

5) The code is in C++/Qt and the project is active and open to submissions: https://github.com/mean00/avidemux2
If have a linux setup and basic knowledge of C++, compiling and making improvements to Avidemux should be easy enough.

[butterw]

6) Keyboard shortcuts are available, but only a few are currently customizable (you must enable the alternate keyboard shortcuts options).
I would recommend changing the following shortcuts in the preference file ./settings/config3
"alt_begin" : "Home",
"alt_end" : "End",
The most practical way to access the Audio, Auto and Custom menu entries is by using the menu Accelelerator key (ex: Alt+A).

- The arrow keys are used for seeking (left/right for the next frame, up/down for the next keyframe), and there are hotkeys for 1-2-4-60s seeks.

- You can use the mouse wheel when hovering over the thumb-slider to control fast forward.

[butterw]

7) Editing changes can be saved as a project file (.py), which can be modified if needed.
The last file edit is automatically saved as settings/lastEdit.py and can be restored with Recent > Restore Previous Session.

Avidemux scripting support has been significantly expanded in v2.7.7. Up to date documentation.
User scripts can be added to the Custom (settings/custom) and Auto menus of the GUI.

[butterw]

8) The video filters have been updated and new filters have been added in v2.7.7: they are available in codec mode (ex: x264 Video Ouput).
- Avidemux also support loading of glsl fragment shaders (in YUV).
- Non-temporal filters can be made partial (applied to only a section of video, ex: delimited by markers A, B). Partial filters should be applied after you are done with cutting/editing.
- The video output can be previewed at any point of the filter chain and the final output can be played filtered (Main Toolbar > Play filtered)

[Anonymous5394]

No1 tip is don't use it, it's quite buggy! Seriously it's great open source, and in constant development. My tip is if it crashes on you, it could be the default display 'best' setting in preferences. Change to OpenGL and it might stop the crash when a video is inputted.

[butterw]

The current release of Avidemux isn't buggy.
Like most software with a video preview, you have to use a video output supported by your hardware/system (configurable in Edit > Preferences).

If you encounter an issue you can file a bug report on the Avidemux forum, if there is a solution it will usually get fixed quickly.

[Anonymous5394]

The current release of Avidemux isn't buggy.
Like most software with a video preview, you have to use a video output supported by your hardware/system (configurable in Edit > Preferences).

If you encounter an issue you can file a bug report on the Avidemux forum, if there is a solution it will usually get fixed quickly.

My initial joking aside, I found 2.7.6 version to be very stable and worked fine. Previous earlier versions were fine too. It turned a corner around version 2.71. Most of the time it is the user's hardware depending on which set up used causing the glitches. As you say bugs gets fixed pretty quickly and it is in constant development as stated.

[butterw]

9) Saves are based on the AB marker selection

How selection works.
If you select a portion of the video with markers A and B, only this portion of the video will be saved to file. This also applies to audio with the Audio > Save Audio (ex: .aac) command.
Markers [A and [B (A<B) are available in the navigation toolbar, menu or hotkeys can also be used.
If you want to save the whole file but have a selection, you need to first reset markers (Edit > Reset Markers).
The saveFull.py custom script can be used to save the full file without having to reset markers.
The output container and its options are set by the selected Output Format (ex: MP4 Muxer).

[Anonymous5394]

I'd be interested to know if the post processing options in preferences are useful in AviDemux on a final encoded image? Two of the settings the vertical & horizontal are set to 3, but the Dering option is not enabled. Just wondered why as reason I ask would it be useful to enable that if some prior sharpening was done before on a video? Thanks.

[butterw]

Post-Processing is a default Off option in the preferences.

Ask this question on the Avidemux forum for an up-to-date and definitive answer.
https://avidemux.org/smif/index.php