Decent Window Open-Source video editor?

10
Sep
22
nomad

One thorn in our side throughout the writing of MfD was the ongoing lack of a decent video editing package in Open-Source, Windows-friendly form - hence the fact we use Sony Vegas throughout the book.

It’s pretty much the only major lack in the Windows Open-Source canon these days - there are 3D modelers, accounts packages, audio editing software, but the only half-decent video editing packages are Linux-only.

However, this new package, Viva Video looks promising. It’s fairly simple, but it looks usable, which is frankly more than I’ve seen from a Windows OS video editor before.

Anyone used it? Is it more useful than Windows Movie Maker?

We’ll probably have a look at it in the next little while, if we get a chance.

Update: It only imports PAL DV format video. That’s more than a little limiting, although it still might be of use to some people. The inimitable Phil “Overman” Rice also recommends taking a look at ZS4 , a non-OS but free video editor - I’ve not used it, but it does look featureful.

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  1. Avatar Overman said about 4 hours later:

    While not open source (as far as I can tell), another free NLE to keep an eye on is ZS4, which runs on Windows, Linux, and OSX. It’s a bit further along in dev than Viva, too.

    http://www.zs4.net/

  2. Avatar Overman said about 4 hours later:

    Oh, and to answer your question, no I haven’t used Viva, but it is so limited in the kinds of video it can use as I/O right now that I don’t see me doing much with it until it’s at least 0.2.

  3. Avatar http://shatteredkeyboard.blogspot.com/ said about 8 hours later:

    Why does it have to be Windows? Isn’t there anything in Linux.

  4. Avatar Kate said 1 day later:

    I’ve used t@b, and it is incredibly versatile…multiple layers…multiple masking options..chroma key..effects can be varied in time with music. However it’s tricky to learn, and I feel I would need to know more about codecs to get the best out of it. Worth a look though.

  5. Avatar Hugh "Nomad" Hancock said 1 day later:

    t@b? Not heard of it. I’ll check it out.

    Bilius - yes, there’s a lot of Linux editing software. We don’t have a Linux system in the office, so I’ve not tried it, and I think most people are still running some flavour of Windows.

  6. Avatar Hugh "Nomad" Hancock said 1 day later:

    D’oh. You mean the Z64 stuff. Sorry, sorry…

  7. Avatar Andrew said 2 days later:

    On Linux a good program to look at is Cinelerra. I haven’t used it myself, but i have heard good things about it from Linux folks. http://cvs.cinelerra.org

  8. Avatar Johnnie Ingram said 2 days later:

    @8: Cinelerra is pretty good, although I have to say I’ve had some stability problems with it. In fairness, I have to say that (i) I wasn’t running the latest release and (ii) there’s a distinct possibility that it was a RAM issue on the machine I was using for testing.

    @3: There’s no reason it can’t be Linux as far as I’m concerned, but we couldn’t really recommend a *nix-based solution for the book. We’d have had to write a whole new chapter on Xorg config before we even got started ;-) The fact that Cinelerra isn’t in the default Ubuntu repository is a real problem too - it makes installation even less noob-friendly. We did actually consider bundling a linux live disk solution such as the superb dyne:bolic with the book and telling people to use that, but in the end it just called for too much explanation and long-term support.

    Another major black mark against Linux is that codec installation and support can be an absolute nightmare if you’re running any distro except Ubuntu. Even then, it’s far from trivial to get the kind of codecs that you’d need for high-quality video editing and compression. I know that this is something that’s outside the control of the Linux and open-source community, but it is nonetheless a practical issue for those of us who like to work under a *nix platform whenever possible.

    That’s not to say that we don’t whole-heartedly recommend Linux-based solutions. Live cds like dyne:bolic don’t even require you to install anything, so it’s a win-win situation.

    On reflection, the phrase “win-win” isn’t the most appropriate to use here :-) Let’s go for “nix-nix” instead.

    Hmm … a thought occurs. How interested would anybody be in an article about good Linux-based software for Machinima use? If there’s enough call for it, we can add it to the list of additional content that we’ll be releasing over the next few months. Requests by email or in the comments, please.

  9. Avatar Hugh "Nomad" Hancock said 3 days later:

    Hmm, that would be interesting. And since I have no clue whatsoever about such things (does it run a webserver? If not, and it’s Linux, I don’t know how it works) , you’d be writing it and I’d have to do no work, that’s another bonus from my end.

  10. Avatar Ricky Grove said 3 days later:

    I’d be very interested in a Linux article on movie editors. I’ve tried every one and none of them are really up to snuff. Cinelarra crashes all the time (as has been said) and looks like a Jackson Pollock painting to me. Johnnie’s comments about installation of Cinellara was days long for me.

    Since Linux (esp Ubuntu) is a fast rising platform (I’ve been wanting to switch for months, but can’t), I’d welcome comments re: filming/machinima on linux.

    thanks!

  11. Avatar Ricky Grove said 3 days later:

    sorry, I meant to say, “Johnnie’s comments about Cinelerra installation are right on. The installation was days long for me”

    Duh…

  12. Avatar fiezi said 5 days later:

    Just a heads up to let you guys know about Jahshaka. It’s a fully OpenSource Compositing Application. I used it a bit to try and edit things created with FRAPS but sadly it didn’t like the codec very much. It’s a bit unstable but definetly one to watch!

    http://www.jahshaka.org/

  13. Avatar Hugh "Nomad" Hancock said 6 days later:

    Yeah, Jahshaka is interesting. I may give it another try in a few months and see how it has come on stability-wise.

  14. Avatar TariAkpodiete@gmail.com said 446 days later:

    well, there’s http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

    • win, mac, linux
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