Video Editing Software Recommendation

bennyshaik · May 14, 2011, 9:05pm

I’m trying to do some very simple video editing but I’m having trouble finding a software solution that works for what I’m looking to do.

I’ve got a bunch of movies that are split into two files (in order for both to fit on a CD-R, back when that was relevant). I’d like to just combine them into one file. Trouble is, the file-type is usually avi and I’ve had trouble finding an application that will read and properly import an avi file.

What software should I be using?

Thanks in advance.

Lord_Emsworth · May 14, 2011, 9:16pm

How about avidemux? Should be in the Packman repository; for packages containing the GUI look for avidemux packages with the suffixes -qt or -gtk (or so).

martin_helm · May 14, 2011, 9:14pm

avidemux

oldcpu · May 14, 2011, 10:48pm

The size and they type of the files you are trying to join can greatly impact selecting the optimum method that you choose to join the files.

Take a look (for example) here: FFmpeg FAQ

3.15 How can I join video files?

A few multimedia containers (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 PS, DV) allow to join video files by merely concatenating them.

Hence you may concatenate your multimedia files by first transcoding them to these privileged formats, then using the humble cat command (or the equally humble copy under Windows), and finally transcoding back to your format of choice.

ffmpeg -i input1.avi -sameq intermediate1.mpg
ffmpeg -i input2.avi -sameq intermediate2.mpg
cat intermediate1.mpg intermediate2.mpg > intermediate_all.mpg
ffmpeg -i intermediate_all.mpg -sameq output.avi

Notice that you should either use -sameq or set a reasonably high bitrate for your intermediate and output files, if you want to preserve video quality.
Also notice that you may avoid the huge intermediate files by taking advantage of named pipes, should your platform support it:

mkfifo intermediate1.mpg
mkfifo intermediate2.mpg
ffmpeg -i input1.avi -sameq -y intermediate1.mpg < /dev/null &
ffmpeg -i input2.avi -sameq -y intermediate2.mpg < /dev/null &
cat intermediate1.mpg intermediate2.mpg |
ffmpeg -f mpeg -i - -sameq -vcodec mpeg4 -acodec libmp3lame output.avi

Similarly, the yuv4mpegpipe format, and the raw video, raw audio codecs also allow concatenation, and the transcoding step is almost lossless. When using multiple yuv4mpegpipe(s), the first line needs to be discarded from all but the first stream. This can be accomplished by piping through tail as seen below. Note that when piping through tail you must use command grouping, { ;}, to background properly.

For example, let’s say we want to join two FLV files into an output.flv file:

mkfifo temp1.a
mkfifo temp1.v
mkfifo temp2.a
mkfifo temp2.v
mkfifo all.a
mkfifo all.v
ffmpeg -i input1.flv -vn -f u16le -acodec pcm_s16le -ac 2 -ar 44100 - > temp1.a < /dev/null &
ffmpeg -i input2.flv -vn -f u16le -acodec pcm_s16le -ac 2 -ar 44100 - > temp2.a < /dev/null &
ffmpeg -i input1.flv -an -f yuv4mpegpipe - > temp1.v < /dev/null &
{ ffmpeg -i input2.flv -an -f yuv4mpegpipe - < /dev/null | tail -n +2 > temp2.v ; } &
cat temp1.a temp2.a > all.a &
cat temp1.v temp2.v > all.v &
ffmpeg -f u16le -acodec pcm_s16le -ac 2 -ar 44100 -i all.a
-f yuv4mpegpipe -i all.v
-sameq -y output.flv
rm temp[12].[av] all.[av]

Sagemta · May 19, 2011, 3:13am

Since you are using .avi’s I’ve had success with kdenlive on such.
Here’s some video tutorials:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=(http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kdenlive+tutorial&aq=1&oq=kdenlive)

gropiuskalle · May 19, 2011, 4:54am

The thing about Avidemux: it’s very easy to use, esp. for simple tasks like merging, cutting, re-encoding, adding different audio etc. I’d give it a shot.

Despite the name it does not only support .avi-files btw.

ozotto · May 22, 2011, 2:46am

I tried a number of video editing SW.

KDEnlive appears to be the one which works best. It took me quite some time and test to create the project profile.

My input file are .mp4 1080i. Render with MPEG-4. If rendering with H.264 I get an green stripe at the bottom

Make sure you get the very latest version 0.8-1.pm.1.3-x86_64

“Lives” crashes “Cinelerra” complains about lib quicktime, “Kino” did not like .mp4.

If Avidemux had transitions and the option of a title page…that is the easiest.

cheers

gropiuskalle · May 22, 2011, 2:55am

If Avidemux had transitions and the option of a title page…that is the easiest.

I am not sure what you mean by “transitions”, but to me it sounds like blending from one clip to another - have you looked into ‘Video’ → 'Filter"? I am also sure about the term “title page”, but with those filters you can add images as overlays too. Sorry if I got you wrong.

ozotto · May 22, 2011, 3:49am

Thanks, I will check it out

oz

phiga · May 22, 2011, 10:42am

HI,
Kdenlive and openshot
OpenShot Video Editor
Openshot makes 3D effects by using blender… simple and impressive!

loand · May 23, 2011, 5:52pm

cinerella
kdenlive

enjoy editing…

ozotto · May 23, 2011, 11:18pm

I tested Openshot about 3 weeks ago…it crashed.

Tested it yesterday , latest version, works perfect. rendering is faster than KDEnlive !!!

I recently bought a video camera “Samsung HMX-Q10BP/XSA” for AUD350.-- , Works with flash memory cards and produces mp4 video files. I also found when extracting still-frames for a photo album, the quality is acceptable.

cheers