Video Editing Woes - System or Software?

[Grey Melon]

I'm working with a Bonobo Pro which is great but am having issues when trying to edit video. I work for a non-profit org, that I helped start 20 years ago, and need to take in up to 1 hour HD clips and edit down to 10 -15 minute finished product.

I've tried every program mentioned within this forum with no success. I'm aware that there are problems, after reading many posts, but I can't even begin to work due to poor clip playback from the timeline. Tried both MTS and MP4 convert.

I'm trying to determine if my problems are related to my system or if I have to wait for these apps to further mature. From these forums it looks like people are editing on much slower systems which leads me to belive it's a system problem.

I've narrowed it down to 4 programs:

Blender - No probs with editing but can't get a usable output. missing frames, audio not synched and more
Openshot - Great app but audio playback is useless for editing and video is choppy at best. This is before I've added any transitions whatsoever.
Pitivi - Strangely this app plays the audio flawlessly but video has 3 - 5 second delays. Once again useless not to mention no transitions.
Kdenlive - Good looking app but same issues as openshot only it crashes more. I could live with if I could get normal playback

I've tried too many potential fixes to remember so I'd prefer to act as though I'm diagnosing from scratch. Thanks for any help.

[betrunkenaffe]

This might be better posted in another forum, there might be video editing gurus there that can help. Hopefully one has sys76 and can answer the question

[thomasaaron]

I don't know a lot about video editing, but I created a demo video for my son's wrestling team, cutting out pieces form several hours of video and putting them all together.

I used Kino. It had some limitations, but then I'm probably pretty lame at video editing anyway.

Have you tried Kino?

[HotShotDJ]

I've found Cinelerra to be among the best professional quality video editors out there. The interface isn't pretty and you'll need to spend some time learning how to use it and getting used to it, but the results have always been perfect for me.

http://cinelerra.org/getting_cinelerra.php

I've also used Kino in the past with mixed results. The main problem was video/audio syncing... audio and video would become more and more out of sync as resulting video was played. However, that was over a year ago. The developers may have gotten this problem sorted now.

[Grey Melon]

I should first mention that I'm using 64bit Ubuntu 9.04

Tried Kino again:
-major audio sync problems and spontaneous fast forward during playback.
-program crash when attempting any trim.

Tried Cinelerra again:
-playback of any video resources, from HD to video phone, is like stepping through one frame at a time with 2 to 3 seconds pause in between.

This is why I posted my problem in this area of the forums. It seems to me that something is problematic on a system level but I need guidance with the right places and procedures to check.

Viewing Conky during playback with cinelerra shows the following:
-camera phone video playback: cpu spikes just above 3.0% then drops to around 0.6%. Memory stays around 7.0%
-HD footage playback: cpu spikes just above 23.0% then drops to around 1.0%. Memory stays around 7.0%

[Arup]

The best one I have found is Openshot. To install it follow instructions here http://www.unixmen.com/linux-tutoria...ic-has-arrived

Also make sure you have the latest video drivers installed.

[Grey Melon]

The best one I have found is Openshot. To install it follow instructions here http://www.unixmen.com/linux-tutoria...ic-has-arrived

Also make sure you have the latest video drivers installed.

Hi Arup,

I like Openshot very much and am following it's progress diligently however I have had no success getting usable video/audio playback from it or any app I've tried. The clips usually play fine when using vlc or movie player but even then there are moments where performance degrades.

[HotShotDJ]

Tried Cinelerra again:
-playback of any video resources, from HD to video phone, is like stepping through one frame at a time with 2 to 3 seconds pause in between.

Yes. I remember this problem. It is due to one of the default settings that has it dropping frames. It was very easily fixed, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was. I'll look into it later today, but I remember being frustrated by it until I checked off the correct tick-box somewhere in the configuration.

[Arup]

Hi Arup,

I like Openshot very much and am following it's progress diligently however I have had no success getting usable video/audio playback from it or any app I've tried. The clips usually play fine when using vlc or movie player but even then there are moments where performance degrades.

Hmm, thats surprising. I don't really have cutting edge hardware except for the dual quad core. Have basic nvidia 8400GS and ancient Yamaha WaveForce YMF724 sound card but I don't get any skipping with my edited videos. I do have compiz turned off when I do my work.

[Grey Melon]

Yes. I remember this problem. It is due to one of the default settings that has it dropping frames. It was very easily fixed, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was. I'll look into it later today, but I remember being frustrated by it until I checked off the correct tick-box somewhere in the configuration.

That would be great. I'll look forward to hearing back from you later and in the meantime will poke around as well, very carefully.