Video editing advice

[Philip_Edwards]

Hi,
My daughter is a circus performer. She is an absolute whizz with hulahoops and can often be found dangling from a trapeze.

She needs to be able to create video files to promote herself.

I'd imagine she needs to be able to fit video files together, add text and include som nice transitions.

She wants to buy a new computer in order to do this. I've advised her to get a decent pre-loved laptop and install Ubuntu onto it.

Is Ubuntu a reasonable alternative for her needs?

Phil

[TheFu]

It depends.

• Is she (or you) rich and don't mind paying $300 every few years for software?
• Has she ever used any Linux before?
• Has she been trained in any other specific hardware or software?
• Do her friends that do similar things use Linux too?
• If she wants to edit 4K video, then she'll want a desktop, not a laptop, for a number of reasons.

For content creation and editing, there are some nice tools that run on Linux, but if this will turn into a career, almost everyone uses Adobe's stuff on a Mac. That's just the way of the world. OTOH, if she doesn't care about that stuff, the Linux software can do anything and some things that Adobe doesn't.

Why get a desktop and not a laptop?

• Upgrades are more cost effective; RAM, storage, CPUs, GPUs. All those are limited for a laptop.
• Adding fast storage - video files are huge! - is easy
• Desktops cost over 50% less than a laptop of similar performance. A $400 desktop will perform better than a $1800 laptop

[SeijiSensei]

I started using KDEnlive a few weeks back to add titles and captions to some captured Zoom sessions. It didn't take me long to figure out how to do so.

KDEnlive is from the KDE project, which produces the desktop environment that Ubuntu distributes as Kubuntu. I was running it on nine-year-old laptop. The only drawback was it took a while to "render" the resulting composite video, but you can just leave the computer running and come back when it's finished. KDEnlive will run on vanilla Ubuntu as well, but I recommend using Kubuntu. The interface is pretty "Windows-like."

I render to webm since it's widely supported on the Web and by browsers.

[Autodave]

You definitely want to be looking at a desktop, at least 16 gig RAM, and an SSD drive. Video editing taxes everything to the max.

[SeijiSensei]

Wasn't my experience on an older laptop with 8 GB. Performance was fine for streaming through the initial file and adding titles and captions. As I said, rendering took a while, but you don't have to watch it while it happens.

[TheFu]

For editing any little video at 480p resolution, any recent Core i5/Ryzen 5 system should be fine. By recent, think "7th gen or later" for the Core i5 in a laptop.
At 720p resolution, it will get worse, but it still workable.
At 1080p, it will be 10x longer and painful.
Above that resolution, it quickly becomes bad. A desktop with a good CPU and GPU that support rendering via drivers will be wanted along with lots of fast storage. Youtube hobby content makers have been pushing 4k video for a few years.

[Philip_Edwards]

Thanks,
That actually makes sense. Maybe one of those mini computers?

Phil

[TheFu]

Thanks,
That actually makes sense. Maybe one of those mini computers?

Phil

As long as it isn't a raspberry pi or any ARM or any NUC system.

Stay with a mini-itx or microATX in a boot (shoe) sized case or larger. Stay with standard components and a case large enough for likely expansion. Be very wary of NUC systems. That tiny size usually has cooling issues and is priced 2x higher than the same performance in an mini-itx or microATX form-factor. A full sized GPU will likely be very helpful to her.

[mail-2o]

As long as it isn't a raspberry pi or any ARM or any NUC system. ...

I did try a Pi4 4GB with OpenShot but the speed and stability were totally unacceptable. NUCs seem to have relatively slow processors and get very pricey with increasing RAM.

I have a i5 4gb laptop, that almost did the job, but was frustrating. Occasionally it would crash if pushed too hard, which was also frustrating. Plus, you run out of space very quickly as your video files

I have bought a 2nd hand i7 desktop, 3GHz+, 16gb and SSD (£300) and so glad I did even though it is larger than I would have wished. No more crashes. Rendering still takes a while but I think it always will, depending upon what you are doing.

Thanks SeijiSensei for the KDEnlive tip. I'll give that a go.