Linux Needs a Better Video Editor - Kdenlive Isn't It

Today I trant about my issues with kdenlive and the state of video editors on Linux.
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#rant #linux #thelinuxcast

[quantumtacos]

One really helpful and underrated thing that a non-programmer can do is create high quality bug reports. It takes time and effort to create a good report, but reproducing a bug is half the battle and if you can enable a developer to reproduce your bug then you've really helped lower the barrier to getting it fixed.

It's easy to think that a developer must already have noticed an obvious bug, but after years of being on both sides I can say it's mostly likely the case that no one who can fix the bug has noticed the bug. Generally when a developer encounters a bug first-hand they'll become quite excited to fix it, but the excitement doesn't occur until they see it on their own computer because only then can they be 100% sure they can fix it.

So when someone posts on github "I'm able to reproduce this" they aren't just letting you know you aren't alone, they're declaring that the bug report was successful and that they'll be able to fix it now.

[RogueRen]

After using Kdenlive for a year on Linux I seem to be the only person without any issues who LOVES the software. I even do "fancier" edits with transitions, visual fx, audio fx, some basic animation and rotoscoping, etc. I get ocational crashes, but it's backup system is so reliable that the rare times it does crash I just open it again and it restores basically everything.

Now granted I use the Ubuntu PPA version on Pop!_OS rather than a community build on Arch or Gentoo.

[ot]

The presets changing is also an issue in Krita. You can save different brush types in the quick-access menu, and customize their properties. However, in at least two major Krita updates, they reset the quick-access menu to show off new brushes. The old brushes are still in the program, but I had to re-search for them and re-customize them to restore my workflow.

[bostickdoesmusic]

I have the same issue with Kdenlive that I do with pretty much every KDE app - everything feels like it's in beta. They're pretty and the features they keep adding sound great, but that doesn't matter if it's constantly crashing on you.

[gtak-welder]

Have you looked at Cinelerra? It hasn't been updated in a while, but it's a project that goes back over 20 years, so it should be more stable. I dabbled with it years ago, and it wasn't the prettiest, but it was functional.

[killingtime]

Hello, I don't know if there are any stable versions of kdenlive? Where you get bug fixes but no feature updates?

[thenextpoetician]

Flowblade crashed just before loading its window. Searched. It's the most recent issue. When that's resolved, I'll definitely try it. The G'mic tool had me hooked (it's awesome in Gimp, and I'm more into photography anyway, so that's how I came across it in the first place).

Something I've noticed - in discussion with others oratory requires next to no editing, but when speaking at no one with the microphone turned on the flow is constantly interrupted, like someone else is supposed to take their turn after a point is made. Studying brain function is just one of those hobbies that takes on a life of its own.

[OcteractSG]

You want stable? Debian, my dude, may be for you. (L0L, I know you probably won’t leave Arch/Arco just for Kdenlive.)

My rule is to at least look at my video on YouTube before publishing or scheduling the video to ensure the quality is good and nothing major was missed. I try to catch that stuff sooner, but I always have a final review. I even try to keep Kdenlive open throughout the whole process so that I don’t lose my edits if I’m uploading immediately after editing.

[mightyrobot]

I just edited together a short film in ShotCut and it worked pretty well. I can't really compare it with other video editors since this is the first major piece of editing that I've done, but I was able to get the hang of it pretty quickly and I'm happy with the results.

[Grinch]

I still don't get it why linux youtubers refuse with a passion to use Davinci Resolve, it's available on linux it has world class color correction, it's backed by BlackMagic Design which also makes some of the best cameras in the world but for some reason everyone recommends and then complains about kdenlive. Don't mean to sound bitchy but it's frustrating when people get on this opensource stuff like it's some sort of a holy grail, sure it's nice for home use but in any kind of professional situation all that matters is the best software to help you get the job done, be it open or closed source.
Also congrats on you improving with your speech pattern thing, it takes courage to admit your defects and work to overcome them, big A+.

[zaniki]

Hey I think I know what happened with your issue with the 12 minute video was a bigger file size than your longer video. It is due to the fact that Kdenlive uses FFmpeg as its rendering tool and uses CRF(if you are not using the experimental hardware excellaration which will use CQP, which does a similar thing) as its rate control.

CRF is practicaly a quality preset which will change the bitrate use to meet a certain quality standard. If your video has more movement or detailed things in it, it will raise the bitrate it for that part of the video to maintain the quality of which you set(0 CRF = highest quality, 51 CRF = lowest). That smaller video might have had things that would require more bitrate to encode so it ended up with a larger file size. I hope this helps!


(even though I am a few months late)

[UltimusShadow.]

Excuse my ignorance but why not update until all your video projects are finished/uploaded? Then start the new projects on the new version?

[blueyZee]

To anyone who might have the time, why is it that the kdenlive executable for Windows has a smaller size than that rpms of .Deb versions?

[mikemarcum]

I've never used Kden for anything so I can't personally make any judgments. However, I''d like to suggest the same thing I did with using Gimp. I hated it at first so I used whatever I could to get by. BUT, I forced myself to use it every day for something... Sometimes I'd just pick a feature I knew I'd use a lot then open an image and work at it till I could say.. ahhhh, so that's how to do it. I find Olive to be the same... yes it's alpha but it hasn't crashed on me in a long time. Just a few weeks ago I actually got DiVinchi installed on my desktop. Unfortunately we are going back to Mx for another 6 months and leaving just a few days from now... Not much time to use it before we leave. Anyway, I feel your pain and have seen other YT videos complaining about similar issues you have mentioned... Another complaint I see a lot is about how long Kden takes to render a video..

[damolin]

I agree with you Matt. Have you tried Olive Video Editor?

[Nutwardgallery]

I am seeing this video 2 years later... but it would seem so simple if you just "turn off" automatic updates of Kdenlive. I myself started with openshot - first simple editor for cutting and rearranging videos. Shotcut was my second transition, because some of the overlay tools with keyframes allowed for pretty created overlay animations. But then, when I started to do multi-cam editing - Kdenlive is the magic tool that allows me to automate scene syncronization, scene switching, overlay editing, and output. Yes Kdenlive is as clunky and awkward, but it offers a lot of the high-level functions that Olive, Shotcut, and Openshot don't have. I was doing manual scene cutting in Shotcut, but for regular video posting, automating some functions is an even greater time saver.

[gamerhobbit]

I have been using all these programs mentioned in the video and I can say Adobe is also a crash fest, for no apparent reason. As for Kdenlive changes: I always write down my export settings (from the script) to a separate note and make sure it stays somewhere safe. But, in my case I record gameplay videos so I make a lot of changes before rendering, I change the interpolation to Lanczos, switch to 8:8:8 color format with full range and so on.

I believe they have changed the quality section to a CRF number to percentage-like value, like Shotcut does. It may be easier to understand for a newcomer but if you are used to the old method, things working in the opposite direction now. Rİght side is the higher quality.Plus, they give no audio quality fine tuning and honestly, it looks like they are throwing values just to make sure that audio is rendered. Their "real_time=-4" property is also fixed and can not be adjusted in that menu for the CPUs with higher core count. You have to press "Generate script" to create a script and have to make the changes in there.

BTW, may I ask for something I have been wondering? Are you cropping your webcam view? Because the focal point looks like it is on the door with a big S on the left. The door flexes in all sides and made me wonder why :) Your Linux poster also flexing to the left side, it should be flexing to the right side if the focal point was on you.

[OmnisArchives]

I've been trying very hard to pick out a replacement editor for Premiere. Both times I tried Kdenlive out, it crashed, even with the "stable" appimage version. That's not a good sign if Kdenlive is the best FOSS editor Linux has to tout.

[BradR]

Well said. I use KdenLive religiously on my main channel because I'm too stubborn to dual boot windows or get a Mac, and hate leaving my Linux environment to edit anyway.

It's certainly far from perfect, but it's definitely got some potential to be great. If I were a software dev, I'd definitely be putting my hand up to contribute to it.

[theperson]

This will sound funny but give Blenders video editor a try. Some Youtuber tried it and loved it.