What's the easiest-to-use video editor?

[Alan Dayley]

I can provide some of my own experience here.

First off, some of those on the list Synaptic creates are not what I
would call video editors, though they may have excellent other uses.
Here are the ones I have used or played with:

avidemux
Great "quick and dirty" editor for simply cuts, appending videos
together, resolution transformations, format translations and audio
extraction.  Not very good at titles and the like though it has some
of that ability.  When I want to do a quick cut or translate from one
encoding to another, this is what I use.

cinelerra
Very complex, high end, high control.  If you use this make sure you
have lots of RAM, CPU and monitor space.  I've not used it much
because it's overwhelming in capability.  Probably great for
professionals or someone who likes lots of control.

kdenlive
Very promising application.  Looks and feels similar to Apple's
iMovie.  Should be a good amateur editor if it would be stable.  About
9 months ago when I tried it crashes were common.  Could have been my
video driver or something so your mileage may vary.

kino
Great for extracting raw digital video from your camera if that is
what your camera creates.  OK with basic cuts and title screens but
the interface is pretty technical instead of user friendly.  Still use
it for capturing from our old camera but then edit the video
elsewhere.  Has improved by leaps and bounds over the past couple of
years.

openshot
I've only played with this one but looks really nice.  Similar to
kdenlive and seems to target the same capability level.  Did not crash
a lot but have not used it much yet.  I think this one has a photo
slideshow maker where you just point it at a directory of photos and
it builds the video for you.

For the uses requested, kdenlive and openshot are probably what you
are looking for, assuming they work well for you.

Alan

On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 2:55 PM, keith smith <klsmith2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I'd like to piggyback on this one.  I recently bought a camera with the intention of creating YouTube videos.  I was going to use the windows movie maker, however now I'm wondering if Linux might have something better.  I'm thinking I will need to take an audio recording and apply some photos to make a video, add a graphic to the start and end of an actual video and apply a logo and website address to the entire video.  I need something easy to use. I don't intend on becoming a film maker however if there are advanced tools I'd be interested in hearing about them.
>
> Thanks!
>
> ------------------------
> Keith Smith
>
> --- On Mon, 11/8/10, joe at actionline.com <joe at actionline.com> wrote:
>
> From: joe at actionline.com <joe at actionline.com>
> Subject: What's the easiest-to-use video editor?
> To: plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> Date: Monday, November 8, 2010, 2:25 PM
>
> .
> What is the easiest-to-use video editor?
>
> On my system, Synaptic lists more than a dozen different video editors
> that are available, only one of which shows as being installed, called
> mjpegtools ... but I can'y find it or how to start it.
>
> Among the others that appear as available to install are these:
>
> avidemux (plus a command line 'cli' option)
> bombono-dvd
> cinelerra
> dvd-backup
> fotowall
> gjacktransport
> gnonlin
> jahshaka
> kdenlive
> kino
> lives
> mlt
> mythtv
> openmovieeditor
> openshot
> pitivi
> wmwebcam
>
> I've read the Synaptic short descriptions for each of these, but can't
> figure out which one or two might be the best to try.
>
> All I want to do is to be able to import mp3 videos, cut out unwanted
> portions from the beginning, middle, and end to make them each one
> shorter, and then combine two or more into a single video.
>
> Also, I'd like to be able to add a title and perhaps captions to some
> segments; perhaps add or replace an existing audio track; and convert to
> whatever would be the most disk-space efficient format(s) for viewing
> either on youtube or as an embedded video on my website.
>
> What would y'all recommend?
>
>
>
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