Arch Linux

amca01

Member

Registered: 2008-12-28

Posts: 57

Video editing software for newbie...?

The newbie is me, with regard to video editing.  I consider myself (mostly) competent in using linux (well, it has been my main OS for about 20 years), but in all that time I have never edited any videos.  (I am an expert in image processing, having written two books on the topic, but videos.. that's a whole 'nother issue.)

I am now starting to produce some screencasts, which I'll need to edit: adding some title screens, sometimes speeding up the video (especially for handwritten sections), editing some of the audio... what is my best option for simple, but effective, editing software?  I've actually got seven on my system so far: avidemux, cinelerra, flowblade, handbrake, kdenlive, openshot, shotcut.  To my inexpert eyes many editors look pretty similar.  But I need to choose one and learn to use it.  I've discovered that openshot, at least, easily allows me to place a title screen in front of a video.  And I couldn't find out how to do that in shotcut.

What would you recommend?

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,976

Re: Video editing software for newbie...?

Compositor, for effects:

https://natron.fr/

Converting formats and other chores:

https://handbrake.fr/

A more basic editor useful for creating mid-length scenes to then be further processed with Natron:

https://www.shotcut.org/

For getting new media into the computer:

http://guvcview.sourceforge.net/

Edit: And believe it or not, https://www.blender.org/ has a full video editor built right into it.  Blender has a high learning curve but if you master it you can literally do anything with it if you have the time.

Last edited by headkase (2016-11-06 04:26:26)

amca01

Member

Registered: 2008-12-28

Posts: 57

Re: Video editing software for newbie...?

Many thanks indeed!  I did know of all of these, but I haven't experimented with natron or guvcview.  I also knew that blender contains a full featured video editor, but I thought I'd try something with a smaller footprint first.  So far openshot seems pretty good, but I've only dipped my toe into the water, so to speak.   However, maybe natron would be better, on your recommendation?

Thanks again.

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,355

Re: Video editing software for newbie...?

I've not seen natron before, looks interesting. But it's not an NLE, which I think is what you're looking for. cinelerra is what I use for familiarity reason (does what I want, and that's about it), because when I was deciding on an NLE shotcut was way too raw. It seems to have improved.

FWIW, shotcut and natron aren't in the repos but cinelerra is. I've found this to be a fairly good gauge of popularity among Arch users at least (shotcut has 38 votes and natron has 8 at this point in time).

I concluded (and still believe) that blender's video editor would be the 'best', but never had time to learn it. Too much of a departure from what I was used to with Adobe Premiere etc.

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