[GLLUG] Video Editing on Linux

[Marr]

On Tuesday 04 December 2007 2:10pm, Clay Dowling wrote:
> I bought my wife a digital video camera for Christmas this year, and I'm
> expecting that one of her very first requests is going to be learning how
> get it off the camera and edited down so that we can share video with
> friends and family.  Unfortunately most of the Linux resources I'm finding
> on that are three to five years old.  In the Linux world, that's like
> trying to fix my Honda Accord with the service manual from 1977.
>
> Anybody have any good pointers for where to look on that?  If I can learn
> how to do it I'm perfectly happy to give a presentation on the subject so
> that I can share what I learn.  For that matter, it might make a good
> panel for Penguicon.
>
> Clay

Editing the video and creating something on DVD (which is, to me, the only 
practical option for sharing video amongst family and friends) can really be 
considered as 2 separate topics.

As for pulling video from the camcorder and editing it, I've had a lot of good 
experiences with Kino:

   http://www.kinodv.org

The main Kino developer (Dan Dennedy) is no longer adding features to Kino 
because he's been working on Kdenlive ("KDE Non-Linear Video Editor", 
pronounced 'Kay-den-live'), which will be more sophisticated, handling 
multi-track editing, unlike Kino. I don't know how mature Kdenlive is -- I've 
never used it:

   http://kdenlive.org/
   http://sourceforge.net/projects/kdenlive

Having said all that, I've created DVDs from camcorder video just by using 
Kino. If you want to get fancy with actual DVD menus, you'll need to use some 
additional applications. Or you can even do it with a "roll-your-own" 
approach, using text files and scripts. I've done just that (because I'm an 
engineer at heart, wanting to understand things at a low level), but if 
you're in a hurry, there are plenty of apps out there 
(like 'qdvdauthor.sourceforge.net') that should make it easier. Google 
for 'DVD authoring' for more information.

This recent article ("Kudos for Kino", By Joe Barr on October 04, 2007) 
doesn't address creating DVDs at all, but it covers the basics of Kino 
operation:

   http://www.linux.com/feature/119492

I'm sure there are plenty of articles on 'Q DVD-Author' and related apps too.

If you have any questions, let me know. I don't routinely edit or process 
video, but I've been down that path many times since I first tried it long 
ago and I take good notes!  :^)

Bill Marr