Linux based non-linear video application, Open Movie Editor, has released a new version. Originally new sourced were rolled out on May 21st, with a small bug fix update now available from May 23rd.
I've compiled and installed the new version from source and generally it works well, with a few minor quirks that are sure to be ironed out shortly - for example the audio and video codec rendering options are woefully short of all the libraries I have installed on my machine. Never mind, I always render out a project in the highest quality anyway and then transcode directly with FFmpeg. This might not be optimal for everyone.
As usual, existing Project files are recognised (these are saved in your /home/username directory usually anyway), so work can easily continue on earlier timelines.
Features of this release include:
- Zoom buttons in timeline
- Preview in separate Window
- Images in node graphs
- Lift, gamma, gain 3-Way color-tool
The Zoom buttons are probably more intuitive for new users, although I've already become quite used to the old drag-the-slider zoom method. Time will tell whether this new functionality will be better.
Preview in a separate window works, but I can't quite figure out yet how I would use it. It only previews the timeline, and not clips yet to be added to the project. Previewing clips before they're added to the timeline would be a really useful feature.
I've not yet tried node based editing or the new colour correction tools.
Full release note details can be found here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?groupid=142766&releaseid=600862
Source code download here:
http://www.openmovieeditor.org/download.html
Recently in Open Movie Editor Category
Recently, and it's hard to say exactly which SVN snapshot this occured in, the FFMpeg project changed the location of a number of its header files. This has caused soem havoc with other applications that use FFmpeg for video decoding or encoding.
Amongst other things, Open Movie Editor complained that certain libraries were not installed, which they plainly were. This could be seen from running a simple "ffmpeg -i" command to see what which libraries FFmpeg had been configured again.
Trying to re-compile Open Movie Editor from source struck some problems, in that OME was looking for FFmpeg headers in the wrong place. To overcome this issue, so that OME would compile and then install correctly, I made the following changes.
The first crash will be with regards to avformat.h in the file nle_main.cxx
nle_main.cxx and the other two files you need to make some small edits to can be found in the "src" directory created when OME is unpacked.
There are three files you'll need to edit in the text editor of your choice:
nle_main.cxx
VideoFileFfmpeg.H
AudioFileFfmepg.H
Open each of those files and near the beginning (around line 35) will be references that look something like this:
#include <ffmpeg/avformat.h>
You'll need to find where avformat.h, avcodec.h and swscale.h are residing on your machine.
You can do this by using the following command:
>sudo find / avformat.h
On my machine, a build of Debian Lenny, these files can all be found in /usr/local/include
I edited the files so the code looks like this (example from VideoFileFfmpeg.H):
#include </usr/local/include/libavcodec/avcodec.h>
#include </usr/local/include/libavformat/avformat.h>
#ifdef SWSCALE
#include </usr/local/include/libswscale/swscale.h>
Once you've saved those files, OME should now be able to find the FFmpeg header files and build correctly.
Hopefully a new version of Open Movie Editor will soon be available where these issues have been rectified in the source.
Amongst other things, Open Movie Editor complained that certain libraries were not installed, which they plainly were. This could be seen from running a simple "ffmpeg -i" command to see what which libraries FFmpeg had been configured again.
Trying to re-compile Open Movie Editor from source struck some problems, in that OME was looking for FFmpeg headers in the wrong place. To overcome this issue, so that OME would compile and then install correctly, I made the following changes.
The first crash will be with regards to avformat.h in the file nle_main.cxx
nle_main.cxx and the other two files you need to make some small edits to can be found in the "src" directory created when OME is unpacked.
There are three files you'll need to edit in the text editor of your choice:
nle_main.cxx
VideoFileFfmpeg.H
AudioFileFfmepg.H
Open each of those files and near the beginning (around line 35) will be references that look something like this:
#include <ffmpeg/avformat.h>
You'll need to find where avformat.h, avcodec.h and swscale.h are residing on your machine.
You can do this by using the following command:
>sudo find / avformat.h
On my machine, a build of Debian Lenny, these files can all be found in /usr/local/include
I edited the files so the code looks like this (example from VideoFileFfmpeg.H):
#include </usr/local/include/libavcodec/avcodec.h>
#include </usr/local/include/libavformat/avformat.h>
#ifdef SWSCALE
#include </usr/local/include/libswscale/swscale.h>
Once you've saved those files, OME should now be able to find the FFmpeg header files and build correctly.
Hopefully a new version of Open Movie Editor will soon be available where these issues have been rectified in the source.
The Open Movie Editor project has just released a new version of this Linux based non-linear video editing tool.
Amongst the highlights of this new version are the following items:
While only a minor update to Open Movie Editor, coming just one week after the previous release on February 3rd, this source does include my first codebase contribution to an Open Source project - the Shark colour scheme.
Download the new version of Open Movie Editor.
Amongst the highlights of this new version are the following items:
- Inclusion of a new colour scheme called Shark
- Colour scheme preferences are now restored at restart
While only a minor update to Open Movie Editor, coming just one week after the previous release on February 3rd, this source does include my first codebase contribution to an Open Source project - the Shark colour scheme.
Download the new version of Open Movie Editor.
A short while ago I wrote a review about Open Movie Editor. Essentially this review was written after a couple of hours testing various video clips and assessing the functionality within OME. Now, I can write about what OME is like on a real editing assignment.
Recently I was given a DVD full of PAL DV material and asked to create a compilation from the individual clips. A fun little project that should only take a day or two. Open Movie Editor was the obvious tool for the job.
The good news I can report is that even after 10 to 12 hours of constant video editing, OME is still a very stable piece of software. I only managed to induce two crashes - once when trying to undo multiple edits in a row and once when vigorously moving clips around on the timeline. Other than that, Open Movie Editor was easily up to the task.
I'm not an advanced video editor, happy within my comfort zone using something like Adobe Premiere, but also not using all the intricate features. However, Open Movie Editor does still lack a few basic features, that would have greatly increased my productivity. Changing playback speed of a clip is not possible within OME. I needed to change the framerate of target clips using FFmpeg and mjpeg tools to achieve this effect. While fade transitions are easy enough, I'm sure they could have been even quicker if such a function was built into OME. Precise frame editing, for splitting clips for example, would also make life easier.
There are some really nice features in Open Movie Editor though. Audio automations are a breeze, the media browser window provides easy access to your video library and the list of render options is quite vast - dependent on FFMpeg, Libquicktime and other shared video libraries.
So what did I produce in my 12 hours of work? A fun 4 minute clip, which is still a little rough around the edges, but generally a good laugh. Here's a link for your viewing pleasure:
http://kapitalmototv.co.uk/play-183-0.html
Edited in Open Movie Editor, with some clip transformations using FFmpeg and mjpeg tools. Follow this with final transcoding to x264, again with FFmpeg for more finite control, and you have an Open Source Editing project.
The Kapital Moto TV site uses open source products where possible. The server runs on Debian Etch, the site is served with Apache, built largely with PHP and data is stored in a MySQL database. Content is a mix of QuickTime generated H.264 and FFmpeg generate x264 video files. The Flash player is not open source, but is free as in beer.
Recently I was given a DVD full of PAL DV material and asked to create a compilation from the individual clips. A fun little project that should only take a day or two. Open Movie Editor was the obvious tool for the job.
The good news I can report is that even after 10 to 12 hours of constant video editing, OME is still a very stable piece of software. I only managed to induce two crashes - once when trying to undo multiple edits in a row and once when vigorously moving clips around on the timeline. Other than that, Open Movie Editor was easily up to the task.
I'm not an advanced video editor, happy within my comfort zone using something like Adobe Premiere, but also not using all the intricate features. However, Open Movie Editor does still lack a few basic features, that would have greatly increased my productivity. Changing playback speed of a clip is not possible within OME. I needed to change the framerate of target clips using FFmpeg and mjpeg tools to achieve this effect. While fade transitions are easy enough, I'm sure they could have been even quicker if such a function was built into OME. Precise frame editing, for splitting clips for example, would also make life easier.
There are some really nice features in Open Movie Editor though. Audio automations are a breeze, the media browser window provides easy access to your video library and the list of render options is quite vast - dependent on FFMpeg, Libquicktime and other shared video libraries.
So what did I produce in my 12 hours of work? A fun 4 minute clip, which is still a little rough around the edges, but generally a good laugh. Here's a link for your viewing pleasure:
http://kapitalmototv.co.uk/play-183-0.html
Edited in Open Movie Editor, with some clip transformations using FFmpeg and mjpeg tools. Follow this with final transcoding to x264, again with FFmpeg for more finite control, and you have an Open Source Editing project.
The Kapital Moto TV site uses open source products where possible. The server runs on Debian Etch, the site is served with Apache, built largely with PHP and data is stored in a MySQL database. Content is a mix of QuickTime generated H.264 and FFmpeg generate x264 video files. The Flash player is not open source, but is free as in beer.
The Open Movie Editor project has just released a new version of this Linux based non-linear video editing tool.
Amongst the highlights of this new version are the following items:
Download the new version of Open Movie Editor.
Amongst the highlights of this new version are the following items:
- Addition of Gnome menu item, so that the application doesn't always need to be started from the command line.
- Split clips now retain effect information
- Glitches removed from Timeline cursor for an enhanced editing experience
- Improved clip zooming
- Bug fixed where OME would crash if a clip was resized during playback of the timeline.
- Other critical clip modifications now disabled during playback, for improved stability.
Download the new version of Open Movie Editor.
