There are many video editors out there. Quite a lot of them are much more involved than you seem to need but to get the precision you're looking for you may need it. To get precise frame edits from .mp4 source material the software will need to decompress the clips to a raw video format then when you're done editing render the result into the format of your choosing. Keep in mind this will introduce a generation loss of quality because .mp4 isn't a lossless codec. Make sure you look for an "export" function (that outputs your video result) rather than "save" (which saves the entire project including sources, edits and all to a platform specific save format and a folder for the source clips).
I've had luck with Kino in the past for basic cut edits. Here's a recent list of serious editors from an article about editors available on linux. https://itsfoss.com/best-video-editing-software-linux/ Or open your software package manager and search video edit to see what's in the repos you have in your config. Maybe look at the project page for a few names to see if they suit your purpose. You could search a tutorial on youtube for linux video editing in general or specifically how to get more out of one of the ones you tried already. That's usually my first stop when wanting to learn something new or get in more in depth. It's amazing how many niche subjects are on there from people who still just want to help rather than feed the algorithm to make money. Hope this helps, Stu [email protected] Stuart Conner Westfield, MA 01085 On Sun, Apr 30, 2023 at 1:33 PM <[email protected]> wrote: > Send Discuss mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Discuss digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Any decent video editors? (Daniel Barrett) > 2. Re: puzzle (Kent Borg) > 3. Re: puzzle (dan moylan) > 4. Re: Any decent video editors? (John Abreau) > 5. Re: puzzle (John Abreau) > 6. Re: Any decent video editors? (John Abreau) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2023 16:44:36 -0400 > From: Daniel Barrett <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Cc: Daniel Barrett <[email protected]> > Subject: [Discuss] Any decent video editors? > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > I've just tried 3 different Linux video editors to accomplish a simple > task, removing a few segments from an MP4 file. All three programs > failed spectacularly. Any recommendations for a reliable program? > > First I tried losslesscut. The UI let me create clips, but when they > were rendered, they were mispositioned by several seconds. Apparently > the program cuts only at "keyframes" and not where you actually > request the cut. > > So then I tried vidcutter. The UI let me specify exactly the cuts I > wanted. But I could not export the results to a video file. The save > operation simply didn't do anything. It claimed "FILE SAVED" but no > output file was present anywhere on disk. I tried quitting & > restarting vidcutter, and then it refused to read the project file it > had written, claiming the file had a syntax error. > > So then I tried kdenlive. The UI again let me specify exactly the cuts > I wanted. Then kdenlive crashed. I restarted, reloaded the video, > tested it, and exported the clips to an MP4 file. After waiting 23 > minutes for the export to complete, the process halted with 15 seconds > left to render. No error. The resulting video file contained 46 > minutes of random pixels. > > Finally, I tried just plain ffmpeg to extract the clips I wanted: > > ffmpeg -i VIDEO.mp4 -ss $1 -to $2 -c:v copy -c:a copy clip.mp4 > > Some of the resulting clips had the audio & video out of sync. > > Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you. > Dan > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2023 14:17:17 -0700 > From: Kent Borg <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Discuss] puzzle > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > How about this: Simplify. I'm suspicious of the T-Mobile bits, maybe > isolate them. > > Hook up your computers up to networking hardware you understand and > trust. Get them working talking to each other. NAT all of that onto a > single cable, in a way you understand and trust. (Maybe the box you used > above.) Then connect a single cable to the T-Mobile network, for > external connections. > > -kb > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2023 17:39:41 -0400 > From: dan moylan <[email protected]> > To: "boston linux and unix (blu)" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Discuss] puzzle > Message-ID: <ZE2OnaoVD7PeefR6@aldeberan> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > > kent borg writes: > > How about this: Simplify. I'm suspicious of the T-Mobile > > bits, maybe isolate them. > > > Hook up your computers up to networking hardware you > > understand and trust. Get them working talking to each > > other. NAT all of that onto a single cable, in a way you > > understand and trust. (Maybe the box you used above.) Then > > connect a single cable to the T-Mobile network, for external > > connections. > > thanks, i'll try that. > > ole dan > > j. daniel moylan > 84 harvard ave > brookline, ma 02446-6202 > 617-777-0207 (cel) > [email protected] > www.moylan.us > [BLM] > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2023 17:59:24 -0400 > From: John Abreau <[email protected]> > To: Daniel Barrett <[email protected]> > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Discuss] Any decent video editors? > Message-ID: > < > ca+h9qs6htjejwpag+zoxp4y6aehx78gewst3bri7nfbecuj...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > When you have ffmpeg copy instead of transcode, while trying to cut out > segments, it has trouble keeping the results in sync. > > I like pitivi for graphical video editing, but when I edit a 2-hour 1080p > video from the raw youtube livestream of an online BLU meeting, it can > overload my desktop machine, it can overload the cpu and tie up the machine > for hours when rendering the entire video. > > The workflow I finally settled on was to > > 1. use ffmpeg to split the video into 2-minute segments; > 2. use pitivo to edit just the segment where the first cutpoint is located > in and the segment that the second cutpoint is located in; > 3. discard all segments before the first edited segment and all segments > after the second edited segment; > 4. create a title card with Gimp and an audio clip of silence with > audacity; > 5. use ffmpeg to turn the image and silence into a 10-second video clip; > 6. use pitive to combine the title clip and the first edited segment with a > 2-second transition in between; > 7. use mkvmerge to combine all segments between the two edited segments > into one long segment; > 8. use ffmpeg to transcode the three parts to the same settings; > 9. use mkvmerge to combine the results into the final video file. > > I run pitivi on my desktop machine, and both ffmpeg and mkvmerge on a > headless server with a better cpu than my desktop machine. > > More detail: > > 1. use ffmpeg to split the video into 2-minute segments; > > ffmpeg -i src.mkv -map 0 -c copy -f segment -segment_time 120 \ > -reset_timestamps 1 segment.%03d.mkv > > 2. use pitivo to edit just the segment where the first cutpoint is located > in and the segment that the second cutpoint is located in; > > render as begin.mkv and end.mkv > > e.g., segment-007.mkv and segment-058.mkv > > 3. discard all segments before the first edited segment and all segments > after the second edited segment; > > mkdir hold > mv segment-00[0-6].mkv hold/ > mv segment-059.mkv segment-0[6-9][0-9].mkv hold/ > > 4. create a title card with Gimp and an audio clip of silence with > audacity; > > 5. use ffmpeg to turn the image and silence into a 10-second video clip; > > ffmpeg -loop 1 -i src.png -i silence.wav -c:v libx264 -c:a aac \ > -strict experimental -b:a 192k -shortest -pix_fmt yuv420p titlecard.mkv > > 6. use pitivi to combine the title clip and the first edited segment with a > 2-second transition in between; > > render as begin-with-titlecard.mkv > > 7. use mkvmerge to combine all segments between the two edited segments > into one long segment; > > mkvmerge -o middle.mkv segment-008.mkv +segment-009.mkv \ > +segment-0[1-4][0-9].mkv +segment-05[0-7].mkv > > 8. use ffmpeg to transcode the three parts to the same settings; > > begin-with-titlecard.mkv => begin-with-titlecard-edited.mkv > middle.mkv => middle-edited.mkv > end.mkv => end-edited.mkv > > ffmpeg -i <part>.mkv -acodec ac3 -vcodec libx264 -ab 256k > <part>-edited.mkv > > 9. use mkvmerge to combine the results into the final video file. > > mkvmerge -o final.mkv begin-with-titlecard-edited.mkv \ > +middle-edited.mkv +end-edited.mkv > > The original source has audio at 44100 Hz, and pitivi by default renders > audio at 48000 Hz. So I edit the project settings to have it do 44100 Hz. > > > > On Sat, Apr 29, 2023 at 4:45?PM Daniel Barrett <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > I've just tried 3 different Linux video editors to accomplish a simple > > task, removing a few segments from an MP4 file. All three programs > > failed spectacularly. Any recommendations for a reliable program? > > > > First I tried losslesscut. The UI let me create clips, but when they > > were rendered, they were mispositioned by several seconds. Apparently > > the program cuts only at "keyframes" and not where you actually > > request the cut. > > > > So then I tried vidcutter. The UI let me specify exactly the cuts I > > wanted. But I could not export the results to a video file. The save > > operation simply didn't do anything. It claimed "FILE SAVED" but no > > output file was present anywhere on disk. I tried quitting & > > restarting vidcutter, and then it refused to read the project file it > > had written, claiming the file had a syntax error. > > > > So then I tried kdenlive. The UI again let me specify exactly the cuts > > I wanted. Then kdenlive crashed. I restarted, reloaded the video, > > tested it, and exported the clips to an MP4 file. After waiting 23 > > minutes for the export to complete, the process halted with 15 seconds > > left to render. No error. The resulting video file contained 46 > > minutes of random pixels. > > > > Finally, I tried just plain ffmpeg to extract the clips I wanted: > > > > ffmpeg -i VIDEO.mp4 -ss $1 -to $2 -c:v copy -c:a copy clip.mp4 > > > > Some of the resulting clips had the audio & video out of sync. > > > > Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you. > > Dan > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > > > > -- > John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix > Email [email protected] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0x920063C6 > PGP-Key-Fingerprint A5AD 6BE1 FEFE 8E4F 5C23 C2D0 E885 E17C 9200 63C6 > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2023 18:10:58 -0400 > From: John Abreau <[email protected]> > To: dan moylan <[email protected]> > Cc: "boston linux and unix \(blu\)" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Discuss] puzzle > Message-ID: > < > ca+h9qs4qfhljn3c_lmips0znh3-koabo-vxqe2prqxjee_t...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > That's what I do, and it works well. I have a consumer wifi router, and I > connect to the Internet through a 4/LTE wifi hotspot that I borrow from the > public library for a week at a time. They have maybe a dozen different > hotspots, so I randomly get a different one each week. > > I use a cheap wifi/ethernet bridge to connect my wifi router to the > hotspot; I plug its ethernet jack into the wifi router's WAN port, then > each week I reconfigure it for the new hotspot by pressing and holding its > factory reset button for 20 seconds and then connecting to it with a laptop > to get to its admin web page. > > The bridge I use is a VONETS VAP11G-300 WiFi Bridge that I found on amazon: > > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014SK2H6W > > > On Sat, Apr 29, 2023 at 5:40?PM dan moylan <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > kent borg writes: > > > How about this: Simplify. I'm suspicious of the T-Mobile > > > bits, maybe isolate them. > > > > > Hook up your computers up to networking hardware you > > > understand and trust. Get them working talking to each > > > other. NAT all of that onto a single cable, in a way you > > > understand and trust. (Maybe the box you used above.) Then > > > connect a single cable to the T-Mobile network, for external > > > connections. > > > > thanks, i'll try that. > > > > ole dan > > > > j. daniel moylan > > 84 harvard ave > > brookline, ma 02446-6202 > > 617-777-0207 (cel) > > [email protected] > > www.moylan.us > > [BLM] > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > > > > -- > John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix > Email [email protected] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0x920063C6 > PGP-Key-Fingerprint A5AD 6BE1 FEFE 8E4F 5C23 C2D0 E885 E17C 9200 63C6 > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 6 > Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2023 13:29:43 -0400 > From: John Abreau <[email protected]> > To: "Daniel C." <[email protected]> > Cc: L-blu <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Discuss] Any decent video editors? > Message-ID: > < > ca+h9qs4mkok8fnqchedahqqxzbzwk1l+mz4l8s5t9dcv3q-...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > To get the performance of my backend server in a Mac or Windows machine, > I'd have to spend a boatload of money. I have a Supermicro server with 4 > hexacore Xeon CPUs (24 cores), 64gb RM, and a pair of 8TB hard drives > configured for RAID-1. I purchased the server on ebay for $150 a few years > ago, and the pair of hard drives from Amazon. I don't recall offhand how > much I had for the drive pair. > > I just priced out a Mac Pro on Apple's website, upgraded to those specs, > and the quoted cost is $15,399.00. That's with a single 8TB SSD drive; the > web page won't allow me to choose a second drive, or to choose spinning > rust instead of SSD. The video editing software is also an extra cost. > > > On Sun, Apr 30, 2023 at 4:31?AM Daniel C. <[email protected]> wrote: > > > At some point wouldn't it be easier to just get a Mac or Windows machine > > and use an Adobe product? > > > > On Sat, Apr 29, 2023 at 4:03?PM John Abreau <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> When you have ffmpeg copy instead of transcode, while trying to cut out > >> segments, it has trouble keeping the results in sync. > >> > >> I like pitivi for graphical video editing, but when I edit a 2-hour > 1080p > >> video from the raw youtube livestream of an online BLU meeting, it can > >> overload my desktop machine, it can overload the cpu and tie up the > >> machine > >> for hours when rendering the entire video. > >> > >> The workflow I finally settled on was to > >> > >> 1. use ffmpeg to split the video into 2-minute segments; > >> 2. use pitivo to edit just the segment where the first cutpoint is > located > >> in and the segment that the second cutpoint is located in; > >> 3. discard all segments before the first edited segment and all segments > >> after the second edited segment; > >> 4. create a title card with Gimp and an audio clip of silence with > >> audacity; > >> 5. use ffmpeg to turn the image and silence into a 10-second video clip; > >> 6. use pitive to combine the title clip and the first edited segment > with > >> a > >> 2-second transition in between; > >> 7. use mkvmerge to combine all segments between the two edited segments > >> into one long segment; > >> 8. use ffmpeg to transcode the three parts to the same settings; > >> 9. use mkvmerge to combine the results into the final video file. > >> > >> I run pitivi on my desktop machine, and both ffmpeg and mkvmerge on a > >> headless server with a better cpu than my desktop machine. > >> > >> More detail: > >> > >> 1. use ffmpeg to split the video into 2-minute segments; > >> > >> ffmpeg -i src.mkv -map 0 -c copy -f segment -segment_time 120 \ > >> -reset_timestamps 1 segment.%03d.mkv > >> > >> 2. use pitivo to edit just the segment where the first cutpoint is > located > >> in and the segment that the second cutpoint is located in; > >> > >> render as begin.mkv and end.mkv > >> > >> e.g., segment-007.mkv and segment-058.mkv > >> > >> 3. discard all segments before the first edited segment and all segments > >> after the second edited segment; > >> > >> mkdir hold > >> mv segment-00[0-6].mkv hold/ > >> mv segment-059.mkv segment-0[6-9][0-9].mkv hold/ > >> > >> 4. create a title card with Gimp and an audio clip of silence with > >> audacity; > >> > >> 5. use ffmpeg to turn the image and silence into a 10-second video clip; > >> > >> ffmpeg -loop 1 -i src.png -i silence.wav -c:v libx264 -c:a aac \ > >> -strict experimental -b:a 192k -shortest -pix_fmt yuv420p > >> titlecard.mkv > >> > >> 6. use pitivi to combine the title clip and the first edited segment > with > >> a > >> 2-second transition in between; > >> > >> render as begin-with-titlecard.mkv > >> > >> 7. use mkvmerge to combine all segments between the two edited segments > >> into one long segment; > >> > >> mkvmerge -o middle.mkv segment-008.mkv +segment-009.mkv \ > >> +segment-0[1-4][0-9].mkv +segment-05[0-7].mkv > >> > >> 8. use ffmpeg to transcode the three parts to the same settings; > >> > >> begin-with-titlecard.mkv => begin-with-titlecard-edited.mkv > >> middle.mkv => middle-edited.mkv > >> end.mkv => end-edited.mkv > >> > >> ffmpeg -i <part>.mkv -acodec ac3 -vcodec libx264 -ab 256k > >> <part>-edited.mkv > >> > >> 9. use mkvmerge to combine the results into the final video file. > >> > >> mkvmerge -o final.mkv begin-with-titlecard-edited.mkv \ > >> +middle-edited.mkv +end-edited.mkv > >> > >> The original source has audio at 44100 Hz, and pitivi by default renders > >> audio at 48000 Hz. So I edit the project settings to have it do 44100 > Hz. > >> > >> > >> > >> On Sat, Apr 29, 2023 at 4:45?PM Daniel Barrett < > [email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > >> > I've just tried 3 different Linux video editors to accomplish a simple > >> > task, removing a few segments from an MP4 file. All three programs > >> > failed spectacularly. Any recommendations for a reliable program? > >> > > >> > First I tried losslesscut. The UI let me create clips, but when they > >> > were rendered, they were mispositioned by several seconds. Apparently > >> > the program cuts only at "keyframes" and not where you actually > >> > request the cut. > >> > > >> > So then I tried vidcutter. The UI let me specify exactly the cuts I > >> > wanted. But I could not export the results to a video file. The save > >> > operation simply didn't do anything. It claimed "FILE SAVED" but no > >> > output file was present anywhere on disk. I tried quitting & > >> > restarting vidcutter, and then it refused to read the project file it > >> > had written, claiming the file had a syntax error. > >> > > >> > So then I tried kdenlive. The UI again let me specify exactly the cuts > >> > I wanted. Then kdenlive crashed. I restarted, reloaded the video, > >> > tested it, and exported the clips to an MP4 file. After waiting 23 > >> > minutes for the export to complete, the process halted with 15 seconds > >> > left to render. No error. The resulting video file contained 46 > >> > minutes of random pixels. > >> > > >> > Finally, I tried just plain ffmpeg to extract the clips I wanted: > >> > > >> > ffmpeg -i VIDEO.mp4 -ss $1 -to $2 -c:v copy -c:a copy clip.mp4 > >> > > >> > Some of the resulting clips had the audio & video out of sync. > >> > > >> > Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you. > >> > Dan > >> > _______________________________________________ > >> > Discuss mailing list > >> > [email protected] > >> > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > >> > > >> > >> > >> -- > >> John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix > >> Email [email protected] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0x920063C6 > >> PGP-Key-Fingerprint A5AD 6BE1 FEFE 8E4F 5C23 C2D0 E885 E17C 9200 63C6 > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Discuss mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > >> > > > > -- > John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix > Email [email protected] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0x920063C6 > PGP-Key-Fingerprint A5AD 6BE1 FEFE 8E4F 5C23 C2D0 E885 E17C 9200 63C6 > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > > ------------------------------ > > End of Discuss Digest, Vol 143, Issue 5 > *************************************** > _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
