What is the easiest dvd editng tool, or avi editing tool to use for Linux obviously. I will be capturing the video, and then editing it and finally authoring it to a DVD.

--Ashley

maybe kino??

Kino is good for editing, but if you want to burn the video you create with Kino to a DVD that a DVD player will play, you need a DVD authoring app. I've used QDVD Author for this after editing with Kino. An RPM of the latest version of QDVD Author is available at http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=14129. The latest RPM of Kino 0.7.5 can be had at http://packman.links2linux.org (for Suse) or at www.rpmseek.com.for other distros.

My Kino (0.7.5) will only open .dv's or .smil's which makes it pretty much useless as an editor for .avi's. Or is there a secret here I don't know about?

Perhaps you could use the mencoder program to convert the AVIs to another format that Kino will input.

Yes, but this does not answer oldstinkfish's (and mine) search for a good video editor. My video input device (a Dazzle DVC-80, no linux driver available) creates only .avi's, no other choice. avi is a very common format and will convert easily to mpeg's for creating a DVD; it should not be necessary to convert to something different (.DV) just to do the edit.
I have just installed avidemux, hopefully it will work out.

hi,

before i go any further, avi is actually a container format - that is, there are many different types of avi! each requiring different codecs... anyway, that said...

excellent application for basic work with avi's is 'avidemux' - the editing capabilities are quite limited, but you can convert your avi's to mpeg 2's, ready for authoring to dvd... it's a neat, easy to use application, but do try and go for the latest version... and it has quite a few dependencies (as do most of the video apps...)

another program that you'll find valuable is 'transcode' - this can convert many different video / audio formats. if you use this, it's worthwhile also installing 'gtranscode', which adds a gui... much easier to use than the command line.

if what you're after is more sophisticated non-linear editing (similar to Pinnacle Studio / ULead Power Director / etc...), things are a bit patchy. You could try Cinelerra, it's powerful, but you might run into trouble with avi file format (you could always convert before use using one of above). Cinelerra is also a resource hog, and I've found it occasionally unstable. But it's well worth a try..

CrashedAgain,

Regarding your DVC 80 USB capture device - I have a feeling this might be catered for by the 'usbvision' driver..

The codecs issue is something I am right now trying workaround. The Dazzle produces an avi with the following specs (as found by avisync while trying to correct the sound): (note the fps seems to be non standard)
xine & xplayer will play audio but not video (no YUY2 codec); Mplayer will play the file but the video is choppy & the sound is way off, starts is slightly out of sych but it gets worse as it plays; 7 or 8 minutes into a 15 minute clip it is out by more than a minute. avisync seems to make this worse even though it will line up the start. I have to do the download in Windows & am limited to 15 max per vid clip because of the vfat 4Gig max filesize.

I haven't yet tried to just convert the avi's first then see if I can play them; I might have to do the conversion from Windows. I really want to avoid Windows (I'm definitely a Linux convert) and also I can't do the DVD authoring from Windows because of the file size limit problem. I'm using winME, so I can't switch to NTFS.

I have tried cinelerra, currently it is stuck on a dependency problem.

There doesn't seem to be a deb package for gtranscode. (My system: HP pavilion 1.2Ghz dual boot Kanotix/winME, 120 G HD space & I-forget-how-much memory)


More specifics please on the usbvision driver. I have been all over trying to find a driver, found several other inquirers but no one who has had success.

I will be capturing in MPEG2 is thisd ok to edit?

--Ashley

CrashedAgain,

I'd have a go at converting the avi's using avidemux or transcode. if you're running a debian-based system, debian packages are sure to be available. as for gtranscode, it's relatively easy to compile from source.. couple of pitfalls, but have a go and post a new thread if you get into trouble.

Usbvision driver - I've got a Dazzle DM-5000 USB capture device, and it uses the Zoran / Nogatech chipset, which is covered by the usbvision driver. I have a feeling the DVC 80 uses the same chipset. So, to clear this up, perhaps you could plug your DVC 80 into the computer, and as root, do a 'lsusb' to see what's connected, and post your output here (or better still, start a new post - we might be going a bit off-topic..). If there's any mention of Zoran or Nogatech, I think you're in luck, and I can point you in the right direction...

Cinelerra - surprised about the dependency issue; I've used the rpm from cinelerra's site, and it contains all the dependencies required. Not sure about debian though.

Reply to Oldstinkyfish & Crashed Again,

First of all, DON'T USE CINELERRA!!!!It's a total piece of crap! It's the only Linux application I've ever installed that actually crashed Linux. It's also poorly supported and seems to need a super computer at NASA to run smoothly. I use a 2.5GHz pentium 4, over a gig of RAM and a 250 hard drive (160 of which is delegated to Linux) and it crashed. Now, for your avi problem, Kino does import avi video and raw DV video, just not from USB, only from firewire, using the raw 1394 driver. It sounds like your video starts on an analog tape format and you're using Dazzle to convert it to digital (avi). You could spend some money getting a video capture card that is compatible with Linux, like the Hauppauge WinTV-Go PCI card for $80. This would get you past the "Dazzle has no Linux drivers" problem.If you did that, then the avi file would already be on your hard drive, where Kino (yes, Kino) could take your avi file and you could edit it and export the edited video as another avi file. Then QDVD Author could take that avi file and turn it into an MPEG 2 DVD video with a menu, just like the big boys in Hollywood!Here's a link from Linux Journal that has a page that explains what Kino can do... http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7615and here's another
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7779
Hope this helps, sorry for the Cinelerra rant, just thought you should know not everyone has had a good experience with it.
P.S.- When in Kino, go to the capture tab under preferences, you'll see it gives you a choice of importing 2 kinds of avi and raw dv. Also, since Kino is a global application, make sure you choose NTSC, not PAL (I noticed you're in Canada).

Cinelerra was an rpm installed with alien; I just haven't chased down all the dependencies yet.

lsusb gives:
KDE's info center gives a bit more:So the system at least recognizes it has something connected but that doesn't help much.

I just finished converting one of the video clips in windows; it made a 2.1 G avi clip into a 318 mpg but the quality is atrocious, fuzzy & totally unwatchable. Still haven't figured out how to sync the audio in the .avi's, it gets out of sync real fast; the video must be playing too fast (probably dropping a lot of frames) as the audio sounds all right but seriously lags behind the video.

CrashedAgain,

I've had a further look into the usbvision driver, and it looks like it will support your DVC-80, given the USB vendor / device ID's you posted -

http://sourceforge.net/project/scree...group_id=27255

http://usbvision.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=device

Homepage for project -

http://usbvision.sourceforge.net/

I've built the driver - it isn't too difficult, and you don't need to mess around rebuilding kernels etc - and have used it with a Dazzle DM-5000 and a Hauppauge WinTV USB...

Don't expect video quality to be fantastic. It should be acceptable though.

I'd be interested to know how it works out for you...

Installing kernel-sources now preparatory to installing the usbvision driver. Sure hope it works, don't know why I didn't find it earlier I've been all over the net looking for a driver for this thing.

Reply to typhil: Yes, I could buy a compatible video input card however I'm reluctant to spend the money. Notice from my earlier post my equipment isn't exactly state-of-the-art, I'd probably be better to spend any available computer $ upgrading the system generally, particularly as it has some serious shortcomings as is, for instance onboard video card is really minimal but there is no video card slot so I can't improve it. Really hoping the usbvision driver works.

You should be able to get a DVD almost equal to the original VHS though, or is this hoping for too much? The output from the Dazzle software was really awful, about like if you took a typical 50-100 kB jpeg & zoomed double or triple size.

Will keep you posted, I am pretty new at this & will probably have lots of questions.

PS: avidemux seems to work OK but I haven't figured out what it will do yet, everything is in totally new technical terminology. oldstinkyfish you might give it a try.