Follow-up

[Patton Echols]

On 12/07/2010 11:19 PM, Mark C. Miller wrote:
> Back in Oct, I posted the following request
>
> <quote>
>
> I attended a conference recently where the give-away was a Flip Video
> Camera.  What would your recommendation be for software to work with the
> camera?  I find several video editing programs (Avidemux seems a
> possibility), but would like a recommendation from someone who has some
> experience with the software.  I've never edited a piece of video in my 
> life.
>
> </quote>
>
> I checked the archives and didn't find any response[s].
>
> I found "pitivi" editor, but it apparently requires a unique file format 
> [piTiVi Native (XML)].
>
> I tried Avidemux (GTK+). When attempting to open one of the FLIP video 
> files, I get the following error message:
>
>
> <quote>
>
> H.264 detected
>
> If the file is using B-frames as reference it can lead to a crash or 
> stuttering.
> Avidemux can use another mode which is safe but YOU WILL LOSE FRAME 
> ACCURACY.
> Do you want to use that mode?
>
> </quote>
>
> Choosing "the other mode" in Avidemux does, as advertised, result in a 
> crash.
>
> The FLIP camera records in MP4 format.
>
> With the holidays coming up, I'd really like to experiment ... I'm 
> pretty convinced the learning curve for video editing, whatever software 
> package you might recommend, is going to be fairly intense.
>
> tia
>
> mcm
>
>
>
>   

Two others have suggested OpenShot. I've not tried it, but looking at 
their site it looks like a bit of kit I need!

But if it looks like a bit much, and you want to start slow, you can use 
WinFF (a front end for ffmpeg -- apt-get install winff) to convert your 
flip videos into something that Avidemux will like, then use the latter 
to cut your clip down to size. I've done this successfully with clips 
from a smart phone camera.

But if you are interested in non-linear editing and putting multiple 
clips into a story, OpenShot may be as good a first try as any.

If you are not comfortable with software not in the repositories, there 
are a few other NLEs available:
kdenlive
openmovieeditor
kino
pitivi

Probably others but those are the ones that come to mind.