Hello guys
Based on my own needs, I developed a video editing application (with help of AI) with various features such as format conversion, trimming, rotation, and cropping.
I packaged it as a Debian bundle. I wanted to ask you to test the application and see if it has any issues or if it works properly—if you have time, of course. Thank you in advance for the time you spend testing the application. Additionally, if you encounter any errors during installation, the following prerequisites should be installed:
We have Kdenlive, most powerful video editor, natively to Linux. Could you please explain, why creating a video editor using AI was necessary? Was this simply a hobby, to see if AI had the brains to do it? Or was this made out of some necessity that I am not aware of?
Of course, I did it partly for fun and partly to build something I needed with the help of AI. So why did I do it? Well, I use Avidemux for cropping clips and sometimes Handbrake for converting formats, etc. Now, this software is just 1,200 lines of Python code and uses the FFMPEG engine, which is a compact tool capable of performing all the tasks that Kdenlive or DaVinci do—though, to be honest, I don’t know how to work with either of those! Sometimes big projects, like Zorin OS, start with something much smaller and grow over time. Anyway, thank you for the post you shared
I'm about to head out the door, but I'll give it a look later. 99% of the time when I'm editing a video all I need is to trim it, so this sounds fairly ideal. (I'm no YouTuber; I occasionally game capture and use unlisted links to show people this or that in games.)
Bearing in mind that I haven't tested much other than trimming, I've had no problems and was impressed by how well it handled everything. For my purposes, it's honestly pretty ideal. If I'm editing a video, my concerns are trimming, reducing resolution (to reduce size) and sometimes lowering bitrate if I need to get the video suitable for Discord or sending to a phone. Bitrate is the only one of those things it doesn't do, and and it's the least important and the last I'd ever want to lower. I'll likely continue using this.
Thank you so much for taking the time to test the program and for your incredibly kind and encouraging words. It means a lot to hear that you found it impressive and ideal for your purposes
As someone who doesn't really use this type of tools very often (GIMP is the only exception, but I only make use of the basic features for light photo editing), I would like to find a lightweight video editing tool. My main use case would be to trim videos or clip out short fragments of longer videos, like interviews and things like that.
Tools like kdenlive seem overkill, and as a result of being feature rich there are a ton of dependencies:
I tried with a few videos in mp4 foramt, including a quick screen recording, but none seemed to work. For reference, I got the Minecraft video from this site to use as an animated wallpaper:
Another issue that I found was with the window size; it can't be resized beyond some minimum dimensions that are unsuitable for 1360x768 resolutions (you can see that most controls are hidden the taskbar and bleed out of the screen).
This is probably not a problem for most people these days, but I do still have computers that run on lower resolutions, and where running lightweight applications is increasingly important.
By the way, did you create the application icon using AI tools as well? I've been looking to create a few logos and I was wondering which models were the best suited for this.
Thank you @zenzen so much for reviewing this script. To be honest, I tested it with both the Minecraft-linked video in WEBM format and a screen-recorded file in MP4 format, and I didn't have any issues with either. You probably need to have FFmpeg and some video codecs installed (if you don't already) for the problem to be resolved.
Regarding the window size, you're absolutely right. When I had the AI write this code for me, I was only thinking about my own monitor, which has a resolution of 1920*1080. I'll try to modify the code to address this.
About the icons, no, I used SVGs from svgrepo.com, plus the default Vidcutter icon which is included in most icon packs.
Please test the new version. It should automatically install the necessary requirements, but if they fail to install and you get errors again, kindly install them manually. Thank you.
@Locklear93 In accordance with your feedback, Bitrate has been implemented in the new version.
Indeed, ffmpeg was missing. The new version also works fine as it installs it now, which is what I had expected before (since it's a hard-dependency) and thought something else was wrong.
Overall, I like that it's simple and to the point, so good job there.
I got a chance to test 1.3, and ran into some issues, mostly minor. The most serious issue wouldn't reproduce.
Upon loading an input video (webm, 1080p, 1.9GB) and click Play, nothing would happen. Could not reproduce. I'm wondering if something cached the video (either one of Namacut's dependencies or Linux itself) to cause this not to repeat, but I have no idea and will retest next time I restart my computer.
One time only, while playing the same video as above, the console spammed this output (note that the video DID play; this is not output for the failure):
If the user aborts an export operation, the partial file is left in the Namacut output directory. Ideally, it should be cleaned up.
On every launch, the following is output to the console. It doesn't seem to impair usage, but is worth mentioning:
(namacut:15611): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:06:20.696: Failed to set text '<span foreground='gray'><i>Drag & drop video files here</i></span>' from markup due to error parsing markup: Error on line 1: Entity did not end with a semicolon; most likely you used an ampersand character without intending to start an entity — escape ampersand as &
I appreciate the addition of the audio bitrate option, but that's not quite what I meant--I meant the bitrate of the recording as a whole. The Windows software that I used for editing before switching to Linux allowed the user to choose between a variable bitrate (VBR) or constant bitrate (CBR). If they chose CBR, they could then set the bitrate of the video itself. The lower the bitrate, the more artifacting there is, but sometimes the sacrifice is necessary. I apologize for the awful sales pitches on the page I'm linking (search with Ctrl-F in your browser for "Step 4." to jump to the relevant text and screenshot), but the editor is freeware with an upgraded paid version, so their "howtos" include "buy our software." Movavi's bit rate setting.
Hey! Just updated the app with a new look and better performance—now optimized for 1366×768 screens. Added more control over video bitrate and cropping too. Try it out and let me know if the new design still feels simple and lightweight!
Apologies for not getting round to testing. Been doing other things lately. Currently Hospital taxi driver for family members today and tomorrow, in the throes of writing the manual for Zorin 18, and getting engrossed in Assassin's Creed Mirage on PS4 Pro.
unlike the earlier versions, no version showing but guessing have to click the icon top right. also liked the look of the simplicity of version 1 but guessing this latest one might be more refined and bugfree. with this type of app would prefer an appimage because it's not something used constantly
No apologies needed at all, please don't worry about it! Life gets incredibly busy, and it sounds like you have a lot on your plate right now.
I'm sorry to hear you've been shuttling between home and the hospital. I hope everything is okay and that it's nothing too serious. Sending my best wishes to your family member for a swift recovery and that everything gets sorted out soon.
Please don't feel any pressure about testing. Focus on your family and your well-being. Wishing you all the best. @zoran You're right about the AppImage. The main drawback is exactly what you mentioned: a program that's only a few kilobytes in size ends up becoming very large with this packaging method, which is its biggest downside.
And you're absolutely correct about Version 1 as well. I know its interface was very simple, but it was missing a lot of features, especially in the cropping section.
Regarding the version number not showing, that's a good point I hadn't noticed. You can usually find it in the menu under 'About'.
As an alternative, if you don't use it often and don't want it permanently installed, you can always run it from source. That way it doesn't get in the way.
Thanks for your concern. The eldest has Lupus so no cure yet, it's her six monthly check-in with Rheumatology. The other is my 94-yearhold mother-in-law with hearing issues, only taxi man for that as sister-in-law meeting up at hospital.
