Editing 5D2 with Cinelerra

[Gordon Prince]

I had no idea yet until seeing this. Did you have notice of this NLE? Any word on its performance, features, pros and cons, etc?


http://crazedmuleproductions.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-edit-canon-5d-mark-ii.html


http://crazedmuleproductions.blogspot.com/2009/01/water-new-canon-5d-video.html

[j]

Cinelerra is buggy. Many of the developers have moved onto a new project with great prospects - Lumiera. It should rock. Lumiera may well be the "Blender" of the NLE world. It is still in development however, and you probably won't see anything beta til the end of 09.

http://lumiera.org/

I believe that Cinelerra works best with Mjpegs, so it might work very well with native d90 footage.

[MJ Peg]

Is there any hope of a usable, friendly, Open Source video editor for Windows? Or are all the computer video amateur experts running Linux?
I've searched and searched in vain for a free way to get what I want (Win XP) but I'm resigned to having to spend money now. Seems like everything else on the PC has an Open Source free solution, but video editing is a step too far.

[Scott Frase]

Guys,
Cinelerra is definetly usable, but you have to have the stomach to deal with its shortcomings. When it breaks, there is usually a reason. And to make it work correctly, you have to invest a LOT of time learning it as well as the arcana of Linux encoders. It is definetly not everyone's cup of tea; however, patience and perseverance reward the disciplined user. For example, since I now know how to get usable content out of Cinelerra, I have batch scripts that export to various formats (hdv, dvd, ipod, etc), so my workflow is systematized.

If you're looking for a solution that will immediately spout forth gobs of broadcast ready 1080i content, Cinelerra and Linux may not be the best choice. But if you are wiling to take the time and work through the minutiae, come along for the ride.

Here is an article that has some links to further information about said same subject:
http://crazedmuleproductions.blogspot.com/2008/02/why-cinelerra.html
scott

[MJ Peg]

My options seem to be:
a) set up a virtual PC running Linux, learn far more than I want to learn just to make it work
b) splash out £60 on Sony Vegas and do some learning there instead

I just want to get on with the creative stuff, not mess about with technicalities!
:)

[Scott Frase]

Vegas is a great package. Alternatively, in order to test out Cinelerra under VMware, I had built a VMware virtual machine back in 2007. It's about 1GB in size. Details are here if you want to try it out:
http://crazedmuleproductions.blogspot.com/2007/06/fedora-core-6-virtual-cinelerra-machine.html

[MJ Peg]

Thanks, if I could make use of that in Windows, I would :)

I suspect that spending the money, however painful to actually pay for a bunch of bytes, will be a fair bit easier!

[Scott Frase]

MJ,
In order to use my VM with Cinelerra preinstalled, just download either VMware Player or VMware Server for Windows:
http://www.vmware.com/products/product_index.html

They are free downloads. You'll then unzip and open the VM using either.

[j]

I got inspired by Cinelerra and figured out how to make a linux/vista dual boot laptop in order to try it out. It was a *lot* of head scratching and forum scratching. In the end I bought a copy of Vegas and use that to cut HD (personally, professionally however I cut Avid and FCP)

I still keep my linux partition with great hope for Lumiera.

[MJ Peg]

Thanks Scott, it almost seems worth a try, but I'm a pessimist when it comes to software and I just know it would all end in tears!
If it was really as simple as a widget that ran a virtual machine with Linux in it, and a double click to run the editor... which ran smoothly and simply... then it would be wonderful.
What are the chances, though? 30%?
Thanks anyway!! Working a bit of overtime to pay for commercial software is probably a lot less stress in the long run :)

:dankk2:

[Scott Frase]

Oh..I can understand your frustration. But that's why I built the VM..to allow people to try Cinelerra with as little headache as possible. I've installed Cinelerra on the VM and verified that it works. I'm sure you'll encounter a bug here and there, but the base install is done and working, which is a big part of new users' frustrations, just getting the thing installed. Also, all the media players and encoders are installed.

So really, the stuff you'll need to do is:
1) install VMware Player or Server
2) download my VM (from the link in the above post)
3) unzip it
4) open up in VMware
5) root password is crazedmule
6) start Cinelerra from icon or terminal session by typing "cinelerra"

No big thing. Now, just realize that the vm is going to run at a slower speed than your PC, but with VMware Server, you'll be able to dedicate a couple CPUs to the VM. Assuming you have a multicore CPU.