Kdenlive Video Editor [SOLVED]

[lewone]

Anyone familiar with the operation of Kdenlive video editor?
It their a way to configure it to use "pass through" encoding so that it does not "re-encode" the video and audio streams?

[phd21]

Hi "lewone",

It would help to know more about your system setup. If you run "inxi -Fxzd" from the console terminal prompt, highlight the results, copy and paste them back here, that should provide enough information.

What is your goal or task that you want to accomplish. What difference would it make whether Kdenlive transcodes the video and or audio? Example: If you add mp4 video clips, then tell Kdenlive to render a final mp4 video, would that not be okay?

Hope this helps ...

[lewone]

Well I do not think it has as much to do with the hardware as my own ignorance. Never the less, per your request:

• ~ $ inxi -Fxzd
  System: Host: HP8460W Kernel: 4.4.0-78-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
  Desktop: MATE 1.16.1 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
  Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
  Machine: System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP EliteBook 8460w v: A0001D02
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 161C v: KBC Version 97.4A
  Bios: Hewlett-Packard v: 68SCF Ver. F.22 date: 12/22/2011
  CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-2670QM (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
  flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 17561
  clock speeds: max: 3100 MHz 1: 2646 MHz 2: 1913 MHz 3: 2793 MHz
  4: 2800 MHz 5: 2800 MHz 6: 2676 MHz 7: 2831 MHz 8: 2800 MHz
  Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Seymour [Radeon HD 6400M/7400M Series]
  bus-ID: 01:00.0
  Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
  Resolution: 1920x1200@59.95hz, 1600x900@60.00hz
  GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAICOS (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.8.0)
  GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
  Audio: Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Caicos HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6400 Series]
  driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
  Card-2 Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
  driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
  Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-78-generic
  Network: Card-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection
  driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 5020 bus-ID: 00:19.0
  IF: enp0s25 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Card-2: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
  driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 25:00.0
  IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Drives: HDD Total Size: 1512.3GB (88.7% used)
  ID-1: /dev/sda model: PLEXTOR_PX size: 512.1GB
  ID-2: USB /dev/sdd model: Ini size: 1000.2GB
  Optical: /dev/sr0 model: hp DVD A DS8A8SH
  rev: KH61 dev-links: cdrom,cdrw,dvd,dvdrw
  Features: speed: 24x multisession: yes
  audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
  Partition: ID-1: / size: 55G used: 34G (65%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-2: swap-1 size: 16.00GB used: 0.04GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
  RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
  Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 77.0C mobo: 67.0C gpu: 67.5
  Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
  Info: Processes: 273 Uptime: 5:14 Memory: 1599.9/15992.0MB
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
  Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35

What I am trying to do is edit some captured OTA (over the air) TV files to remove sections (i.e commercials). All the files were captured as Transport streams with MPEG2 compression at a resolution of 720x480. I keep trying different profiles in Kdenlive but not found anything that matches it. I believe that Kdenlive uses ffmpeg as the a backend and I know that has a "passthru" codec for both audio and video but I can not seem to find a way to tell Kdenlive to use it. If I can use the passthru codecs then the processing time should be greatly reduced. I have used an application in Windows that does exactly that but I am trying real hard to avoid Windows.

[DeMus]

Hi "lewone",

It would help to know more about your system setup. If you run "inxi -Fxzd" from the console terminal prompt, highlight the results, copy and paste them back here, that should provide enough information.

What is your goal or task that you want to accomplish. What difference would it make whether Kdenlive transcodes the video and or audio? Example: If you add mp4 video clips, then tell Kdenlive to render a final mp4 video, would that not be okay?

Hope this helps ...

The man asks a question about how to encode a video in Kdenlive and you need to know his hardware. Why did I even bother to read your post, why did I open it when it was hidden because you are on my blacklist? I knew what you were going to ask and yes, you did it again because you always do that. Now I know again why I put you on my blacklist: you either start with: "I read your post and the fine answers to it" and/or you want to know the answer to inxi -Fxz. Sickening.

The OP wants to know a faster way to encode a video which is already in the same format as the output should be. Transcoding it takes a lot of time in Kdenlive. I'm sorry, I don't know that but asking for his hardware is ridiculous.

[Jedinovice]

Anyone familiar with the operation of Kdenlive video editor?
It their a way to configure it to use "pass through" encoding so that it does not "re-encode" the video and audio streams?

I just happened to see this.

As far as I am aware Kdenlive ALWAYS encodes. But a quick 'google' gave an answer to the question n the Kdenlive forums which seems to be 'no you can't' but the last reply was a little cryptic.

https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=265&t=130552

But, for a question like this the Kdenlive forums are worth a post.

[lewone]

Thank Thee Jedinovice ...
That kind of answered all my questions. I may be using the wrong application. I am going to see if I have better luck with Avidemux

[Hoser Rob]

Anyone familiar with the operation of Kdenlive video editor?
It their a way to configure it to use "pass through" encoding so that it does not "re-encode" the video and audio streams?

I just happened to see this.

As far as I am aware Kdenlive ALWAYS encodes. ....

I agree with this ... the OP is right to try avidemux for editing in copy mode. I've never found another Linux video editor that will do this. And I've looked.

A couple of things about avidemux though. The repo version won't edit h.264 video. It'll convert it but not edit. You'll need the appimage (that's what I use) or a ppa for a newer version.

The other thing is that unless you're capturing to mpeg-4 ASP or mpeg-4 Visual, you have to cut the video at key frames (AKA I-frames). Even with those there'd be some re encoding needed if you don't cut at the key frame. Most videos use mpeg-4 AVC now, though HEVC is taking over because it's so much better for streaming. You'd have to cut those at keyframes.

[phd21]

Hi "DeMus",

Although you and some others may not comprehend why I ask something, maybe you should give me the benefit of the doubt to find out, that I might actually have a good reason for asking.

1.) I almost always use the comment
"I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well."

To give credit to those in this forum, who are actually trying to help others, rather than criticizing them.

2.) The reason I ask for the results of the hardware is
- Most video editors, including Kdenlive can use more than one CPU processor thread, but you might have to change the settings, and without knowing what hardware they have, I cannot determine that. Increasing the available CPU threads will greatly increase the speed of an application. Member "lewone" has an 8 core CPU and could use a Thread setting of 4 or more to greatly speed up any video editing task in certain applications...

-After spending years helping others in this forum, I have noticed that people sometimes do not have the correct video drivers installed for their hardware, and again, the results of that command will help determine that. And, there might be other video hardware related options and settings that might help with certain software, like enabling "openGL" (GLX).

3.) Also knowing exactly which edition and version of Linux Mint helps to determine what software options are available to use for any particular task, because some applications are not available in Linux Mint 17.x and or 18.x, or they might work very differently.


Hope this helps you to understand my requests ...

[phd21]

Hi "lewone",

What I am trying to do is edit some captured OTA (over the air) TV files to remove sections (i.e commercials). All the files were captured as Transport streams with MPEG2 compression at a resolution of 720x480. I keep trying different profiles in Kdenlive but not found anything that matches it. I believe that Kdenlive uses ffmpeg as the a backend and I know that has a "passthru" codec for both audio and video but I can not seem to find a way to tell Kdenlive to use it. If I can use the passthru codecs then the processing time should be greatly reduced. I have used an application in Windows that does exactly that but I am trying real hard to avoid Windows.

Okay, now that I know what edition and version of Linux Mint you have, and your hardware, and there are no video driver problems with the results of your "inxi -Fxzd" command, and exactly what you are trying to do, now I can make a reasoned response.

I would recommend "vidcutter", "lossless-cut", tsmuxergui, etc... which usually do not require transcoding.

VidCutter
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/01/vidc ... -linux-app

Lossless Cut
http://www.webupd8.org/2017/02/lossless ... utter.html

How to Join Videos Without Conversion using tsMuxerGUI, can split too
http://www.journeybytes.com/2017/05/how ... muxer.html
tsMuxeR
https://www.videohelp.com/software/tsMuxeR

Previous post that is similar
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=237078&hilit=tsmuxer

+ 1 for Avidemux which also has an easy "AppImage" installation option.

You can tell Kdenlive on startup which "profile" you want to use, including "720x480" and at what frame rate, you can match the original video's resolution and frame rate. FYI: One of the great features of Kdenlive is that it can take almost any video clip, and automatically transcode it to a new profile, like if you wanted to take a smaller video of the older DVD format (480p) and enlarge it to 1024x780 (780p), then Kdenlive will do that very well. But, transcoding does take time...

Hope this helps ...

[racer-x]

@ DeMus, that comment was just rude. You posted on a thread you know nothing about just to insult a poster trying to help.....

I've tried in the past to make Kdenlive export via stream copy, but it won't let you do that. Although Kdenlive uses ffmpeg (which easily allows stream copy), it uses MLT as an interface and won't work with "-c copy". Besides AviDemux (which I don't care for), you can do it via commandline or a custom preset for winff (which I created and works quite well). If you use wine, you can also install XmediaRecode, which works quite well. I'm pretty sure I got "Womble Mpeg Editor" installed and running under wine before also....

[Flemur]

Re avidemux (both IIRC!)
- Yes, it can edit then "copy", but IIRC not in all formats.
- You're liable to have trouble with audio sync after editing; fixable by using PCM audio. (I keep seeing that this is fixed and also still a problem...).

[lewone]

Thank you for the suggestions. I now have a solution that works.

The Homerun Video Tuner outputs a MPEG1-2 Transport Stream and that is sent directly to a file in real time without any transcoding. The software I use to capture the OTA TV files is a bespoke application that generates the appropriate command line for ffmpeg and launches it at the at the correct time with about 10% CPU utilization. This allows me to capture two streams simultaneously. I use the information from http://titantv.com/ to preprogram each weeks captured files.

A typical capture command line is:

Code: Select all

ffmpeg -nostats -y -i http://192.168.0.230:5004/auto/v39.3 -t 3598 -target ntsc-dvd /home/abusser/Videos/SG1, Red Sky.ts

For those shows/programs that I want to save/archive, I create a shell script for post processing (H264 compression, strip black bars and rescale as needed) with 90-100% CPU utilization. Note that this uses ALL four cores during the post processing. This last script is run in the early morning hours when the server is not doing much of anything useful. Why not use H265? Simple answer is I am using really old hardware for the server and the extra compression is not worth the addition processing requirements/time.

A typical post processing command line is:

Code: Select all

ffmpeg  -i "SG1, Red Sky.ts" -c:v h264 -filter:v "crop=540:468:90:6,scale=624:468,setsar=1:1" -c:a copy "SG1, Red Sky.mp4"

This allows me to use Avidemux to later edit out commercials and save the edited file in mere seconds using the 'copy' settings for both video and audio. The one restriction is that I must use I-frames as the edit points ... but that is working out to be close enough for my purposes. I also use Avidemux to visually verify the crop points and scale factor. Using this sequence I have had no problem with Audio/Video synchronization. I did try to use Avidemux's project functions for post processing but that crashed on every attempt.

I use VLC to view the captured TS files or the edited MP4 files.
FYI: VLC has had a major bug in it since version 2.1.5 that causes it to hang when trying scan PnP network devices (rumors are version 3.x may fix that).

EDIT:
I have added some H264 parameters to increase the number of keyframes
A typical post processing command line is:

Code: Select all

ffmpeg  -i "SG1, Red Sky.ts" -c:v h264 -sc_threshold 60 -g 30 -filter:v "crop=540:468:90:6,scale=624:468,setsar=1:1" -c:a copy "SG1, Red Sky.mp4"

the "-g 30" parameter sets the max number of frames between key frame. "30" makes at least one keyframe every second
the "-sc_threshold 60" increases the sensitivity of scene detection. The range is 0(none) to 100 with a default of 40.
This results in about a 10% increase in file size but makes editing on key frames very handy.

[Esbeeb]

- Vidcutter 6.0 worked poorly for me. It didn't make the cuts where I very specifically asked it to. The end result had the cut done, but was several seconds out, and didn't even remove the portion I tried to exclude. Terrible!

- LosslessCut (3.0.1) wouldn't even launch whatsoever. The AppImage segfaults! Again, terrible!

- Shotcut works (20.02.17) from AppImage, and even used hardware-accelerated encoding (I have an Intel Graphics chip). It wouldn't do passthrough encoding however. The end result ends up being quite a bit larger than the source file. Like 45ish% larger, keeping the same resolution, codec, and everything. I picked the "Preset" of "Lossless H264", and it was encoded in H264.

Shotcut was pretty easy to figure out, and was much better than nothing!! The "Split at Playhead" button is your friend here. Once a clip is added to the Timeline, Split at the start and end of the portions you'd like to delete. Then click/select the unwanted portion, press Delete key, then drag the latter portion up to the previous portion to close the gap. Then "Export File".