Rendering videos in Linux

One thing I have found difficult with my transition to Linux, has been video editing. Kdenlive is easy to use, however once I get to the rendering process all bets are off.
Too often I run into issues with my HD videos having bars on the side/top, poor quality just so I can get a respectable file size...
Well I think I've found out how to properly render a video in Linux so I have both quality and size!

You are going to need two programs to do this (or one if file size doesn't matter).
Kdenlive and Arista Transcoder. You should be able to find both of these programs in the software manager. Arista came pre-installed with Pinguy!

I have done this with a video that is 1280 x 720, and on a 24" HD monitor. Results might be different depending on your monitor as non-HD monitors may still show large bars on the top and bottom.

Working in Kdenlive:
Step One - Before adding any videos to the project tree, hit the 'New' button at the top left.
In the profile drop down menu, select the option that best suits your video. In my case my video is 720p, so I went with the "HD 720p 30 fps" option.
Now add your video like usual to the project tree.

Step Two - Edit as you normally would.

Step Three - Now time to render your video.
I use the 'H.264' option, however I believe you can get away with using the MPEG-4 option as well since they both will be .mp4 files.
When it comes to choosing which option to use with H.264, this is up to you. I find using at least 6000k yields good results. Best to try rendering the same video a few times with the different choices to see what works best for you, then remember that for future uses.

Single or double pass?
Again, you can get away with a single pass but personally I use the '2 pass' option.

Please note that using 2 pass will result in slightly longer rendering times, as well the higher the 'k' you use the larger the file.

Now that your file has been rendered, you should be able to play it without any bars on the side, top or bottom (again depending on your monitor). It should be full screen or at least nearly full screen!

My rendered file size is 117 MB. In my opinion this is too large for a video that is only 1m:40s long.
I like to have the smallest file size possible without losing too much video quality. Having a 60GB monthly cap (going up to 80GB in a couple of months!) I don't want large uploads.
Despite having a 1TB + 500GB + 60GB hard drive(s), I also don't want large files wasting space on my hard drive(s).
If you want a smaller file size, follow the next step. If size doesn't matter then you should be done!

Working with Arista Transcoder:
Step Four - Select your source (video file).
For device, make sure 'Computer' is selected.
For the preset, I use 'Live Input'.
Hit the 'Add to Queue' button at the top left then name/save it wherever you'd like.

Now your file size should be considerably smaller without much loss in video quality!
My video went from 117 MB down to 24 MB.

You also have the option to select WebM if your uploading to Youtube. This is ideal since Youtube renders most videos now in the HTML5 (WebM) format, which means they won't have to re-render the file.

To render in WebM format do the following:
Select your source (video file).
For device select 'Web Browser'.
Make sure the preset is set for 'WebM'.

Hit the 'Add to Queue' button at the top left then name/save it wherever you'd like.

The WebM file will be slightly larger then your mp4 (live input) file, however not by much. My WebM file is 32 MB, only an 8MB difference. Like I said above, since YouTube is switching to HTML5, WebM files are ideal for uploading to that site.

Hopefully this works for you, as I was going mad trying to get rid of those bars and get a good quality video with a small file size!

Windows v. Linux - Video rendering (time, size, quality)

I have been using Sony Vegas for a couple of years now with Windows 7. I can't say I have any complaints with it.
Since joining the Linux world, I have obviously made the switch to kdenlive. Seems like the more popular and easy to use video editing program.

I did a little comparison with Windows & Linux.
I rendered the same file which was 312 MB.

With Sony Vegas in Windows, the rendered file went down to 70 MB and took a little over 17 minutes to render. While rendering I couldn't do anything else as it was far too slow.

In Linux, my Kdenlive rendered file was 117 MB and took a little over 12 minutes. While rendering I was surfing the internet as if I wasn't doing anything else.
After the rendering was complete I used a program called Arista Transcoder which then rendered the file down to 24 MB (with no noticeable video quality loss). This process took just under 2 minutes.

Who wins?
Quality - Draw. You'd have to spend too much time looking hard at each video to see a difference in quality between the one rendered with Sony Vegas and the one rendered with Kdenlive & Arista Transcoder.

Time to render - Linux. Although with Linux it took two steps, it was still about 2-3 minutes faster then with Windows.
Plus while rendering in Linux you can check your email or do whatever else you like on the internet without any noticeable performance decreases!
I suppose the plus with Windows is I had 17 minutes to clean or do whatever else I had to get done around the house, but for the most part the computer was far too slow during the rendering process to even surf the internet.
I should note this might be different for everyone. My PC is an AMD triple core processor with 8GB RAM.

File Size - Linux. If you don't use Arista Transcoder, then Windows would win, but Arista Transcoder shrinks the file size considerably with little to no noticeable loss in quality.

The Switch

With yesterday marking the 17th day I've been with Linux, I have yet again opted to switch distros.
Although I started out with Mint, I went briefly to Ubuntu 11.04, back to Mint and I think I have found my home...

Pinguy OS.

I was reluctant to switch as my monthly bandwidth cap is already over the 55% mark, however I felt like it was the right time and fortunately I had already downloaded it a few days ago (and saved the ISO).
All I had to worry about was updates and the odd program I had to install, which thanks to Pinguy isn't much.

The only faults I could find while reading about Pinguy is that it's 'bloated'. Yes it includes a lot of different programs, however most of them I would have installed anyways, plus I discovered a few programs I never heard of before. Of course having said that, some people find Mint & Ubuntu to be bloated.

Arguably the leading cause for the switch now was stability. Mint felt a little buggy at times. Nothing serious just minor annoyances. Pinguy on the other hand felt fast and stable.

For an operating system that includes as much as it does, it runs quite fast.

Two noticeable differences between Pinguy & Mint, where Mint is the winner would be:
1. Mint uses less RAM. Conky on Mint stayed around the 800-900MB mark, where as I'm a little over 1GB on Pinguy. Having 8GB of RAM installed this makes little difference personally.
2. Start-up time. I never cared or payed attention to how my Windows booted up until I installed Mint. From boot menu to opening the browser it is about 30-40 seconds in Mint.
I find Pinguy to be about 50 seconds, still faster than my Windows 7 but only slightly.
Like I said though, boot times aren't a deal breaker for me.

I love that Pinguy uses Mint Update and menu, but also has the gnome global menu, Ubuntu Software Centre and many other of the pluses Ubuntu has that Mint may lack.

Perhaps minor, but one thing I love with Pinguy over Mint...Apt! When I went to the Adobe flash website, it gives the option for an Apt download, which Pinguy installs with no problem. Mint doesn't offer this (of course both Mint & Pinguy include flash).

As someone who uses Kdenlive, initially getting it to render MP4's can be a headache. I did manage to find an easy solution in Mint. In Pinguy, I didn't have to do a single thing to it as everything needed was installed!
Again, I did find an easy work around for Mint & Ubuntu, but I love that in Pinguy I didn't have to do a single thing!


Pinguy also maintains a blog with up to date news, tips and downloads.
Through the blog I managed to get the new Firefox before it was released (not beta). I installed the new Linux kernel (3.0.0.8-generic) without issue...actually it's much better with it!

I hope I don't jinx myself, but I'm absolutely loving Pinguy and the way it's running so far!

My Desktop (updated)

PT: PhotoFilmStrip

Program Thoughts:

I was sent a link for a program called PhotoFlimStrip two weeks ago, actually before I was in Linux.
It is a cross platform (Linux & Windows) program for creating movies or slide shows of your pictures.

I only recently tried it out, and I did so on my Linux Mint setup. I don't believe you can get it from the software manager, however for those using a Debian based system, there is a download on the website for a .deb file, so if your like me and prefer a single click way to install things, this program does it.

Here is a video I did showing how easy it is to create a video:

One thing to note about adding audio. When you render the video, it will adjust the length to however long the audio if, which means if you have six pictures and a four minute song, prepare for a four minute video with six slowly moving pictures.

Best to gather your images first, then trim your audio in a program such as Audacity to however long you want your video.

What is great is you can render your video in HD. Keep in mind this can take quite some time.
The first time I tried rendering with the original file sizes of my pictures, it took 5 minutes for 3 pictures.

I resized my pictures to around 800 x 600, which sped up the rendering process (though won't be HD).

Here is a short video I made to see how it turned out:

With the exception of how long it can take to render HD images, I'm quite impressed with how easy and basic this program is, yet produces a beautiful video!

Drum roll please...

So I have been debating between which Linux distro I was going to stick with. I was with Mint 11 since the last Friday of July, and recently tried out the new Ubuntu (11.04).

Well my decision is in and actually already complete. I have reinstall and will be running Linux Mint!

As a newbie I love it too much. There is so much I prefer with Mint, from small things such as adding desktop icons to the speed.

Of course with Ubuntu 11.10 suppose to be released in late October, this isn't to say I won't consider upgrading to that. From what I've read it sounds like a big improvement.
But then again who knows what's in store for the next Mint?

Seeing as I'm new to the Mint world, will Mint be releasing an 11.10 in November? or will it be a 12 sometime next year?

Getting back the desktop in gnome 3

If you are having a hard time seeing the video, check it out in HD here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qrq0sMvQvc

It's been one week - Which OS for me?

So as of around 8pm last night, I have had Linux installed for exactly one week! May sound odd but that is the longest time I've ever kept a Linux install on any of my systems.

Since I'm far from versed on Linux, there have been the odd thing I had to boot back into Windows for, but for the most part I have spent most of my time within Linux (Mint).

But this brings me to Ubuntu and choosing an OS.

Since I am still a Linux newbie, I do not want to dual boot between two Linux versions (Mint & Ubuntu) which is what I'm doing now (with Windows 7).
I'd rather have one fully customized to my liking while learning all the ins and outs of the OS.
So a week ago I installed Mint 11 and was quite content in sticking to it, but when the release of Ubuntu 11.10 alpha 3 was announced, Ubuntu once again peaked my interest.

I'm quite aware of the controversy surrounding the new Unity and gnome 3 in Ubuntu 11.04. Being relatively new I know I could adapt fairly easily to either.
I did find with Unity, it became an annoyance the launcher popping up every time you moved your mouse near the left side of the screen.

I don't mind gnome 3, unfortunately 11.04 doesn't come with it by default.

Something that did bother me was right clicking and adding files & folders to the desktop.
When editing videos, pictures and files I like to put them on my desktop for easy access.
For whatever reason both Unity and gnome 3 didn't allow this.

Fortunately the work around was to install a small program called Tweak Tool (gnome), which you should find in the package manager of Ubuntu.

I know that it works quite well within gnome 3, I can't say whether it works within Unity.

Back to Mint...I must say I really like Mint! Although I don't find Ubuntu all that slow, I do find it to be slightly slower then Mint.

I suppose my only real concerns regarding Mint are:
1. How is the community backing of Mint?
2. What desktop will Mint 12 have? I'm not sure of the release dates, so I probably wouldn't have to worry for some time.

I guess with #2, it's more or less why adapt to the gnome 2 look when they will go with gnome 3 in their next version.
Plus in October when Ubuntu 11.10 is released, I've read they will either include or give the download option for gnome 3 (shell).

So if you were in my position, a Linux newbie looking at Mint 11 or Ubuntu 11.04, where would you go?

Ubuntu & Mint + ATI

I have an interesting week within Linux Mint as well as a couple of days within Ubuntu 11.04.

My computer's graphics card is an ATI card, and I've read many things about them not working well with linux.

Although not horrible, I did find some issues in Mint with the ATI driver. Fortunately I didn't actually need them in Mint!

With Ubuntu it was a different story. Again, not that I needed them but in Unity I actually found the drivers to work quite well.
However when I installed gnome3 (or shell), the graphics appeared all messed up. So naturally the first thing I did was remove the driver.

After a reboot gnome 3 worked like a charm!

So I guess just a heads up to anyone thinking of installing gnome 3 with ATI graphics driver installed, you might have to remove them in order for it to work properly.

Installing gnome 3 on Ubuntu + video

Installing gnome 3:

 gnome 3 now installed. Did have a little hick-up after reboot, but after a second restart it seemed okay, although I did have to remove my ATI drivers.

Gnome 3 in Ubuntu 11.04

Earlier I installed gnome 3 on my Ubuntu 11.04 system.

I'm actually surprised at how well it's working. It does sound as if it's using more CPU power, but it's far better then Unity.

I have dual monitors, so that's just a screen shot of one.

Unlike in the new KDE where I can set up different wallpapers on each monitor, gnome still only allows one across.


The bad?
Well I don't care for the minimize/maximize buttons being removed. You may right click and select to do either option.
Also, the options in the system settings appear more limited.

Overall gnome 3 isn't all that bad.

Ubuntu 11.04 or Mint 11?

First let me say, if you discovered this post in hopes of finding out which is better for you...then this probably won't be for you as this is what I'm looking for as well.
Also, if your an experienced Linux user, keep in mind I'm new to Linux so things I may find difficult or confusing, may come off as easy to you.

Since installing Mint 11 exactly one week ago today I have few complaints about it. Everything pretty much just worked after installing.

So then why did I last night bother to install along side Mint, Ubuntu 11.04? I suppose one of the reasons is that 11.10 Alpha 3 was released and it peaked my interest, but the larger community also drew me in.

Having not been in Ubuntu all that long yet, here are some of the differences or pros/cons I can note:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Desktop & Menus:
Ubuntu comes by default with the new Unity desktop. At first I couldn't wait to get out of Ubuntu, but it is slowly growing on me.
With the left side launcher, I find some programs simply won't dock. I'm into video editing and use Kdenlive and for whatever reason Kdenlive won't stay there.

On Mint I can simply add Kdenlive to my favourites and it stays without issue.

One of my biggest peeves with the Unity interface is it's lack of customization. For whatever reason I can't simply right click on the panel on my second monitor and delete it.

Winner: Mint

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stability:
Well I'm probably not the best person to talk about stability having only been in Mint for one week, and Ubuntu for a day.

I will say that I haven't had any major crashes while in Mint. The odd program would crash (kdenlive), but the system as a whole was quite good.

In Ubuntu however, I plugged a USB drive in and everything went black...Okay I should admit there is probably something wrong with the USB drive as I have had issues in Windows, so this isn't fair for Ubuntu.

Like in Mint, I had kdenlive crash on me...Unlike in Mint where it would crash while editing, kdenlive crashed while simply adding a clip to the project tree.

Of course a crashing Kdenlive shouldn't look negatively on either Mint or Ubuntu.

I have read that updates within Ubuntu are more prone to crash your system. Mint has a more user friendly update system that hides kernel updates and indicates ones that could be harmful.

Despite some more (minor) issues that I've encountered within Ubuntu, it feels more stable.

Winner: Draw
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speed:
Let me get boot times out of the way. This has never been an issue for me, however I find both Ubuntu & Mint quite equal in start-up times.

Opening and loading videos does seem faster on Mint. Once you click to open a video file it starts playing pretty well right away.
In Ubuntu it takes perhaps an extra second or two, so nothing to lose any sleep over I guess.

I find that the flash player is faster on Mint. When loading a video it seems to load much smoother, unlike Ubuntu where it can be choppier.
Now in defense of Ubuntu, I am using the 64-bit version of flash which I couldn't get in Mint.

Opening applications initially is quite a but fast in Mint. I do find after you've opened a program at least once in Ubuntu, they open as fast or in some cases faster. It's just the initial start.

Processing a video did feel a bit faster in Ubuntu. Unfortunately I didn't render the same videos so again, another poor test on my part.

Loading of websites? Well they are fairly equal and of course browser and internet connection play a role.
I have found that sites load fast in Mint.

Winner: Mint
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Customization (themes, menus, desktop):
Like I touched on briefly in the desktop/menu above, Ubuntu's Unity lacks customization.
I still haven't figured out how to add/delete panels, relocate the launcher to the bottom of my screen, change the 'close, minimize, maximize' to the right side.

In Mint however, it is quite easy to relocate the panels, add/delete them, place things in the favourites, change the 'close, minimize, maximize' to whichever side you prefer.

Adding shortcuts to the desktop are much easier in Mint, as all you have to do is right click and add to desktop.

Changing the wallpaper and themes are the same.

Winner: Mint
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Support/Community:
Although I haven't asked anything on either OSes forums, both appear to have solid and helpful communities.
Ubuntu of course is the larger of the two which probably means a bit more help. Of course while searching out help via Google, Mint's forums came up with a fair amount.

Winner: Draw
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Software & installation:
With Mint being based off of Ubuntu, 99% of the software out there for Ubuntu will work on Mint.

Mint does come with more pre-installed programs which is helpful. The most notable absence from Ubuntu is Gimp and Thunderbird. With Thunderbird however, you still have to download the newest version in Mint.

Where I did notice a difference is with flash. You can go to Adobe's website and download flash for Ubuntu without issue.
You cannot simply download and  install with ease the Ubuntu release of flash for Mint. You must go through steps of compiling etc. which for me is still over my head for the most part.

Both come with LibreOffice, but again on both systems you'll have to update it yourself.


Winner: Ubuntu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite Mint 11 winning 3-1-2 (W-L-D), I am still drawn to Ubuntu. Over the next few days I will play around with both before deciding exactly which route I will take.
For a newbie such as myself, dual booting Mint/Ubuntu isn't worth it as I'd rather learn and get to know just one.

Simulpost

I recently started working within Linux. So as a long time Windows user I thought I'd share my experiences.

I started using Tumblr but thought more people might read it if it was on an actual blog. So for the next little while I'll be posting or simulposting on both blogger & tumblr!

RAW Linux

Quite recently Microsoft released an update/program that allows you to not only view RAW images on your Windows machine, but view the thumbnails as well.
For the longest time I was using Irfanview for RAW image viewing.

I must give full marks to Microsoft on this little patch as it’s quite useful for people such as myself who shoot mostly in RAW.
So when I entered Linux, I was equally surprised to discover you could view RAW images without anything extra!

Okay, so unlike in Windows now where you get little thumbnail previews, the RAW images load quite fast!
How to edit/convert them? Well despite Microsoft’s best efforts, you cannot edit RAW images without a third party. You may only convert them to JPEG.
My third party app has been Photoshop’s Camera RAW.

It didn’t take my long however to discover to amazing programs within Linux. RawTherapee and UFRaw.
I haven’t had too much time to dive completely head first into editing images with these programs yet, however I quickly fooled around with them.
Both seem equally impressive. Some images however I like to have a quick “auto” option which I have yet to find.
So despite Microsoft stepping up with their RAW plugin for Windows, Linux Mint has exceeded my expectations with it’s handling of RAW images!

Ease of Uninstalling!

First Post

Recently I decided to dive into the world of Linux…Linux Mint to be exact.

I had a 160GB 2.5” hard drive laying around, so I purchased a portable enclosure so I could try out Linux without interfering with my Windows 7 install, boot loader, hard drive and so on.

What is great about the set-up is that all I have to do is plug in the USB connector for the portable hard drive and boot into Linux.
When I want to go back into Windows, I simply restart and make sure the hard drive is unplugged!

Although I will do my best to share tips and tricks I learn along the way, it’s probably a good idea to look to other sources as I am still a Linux newbie.

Despite delving into the world of Linux, this doesn’t mean I’ve turned my back on Windows. I still love my Windows 7 set-up. It runs well and I seldom have issues.

Any picture, video or tip I post here will have been done completely within Linux.

Any video related to Linux will be posted on my Youtube account; rexrydr

Oh, and if you’ve read something similar to this a few days ago, yes it was probably by me on my other tumblr account.