Kino Video Editor
 
  Kino / dvgrab
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Summary
Once again, my proprietary OS gave up the ghost, stuck it's legs up in the air and died. Now what? The fear of leaving Pinnacle Studio for a Linux solution put fear and dread in my heart. However, I found that most of my fears were unfounded.



I had thought about using a GNU/Linux only system for some time, and investigated the usual DV capture and editing suspects available on freshmeat.net. However, it became apparent that most of what I saw was...to be honest...lacking in features, unfinished or so unstable that working with them was pointless. I mean, if I wanted a crash to destroy all my work, Windows would do just fine for that.

Of course, when my Windows 2000 system finally did bite the dust (after a slow, spiralling, painful death), I had a real dilemma. What to do now? Well, with serious doubts, I decided to use the only serious GNU DV video solution, Kino (I must add, that "Main Actor" from "Main Concept" has a Linux beta version, but it is crippled by a lack of DV input spport and output formats. Plus, the interface sets a new standard in unworkability).

I got what I needed for Kino to work on Redhat (now Fedora) from the CCRMA apt repositories using synaptic. I also installed Kinoplus and TimFX. I also decided to use a new 2.6 kernel; I mean, hey, why not go all the way? All the rpm's installed without a hitch, and I loaded up Kino for the first time.

The interface I was presented with was not too confusing, but still presented a learning curve for the uninitiated. Luckily for me, there was pretty clear documentation. My Dv camera, a Sony, was detected right up and there, before my eyes, was the preview. It was quite cool to have a full screen capture preview with sound.

It took a bit to get the capture right since the auto naming thing caught me off guard, but not to be easliy daunted, I learned the trim and the edit. Of course, the really hard part was figuring out the transitions.

Surprinsingly, the effects were pretty good, save for a lack of scrolling titles (which I assume with appear with time or be provided by another program and imported). Until then, I decided to use the Gimp and SodiPodi to produce my title screens and backgrounds. To their credit, the charcoal effect and the color hold were especially impressive. I am using these on my current project.

Adding a music track was quite a daunting task though. I had to combine certain video tracks, then add the audio track to the combined selection. Perhaps adding some audio controls could help (and maybe a way to add extra audio and or video tracks).

Needless to say, after some learning and some extra work, I have turned out quite a good looking video production.

If this went linear, with audio and video tracks, this would be a world class app without equal in the GNU/Linux world. For now, I am quite able to produce prefessional quiality video with a little help from some high quality friends.

I can't wait to see the improvements kino makes in the future, and I will, of course, continue to use it, prizing each new plugin and each new feature until it is complete.




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