How did you know Cinelerra GG?

I struggled to learn Cin CV and HV because I found the alternatives NLEs not to my liking (I'm being polite here!). I was just getting there when Cin 4.6 appeared and was so much easier to use, then along came 5.1. No brainer!

So my answer is: Old user of Cin CV or HV

This is by GoodGuy, i.e. gg, i.e. Bill.  Unfortunately my user name is DeathCap because I needed a name and was planning on deleting it right away but then couldn't so it is sticking.  It was the first thing that popped into my head in the same way the "Goode, Guy" did when I needed a google account for a tablet --named after the "guy" that ran the university engineering computer hardware department and whose last name really was "Goode".

I found Cinelerra from the HV website while looking for any way possible using Linux to copy a commercial DVD that I had bought for my own use.  The media was going bad and I wanted to save it so I could continue to watch it.  I came to know Cinelerra by reading the actual program code and have continued for years since about 2006.

I have been the maintainer of my own multimedia content creation OS called "AV Linux" since 2007 or so, in my efforts to provide the best Audio and Video software pre-configured and ready to use I have been distributing (and using) Cinelerra since the early days of the CV 2.X version, I later worked a bit with Cinecutie (Cinelerra-CV with theming and some stability improvements) which unfortunately stopped development but some of it's code was merged into Cin-GG.

Both HV and CV were a minefield for users with legendary reliability issues, for me CV was only usable with the ffmpeg pipe exports and then Bill and Phyllis turned it all around into an absolute MONSTER NLE!! The word is slow getting out there and the reputation of the predecessors still looms large but the more good testimonials and tutorials we get out there on Youtube and into the Linux blogs the more the world will come to see how Cin-GG has come to fruition.. 🤩 

I'm a former professional television director. In 2011 my time as a professional was already over, but I still wanted to produce small personal projects at low cost. I already knew and minimally used Linux (and its free software) for my ordinary computer use. I was curious to see if I could manage to produce small video projects, of a technical level that would satisfy me by using the free software of the Linux universe.

But I also had one more challenge... As a director I had obviously worked on many editing projects with professional editors, but I had never operated the NLE software and editing computers myself.

I had discovered the French-speaking website "[email protected]" (for Linux video creation amateurs) and I had asked on their mailing list the (stupid) question "what is the best (more powerful and professional) free video editing software under Linux", while specifying my past professional status and my expectations.

The answer I got was that Cinelerra was the most advanced, but that it was difficult to master and that a beginner in editing with little knowledge of Linux should start with simpler software like Kdenlive. If I was reckless enough to try to get started with Cinelerra anyway, it was suggested that I avoid the "HV" version (which was considered too difficult to compile at the time) and go with the "CV" version instead, which was quite easy to install on Ubuntu.

After a quick review of Kdenlive, I found its interface too simplistic and went straight to Cinelerra-CV (2.1 at the time).

It was hard to learn... especially since it crashed very frequently. I never knew if it was the software code that was faulty or my inexperienced editor's procedures that were inadequate. Documentation was hard to find, scattered and often outdated...

Support from the Cinelerra-CV mailing list user and developer group was inconsistent at best.... And most of my suggestions to improve the software were received very coldly; an invitation to send the code myself was the most common response.

For years I continued to use Cinelarra-CV for my projects, while improving my general knowledge of editing procedures. Over time Cinelerra-CV had fortunately become more stable, even though it was still limited in its possibilities compared to proprietary professional NLEs. I had resigned myself to its limitations...

Then the miracle... the revolutionary version of "GG"... a Cinelerra that wanted to become what it could be... the dream was possible.

A revolution, a breakthrough, a new site, a thousand and one improvements... the dream is in sight...

Pierre

@andreapaz

When I was still directing for private television companies (in the early 2000s...) most of my projects were done on AVID and sometimes, those with smaller budgets were done on Final Cut Pro. Now, a friend of mine a director who still works in the industry, tells me that Abobe Première is more and more the LNE software used.

Pierre

I have been using other open source non-linear video editors for a while, but recently found about Cinelerra in this itsfoss.com article:
https://itsfoss.com/best-video-editing-software-linux/

This article also has a comment by MatN that says:

The Cinelerra entry is way out of date. Much better is the Cinelerra-gg branch, its manual makes it usable for begeinners too, even though it has professional features.

After trying out Flowblade and got disappointed, Cinelerra looked like what I was looking for: a powerful program, with some dedicated hardware optimizations and lots of features and customization.

Trying to install it on my Pop!_OS 19.10 computer (an Atom x5 convertible with 4GB of RAM), I got the latest single-user build for Eoan. Then I've watched Andrea Paz video about the new version and enhanced manual, and got really excited.

Congrats for the project, and I hope it continues to get updates and improvements!

Regards,

LFOM

Three months ago I finally realized a dream: I switched to Linux after 30 years of Windows. This was very demanding and also difficult for me. I intended to continue using Vegas Pro on Windows to edit my videos. But my desire went further: I also wanted to edit videos on Linux, contrary to what is commonly said on the Internet: Linux and video editing don't really work. Of the applications discussed, Kdenlive was the best. It is also very easy to use. But the editing of audio is not sufficient there. Then I came across Cinelerra GG. It took me a while to start working with it. And I was overwhelmed by the possibilities. Also, it's extremely stable on my end. Much more stable than Shotcut, Kdenlive or Vegas Pro. Much more stable, in fact. You can ( on my Manjaro Linux) make CIN GG "freeze" only if you Ctrl+Z a lot (50 or more) steps back. Then the program stands still, but I think after a few minutes it is smooth again. I have never been so satisfied with the stability of a video editing program!
And then there is the forum: Here I get very good help quickly - that's also not a matter of course.
Of course CIN GG is not easy to use, also because of the thousands of possibilities. But I have the impression that it is worth learning.
Here again my big thanks to the team.

Michi

If you ask me Cin is not more difficult than other video editing software.

What makes it feel difficult at the beginning is the reversed 1. scrolling and zooming direction with the mouse wheel. Alt+mousewheel to the upside should zoom in but does the opposite.

The 2. thing is the oldfiashoned look of some elements e.g. plugin controls.

But Cin uses the most recent packages from you repo e.g . ffmpeg and so on. It is super efficient.

Cin is super universal at render, super fast with nearly no overhead, it uses ally my CPU cores close to 95%, it can read filetypes like DNX, it has no limits (known to me).

Hello,

I'm an linux user from few time and trying to find an video editor with multicam support.

This software was in a list from an website dedicated to linux distribution.