1. Cinelerra

Cinelerra is a prosumer non-linear video editing system. It is designed for the GNU/Linux operating system. Cinelerra includes support for very high-fidelity audio and video: it processes audio using 64 bits of precision, and can work in both RGBA and YUVA color spaces, using floating-point and 16-bit integer representations, respectively. It is resolution and frame rate-independent, meaning that it can support video of any speed and size.

Cinelerra’s interface is similar to that of other nonlinear video-editing systems, such as Adobe Premiere Pro. However, because it includes a compositing engine, it may also be likened to compositing software such as Adobe After Effects or Shake. The user is presented with four screens:

1. The timeline, which gives the user a time-based view of all video and audio tracks in the project, as well as keyframe data for e.g. camera movement, effects, or opacity;
2. The viewer, which gives the user a method of “scrubbing” through footage;
3. The resource window, which presents the user with a view of all audio and video resources in the project, as well as available audio and video effects and transitions; and
4. The compositor, which presents the user with a view of the final project as it would look when rendered. The compositor is interactive in that it allows the user to adjust the positions of video objects; it also updates in response to user input.

2. Kino

Kino is a GTK+-based non-linear digital video editor. It is distributed as free software. Its vision is: “Easy and reliable DV editing for the Linux desktop with export to many usable formats.” The program supports many basic video editing and assembling tasks.

Kino can import raw AVI and DV files, as well as capture footage from digital camcorders using the raw1394 and dv1394 libraries, and export to camcorders using the ieee1394 or video1394 libraries.

3. Avidemux

Avidemux is an open-source program designed for multi-purpose video editing and processing. It is written in C/C++, using either the GTK+ or Qt graphics toolkit or a command line interface, and is a platform independent, universal video processing program. Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Avidemux is free software.

• The straightforward user interface is designed for convenience and speed with simple operations. Features include WYSIWYG cutting, appending, filters and re-encoding into various formats. Some of the filters were ported from MPlayer and Avisynth. Avidemux can also mux and demux audio streams into and out of video files, either through re-encoding or using a direct copy mode.
• An integral and important part of the design of the program is its project system, which uses the SpiderMonkey ECMAScript scripting engine. Whole projects with all options, configurations, selections, and preferences can be saved into a project file. Like VirtualDub’s vcf scripting capabilities, Avidemux has advanced scripting available for it both in its GUI and command line modes. It also supports a non-project system just like VirtualDub, where you can simply create all your configurations and save the video directly without making a project file. A project queue system is also available.
• Avidemux has built-in subtitle processing, both for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to soft subtitle formats (VobSub sub, ass and srt) and various hard subtitle VobSub capabilities. While it is primarily a GUI program, Avidemux can also be run from and through the command line (which can also be used for batch processing and debugging).

How Do I Install Avidemux Under Debian / Ubuntu Linux Desktop?

Type the following command:
$ sudo apt-get install avidemux

4. Kdenlive

Kdenlive supports all of the formats supported by FFmpeg (such as QuickTime, AVI, WMV, MPEG, and Flash Video), and also supports 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios for both PAL, NTSC and various HD standards, including HDV.

How Do I Install Kdenlive Under Debian / Ubuntu Linux Desktop?

Type the following command:
$ sudo apt-get install kdenlive

5. LiVES

LiVES’ features include:

• Loading and editing of almost any video format (via mplayer decoder).
• Some formats can be opened instantly using decoder plugins (e.g. dv and ogg/theora).
• Smooth playback at variable frame rates, forward and in reverse. Display framerate can be controlled independently of playback framerate.
• Frame accurate cutting and pasting within and between clips.
• Saving/re-encoding of clips, selections, and individual frames.
• Lossless backup/restore.
• Streaming input and output.
• Real time blending of clips (various chroma and luma blends).
• Can handle in/out streams in LiVES to LiVES or yuv4mpeg format. Streams can be piped from stdout into other applications.
• Internal support for RGB24, RGBA32, YUVA, YUV, YUV422, YUV420 (jpeg and mpeg), YUYV, YUV411, and UYVY palettes; one step conversion with chroma super and subsampling is implemented.
• Ability to edit many filetypes and sources including remotely located files (with mplayer/ffmpeg libraries), and directories of images (rotoscoping).
• Real time capture/recording of interactive (via mouseclicks) external windows.
• Encode to any of the 50+ output formats which are now supported (e.g. mjpeg, mpeg4, mpeg1/2, h264, VCD, SVCD, DVD, ogg/mp4 ogm, Matroska mkv, dv, swf, Ogg Theora, Dirac, MNG, Snow, xvid, and even animated GIF and PDF!)
• Resampling of video (time stretching) to any frame rate (1 to 200 fps – accurate to 8 decimal places); option to auto-resample or speed up/slow down between clips.
• Rotation, resizing and trimming of video clips.
• Deinterlacing, subtitle removal. Auto deinterlacing for dv can be enabled.
• Can load mp3, vorbis, mod, it, xm and wav audio files.
• LiVES can also load tracks directly off CD to use with your video.
• Sample accurate cutting and pasting of audio within and between clips.
• Resampling of audio (rate, channels, sample size, signedness and endianness); audio is auto-resampled between clips.
• Able to record from any external audio source.
• Fade in/fade out feature for clips.
• Audio speed and direction can be smoothly adjusted; both in real time and when rendering.
• Hundreds of effects, including random/targeted zooming, panning of video, colour cycling and colorisation/colour filtering and colour correction.
• Merging/compositing of frames is possible: e.g. frame-in-frame, fade in/out and transparency.
• Real time previews as the effect is processing.
• Support for the Frei0r effect plugin architecture (via a wrapper) which allows sharing of realtime effects with other applications.
• Multiple real time effects are possible during playback (VJ mode), these can also be rendered to frames.
• Multitrack window with drag and drop
• Intelligent screen organisation – shows you only the information which is relevant, no more and no less
• Support for an almost limitless number of tracks and effects
• Non-destructive editing in the multitrack window, with multiple levels of undo/redo.
• Full automation/interpolation of effect parameters.
• Support for stereo backing audio track + stereo audio track per video track
• Automatic gain control
• Realtime mixing/previewing of audio
• Channel mixer volume control + fine grained, time variable per-channel volume and pan control.
• Auto-transitioning of audio with video.
• Full crash recovery.
• Configurable multi-monitor screen placement.
• Simple and intuitive menu layout.
• Remote monitoring and control (via Open Sound Control) of the application can be enabled
• VJ functions can be controlled via keyboard, joystick or MIDI controller
• I18N text support. Translations into at least French, Czech, German, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Hungarian, Slovak, Simplified Chinese, Finnish and Hebrew are included.
• Support for audio output through pulse audio.
• Support for audio output through jack.
• Jack transport support (master or client)
• Full integration with upcoming videojack standard
• RFX builder allows rapid prototyping of new effects, transitions, generators, utilities and tools. Custom RFX scripts can be exported to share with others or downloaded and imported. Test scripts are run in a sandbox to allow safe testing of new plugins.
• MIDI sequence synchronisation (start/stop).
• Shuttle controls for firewire cameras/recorders. Can grab from DV and HDV formats.