Basic Video Editing for Linux with LiVES

Tonight I discovered a tool I have been wanting for quite a while: a video editor for my Linux systems. The application is called LiVES (LiVES is a Video Editng System) and it is in the Debian Multimedia repository.

I am no artist, video producer, or anything even closely resembling an expert judge for this sort of program. I am, however, an avid Dad with a Camera. We take tons of pictures and mid-quality video. And this program is just perfect for trimming that video for the key moment, so that it can be shared via email or web page. But do beware: “Saving [can take several hours].” Such is the nature of video encoding. For me and my few minutes of footage, saving only took a few minutes. But, most individual operations took a few minutes to accomplish, as well. A user should be patient with a less than 2ghz, 1GB RAM machine; I do not recommend using this kind of program on a super-low-end machine.

Exports are, by default, into a PCM-based Microsoft AVI file. This works on my system just fine, with the Debian Multimedia repository handling things. Other options, including ffmpeg, are available if you install the respective binaries.

It’s stable, it’s free, and it works for my basic video editing needs. Get LiVES and give it a shot if you think you would appreciate these values.

If you are a Facebook friend to my wife or me, then you can see the end result video I tested the application with: Kayleigh Eating a Pumpkin. And do note that the Facebook video applicaiton happily accepted the video as if it were from Final Cut Pro of iMovie.

[tags]video editing, linux, linux video, home video editing[/tags]