This is really a pity, because otherwise OpenShot is a great editor.

In light of my increasing video editing, I am sorry to say that I am beginning to contemplate switching to Windows for video. I spent the whole day today exploring video editing tools for Linux and it was a total disappointment.

1. Tried promising Lightworks. However, it doesn't have an ability to synchronize audio to video on sub-frame level which makes lack of this one little feature a show stopper for me - I record audio separately from video and I need very precise sync later on. OpenShot does it easily and I always am able to sync precisely (video camera does record audio as well and I am able to perfectly sync audio and then mute camera audio track).

2. Tried promising Blender Video Editor. Unfortunately, it does not support many video formats, at least on my machine and - most importantly - it could not read or render the files that my camera shoots (normal mp4 files). Internet search revealed alleged problems working with mp4. Video software that has problems with mp4... I just cannot rely on it and besides I could find no solution whatsoever.

3. Tried kdenlive, hoping maybe it fixed its problems. What do you know - it crashes on my Xubuntu 12.04 when I click "Add clip". So much for kdenlive - even the stock Ubuntu version does not work, simply incredible.

4. OpenShot works and I probably will have to use it for quick edits, hoping it does not start randomly crashing. I did contact the developers, but there have been numerous reports and I just don't think this is fixable by one solution. I also am not sure I will receive a reply.

5. Tried Avidemux and some other video editor from the repos - both could not even open an mp4 file properly.

And then when I saw on some site a blogger write that "Linux is the best platform for high end video editing", I was just astonished at the insolence of the claim. I mean, such nerve...

Anyway, I am quite disappointed, as I am not looking forward to having a dual boot or using an old laptop just for video editing and equally not looking forward to fighting random OpenShot crashes. Linux definitely lacks in terms of simple basic video editing, meaning that you are lucky if some video software happens to work on your machine. Don't loose that luck - don't upgrade, just stick to it if it works - you never know what bug an upgrade will bring, a bug that might stay in there for years.

Happy hacking!


L.V.