[Kdenlive-devel] usefull (IMHO) feature suggestion

[Dan Dennedy]

On Sunday 17 June 2007 10:03:44 am Salvatore Brigaglia wrote:
> I'm experiencing lots of problems in finding a video codec that kdenlive
> can import for sure. Usually i encode every video i want to import to

I recommend DV unless it is not 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio and unless you prefer 
lossless or uncompressed (not well-tested). If not using 4:3 or 16:9 or 
desiring smaller files, MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 with short or no GOP should be good 
as well.

> kdenlive with transocode using ffmpeg's mp4 codec. it seems to work ok but
> not for every video. It's pretty strange because if i encode with the same
> codec 2 different videos kdenlive should be able to import both without
> problems, isn't it?

yes, but you can test playability with ffmpeg's ffplay and mlt's inigo. The 
software is in layers with ffmpeg on bottom, kdenlive, and mlt in the middle. 
It would be nice to know where it breaks down.

kdenlive should be fine with anything that can you play in ffmpeg's ffplay 
utility with at least some ability to seek. That is a lot of formats and 
codecs, but not everything, not as much as mplayer or xine with win32 codecs. 
For example, with latest code, Ogg Theora loads, and seeking is not pretty, 
but on a final rendering, it processes sequentially and ought to give much 
better result.

In any case, a transcoding frontend is something that can be developed 
external to kdenlive. I think mlt should focus on making stuff that ffmpeg 
supports robust, and kdenlive should focus on editing and usage of mlt. 
avidemux2 serves to some degree as a transcoding frontend, but has rather 
limited input support. I don't know what else is good, maybe others can 
recommend. VLC perhaps?