Linux has long lacked a good video editor, but that is no longer a problem. There are a few different video editors available for the operating system, ranging from simple home user editors to highly professional editors.

PiTiVi, a video editor that has historically been in the "simple home user" category, has gained several features since its early days. So what has changed, and where is it headed? Let's take a look.

Features

pitivi_welcome2

When you first launch PiTiVi, you'll be presented with a welcome dialog that asks you whether you want to start a new project or open a recent project. If you choose to start a new project, you can set some initial parameters such as the resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate, audio channels and sample rate, and the metadata information.

pitivi_timeline2

From here, you can import the video and audio clips that you'd like to work with, and manipulate them in the timeline at the bottom.

PiTiVI supports all formats that GStreamer does so long as the necessary plugins are installed. If you run

        sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
    

in a terminal on Ubuntu, or make sure that the RPMFusion repo is enabled on Fedora, this should not be an issue.

You also have a few buttons in the bottom left: split clip at playhead, delete selected clip, group and ungroup clips (so you can move multiple clips exactly as they are), align based on the soundtrack, and gapless mode so clips move to fill any gaps.

pitivi_effects

Besides these basic manipulative tasks, you can apply a massive amount of effects onto clips. This is what you'll want to be using if you're doing anything more than the most basic of edits.

At time of writing, there are 128 different effects, including gamma correction, shagadelic, gdkpixbuf overlay (where you can place an image on top of a video), crop, flip and rotate, and much more.

The developers are trying to get the video editor to professional levels by adding more effects, but this is already a great start.

pitivi_render

Once you're done editing, you can render the final video to any format that you'd like, again thanks to the GStreamer framework. Besides choosing the format, you can also configure some advanced settings, such as multipass mode.

Compared to Kdenlive, OpenShot, and Lightworks

kdenlive_xn

I think PiTiVi has gotten very close to its closest competitor, Kdenlive. The only thing where Kdenlive still excels is that its effects are more configurable, and it includes a few more professional-level effects like Chroma Key, which allows you to use green screens. Otherwise, the two video editors are pretty similar in features and interface.

That's good news considering that the Kdenlive project has been silent for over a year now; however, there was a new bulletin from the project very recently, so hopefully we'll see some new releases from them.

openshot_effects

PiTiVi has also managed to catch up to OpenShot, another home-oriented video editor, quite a bit, but there are still a few extra things that OpenShot includes. For example, you can make 3D animated titles, perform artistic panning over an image, scrolling credits, and effects such as Chroma Key. However, the interfaces between the two are very similar, which means switching between them should be easy.

pitivi_lightworks

PiTiVi is still a very large distance away from Lightworks, which is a full-fledged professional video editor that has been used in numerous Oscar-winning film productions. Lightworks used to be Windows-only, but made the move to Linux recently.

Features that are in Lightworks include a color-coded timeline, configurable presets, multicam support, support for various extra formats (ProRes, Avid DNxHD, AVC-Intra, DVCPRO HD, RED R3D, DPX, and more), and a real-time waveform and vectorscope. As you might expect, there isn't anything PiTiVi can brag about that Lightworks doesn't have. The downside to Lightworks is that you'll pay $280 to get it, whereas PiTiVi will always be completely free.

Installation

You can get the absolute latest version from this PPA for Ubuntu [No Longer Available] (if you're not sure what a PPA is, here's an explanation), or by borrowing from Rawhide if you use Fedora. In other words, just run these commands:

  • Ubuntu
            sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gstreamer-developers/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install pitivi -y
        
    • If you get an error saying that a package named "python-matplotlib" is missing, be sure that the "universe" repo is enabled in your Software & Updates settings.
  • Fedora
            sudo yum install pitivi --enablerepo=rawhide
        
    • If the above command for Fedora didn't work, run 
              sudo yum install fedora-release-rawhide
          
       and then try again.

Fundraising Towards Supremacy

As I've already mentioned, PiTiVi has recently been getting more attention from its developers. The ultimate goal now is to turn PiTiVi from a basic home editor into something that professionals can use -- or at least into a much higher quality home product.

pitivi_fundraiser

To help achieve this goal, the primary developers have started a fundraising campaign so that they can work on PiTiVi full time. Of the €35,000 goal, they've already raised over €17,000. People obviously think that the progress that's been made is enough proof that the goal is actually obtainable.

A completed fundraiser should bring more improvements to the video editor, including but not limited to more effects such as animated titles and Chroma Key.

Conclusion

pitivi_usage

I'm very excited to see how far PiTiVi comes, especially if the developers hit their funding goal. PiTiVi should already be useful enough for a good portion of home users, but it isn't quite at "professional" levels yet. In any case, it's worth trying out and checking up on regularly to see what else has been added.

If you're interested in an example video that was edited with PiTiVi, you can find it here.

What have you used to perform video editing on Linux? Let us know in the comments!