[ubuntu] Video editing (for all)

[BatchFile]

I've been looking at making video editing universally accessible.

 

Background:

As more and more staff are wanting, rightly IMHO, to allow pupils to use modern technologies to produce work rather than everything being done on pen and paper, I've been looking at ways of ensuring that videos can be edited at home or in school - which obviously means that the software has to be compatible.

 

Windows movie maker in XP is fine for the job, but dissapears in certain versions (including "Business" which we have in school) of Windows Vista and 7, and whatever it was replaced with in other versions isn't compatible with Movie Maker in XP.

 

We have Adobe Premiere Elements and Serif Movieplus in school, too, but neither can be used by pupils at home, and Premiere in particular is horribly unstable in general and not really suited to a network environment as it insists on using things like "My documents" but doesn't like it when they're redirected.

 

We've also tried Wax, which is open source so we can distribute it for the pupils to install at home, but that's not the most stable thing in the world either and is very flaky, to the point of not being usable on a whole-class scale. We've also had complaints along the lines of "my home computer (isn't fast enough / is too full / now has viruses because of your installer (which I can't believe - Sophos in paranoid mode couldn't find any in the installer)).

 

Skip to here if you get bored with the background:

The most "fit for purpose" video editor I've seen is "OpenShot", from the Ubuntu Software Centre. I've dipped my toe in the water with Ubuntu and know my way around it, but I've never really thought, until now, of providing it as a dual boot option in a classroom.*

So...

Can you "image" it? in the same / similar way to Windows Sysprep? just tell me where to look! or what's the options for deploying to a roomful?

 

Also, I've been trying to create a LiveCD with Openshot ready installed (so that pupils, at home, can just boot off the CD rather than installing anything, and save their work to a pen drive or the VLE) but once I get to the part of UCK where you add packages it can't find a package manager... at which point I'm stuck.

 

Any help or suggestions - with any of it - will be greatly appreciated!

[Marci]

Go with one that's already made for the job?

Have a look at http://www.dynebolic.org/ & dyne:bolic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kdenlive-stable-versatile-free-crossplatform-video-editor-linux-mac-live-cd/

Edited March 8, 2012 by Marci

[HarryMonkey]

I know I said this yesterday in another thread, but have you tried Lightworks, I haven't used it in anger myself but it looks quite impressive, it's Windows rather than linux based but it's free which means staff and students can use it at home and you can use it in school without any extra outlay ...

 

Lightworks

[HarryMonkey]

Go with one that's already made for the job?

Have a look at http://www.dynebolic.org/ & dyne:bolic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also Kdenlive

 

So is there a download that doesn't use bit torrent?

 

(The makeuseof link is blocked by our ISP as a hacking site)

[sonofsanta]

WeVideo.com - online tool that looks easy enough to use (Movie Maker level) and is entirely free, with paid tiers if you so wish. Could be just the thing.

[sonofsanta]

I know I said this yesterday in another thread, but have you tried Lightworks, I haven't used it in anger myself but it looks quite impressive, it's Windows rather than linux based but it's free which means staff and students can use it at home and you can use it in school without any extra outlay ...

 

Lightworks

 

LightWorks, as best I could tell from mucking around with it last month (our ICT teacher asked a similar question), is nowhere near ready for primetime, certainly not on networks. It complained about UNC paths, it wouldn't open half my videos, I couldn't get anything to import properly, and essentially lost an hour to getting nothing done at all.

 

Might work alright with local logins on workstations, but I fear we'll have to wait for it to become a reasonable option. They've just front-loaded the effort into the interface to trick you into thinking it's good

 

 

 

(not at all like any famous, fruit-themed mega-corporations I could mention)

[HarryMonkey]

LightWorks, as best I could tell from mucking around with it last month (our ICT teacher asked a similar question), is nowhere near ready for primetime, certainly not on networks. It complained about UNC paths, it wouldn't open half my videos, I couldn't get anything to import properly, and essentially lost an hour to getting nothing done at all.

 

Might work alright with local logins on workstations, but I fear we'll have to wait for it to become a reasonable option. They've just front-loaded the effort into the interface to trick you into thinking it's good

 

 

 

(not at all like any famous, fruit-themed mega-corporations I could mention)

 

 

Fairy nuff

[plexer]

Serif MoviePlus is quite cheap for students though £10?

 

Ben

[CyberNerd]

LightWorks, as best I could tell from mucking around with it last month (our ICT teacher asked a similar question), is nowhere near ready for primetime, certainly not on networks. It complained about UNC paths, it wouldn't open half my videos, I couldn't get anything to import properly, and essentially lost an hour to getting nothing done at all.

 

 

I concur. It's ok for a skilled geek but there are too many problems for network install for kids.

 

wrt the original question; there are loads of methods for installing linux; from VDI to automated install to imaging to PXE over NFS. I'd probably go with imaging for a small number, or PXE booting / automated install / vdi for larger numbers.

[CyberNerd]

just remembered a discussion on the same subject: Ask Slashdot: How Do You Install Ubuntu On 30 Laptops and Keep Them In Sync? - Slashdot

[sted]

movie maker 2.6 for vista installs on win7 and a small tweak to the msi and it installs on xp as well (cant remember the exact change it basically you stop it checking what os your using seems to work ok

[BatchFile]

I just thought I'd update the thread as I've found an excellent live CD that does EXACTLY what we want straight out of the box and may well be of use to others: http://www.bandshed.net/AVLinux.html

 

I can't believe something that good can be free!

 

I'm also looking a dual booting Ubuntu Studio in one of the computer rooms as that looks promising too.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/11.10/release/

Edited March 13, 2012 by BatchFile