I'm using Cinelerra HV on Ubuntu. I'm a very beginner with Linux. I'm starting to assume that
something is not working properly. Can it be that Cinelerra HV is made for Fedora and not for
Ubuntu? Do you suggest to install Cinelerra CV instead?
Hi Rafaella,
Cinelerra is not made for a specific distribution. I saw people here
using it on Slackware, Fedora, Gentoo, SuSE, and I am on Debian (you
probably know that Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian and uses the same
package manager).
Do you know the Wikipedia entry on Cinelerra? Pierre Dumuid recently
added a paragraph on the two different Versions of Cinelerra there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinelerra#The_Community_Version
Many of us here (including myself) are using the CV-Version; this
version gets additional Fixes and small improvements over the time,
so /we/ believe it to me more stable and usable.
You should note though, that from time to time, when there are
larger modifications, it can get more instable. So it's probably
a good idea to have a look at this mailing list in order to know
what's going on.
Recently, there was a new Version (2.1) released by HeroineWarrior.
The Community just started to integrate this changes into the CV-Version,
so you can expect some destabilizing of the CV-Version for some time in
the Future. So I would advice everyone not immediately interested in the
new Features of HV-2.1 to stick to the last CV-Version before this
transition until you see people positively reporting they are
successfully using the upcoming new CV-Versions.
The Community-Verson uses a Version Management Tool called "Subversion"
to manage the different code versions. The aforementioned "last 2.0-CV-Version"
has the Revision Number 836 in the Subversion. At
http://www.kiberpipa.org/~minmax/cinelerra/builds/sid/
you will find Debian Packages of the CV-Version, the last beeing from 6.Jun.2006
See also:
http://cvs.cinelerra.org/getting_cinelerra.php
Reuben Firmin just wrote an Blog Article comparing Cinelerra and Main Actor.
In one of this entries he covered the Installation of Cinelerra-CV on Ubuntu,
probably of some interest to you
http://flavor8.com/index.php/2006/07/15/mainactor-vs-cinelerra-installing/
1. Randomly (1 out of 10) the compositor is dark (no image, sound only). There are no disabled
buttons in the patch/control area.
This sounds strange, like a bug. To help more, it would be necessary to
know what media format you are using (DV-Avi, raw DV, quicktime, mpeg ts...).
2. Double clicking between two labels on the timeline doesn't highlights the region between the
labels. Instead it highlights the whole edit I'm clicking on.
Yes, that's the way cinelerra does this...
If you want to select the range between two lables: click at one lable
and then shift-click on the second. You could enter values into the
position-display in the status line as well in order to select a very
precise range (e.g. 3 Frames).
And another very important command for editing is the "paste silence"
from the edit menu!!
3. Trimming: when I move the cursor I don't see the changing in the compositor window. It keeps
showing the same still image and I can't decide the extent of my trimming.
Yes, that's a well known shortcomming. You have to utilize lables
as a workaround...
Hint: you can move the locator by single frames using the numpad keys.
4. Trimming: sometimes (randomly?) when i drag the margin of an edit in the video track the audio
track won't follow. All the tracks are armed. In this way I miss the match between audio and
video in the edits.
Make sure you have selected the "align cursor to frames" in the settings
menu. Cinelerra uses a trick to keep sync between audo and video: the
edit actions manipulate /all/ clips on all armed tracks
/which start at exactly the same position/. If you don't align cursor to frames,
then the audio clip can start on every location in between frames. You can see
this effect by zooming in to the level of single frames.
One last question: How can I split and edit in two on the timeline (trimming)?
This one is surprisingly difficult (or am I missing something obvious??)
You can select a part and cut it away (to clipboard), but if you re-insert
it immediately, cinelerra will automatically join it together to be
one single clip again. (Unter certain other circumstances this behaviour
is helpfull, but here it's rather not).
But you can always paste the part cut off on a different location.
For trimming you use the mouse at the border of the edit. It is important
to note from wich side of the cut you are aproaching. The three mouse
buttons by default have different meaning (and this can be configured
in the options menu). You can trim, roll and slide edits.
See in the Manual TWiki:
http://www.ftconsult.com/twiki/bin/view/Cinelerra/Trimming
And one final note:
There are programs out there which you can learn "hands on" by simply
discovering their features. For Cinelerra this is *not true*, seriousely.
So please take some time to read the manual beforehand, you really save
yourself a lot of frustration. ;-)
At least you should walk through the Chapter "Unterstanding the User Interface"
http://www.ftconsult.com/twiki/bin/view/Cinelerra/UnderstandingTheUI
have fun!
Cheers,
Hermann Vosseler