Were VirtualDubMod to have an Linux equivalent what would that be?

February 8, 2007 12:12 AM

Where can I find a Linux equivalent of VirtualDubMod?

via Gnome, ideally... thanks :)

posted by Satapher to Technology (14 answers total)

Response by poster: or near equivalent of course :) i understand VDM is unqiue
posted by Satapher at 12:19 AM on February 8, 2007

Response by poster: Sorry, this is a terrible post. VirtualDubMod is an open source video processing tool for Windows. Besides being able to open and convert anything to just about every format under the sun it also serves as a sort of low-level photoshop for video clips.
posted by Satapher at 12:45 AM on February 8, 2007

ffmpeg is approximately the equivalent, in that it can convert from almost anything to anything.
posted by Rhomboid at 1:14 AM on February 8, 2007

mencoder (part of the mplayer package) will handle the converting anything to anything part, and a quick scan through my Ubuntu installation's "Add/Remove" menu suggests that PiTiVi might be what you're looking for in an editor.

No links provided because these things are available via the Ubuntu package system and if you have another distro they should be dead easy to Google.

Cinelerra might be worth a look too.
posted by flabdablet at 1:17 AM on February 8, 2007

As others have said: ffmpeg or mencoder (which generally ffmpeg internally, although you can pick others) on the command line will convert anything to anything.

I don't do much video work beyond transcoding, but it seems that avidemux is the closest thing to virtualdub.

Also, apparently virtualdub (not mod) works under wine, so you could try that if you get stuck.
posted by markr at 3:48 AM on February 8, 2007

Hmm, that should say: (which generally uses ffmpeg internally).

Which is to say you usually pass the work off to libavcodec.
posted by markr at 3:59 AM on February 8, 2007

Haven't used it myself, but how about Jahshaka?
posted by Boobus Tuber at 5:37 AM on February 8, 2007

It depends on what you're trying to do. If VirtualDubMod is just one step of an entire ripping-DVD process, you might want to look at dvd::rip.

If all you want is an application to mix and match and process video and audio streams, then ffmpeg is your choice. You'll have to learn how to use the command line, though, if you haven't already.
posted by DrSkrud at 5:54 AM on February 8, 2007

If you want to use Cinelerra, you probably don't want the version from HeroineWarrior. You really want the "community" version that's maintained at cvs.cinelerra.org, which is more stable. It's a stabilized, community-maintained version of the HeroineWarrior code, which is really only made for the internal use of one company.

You can read about the difference and origins of the two versions here:
http://cvs.cinelerra.org/about.php

I have never personally tried to install it (I use FCP on a Mac), but I've heard reports that it can be ... an experience. You might want to think about one of the digital-media-centric Linux distros, if you're going to be doing a lot of stuff in that direction. Depending on how you value your time, the cost of a dedicated box may be far less than the amount of time it will take to install and configure it all.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:22 AM on February 8, 2007

For the record, when I once had a need to actually do a small amount of non-linear editing. I liked Cinelerra, but it was too unstable (at that point) to actually use, and I ended up getting the job done nicely in Jahshaka.
posted by markr at 12:24 PM on February 8, 2007

Best answer: I like Avidemux for editing, Mplayer(Mencoder) for transcoding.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 1:04 PM on February 8, 2007

Response by poster: thanks everyone -- i will try all of these out -- except jahshaka

I tried it on XP a while back and the interface is so incredibly ugly and clunky that i flat out refuse to use it, no matter how awesome it may be :) good god... such a fugly program
posted by Satapher at 1:04 PM on February 8, 2007

Response by poster: Avidemux is the one, thank you so much!
posted by Satapher at 3:44 PM on February 8, 2007

Response by poster: Just in case anyone reads this later -- I eventually forked over the money for MainActor, the Linux video editing software -- it was well worth it -- its an incredible piece of work :)
posted by Satapher at 11:01 PM on February 12, 2007