A few months ago, a reader got angry at my claim that Kdenlive was more powerful than OpenShot and challenged me to prove it. The truth is, I was simply repeating something that seems to be a consensus among some more or less professional videographers whose experiences with open source I often read . Personally, OpenShot was more than enough for me on the occasional occasion I had to edit a video, and now I use online services. But, the time has come to answer the question.
Likewise, don't get into the habit of asking us to substantiate our claims. Be good readers, accept everything we say and click on the ad.
Seriously though, I recommend you take a look at the comment Shupacabras made in the first article of this series.
About Kdenlive and OpenShot
Kdenlive
Kdenlive is an acronym for KDE Non-Linear Video Editor. In a previous article, we explained the characteristics of this type of editor. Created with Linux distributions running the KDE desktop in mind, it also has versions for Windows, macOS, and BSD.
The program can be used to produce all types of videos, as well as add subtitles, effects, and transitions, and create DVD menus . It can work with almost any audio and video format without conversion, as it is compatible with the Ffmepg library.
The Kdenlive engine is based on the MLT framework, which we discussed in a previous article. Designed by and for the television industry, it allows working with multiple audio and video libraries.
It also takes advantage of other open source projects such as
LASDSPA: Specification for creating audio processing and effects plugins released under the LGPL license
frei0r: It's a framework for creating video effects. It provides filters, mixers, and generators through a minimalist API for plugin development.
SoX: This is a command-line utility that allows you to convert audio files to other formats and add effects to them.
This software supports an unlimited number of videos and soundtracks and includes tools
to create, trim, move, delete video, audio, text and graphics clips.
Salient features
- Each audio and video track can be muted or blocked according to need.
- Configurable user interface and keyboard shortcuts.
- Creation of low resolution copies to save system resources during mounting. The export is done in the original format.
- Online download of rendering profiles, transitions, effects and templates.
OpenShot
The OpenShot non-linear video editor has versions for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
It has animation and keyframe capabilities that allow users to do things like fade, slide, bounce, and animate any component of a video project . With the trimming and merging tools, you can quickly change the duration of a video. Using the video effects engine, you can do things like remove the background, invert colors, adjust brightness, and much more.
Openshot works with the following open source projects
blender: Platform for creating 3D graphics.
inkscape: Software for creating vector graphics.
libopenshot: Library for multimedia editing.
Salient features
- Creation of 3D animated titles based on Blender.
- Playing videos in different directions and speeds.
- Graphing the audio waves and incorporating the graphics into the video.
- Download current frame as image by pressing a button.
- Predefined templates for creating 2D titles
The comparison between the two programs was made using Ubuntu Studio 20.10 (a Linux distribution optimized for multimedia production) Ubuntu Studio includes Kdenlive version 6.22.1 in its installation. The version 2.5.1 of OpenShot I downloaded it from the repositories of the distribution. Some of you may feel that testing is not done on an equal footing. Keep in mind that my goal is not to compare performance but quantity of tools and ease of use.
In the next article we will go into the matter. I swear on Stallman's beard.