Open Source

(LinuxWorld) — If you're interested in making movies and you're alive right now, congratulations. With the advent of digital video and easy-to-use video-editing software, it's easier and more affordable than ever to shoot, edit and add effects to video.

But how does Linux figure into the digital-video revolution? Until a few weeks ago, the Mac OS was the only thing that popped into my mind when I thought about digital-video-editing on a desktop computer, and with good reason. Apple's iMovie 2 application is the most intuitive and easy-to-use video-editing program for consumers that I had ever seen, and on the professional end of the digital-video-editing spectrum, Apple's Final Cut Pro 3 (FCP) is rapidly becoming the industry standard.

Furthermore, Apple's "Plug-and-Play" mantra and seamless support for the lightning-quick data-transfer standard known as FireWire (also known as IEEE1394 and iLink... FireWire has more pseudonyms than anyone in Wu-Tang Clan) makes importing and exporting video to/from your camera from/to a Mac extremely easy.

When you boil it down, there's a reason why you see all them artsy types using Macs, and it goes beyond the fact that the hardware comes in fancy colors that sound like frozen-daquiri flavors.

I guess I'm one of these artsy types, too. I've been using iMovie and FCP on my Mac for about a year and a half to edit my own video projects, and I am thrilled with the ease-of-use and set of features both applications offer. The movies themselves could be a hell of a lot better, but let's chalk that one up to my shortcomings as a filmmaker.

Why even consider making the jump from Mac OS to Linux for video-editing purposes? Let's begin with the almighty dollar. Sure, iMovie 2 comes free with practically every new Apple computer, and it's probably the best video-editing solution for beginners on any platform. But if you're like me, you'll start to notice iMovie's limitations after a while, and you'll feel the need to step up to FCP and its arsenal of professional editing tools.

This is where your wallet takes a hit: Final Cut Pro 3 costs $999 for the full version and $299 just to upgrade from FCP2. I'd need to sell my entire collection of Eric Byrnes bobblehead dolls to cover those costs, so my plans for FCP3 will probably end up on the cutting-room floor.

Here's where Linux comes barreling into the picture. Free software? Yes, please.

I researched video-editing software for Linux and found a few interesting programs. In this article, I'll review one of those software packages: a professional video-editing suite called MainActor from MainConcept AG. Because Mac video-editing apps such as iMovie and FCP are so widely used and well-known, I'll compare MainActor to these programs (focusing on comparisons to FCP, because that is the "professional" video-editing package for Mac).

The MainActor Video Editor allows you to change the format of your finished video.

You can download a full-featured and free ($0.00) version of the MainActor 3.75 beta for Linux from the MainConcept AG site. The demo has all the whistles and bells of the registered version of MainActor, but it digitally watermarks all video edited with the unregistered version. In other words, any video you edit with the demo features the MainActor logo smack-dab in the middle of the screen. It's a great demo because it allows you to play around with all the features of the editing suite before making a decision on whether to fork out $79 for the registered version.

Getting (Fire)Wired

Before we can get into the nitty-gritty of using video-editing software, we first need to tackle the issue of getting raw video footage onto your Linux box. Assuming that you own a digital-video camera with FireWire input/output capabilities, you need the following:

1. An OHCI-compliant FireWire card
2. FireWire drivers for Linux, courtesy of the fine lads and lasses at www.linux1394.org
3. An understanding of how to configure and install programs from source, or the ability to cajole someone who does into helping you
4. ... or, a Linux distribution that already supports FireWire

System specs & product info

MainActor v.3.75 (Beta) MainConcept GmbH One Chagrin Highlands 2000 Auburn Drive Suite 200 Beachwood, Ohio 44122 USA http://www.mainconcept.com/ Download MainActor 3.75 Beta: http://www.mainconcept.com/archive/MainActor-3.7-5.tar.gz Pricing: Free for demo version (fully featured, but adds MainActor watermark to projects); Pricing unannounced for upcoming MainActor 5.0 release (MainActor 3.65 was $79.00 for registered download / $85.00 for shrink-wrapped version). System specifications: MainActor was tested on a 600-MHz Pentium III PC running SuSE Linux 8.1 Professional; 27.3 GB, 7200-RPM IBM Stardrive DPTA-372730 hard disk with 2.0 MB cache; 256 MB RAM; 32 MB Diamond Viper V770D Ultra NVIDIA graphics card; Yamaha DS-XG Audio Codec V.4.05.9218; StarTech.com 3-port FireWire i.Link IEEE 1394 PCI Card; FireWire drivers downloaded from http://www.linux1394.org/; free video-capture software (dvgrab) downloaded from http://www.schirmacher.de/arne/dvgrab/index_e.html.

I readied my machine for FireWire input over the course of a week, and the best advice I can offer is the following: Upgrade your OS to the latest version of your preferred distribution; several of the latest distributions have built-in FireWire support or at least make the process of adding FireWire support much easier.

I first attempted to FireWire-enable my Linux box running SuSE Professional 8.0 and ran into a string of roadblocks. I am definitely new to the world of Linux, so the FireWire issues I ran into may be short work for someone who knows Linux inside and out. However, once I upgraded to SuSE Professional 8.1, installing my FireWire card, getting the drivers up and running and importing my video footage was a whole lot easier. Even I could figure it out, and I am often distracted by shiny pennies and empty soda cans.

Some more advice toward getting your FireWire card and drivers ready for business is to follow the detailed instructions on the Linux1394 Web site's Getting Started page. For me, the FireWire card and drivers showed no signs of life until I had followed all the instructions on pages 1 and 2 of the guide and performed modprobe and insmod on the ohci1394, raw1394 and ieee1394 modules as root.

Also, make sure to check which kernel version you have in your Linux distribution; you may not need one of the kernel patches available for download on page 2 of the Getting Started guide.

Once you have your card in the machine, your drivers downloaded/installed and your FireWire card checked, it's time to put on your beret and goatee. We're ready to edit those hot frames we shot at the quilting expo.

Let's make a movie

The MainActor 3.75 suite I downloaded consisted of five different components plus a help file:

• MainActor VideoCapture: A utility that captures analog video.
• MainActor DV-Capture: A utility that captures digital video (supposedly... more on this later).
• MainActor DV-Out: A utility that outputs finished projects to your DV camera (allegedly... again, I'll write more about this later).
• MainActor Sequencer: The video-editing utility, which allows you to splice together footage and add transitions, titles and effects.
• MainActor Video Editor: A utility that allows you to convert your project into different file formats and compress animations by deleting all but the key frames.

The logical first step is to import digital video onto your hard drive, and the DV-Capture program seemingly would be the perfect fit for this task. However, I was never able to actually finagle MainActor into capturing video from my DV camera. The application seemed to recognize the video input and previewed the first few frames of the clip I was trying to import, but the application froze after a few seconds. I was never able to find a video clip on my hard drive after several attempts, so DV-Capture didn't capture anything for me.

At this point, I contacted MainActor support and asked them for advice. Within 24 hours, I got a helpful response that pointed me in the right direction but still didn't lead me all the way to the promised land. I entered the following commands:

rm /dev/raw1394
mknod -m 600 /dev/raw1394 c 171 0
chown root.root /dev/raw1394


rm /dev/video1394
mknod -m 600 /dev/video1394 c 171 16
chown root.root /dev/video1394

I tried again, and the early returns suggested DV-Capture was working correctly. Upon closer examination, however, the video being imported was garbled. I tried a few more times, with similar results.

The VideoCapture component of MainActor is for importing analog video, but I thought I'd just try to capture digital video with it for hoots and hollers. Each time I tried, the following error message popped up:

No VideoCapture device found!
The device may be busy or the program does not have root rights at startup. The root rights will be given up after initialization of the video device!

Stumped, I tried eating a meatloaf sandwich with hopes that it would solve the problem, but no dice. My boss had some far-fetched idea to log in as root and try to capture my video that way, but that didn't work either. I ate another meatloaf sandwich — this time with chips — and came up with an alternate game plan.

I poked around on the Web and found a simple, console-based program called dvgrab that lends its existence to capturing video for Linux. I downloaded it, installed it and, lo and behold, was importing digital-video footage to my machine in a matter of minutes.

The console-based dvgrab was used to import video as an alternative to MainActor DV-Capture.

A note to those of you who are familiar with iMovie, Final Cut Pro and other popular video-editing packages: when using dvgrab, don't expect to see a small window previewing the video footage as it's being imported onto your Linux box. dvgrab is a console-based application, operated by typing words into the command line to save chunks of video as .AVI files. It's up to you to cue up your video prior to importing by looking through your camera's viewfinder or flip-out LCD screen. The MainActor DV-Capture and VideoCapture programs show a video preview during import, but as I said before, I wasn't able to get either one of them going.

Video loaded... let's edit

Now we're ready to start editing footage using MainActor Sequencer... not MainActor VideoEditor, as I thought would be the case. See, the VideoEditor program is for saving your finished product as another type of video file and performing post-editing tweaks to shrink the file size.

The project I edited for this review is a hodge-podge of video footage set to the breakdancing classic "Scorpio" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. I guess you could call it an unofficial music video (Note to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, who I am sure will read this article because they are notorious Linux aficionados: I don't intend to sell or distribute this video, so please don't sue me). I chose this particular project because editing a music video would test MainActor's ability to import video clips, strip out the clips' audio, add music from another source and add fancy transitions from clip to clip. I also wanted to see if MainActor would ease the process of timing cuts and transitions to match up to changes in the song.

Here's what to expect when launching the Sequencer application. First, a pop-up window asks you to specify the video and audio settings for your project. I selected "Digital Video (DV-NTSC, 30 fps)," left the audio settings untouched and clicked "OK". No problems to report here.

The MainActor Sequencer is full-featured, intuitive and easily mastered.

This launches the MainActor Sequencer interface, which should be somewhat familiar to anyone who's used Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro. The main components of the interface consist of:

• The video timeline, where you drag, drop, crop, and splice together your film clips.
• The MainActor browser, which is a menu of transitions, video effects and adjustable color settings.
• The preview window, which allows you to view your project in full motion at any time.
• The toolbar, which allows you to quickly choose popular functions of video-editing programs and apply them to your project.

Importing my captured video clip into Sequencer for editing was as easy as clicking the "Insert Multimedia" icon in the lower left corner of the toolbar and selecting my .AVI clip, but it took me a few minutes to figure that out. The "step-back-I-know-what-I'm-doing-without-even-reading-the-manual" approach I tried first (selecting File from the menu, then clicking Open) brought up an index of MainActor Project (.mpf) files. It wouldn't allow me to open .AVI files. The message here is to save yourself precious minutes by reading the MainActor documentation first.

After I clicked "Insert Multimedia" and selected my clip, all I needed to do was point my mouse into the Va (Video A) track in the video timeline and click at the beginning of the Va track. This placed my clip at the beginning of the project, and it automatically synced up the clip's audio and placed it in track Aa (Audio A).

Because I intended to use a song for the project's audio track, the next step was to strip out the sound from the clip and bring in the .WAV file I ripped from a CD. When the MainActor Sequencer brings in a video clip, the audio for that clip is automatically "pinned" to the video. This means that if you move the video clip around in the timeline or otherwise tinker with the position or length of the video clip, the changes also apply to the corresponding audio clip. In other words, the audio/video tracks are, by default, one "object."

My first step in making this hot new music video was to separate or "un-pin" the audio from the video track and then delete the audio. This proved to be very simple; I simply highlighted the clip in question by clicking on it, then clicked the "Split Object" icon in the bottom right section of the toolbar. This made the video track and the audio track two separate "objects"; moving or altering one of the tracks had no bearing on the other. I then highlighted the audio track, deleted it and showed the obliterated audio who was boss by pointing at my monitor and shouting insults regarding the audio clip's mother (the latter activity is optional).

Putting tracks on digital wax

My next step was to bring in the .WAV file of the song. No sweat: I clicked the "Insert Multimedia" icon, chose the appropriate file and dragged my pointer to the beginning of audio track Aa. Because my video track started at the beginning of video track Va, this synced up the start of the music with the start of the video.

I elected not to pin audio track Aa to video track Va because I'm such a rebellious risk-taker, but pinning a clip's video and audio tracks is an easy process, too. Simply double-click the object in question or select the "Object Settings" icon in the toolbar and check the "Object is pinned" box at the top of the window.

For the next few hours, I cropped, rearranged, and added transitions to my video clips. Within five minutes of using the Sequencer for the first time, I completely had the hang of the application.

I really liked the Sequencer's interface, video effects and transitions; the latter two boasted many more options than one can find in iMovie. And although MainActor has fewer transitions and effects than Final Cut Pro 3, all the ones you really need are in MainActor's arsenal (Simpsons fans rejoice: star wipe is in the house).

Because I enjoyed the Sequencer's interface and features so much, I really wanted to give the entire suite a great review. Unfortunately, there are a few bugs that overshadow MainActor's usability.

The case of the empty library

Instead of a clip bin, which allows you to dump video clips you plan to use into an easy-access menu within the application, MainActor Sequencer allows you to front-load your clips for quick access later on via the Library tab in the MainActor browser. I wanted to load up the Library with clips I planned to use later, but I ran into a bug. I tried many times to save clips in the Library, but nothing showed up under the Library tab in the MainActor browser. I even tried digging around in the Library directory from the console, but no clips other than the MainActor demo files were in there.

This is a significant problem for anyone who wants to use MainActor as a professional video-editing program. When I edited my project, I had to shuffle clips I intended to use later in unused video tracks as a makeshift clip bin/Library, which got annoying quickly. It also made my timeline a confusing mess. The best work-around would be to import each video clip only when one is ready to edit it, but this isn't a realistic option for anyone doing heavy-duty video editing. You want to be able to have your full set of clips right there in front of you and be able to make decisions about when to use them on the fly.

Getting your project on tape

The significant difference between MainActor 3.75 and its previous release is the DV-Out functionality. This component of the MainActor suite allows users to output finished projects to a DV camera via FireWire.

MainActor DV-Out allows you to output your edited video to a camera, but our reviewer had problems.

Every user except me, that is. Just like my experience with MainActor DV-Capture, I had problems outputting video via FireWire. The same phenomenon that occurred when I attempted to input digital video via DV-Capture happened when I tried to output to tape with DV-Out. A stream of video found its way from my hard drive to the tape in my camera, but the video itself was garbled and pixellated. Also, none of the audio from my edited project found its way onto the tape.

The problems with DV-Out are particularly frustrating; my project is fully edited, complete and ready to be screened, but I'm at a loss for a way to get it onto a tape.

I sent a second e-mail to MainActor support asking if they had any fixes for my problems of garbled video and no audio. They are currently trying to replicate and solve the problem, and I will post an addendum to this review if they have advice on how to fix it.

That's a wrap

I thought MainActor's Sequencer and Video Editor components were excellent, intuitive and easy to use. I couldn't get the DV-Capture and DV-Out components to work correctly, which prevents me from recommending the entire suite. If you have other FireWire input/output applications and are just looking for an video-editing application, MainActor Sequencer is a great tool and gets my full endorsement. In my experience, customer support for the product was excellent; I received helpful tips from MainConcept support within a day or two of contacting them.

The MainActor Web site heralds the upcoming release of MainActor 5.0. MainConcept explains that it's such a huge jump forward from MainActor 3.x, they've skipped all the way past the 4.x versions. My advice for potential buyers is to wait until MainActor 5.0 is ready for Linux and to check out the Linux demo before paying for the registered version. I am eager to try the Linux version of MainActor 5. MainActor 3.75 sets a solid foundation for professional video-editing applications on Linux, and it would be great if the bugs found in v3.75 don't make a cameo appearance in version 5. The current version of MainActor isn't enough to wean me off of Mac-based applications for my video-editing needs, but MainActor has impressed me and has me looking forward to the Linux version of v5.

The screen shots on MainConcept's MainActor 5 page support the hype, judging from the aesthetic changes. With version 5, MainActor looks to have undergone a dramatic facelift and its interface looks similar to that of Final Cut Pro 3. Also, if you look closely at the screen shot for the MainActor browser, it looks as if MainConcept has loaded v5 with new transitions and other goodies.

Unfortunately, the downloadable demo of MainActor 5.0 is only available for Windows. However, in the MainActor for Linux support forums, Philipp Kim from MainConcept Support assures the Linux community that MainActor 5 will also be available for Linux. There is no announced launch date for the Linux version of MainActor 5 just yet.

A weird state of limbo also exists for anyone who wants to download MainActor 3.65 from the MainConcept site. MainConcept has pulled the plug on MainActor 3.65, and the site says the software download is "no longer available." The Windows version of MainActor 5 is due out in December, but the release date for the Linux version is still to be determined.

I'm not sure I understand the tactics here: MainConcept is leaving prospective customers without an official Linux release of MainActor to download and use until further notice. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense — and be a lot less frustrating — if the company made MainActor 3.65 available at least until Linux users had the option to upgrade to v5? Do soda companies pull their products off the shelf while they're developing an exciting new formula? Not my soda company, if I had one.