14 DAY TRIAL // Did you just switch from Windows to Linux and you're now looking for a Virtualdub like application? Or you want an application that can handle most video editing functions? Avidemux is exactly what you need, it can convert DVD to DivX/XviD/AVI, crop, resize, cut video files, extract audio from video files, extract subtitles from DVDs and more. I wanted to meet the AviDemux developer and have a chat about what is and what will become Avidemux. Please enjoy this nice interview!
M. Nestor, Softpedia: Please introduce yourself!
Mean: I'm 35, living near Paris, working in embedded stuff and writing Avidemux in my spare time.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: I know that Avidemux can do a lot of stuff with video files, we will try to review them all in this interview, but first, please make a short intro for us about what is Avidemux and what it can do?
Mean: OK, Avidemux tries to be a simple (mostly linear) video editor. The aim is to be able to read and write most common formats (and some less common ones) with the ability to apply desired video & audio filtering. Among the most frequent uses are:
* Removing commercials from a capture * Changing format (AVIDVDmpeg4) * Altering some features of a video to make it more "compatible".
All this with a graphical interface which tries to be as simple as possible, but there is a trade-off between too simplistic-can-do-nothing and for-geek-only.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: Where did the idea to create Avidemux come from?
Mean: In fact, it all began something like 4 years ago. I was annoyed because I had a video file with a very low audio volume, so I took an hex editor to understand how AVI was done, then wrote a small program to extract audio and video, to be able to process the audio & amplify it. Hence the name (Avidemux) which stuck. After that, it was an evolution process, with a rebuild of the core each step of the way. Some parts have been rewritten several times as it was a learning-while-doing stuff. For example, lately h264 came as a problem as the internals of Avidemux cannot deal properly with multireference frames, so yet another rebuilt is to be done.
When I started, I wasn't aware that I would still work on that several years later. I knew absolutely nothing of video (in a technical meaning) when I started. Now, I know close to nothing, but it is way better than nothing.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: So, after 4 years, are you still working alone? Or do you have a team?
Mean: There is a small team which helps a lot. Jakub is doing all the design / usability part and he has a good taste. Mihail has done a lot concerning the audio lately. Anish is maintaining the FreeBSD port, the bugtracker and the ecmascript engine in Avidemux. Jens is helping with nuv/mpeg2 part, sadarax is doing a lot concerning documentation & bug reports and kuisataverath is doing the MacOsX part. Thanks to them.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: Wonderful. Now, let's overview some of the most important parts of Avidemux! Let's start with the Filters, which I saw there are a lot. What can you tell us about them?
Mean: Most of them are ports or adaptations of filters from mplayer, Donald Graft, libavcodec, avisynth and VirtualDub. They offer most needed filtering capabilities (color correction, resizing, plenty of deinterlacing methods etc...). The more subtle ones offer an internal preview so that they can be tuned to get the exact wanted effect. They can be saved in an ecmascript file to provide sort of templates, so you can apply your desired set of filters with just a few clicks (or few lines depending if you use the nice UI or the command line). Porting is not really hard, the framework is simple and is vaguely similar to avisynth ones.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: I've also noticed that Avidemux can encode and decode in many popular video and audio formats. Do you think that it covers all the existing formats or are there other fomats missing that you will add in future versions?
Mean: Most formats are covered with one big missing: MKV, mainly due to its VERY complicated nature. It will probably come at one point. I'm more interested at the moment by formats which have support on consumer products such as mpeg2 TS/PTS (DVD player), AVI (DVD player) and mp4 (PSP/ipod/mobile phone ....). One big thing is that Avidemux needs to have a great control over the demuxer part to be able to go & display with frame accuracy. So using general purpose libraries that are oriented toward streaming (stuff bytes on one side, eventually get frames at the over side) is not an option. Each format must have a demuxer that is compatible with Avidemux?s requirements.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: I?ve tried opening a WMV file in Avidemux 2.1.2 and it said that it can't recognize the format, what's wrong? Because I can play the file with MPlayer or any other media player.
Mean: There is partial support for WMV/ASF/ms-dvr in latest 2.3 beta version. Mostly for people using Windows Media Center, the support is far from complete but it is useful anyway (sync issue mostly).
M. Nestor, Softpedia: If I understand correctly, a user can open a DVD movie and convert it into a 700 MB AVI file, or a 2 x 700 MB with AC3 audio? There is also a bitrate calculator for this.
Mean: Yes, with 2 gotchas. The first CSS is not handled (on purpose), the second is that it works better if the source file is on RW partition to be able to create the index file. So, yes, you can easily create a 700 MB AVI with AC3 audio from a DVD, or from a captured file, or from whatever you want :), as long as it is supported for reading.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: I've ran into another problem, I had a file with an audio delay, the audio was 4 seconds behind the video. I couldn't find an option to set the audio delay and output the file with perfect A/V sync.
Mean: There is a small window on the left: Time shift. Tick the checkbox and enter the shift value in milliseconds, 1 second = 1000 milliseconds, in your case -4000. You can preview the sync with the small embedded player; when happy, save the file. In almost all cases, there?s no need to re-encode.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: Another important feature of Avidemux is OCR. So, can it extract subtitles from a DVD movie?
Mean: Yes. It still has a few glitches, but mostly works. It creates SRT file (text sub) from subtitles found on DVD. On the bright side, it is very fast. The whole sequence is: create vobsub files (Avidemux can do it), and then OCR it to have SRT files.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: Can Avidemux also handle the new HD (High Definition) formats?
Mean: Yes and no. For mpeg2 normally yes, for AVI yes and for mpeg TS+H264 no.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: You know, Avidemux reminds me of VirtualDub on Windows and when I switched to Linux, I had to find a replacement for VirtualDub, and Avidemux appeared after some time and I was very happy with it, it has almost all the VirtualDub features. You think Avidemux can be compared to VirtualDub? Because I believe Avidemux to be the BEST match for VirtualDub, on a Linux box.
Mean: In fact, I was used to VirtualDub, so when I switched to Linux, I missed it. And wrote Avidemux which is a look-alike but different in a lot of ways. There was no equivalent of VfW on Linux, so I made an addition to filtering etc? I also had to take care of codecs, input file demuxer, output muxer etc. So, to sum up, yes, Avidemux is a VirtualDub look-alike with mpeg2 tossed in.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: Yes, but Avidemux can replace 3 Windows programs, like VirtualDub, a DVD to AVI/DivX converter and a OCR program like SubRip. Right?
Mean: Yes, but it might not be as good as them in all cases.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: I think we should let users decide that. Avidemux is also available for Windows and MacOsX platforms, are this ports as good as the Linux one?
Mean: For the Windows part, mostly as good. Still a few glitches (Avidemux does not like names with non ascii part), as for the MacOsX, it is harder as there is the big endian/little endian part. I usually take care of that, but sometimes, some bugs manage to find a place.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: What should users expect from the next stable version?
Mean: Better support for video with non regular framerate (such as captured mpeg with gaps or mp4). Potentially more GUI toolkit or less (a KDE version, a cli version). More filters. More bugs. That's all that is coming to my mind.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: What would you like to transmit to the Open Source Community and to our readers?
Mean: Thanks! I mean it. I'm a very happy user of plenty of OSS products such as Linux, KDE, MythTV, etc etc.
M. Nestor, Softpedia: Thank you for the interview and for your time spent with me. I wish you success in life and with your project!
Mean: Thanks to you!
You can now download Avidemux from Softpedia.