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A small tip for anyone working with Kdenlive and large video files

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This is likely something many of you who edit videos frequently already know, but here's a small tip for those of you (like me) who aren't massively familiar with all the video editing options available. This tip is about working with large files, like longer or high quality gameplay videos.

Kdenlive is a pretty great video editor, but it does have a problem when it comes to large files. Seeking through the timeline and the timeline video preview will be extremely slow and stutter a lot, if your file is on the large side. For me today, it got to a point where editing a particular video became so slow it was impossible to work with.

I had been looking around for other editors, but it turns out that the solution to this problem is already built into Kdenlive and has made me love it even more.

What you need, are proxies. It essentially makes a low quality copy of the videos files you're using while editing, to make it easier on your computer. Simply go to the Project menu at the top, then Project Settings and you will see something like this:
image
Make sure "Proxy clips" is ticked and then it will begin to make a proxy of your video clips, which will allow you to have a very smooth editing experience.

The drawback, is that it will use some extra hard drive space, but it makes things much easier to do.

Again, if you're a kdenlive or video editing pro, this is likely old news to you. It wasn't to me and likely isn't to others. Just another small handy tip I wanted to share for those making Linux gaming video content. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: HOWTO
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Leopard Feb 23, 2017
Some people say Blender is a very good editing program,which covered with rendering software id.
MayeulC Feb 23, 2017
Quoting: LeopardSome people say Blender is a very good editing program,which covered with rendering software id.
No, Blender is a very good operating System, just like Emacs :P
Leopard Feb 23, 2017
Quoting: M@yeulC
Quoting: LeopardSome people say Blender is a very good editing program,which covered with rendering software id.
No, Blender is a very good operating System, just like Emacs :P

:D
whatever Feb 23, 2017
Quoting: LeopardSome people say Blender is a very good editing program,which covered with rendering software id.
It is. The user interface is a bit unconventional but the program is fast, complete, and stable.
The only real BIG problem is that the final video rendering is singlethreaded, which can be an enormous waste of time.
Philadelphus Feb 23, 2017
Yep, proxies are pretty great. :D I'm glad you found them! Not that I consider myself a Kdenlive pro, I've just been using it for about 7–8 months.

If the extra file space is a problem, you can also delete the proxy file(s) after you're done rendering the movie, they can always be recreated if you want to use the raw footage again. If you leave them, though, and use the raw footage in another video project it'll have the proxy already available and not need to recreate it.
kit89 Feb 23, 2017
I've found disabling the timeline video thumbnails to significantly improve performance.
Asu Feb 23, 2017
Yeah, I've been using Blender for video editing. Tho never longer than 10 min flicks. I don't know how would it perform on bigger files...
natewardawg Feb 23, 2017
It's nice that they have that. It almost seems like this should be turned on by default. I know they're probably leaving it off since it takes up more drive space, but if you're editing video you should already be aware that you need the extra drive space :)

Thanks for pointing that out Liam. I know this is a gaming website, but I do like the little extra tidbits like this from time to time :)
DasCapschen Feb 24, 2017
I have found it's not really the size of the video, but rather the bitrate that makes kdenlive unresponsive.
When I record hours of gaming on Linux with OBS using CRF 18 I never had problems skipping through or watching the videos.
On the other hand, when recording with Relive or Shadowplay on Windows, with constant bitrate of 50MB/s, it is almost impossible to work with the video without using proxies.
Nice that you point this feature out, some people may not have known :)
artvandelay440 Feb 24, 2017
Quoting: AsuYeah, I've been using Blender for video editing. Tho never longer than 10 min flicks. I don't know how would it perform on bigger files...

I watched someone use Blender to edit 4 hours of Blu-Ray content, and it performed perfectly fine, so should be no problem there.
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