Latest software news and updates

Shotcut 24.10.29

Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. Major features include support for a wide range of formats; no import required meaning native timeline editing; Blackmagic Design support for input and preview monitoring; and resolution support to 4k.

Editing Features

  • Trimming on source clip player or timeline with ripple option
  • Append, insert, overwrite, lift, and ripple delete editing on the timeline
  • 3-point editing
  • Hide, mute, and lock track controls
  • Multitrack timeline with thumbnails and waveforms
  • Unlimited undo and redo for playlist edits including a history view
  • Create, play, edit, save, load, encode, and stream MLT XML projects (with auto-save)
  • Save and load trimmed clip as MLT XML file
  • Load and play complex MLT XML file as a clip
  • Drag-n-drop files from file manager
  • Scrubbing and transport control

Video Effects

  • Video compositing across video tracks
  • HTML5 (sans audio and video) as video source and filters
  • 3-way (shadows, mids, highlights) color wheels for color correction and grading
  • Eye dropper tool to pick neutral color for white balancing
  • Deinterlacing
  • Auto-rotate
  • Fade in/out audio and fade video from and to black with easy-to-use fader controls on timeline
  • Video wipe transitions:
  • bar, barn door, box, clock (radial), diagonal, iris, matrix, and custom gradient image
  • Track compositing/blending modes:
  • Over, Add, Saturate, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Darken, Dodge, Burn, Hard Light, Soft Light, Difference, Exclusion, HSL Hue, HSL Saturation, HSL Color, HSL Luminosity.
  • Video Filters:
  • Alpha Channel: Adjust, Alpha Channel: View, Blur, Brightness, Chroma Key: Advanced, Chroma Key: Simple, Contrast, Color Grading, Crop, Diffusion, Glow, Invert Colors, Key Spill: Advanced, Key Spill: Simple, Mirror, Old Film: Dust, Old Film: Grain, Old Film: Projector, Old Film: Scratches, Old Film: Technocolor, Opacity, Rotate, Rutt-Etra-Izer, Saturation, Sepia Tone, Sharpen, Size and Position, Stabilize, Text, Vignette, Wave, White Balance
  • Speed effect for audio/video clips

Hardware Support

  • Blackmagic Design SDI and HDMI for input and preview monitoring
  • Leap Motion for jog/shuttle control
  • Webcam capture
  • Audio capture to system audio card
  • Capture (record) SDI, HDMI, webcam (V4L2), JACK audio, PulseAudio, IP stream, X11 screen, and Windows DirectShow devices
  • Multi-core parallel image processing (when not using GPU and frame-dropping is disabled)
  • DeckLink SDI keyer output
  • OpenGL GPU-based image processing with 16-bit floating point linear per color component

Shotcut 24.10.29 changelog:

Speech to Text

  • Shotcut gets its first AI based on OpenAI's Whisper, courtesy of the whisper.cpp project.
  • This is available through Subtitles > Speech to Text menu item or button: Speech to Text icon.
  • Our builds include a basic model that has decent speed and accuracy but not a big size. (You can think of the model as the brain.)
  • You can download a bigger and better better brain (model) in ggml format and configure it in the Speech to Text dialog, but it will be slower.
  • The dialog creates two jobs that appear in the Jobs panel: one to export audio and another to convert to text.
  • The results are added to the Subtitles panel as a new top-level Subtitle Track.
  • Currently, the only GPU our build supports is Apple Silicon. Otherwise, it is heavily multi-threaded on the CPU.
  • Known quirk: subtitle items sometimes start earlier than expected. Timing is provided by the model and tool, and we lack the skills and resources to improve this.
  • Expect there to be occasional errors. Like humans and non-ideal conditions, it is not perfect. We will not take action on bug reports about some piece of audio not converting to the expected text.

OpenAI has made some warnings about the usage of their Whisper models:In particular, we caution against using Whisper models to transcribe recordings of individuals taken without their consent.... We recommend against use in high-risk domains like decision-making contexts, where flaws in accuracy can lead to pronounced flaws in outcomes.

Transition Improvements

  • Ripple Delete a transition restores the entirety of the clips included in the transition.
  • Lift (non-ripple delete) a transition no longer leaves a gap; the gap is filled with the adjacent clips.
  • Moving an adjacent clip away increases the transition duration instead of detaching and leaving a gap.

Other Improvements

  • Removed the Export > Video > Resample button. Now, there are simply ignorable inline warnings when making certain changes.
  • Added File > Show Project in Folder to menu.
  • Added a decimals option to numeric keywords in the GPS Text video filter.
  • Changed Recent Projects to Projects: items in this view no longer disappear as Recent reaches its maximum length and old items are removed.
  • Added a Remove action to the context menu in Projects.
  • Hide the Reframe video filter and button if GPU Effects is on.
  • Upgraded FFmpeg to version 7.1.

Fixes

  • Fixed a crash doing when doing more than one Playlist > menu > Add Selected to Slideshow. In theory, this could fix other random crashes in Timeline.
  • Fixed a crash opening a project containing a subtitle track with no items.
  • Fixed odd value for computed width in Reframe output video filter causes export to fail.
  • Fixed Reframe visual control can create odd-valued dimensions.
  • Fixed AVCHD video frame rate is double (could fix other formats).
  • Fixed making a proxy video for a iPhone 16 Pro video containing spatial audio.
  • Fixed GPU filters paste below non-GPU filters.
  • Fixed Slideshow Generator dialog is too tall with vertical video mode.
  • Fixed GPS Offset would reset in GPS Text video filter.
  • Fixed the maximum allowed Time in the Time Remap filter to prevent white frames.