Editing and converting videos with Avidemux

Compact Package

Avidemux is available in functionally identical Qt and Gtk versions. Distributions generally provide packages for both front ends. Many functions are also available from the command line [4], almost all over a JavaScript interface [5].

The first stable version of Avidemux appeared May 9, 2013, as version 2.6.4 in the 2.6 series. A special advantage to the program is that the script delivered with the source code automatically compiles the software and packages it in an RPM or Debian package [6]. Version 2.6 is based on a newly written core, but preserves the well-known interface with few changes (Figure 6).

Figure 6: The interface of the finally stable series 2.6 of Avidemux has changed little, even though it is based on a new core that works more reliably in synchronizing audio and video.

The program's author promises that the new major version fixes frequently encountered audio and video synchronization problems of the past. The interface, however, has changed little. The packages are now called avidemux3_qt4 , avidemux3_gkt , and avidemux3_cli , instead of the previous avidemux2 plus a suffix. This scheme allows the 2.5 and 2.6 versions to be installed in parallel.

Conclusion

Avidemux plays in a different league from the nonlinear multitrack editors. Its strengths lie in format conversion and compression, which can save you burdensome intermediary steps. It is also quite good for simple editing. The software provides many effects for retouching that are, unfortunately, often difficult to work with.

Despite its mature age, Avidemux does crash from time to time – yet usually less than its competitors , which are not always stable.