Shotcut - video editor

[webfork]

Background / Reason for testing: Shotcut would be very valuable as an open, portable video editor. Frequently you want to do video editing and encoding on the fastest computer you can get your hands on, but often these machines aren't those that you can get admin access or able to install programs. Thus, the very real barriers to installing software are very likely accessory to the policy barriers against installing something commercial. A free, open alternative will likely amelorate both technical and licensing concerns.

NOTE: this is one of the larger programs tested here on the site with an 81 meg install file and creates a 242 meg extract folder. There are an enormous number of locale (language support) folders that might be pared down to reduce the overall size.

Testing procedure:
Setup: WinXP SP3
Version: 13.08.30

1. Install as normal
2. Install to the C:\shotcut directory
3. Copy shotcut to another directory, do a standard uninstall via the Control Panel
4. Move to another directory, launch shotcut, change one setting item to make sure that it will write a setting somewhere.
5. Close program.

Verdict: not portable: Saves to a lot of Trolltech and Meltytech registry entries

Other notes:

Note that the test above appears to have broken the program as it wouldn't open any video file I threw at it.
License: GPL v3
Admin required: untested
Path portability: untested

Website: http://www.shotcut.org/
Softpedia: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia ... tcut.shtml

[I am Baas]

NOTE: this is one of the larger programs tested here on the site with an 81 meg install file and creates a 242 meg extract folder. There are an enormous number of locale (language support) folders that might be pared down to reduce the overall size.

514 MB (Installer 173 MB)

Version: 13.08.30

Latest is 13.10.30

Verdict: not portable: Saves to a lot of Trolltech and Meltytech registry entries.

Yup

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Meltytech\Shotcut
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\QtProject\OrganizationDefaults

Note that the test above appears to have broken the program as it wouldn't open any video file

Worked fine on Win 7-64 (both drag-and-drop and open file operation)

Admin required: untested.

I did not get any prompt.

[Midas]

Shotcut v15.03.03 released (changelog is at http://www.shotcut.org/bin/view/Shotcut/ReleaseNotes)

[Midas]

Shotcut v16.01 is released (changelog is at http://www.shotcut.org/bin/view/Shotcut/ReleaseNotes).

[freakazoid]

Just came across an article about Shotcut on betanews.com.

This would make an excellent candidate for yaP

[smaragdus]

First, the good news- the latest version of Shotcut is portable:

Nov 2, 2016. | By: Dan Dennedy

Version 16.11 was released today and is available for DOWNLOAD.

By popular demand, this version includes a new so-called portable app feature. A portable app is one that can be run without having to install and register components into the system. Rather, it is a self-contained folder for the executable and its bundled dependencies. Shotcut has always been portable in this sense regardless of the operating system. Portable apps can be put on a USB stick/drive and run from there. Then, you can use the app from computer-to-computer simply by plugging the USB stick. However, to be truly portable, the app should also use the USB stick to store settings and other app data.

Like most apps, Shotcut has an app data directory wherein it stores its thumbnails/waveforms database, presets, and log file. Normally, it stores settings in a platform-defined manner such as the registry on Windows or a plist file in ~/Library on macOS. Now, you can set the app directory using the command line option “–appdata <directory>” or the Settings > App Data Directory menu. When you do, then settings are instead saved in an INI file in the designated folder. If you use the menu, Shotcut will try to migrate everything from the current location to the new location only if there is not existing Shotcut data in the new location. Otherwise, it simply lets you start using the new directory adopting the settings and data. If you use the command line option, the new menu item is hidden making it possible to integrate the app into an app launcher/updater more seamlessly.

It seems portable- once the settings folder is set, Shotcut uses it (db.sqlite3, shotcut.ini, shotcut-log.txt).

One more good news- The 32-bit Windows version is back:

The 32-bit Windows version is back by popular demand! 32-bit apps still have the significant limitation that they can only use 2 GB RAM, and Shotcut still uses a lot of RAM. We will see what we can do to reduce memory usage in the coming months. In the meantime, consider limiting yourself to working in 720 pixels of vertical resolution for multitrack projects, and try to avoid using very high resolution still images (scale them down before using them in Shotcut).

However Shotcut is huge:

Installer:
32-bit - 73 MB
64-bit - 187 MB

Archive:
32-bit - 102 MB
64-bit - 262 MB

64-bit archive uncompressed - 927 MB

But Shotcut looks good:



However I have not tested it thoroughly yet. It seems that update check cannot be disabled.

Full Change Log
All Downloads

@moderators
Please move this thread to Portable Freeware Submission sub-forum.

[smaragdus]

Shotcut at version 16.12.03, downloads, history and latest changes:

Release 16.12

• Added Constrained VBR for the video codec rate control mode to Export.
• Added Fixed option to video GOP to Export.
• New audio mixing mode that does not affect levels.
• Increased usage of floating point for audio processing to improve quality.
• Added Occitan translation.
• More fixes for copying filters and LUT (3D) video filter.

[smaragdus]

Shotcut at version 17.01.02, downloads, history and latest changes:

Release 17.01

• Mostly just bug fixes.
• Added Chinese Taiwan translation.

[webfork]

I completely failed to come back and check the status of this program to see that it was natively portable (thanks to smaragdus) before testing the dev version of Shotcut from mwayne over at PA:

http://portableapps.com/node/55409

I was using the program to attach some audio that was recorded separate from a video. I had to attach multiple different audio files sequentially to the video. It was a weird process enabled the timeline (in View), dragged the media files to the main window, and clicked + for each of them. It was a sequence of audio files all separated by like .5 seconds so it worked fine.

I hope updates add a more intuitive interface but I was just pleased that it worked on a common video operation.

[smaragdus]

Shotcut at version 17.02, downloads, history and latest changes:

Release 17.02

• Fixed drag-n-drop from other than C: drive on Windows.
• Fixed ‘/’ getting added to front of file paths on Windows.
• Fixed the MLT XML repair tool not correctly handling decimal point in some configurations.
• Fixed opening a network stream.
• Improved support for image sequences.
• Improved device capture.
• Added Slovenian translation.

Note that there are two different releases- 170201 and 170205.

[gbrao]

Does the portable option work (–appdata <directory>) with shotcut-win64-180102.zip ?

I get a popup saying "unknown options a,p,p,d,a,t,a".

[gbrao]

I checked the file from : https://portableapps.com/node/55409

"--noupgrade --appdata ... " works.

But creates HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Meltytech\Shotcut.

[Midas]

In spite of Shotcut's portability claim, I don't think it really is, at least in the latest version (i.e., v18.01.02).

In my brief testing it saves important settings to the system's registry (as gbrao noted above), most prominently the location of its 'appdata' folder and the UI language. If you remove that registry entry, the 'appdata' location reverts back to the system's default '%APPDATA%', were it (re)creates a 'Mellytech' folder for other settings...

I suspected as much when, after moving the 'appdata' location through the Settings menu -- as intructed by the 2016 portability announcement (https://www.shotcutapp.com/blog/portable-app/) -- I couldn't find any object in the program's folder pointing to the new location. As it turns out, it's saved in the registry.

Check https://pastebin.com/N6Nbqhqc for a view of the settings written by a fresh run of the "portable" Shotcut package. So, definitely not portable.

[webfork]

Dang. Thanks for checking, Midas.

[Midas]

Shoot! A clarification of my previous post is in order here : what I wrote applies to the so called "portable" packages downloadable from Shotcut's homepage, not to those same packages being run with the '--noupgrade --appdata [path]' detailed by gbrao two posts prior...