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Ask HN: I'm building an easy-to-use video editor, tell me your pain points

by photawe on 8/27/20, 9:55 AM with 26 comments

• by gus_massa on 8/27/20, 10:54 AM

  I'm currently using Shotcut. My problems:

  * I want an option to repeat the last frame for a while, to add a pause in the middle of the video. (Now I have to save the frame as an image, and add the image to the timeline.) (Most of the time I use a static whiteboard, so a repeated frame doesn't look weird.)

  * I'd like to remove some time from the images part of the videos and the same amount of time from the audio. (Now I can do it, cutting carefully.)

  * I'd like to glue two intervals of video, and keep them glued forever. (Sometimes I remove a small part, and after that the section is "perfect" and I want to work with the section as whole object instead of two small sections.) (Perhaps also add an option to glue the audio and the image, for the same reason.)

• by Jugurtha on 8/28/20, 8:58 PM

  I use ffmpeg, and for certain operations, the steps involve getting an ogre's tongue hair, a few drops of a frog's blood, and chanting medieval songs.

  - Cutting some segments of the video: say you are recording the screen, and during the session, you tab and there are some information you don't want to appear in the video at three different places. Cutting the three segments isn't trivial in ffmpeg.

  - The above but keeping the audio and removing video in those segments, because someone is talking.

  - The inverse of the above: keeping the video but removing the audio because there was a private call for example and you kept rolling.

  - Concatenating videos with different codecs is not trivial. If you have 200+ videos you want to make into one, and there are some that have a different encoding, you get warnings and the output throws the player off.

• by quickthrower2 on 8/27/20, 9:12 PM

  Just to give you another POV, might be useless - my main pain point would be how to know I am speaking well, that I’m interesting and clear, that people are getting something out of watching. I’ve not done much YouTube (1 or 2 private videos for product explainer ever) but it’s something that interests me, but only if I can create good content. Sorry I’m not directly answering your editing question as I have nothing to edit, but it’s a point of view that may be of interest

• by laurieg on 8/28/20, 1:53 AM

  I want to edit "as live". So, I throw in 3 or 4 camera shots covering the same period, then I play them all simultaneously, cutting between them with the number keys as if it's a live show.

  Of course, after I might make some adjustments, but this is a great way to get a fast first cut.

• by kleer001 on 8/29/20, 10:34 PM

  I need something that can be as simple and stupid to use as Quicktime Pro 7 used to be. Basically editing the video as easy as editing a text file with fast, consistent, frame accurate selection, instant copy and pasting.

  Also, sensible hotkeys.

• by scott31 on 8/27/20, 10:58 AM

  Linux support

• by stakkur on 8/28/20, 1:03 AM

  Full, complete Linux support.