Good news for Linux video editing enthusiasts: On Monday, August 11,
Main Concept Multimedia Technologies
Linux preview version of its popular MainActor 5.1 video editing
application. A production release is due before the end of the year.You can register, download, and experiment with the preview version
immediately. But be sure to read the terms and
condtions on the website, which are in addition to those seen during
installation.
The first preview version does not have support for importing or
exporting a lot of popular video and audio formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, mp3,
and wav are not supported in this release) but support for them is
expected to be added in the next few months.
According to comments on the newly reopened MainActor for Linux forum on the
Main Concept website, you should be able to import DV-AVI Type 1
formatted videos in the current release. Videos created with the
preview version carry a watermark identifying them as a product of the
MainActor beta.
Tools for the realtime capture of audio and video which are part of
MainActor 5.1 for Windows are not included in this preview for Linux,
but are expected in the final version.
Things that you can do while awaiting the expected full release in the
fourth quarter of this year include importing still images from most
popular image formats and experimenting with the special effects
included in MainActor 5.1 for creating titles and transitions.
Joe Barr has been writing about technology for 10 years, and about
Linux for five. His work has appeared in IBM Personal Systems Journal,
LinuxGazette, LinuxWorld, Newsforge, phrack, SecurityFocus, and
VARLinux.org. He is the founder of The Dweebspeak Primer, the official
newsletter of the Linux Liberation Army.
