OpenShot is an open-source video editor
A new version of open source video editor OpenShot is available for download.
OpenShot 2.4.2 ships with a set of seven new video effects, adds a couple of new editing features, and claims to offer better performance and stability than prior versions.
For more detail on this release, and to learn how to install/upgrade on Ubuntu and Linux Mint, read on.
OpenShot 2.4.2
OpenShot is a basic video editor for Linux, Windows and macOS. It helps you to make simple video edits to a wide variety of video and image formats, apply video and audio effects, and export your creations for easy upload to sites like YouTube.
OpenShot 2.4.2 adds 7 new effects for you to get creative with:
- Bars — create a cinematic letterbox effect, or border a vertical video
- Colour Shift —applies an anaglyph-style shift in RGBA colours
- Crop —hone in on a specific section of a clip
- Hue — adjust the hue of a video clip or image
- Pixelate — pixelate a clip/image
- Shift — creates a motion tile from a clip or image
- Wave — applies a ripple distortion effect to footage
Each of the new effects supports keyframe animation and manipulation.
You can watch a short demo of each effect in the video clip below:
I dig the cheesy VHS-era logo animation at the start of this clip!
Two new editing features are also included in OpenShot 2.4.2.
The first is auto audio mixing.
This handy feature (which is disabled by default) will automatically adjust the volume of audio for clips that are “overlapping and competiting for audio volume.” You can enable auto audio mixing in your project by going to the ‘clip properties’ section and turning the feature on.
The other neat new feature is auto rotation.
Do you shoot vertical video on your smartphone? If so, you’ll be stoked to know that all footage you import/add to your OpenShot projects will finally be displayed the correct way around — no manual manipulation required.
Other Changes in OpenShot 2.4.2
Alongside the usual “claims” of improved stability and performance are a couple of other notable changes in OpenShot 2.4.2:
- Export progress is now shown in the window title
- Export dialog shows time remaining
- Save indicator in window title
- AAC is now the default audio codec for many presets
- Experimental FFmpeg/LibAV codec support
- Audio metadata support
- Faster ‘mask’ effect
- Support for 240 fps
- Split Clip dialog sends focus back to slider after action
- 32-bit Windows builds
Upgrade to OpenShot 2.4.2 on Ubuntu/Linux Mint
If you’re running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or Linux Mint 19 you can install and/or upgrade OpenShot by adding the official OpenShot PPA to your software sources.
The fastest way to do this is by using the Terminal app, and entering this command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa
After adding this PPA your system will automatically fetch a list of the latest packages. Once this job finishes run:
sudo apt install openshot-qt
Not into repos? No worries, as an official OpenShot AppImage is also available to download: