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Kino 1.0.0 "Stick a fork in it" Released

Submitted by ddennedy on Mon, 2007-03-12 02:39. Bag of Software
Bag of Software

What is in a release name?

This is the first time Kino has named a release. For those not familiar with the expression, see what Urban Dictionary has to say.

Well now, you ask, "what is that supposed to mean for Kino?" Basically, it means that I am done working on it. Well, mostly. I am done working on the functionality. To some, a 1.0 release is the dawn of a new era--where work towards the next major release begins that often involves re-design, re-engineering, and re-factoring. I am not saying that work towards another major release will not ever happen with myself as the lead developer and maintainer. However, I do not plan to for at least a year.

To some, a 1.0 software release implies a level of interface stability, mainly in the context of a library. This is more of the situation. Kino 1.0 is something to build upon in terms of documentation, language translations, and screencast tutorials. Also, I will still work on critical bug fixes or try to keep it current with dependencies. I have setup a nice online, collaborative docbook-editing site for those willing to help. It supports different Latin1 languages for those wanting to translate the user guide.

So, the tongue-in-cheek release name also means if you want to see Kino forge ahead or in a different direction, then you must fork it. Yes, that's right, I invite you to fork this code! But, I don't recommend it; it's not the most beautiful code or architecture. You see, I get feedback that Kino is not good enough or needs a multitrack timeline with editable effects. Well, I agree those things are desirable, but Kino was never designed to do that. In fact, there was very little thought put into design and architecture, which limited its capacity. All I have tried to do over the past couple of years was to turn it into a good basic-level editor. I am confident a useful intermediate-level Free Software editor is just around the corner.

Am I defeated, as the Urban Dictionary definition #2 describes? Well, yes and no. I am still happy to work on Kino in its current form, but I want to be a part of the effort for an intermediate-level editor. I do feel defeated trying to tackle that alone. There is no good reason Kino has to raise to that level when there are plenty of other efforts already in progress.

In 2004, Kino co-developer, Charlie Yates, and I created the MLT and Miracle projects under contract. We were excited with the results in only 6 short months, and we believed it could be the subsystem for a Kino 2. Charlie went on to develop two editing GUIs atop it that, at least, proved the concept. In 2006, kdenlive abandoned the piave engine and adopted MLT. I am returning to work on MLT to support kdenlive since its latest version shows much promise. This is not a conscious move away GTK+/GNOME; my emphasis is on MLT (and a possible gstreamer integration).

Yours truly, Dan Dennedy, lead developer of Kino

Download the source tarball (5.2MB).

Visit the website for more info and forums.

Release Notes

  • New http://blip.tv/ uploading feature for movies and still frames! See http://kino.blip.tv/ for more information.
  • Fixed audio handling on big endian CPU architectures (thanks, Pavel Fedin)
  • Improved generic video import script when using mencoder: faster, no bulky intermediate file, less compatibility problem between mencoder and ffmpeg, and retains interlacing in ITU-R 601 sources
  • Added support for X-Keys Editor USB Jog/Shuttle (thanks, Shawn Rutledge)
  • Added support for Jog/Shuttle to FX (jog wheel and button actions that scrub only--no shuttle ring support)
  • The USB Jog/Shuttle hotplug integration was changed to use udev
  • Added private copy of ffmpeg source code for static linking with new configure options: --enable-local-ffmpeg(=yes by default), or --disable-local-ffmpeg
  • Updated Italian translation
  • bugfixes, of course

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Thank for your efforts... by Anonymous George (not verified)

we lack a common direction

Submitted by Anonymous George (not verified) on Mon, 2007-03-12 17:26.

It's a wise choice to work on something with others, and I came to the same conclusion after working on Linux Video Studio for a few years. What we share is a common goal and experience. What we lack is _still_ a common direction.

We all agree Diva has a sexy UI, but that's just a UI. We need a sexy backend. MLT may be it, or gstreamer with gnonlin, or this or that. I don't think it matters what is chosen, there's multiple ways to get there and each of them will have some advantages, some disadvantages. The important bit is: it needs to be done. Discussing is what delays it, we have the technology and we know what it takes. It needs to be done.

It'll be a multi-year effort of a large team (>=3) of extremely brilliant [*] people full-time, and even then - after a year - it will only do a few of the things that Adobe Premiere does. To be where they are, we'll need >=5 brilliant people full-time for several years to make that happen. I'm convinced that we have that may smart people in the free software community. I doubt that we'll ever get them to adopt a shared direction. I hope I'm wrong.

Hope to see you 'round Dan.

Ronald

[*] brilliant means that they would all be able to do it by themselves, given a large amount of time. It requires UI, design and backend knowledge. Making a sexy UI or knowing how threads work _alone_ is not enough. You need to see all the way from the bottom to the top to get this done.

Sure, show us the money by Anonymous George (not verified)
show us the money # 2 by Anonymous George (not verified)
Thank you by Anonymous George (not verified)

A good *home* DV editor

Submitted by Eugenia on Mon, 2007-03-12 15:33.

I honestly hope that the author will continue working on the MLT Framework so a good DV editor is released. I really don't like the UI of pitivi/kino/avidemux etc, and the only Linux DV app I ever liked its UI of, Diva, it's now a dead project. I hope things will change.