I first want to say the Kdenlive team is doing a phenomenal job with this product. I've been editing on computerized non-linear editors for over 15 years, as a career and a passion. I've used Kdenlive 0.9.4 to teach high school students about video editing and post production in my home of Northern California. I see a tremendous opportunity with the release of 15.04.0 to help Kdenlive reach (and surpass) closed-source, expensive film Industry editors like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro... and, amazingly, it's not that huge a leap to get there.

I wanted to make a thorough analysis 7 review of Kdenlive on performance, UI design, aesthetics, intuitiveness, user-friendliness and polish, and wrote a series of suggestions categorically arranged below to help accomplish just that.

I tested Kdenlive 15.04.0 on Kubuntu 15.04 beta 2, today (April 21, 2015), and wrote these recommendations and notable bugs for both the developers and the community of users for consideration & feedback. I know some of these suggestions might be unanimously favored, while others might be rejected out right. The point is they're out in the open where they have the chance to help this magnificent product reach its position in the Industry, whether they be considered for the 15.08 release, subsequent releases, or otherwise. Thanks to the developers, coders, and others for all your hard work, and here's to making Kdenlive an even better Film Industry standard for novices, amateurs and professionals alike. Cheers!

KEY < S = Suggestion, B = Bug (or, at least, what I think is a bug) >

GENERAL:

B > The breeze dark theme doesn't seem to change many of the icons to a lighter version. The symbols become harder to see or recognize

S > In the UI, there are tabs separating each top section of Kdenlive, with the title of that section (module?) located on the top. Consider having the title bars hideen by default, instead of revealed? Thereby removing redundancy upon initial impression of the program.

B > When you move the clip monitor to the left of the Project monitor (with title bars active) then try to horizonally resize them, the video doesn't automatically refresh or adjust, and the window edge between the two multiplies like it's cloning itself (screenshot can be provided upon request).

S > For general user awareness while using Kdenlive, consider having the borders of the active module/section highlighted in a contrasting color to the theme to make the user aware which module/window/section is focused on in the program (similar to Adobe Premiere Pro).

S > Consider a user-friendly way to incorporate multiple edits in a project, similary to how Adobe Premiere Pro has multiple "Sequences" or how Lightworks has multiple "Edits".

S > Regarding the playback and rendering of the videos & projects - incorporate all CPU and GPU cores in playback and rendering. I know you've all probably heard this many times, but it's such a huge matter for editors and filmmakers to have the power necessary to increase workflow and performance. I personally have 4k MP4 files that I would relish in seeing on Kdenlive playback in real-time (from a Panasonic GH4). If this can't be achieved in full quality, consider implementing an effective way to reduce/adjust the quality of the video in the project or timeline to ensure playback in real-time with no lag.

PROJECT TREE:

S > Search field - recommend including function to press ESC key to clear search field contents

B > Description field - Description is not automatically updated after you input content in the "Clip Properties" window. Saving and closing/re-opening the program will then show the description information you entered

S > Right-click menu - (1) "Add Clip" is at the top of that menu. However, you can add any kind of media from selecting that option (i.e. videos, images, music, etc.). Wouldn't it be more appropriate to call it "add media" or "import media" or something to the degree of media in general instead of "clips" exclusively? Can seem a little misleading. (2) In the same right-click menu mentioned above, could "Add Slideshow Clip" be renamed to something, again, a little less ambiguous and industry/user-friendly? Perhaps "Add Image Slideshow" (since it seems to only be importing still images) (3) In the same right-click menu mentioned above, should "Add title clip" be renamed to "Add Title" for same reasons? "Clip" seems to be used ambiguously.

S > Have a way of showing the contents of the Project Tree in a grid view instead of a list view exclusively.

S > "Search Online Resources" - Could there be a way to preview, download and import these resources directly into the Project Tree itself? Not that it's not super cool that the feature is there, but I think direct preview and import would encourage users to regularly make use of the feature, optimizing their workflow much more.

S > "Delete Clip" button (next to "Clip Properties" button) - Could the red circle with a line through it be replaced by something more indicative of "deleting" by default? A trash can, perhaps? Circle with a line often comes off more like "canel" or "stop" than anything. Not sure if it's the best symbol to represent the "delete" idea.

S > The "Clip" column in Project Tree - it doesn't resize to show the entire file name after importing/adding media. Could it be resized (or scaled by default on program load) to accommodate for the whole filename text for clips & media?

B > When you double-click a title to change its name, the text field appears in between the original name ans the duration next, not exactly where the title name originally was. It's not infringing on operations, but it does take away from the polish of Kdenlive, I think.

S > At times there is a number in parenthesis next to the duration of a clip/media, although it's not terribly clear what this is for...? Consider removing it or revealing to the user somehow (tooltip, etc.) its function or application?

CLIP PROPERTIES:

S > Have the video bitrate displayed in the "Video" tab

EFFECT LIST:

S > "Fun" category - I absolutely don't want to take away from the fun part of filmmaking and editing, but I almost feel that the impression from the category title "fun" takes away from the professionalism and polish that Kdenlive deserves and could potentially be recognized for in the Industry. Most of the effects included seem to artistically change the video in some way. Possibly consider changing the category name to "Artistic" or something more prestigious?

S > "Misc" category - While I don't have a direct solution for this, I might encourage the effects included therein to be placed in an area where the user could see them practically applied to their project?

S > "Alpha Manipulation" category - I know, I'm nit-picking about the category titles, but, again, I suppose my intent behind this evaluation is to try and increase Kdenlive's popularity, presence and support amongst novice, average and Industry professional users. While "Keying" and "Mattes" aren't exactly novice-friendly to those who aren't familiar with them, "Alpha manipulation" doesn't seem clear to a lot of users in any of the three. Possibly consider changing to "Keying & Mattes" or something of the like?

"TRANSITION" TAB:

S > In general, if there was an "info" button or list similar to the Effect List tab that could show exactly what the transitions are and what effect they have, visually, I think it would do a world full of good for intuitive user-friendliness. Most of those transitions leave much to the imagine as to how they could be applied.

S > Whether or not the community & developers think transitions should have their own place, or possibly be merged as a category in the "Effect List" is up to public opinion, but I feel the inability to add a transition from the transition tab doesn't exactly follow suit with the rest of the Kdenlive tabs. The Project Tree lets you apply clips & media to the timeline; the Effect List tab lets you apply effects to clips; yet the transition tab doesn't seem to readily reveal its purpose, nor does it guide the user how to apply effects to clips in the timeline.

CLIP MONITOR:

B > When I switched windows in Kubuntu 15.04 beta 2 to check something on Firefox, then returned to Kdenlive, the monitor showed my desktop and not the clip that was selected/paused.

S > If the clip monitor control buttons were centered instead of aligned to the left, I feel that would give a MUCH more professional and polished look.

S > A portion of the selected clip is already pre-set as an in-out point (or "zoned" I suppose). I would recommend having nothing zoned or selected - resulting in dragging the entire video clip or media into the timeline - or having the entire clip zoned/selected for use with unambiguous handles at the in & out points that the user could manipulate (though my preference would be for the former)

S > Having "go to in" point and "go to out" point buttons in the control toolbar beneath the video would be a very helpful benefit

S > Having the keyboard shortcuts showing in the tooltip pop-ups when the mouse hovers over the clip monitor controls would be HUGELY beneficial to improve workflow and performance (CAN'T stress the convenience of having these easily available enough).

B(?) > I know I addressed this in the GENERAL section of my evaluation, but the control buttons weren't changed to a lighter color when I switched to the Breeze dark theme on Kdenlive (which looks BRILLIANT, by the way). Consider using brighter colors to increase visibility and recognition?

S > Possibly consider creating a button in the clip monitor controls to remove in and out zone? Again, it would be a helpful benefit, and there's certainly plenty of space for it.

S > I instincively pressed the "Home" key on my keyboard to bring the cursor back to the beginning of the clip's timeline, but instead it brought the timeline cursor back to the beginning. Could it be possible to have the HOME key return the clip to the beginning when the clip monitor is selected?

B > When an in and out point is set and playback is set to "Loop Zone", it takes a LONG time once the clip reaches the end for it to return back to the beginning to play again (about 4 seconds, rather than instantaneous)

B > When the clip playback reaches the end and you press SPACEBAR to play it from the very beginning, it takes a similarly bothersome 4 seconds, then plays VERY rapidly until it gets to a cerain percentage of the clip, then proceeds as normal to the end. Should play from the beginning immediately after SPACEBAR is pressed, with no speed issues (fast or slow) during playback

S > In the dark Breeze theme, empty space between the video and the window edges is a light gray color. Recommend that being changed to a very dark gray or black to remove focus on the empty space.

PROJECT MONITOR:

> Most of the suggestions I noted for the clip monitor are applied to the Project monitor, as they seem to look and operate very similarly.

S > I know I stressed this in the GENERAL section, but again, the ability to playback footagae (with or without FX) in real-time, even 4k footage from a GH4.

TIMELINE:

S > While I understand that the tracks designated "Video" and "Audio" are actually multi-use tracks, when the "separate audio and video" option is selected, a clip is brought into the timeline, and the video portion is dragged to a different track, the audio carries with it, even to the tracks designated for video. I realize there are probably a myriad of different ways to remedy this, but my suggestion is regarding default behavior that's intuitive, fast and convenient for the editor. Consider, when the split audio & video option is selected, designating tracks to be used exclusively for audio and video (for those who want it) and multi-use tracks for when it's not selected. (I realize it's not a complete-solution suggestion, but I thought I'd get the ball rolling on brainstorming ideas)

B > When a video clip is inserted into the timeline (With "split audio & video" active) and I try to apply a transition by clicking the green arrow on the bottom-right of the video clip, the yellow effect/transition bar appears behind the video and audio clips; I have to move the clip to get to the effect behind it. Consider keeping the effect above the video and audio clip, as well as having it move along with the clips in real time when they're dragged (second part would really help with polish and presence of Kdenlive).

S > This is more an aesthetic recommendation than a functional one, but if the timeline could smoothly zoom in and out, it'd be a nice bit o' polish on the operation of it.

S > On the bottom row (to the right of where the errors are displayed) - it would be nice if the hotkeys for each function would appear as a tooltip when the mouse hovers over it along with the button name.

P.S. If it would be preferable, I can file the bug reports individually, but I do need one of the dev's to tell me to do that. Thanks, all.

Wow....!!! Hello travlr_drupal.

Thank you for all of the time you took to review and document your findings w/ Kdenlive 15.04. Your insights could be timely w/ the upcoming GSOC. I've been pulled off into other 'work' so I have not had much time to do any Kdenlive development. But, I can help to 'ride herd' on any coders that come up looking to work on Kdenlive.

Kdenlive is now using the KDE bug tracking system. With the new version we'll probably have a fresh slate of bugs/enhancements to log against 15.04. You could look into KDE's bugtrack facility and log your findings there.

I would recommend that you keep an eye on the forum and see how things develop w/ the GSOC as it relates to coders looking for areas to work upon Kdenlive. You can then direct them to this thread.

Thanks again for your insight and enthusiasm.

Happy to help, Mr. Guilford. I'm in the process of itemizing and filing each suggestion in its proper area in the KDE bug reporting system. Definitely glad to hear the documented suggestions could be of use in any form, and I'll continue to do what I can to contribute to the project.

Hello travlr_drupal, great work!

I have a question: I did some experience reported in another topic about openGL enabled and disabled in version 0.9.10 to perceive the behavior. About version 15.04, did you try the difference in timeline playback with openGL Video Playback enabled and disabled? In version 0.9.10 I perceived that audio scrubbing frame by frame only works with openGL video playback enabled, but there is a price to pay: openGL makes the playback to use more processor power, so for audio it is better, but for preview video transitions and effects disable it is better. I am wondering how openGL is working in version 15.04 and also if there is audio scrubbing without it...

I did some suggestions for the monitor window size in another topic: to have an option in monitor menu to set the size for "same size as proxy" so we can get a better preview/playback experience. Also "twice size as proxy" for split playback, four clips simultaneously. Also a suggestion to enable multicam realtime cuts using keyboard numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4

thanks.

Here are the topics links for reference:

viewtopic.php?f=265&t=126023

viewtopic.php?f=279&t=124338

viewtopic.php?f=270&t=120136

Hi Adving,

So sorry for the late reply. Now using Kdenlive 15.08, it looks like selecting the video driver function has been removed. There is a check box for "Use GPU rendering", but it is currently disabled. I suspect they're working on reliably implementing the feature into Kdenlive. Have you tried 15.08, yet?

Same here. "Use GPU processing" is greyed out (v 15.08.0). I guess it's one of the few regressions that will be (re-) added soon enough.

travlr_drupal wrote:Hi Adving,

So sorry for the late reply. Now using Kdenlive 15.08, it looks like selecting the video driver function has been removed. There is a check box for "Use GPU rendering", but it is currently disabled. I suspect they're working on reliably implementing the feature into Kdenlive. Have you tried 15.08, yet?

renesmaal wrote:Same here. "Use GPU processing" is greyed out (v 15.08.0). I guess it's one of the few regressions that will be (re-) added soon enough.

I got the GPU option working by installing "movit" and recompiling MLT 0.9.8. I used movit 1.1.3
and I am on 15.09.0 in case it matters