I'm a new user who just wanted to do a simple video edit and export the result as an .ogv video. But, I ran into several issues.

First, I had the hardest time trying to figure out how to use an effect or otherwise accomplish the effect I wanted.

I searched YouTube for some tutorials or hints for Kdenlive and I did find several videos. Unfortunately, I was unable to follow along with any of them as the version they were using clearly differed from mine. This would be understandable if these were really old videos. However, I was watching videos that were less than a year old, most of them between 4 and 6 months old.

Apparently, a mere 4 months was enough to be a big difference. That, or perhaps it was because I was using a Windows binary or the fact that I was using the 64-bit version?

Aside from the layout being pretty different, I could not find the "Properties" tab related to Effects. (I was trying to add a Speed effect to a video, but I could not actually adjust the speed.) Eventually, I figured out that, by default, the "Properties" was disabled from the View menu. (At this point, I can't recall whether or not Effects was also turned off.)

...Why would Properties be turned off by default?

When it came time to export into .ogv, I ran into more issues. First, I could not find any option to "Export." Eventually, I learned that in Kdenlive this is referred to as "Render."

Then, I discovered that, by default, there are only a small handful of Render Profiles to choose from and not one of them related to the .ogv format.

WTH? Wasn't Kdenlive developed as an extension of the K Desktop Environment project - the international free software community? Isn't the core user-base intended to be for Linux desktops? Isn't the main focus to be Free, as in open-source?

So, why isn't the open-source Theora video format (.OGV) supported right out of the box? Doesn't the Linux community push for more users to switch to or at least support this format? Why must users scratch their heads over this and either write their own custom Render Profile to do this (or beg others to share the custom profile they've created for this)?

I feel misled, because the main reason I decided to install and try to use Kdenlive was how the description claimed that the Theora video format was supported.

Finally, I would point out what I think is a bug:

Trying to use the "Download New Render Profiles" option from the Settings menu failed for me. It would not work at all.

Doing some digging, I found a need to manually install a "kdenlive_renderprofiles.knsrc" file inside c:\program files\kdenlive\... Apparently, the installation did install a "kdenlive_renderprofiles.knsrc" file. However, it put the file inside c:\program files\kdenlive\etc\xdg\ and the program does not know to look for the file there, so it can't find it!

Putting "kdenlive_renderprofiles.knsrc" inside c:\program files\kdenlive\ allowed the "Download New Render Profiles" option to finally work. However, the only new Render Profile available to download is "Kdenlive rendering test" by j-b-m. WTH? Is it that no Kdenlive user has ever managed to create and upload a custom Render Profile?

Examining the contents of the "kdenlive_renderprofiles.knsrc" file, one finds two URL addresses. The second address works fine. However, the first address links to https://kdenlive.org/data/rendersources.xml, which appears to be broken as it gives this:

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

One might assume that the Download New Render Profiles option still won't work right, even if it can find "kdenlive_renderprofiles.knsrc", because the URL to the .XML it relies on is missing/broken.

If I wasn't limited to a Windows binary, I'd probably search for and use an older version. I read that version 16 had a working "Download New Render Profiles" option.

benjamins - you need to tell us what version you are on. It sounds like you are not on the latest version.

The download new render profiles has been in and out of action over some versions.

https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manua ... r_Profiles

It is working for me know on ver 17.04.0. Well at least there is one test render profile to download. I am not sure it appears in the render dialog though.

This doco might help you to create your own .ogv render profile
https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manua ... Parameters

There is a list of effects here
https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manua ... ransitions

The https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manual/ is looking a bit out of date though with all the progress made by the developers.
You could get an account an on userbase and help fix it up.